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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

I read Apple TV takes like this all the time and I have a hard time getting my head around them, because the "smart TV" features on most televisions are just atrocious; I would gladly pay $200 just to have a reasonable remote control app. In the era before set-top boxes like these, people paid this kind of money literally just for remote controls. With the Apple TV I've got every conceivable streaming service and a pretty solid jukebox interface to Apple Music. Seems pretty good?

The Apple TV isn't amazing or anything, but it works. For the role it plays in my TV setup, it's not real money; it's below my threshold of price sensitivity.

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I fully agree. I cannot stress how much I appreciate how Apple TV is the only mainstream video hardware that is completely ad free.

Yes it's pricey (in comparison to other video streaming hardware), but Apple doesn't try to monetize the end user and for that I will pay Apple their $179 to avoid being showered with ads by smart TV OSes, Roku, Google TV, Amazon Fire devices, etc.

If you compare Apple TV to what it could be, or what you might have expected out of Apple given their reputation, it's pretty meh.

If you compare it to a typical smart TV, it's pretty okay, because a typical smart TV is designed by a distracted child and shipped without testing and any customer bug reports are sent directly to an incinerator.

But that shouldn't be the bar.

I honestly don't know what more I could realistically ask of my Apple TV. It's got device-wide search over all the services/apps I have installed. It plays all the music in my Apple Music account and keeps playlists synced. It does Airplay and Screen Mirroring from all my devices. It has a rock solid phone remote app. There's really only so much I need my TV to do; I don't immediately see what else Apple TV could do without trying to build a half-assed PS5 or Xbox One.

It's a weird thing, to me, to be jaded about. There's a lot to be said for just getting the job done and getting out of my way.

I think the comparison to the game consoles is the problem, because it isn't one. But if it's just Apple's version of a Chromecast then why does it cost five times as much?

Extremely good remote (both the physical remote and the apps), several HD movies worth of disk space, gigabit ethernet. You can probably get all of that from a Roku device that costs half as much as the Apple TV, and if price is most of what you care about, you should do that. My point is that ~$200 is basically below the noise floor for this kind of component; you're going to use it every time you use the TV, or, for that matter, play music in your living room. It earns its keep.

And contrary to many other consumer gadgets/electronics, it holds its usefulness for long. My mom still uses my old Apple TV 3rd gen as she doesn't need more than Full HD resolution, it's been 9 years since I bought it.

My current Apple TV 4K 1st gen is perfectly capable for everything I've used it for the past 4 years, and I see it lasting another 5-6 at least.

My parents have a Samsung "smart" TV and it's hilariously bad - everything from the abysmal interface, the appalling control mechanisms right down to the input lag. Half the apps they want to watch stuff on aren't available on their TV because it's 3 years old. I bought them an Apple TV for xmas (mainly so they can watch Ted Lasso) and they were blown away - even at the simple fact that the home screen keeps track of what you're watching and new episodes show up there automatically. It's lightyears ahead of any "smart" TV I've ever seen.

I just bought a big TCL TV, which has a built-in Roku interface, and the fucking remote control app shows me upsell ads. Its sole function on the TV now is to add an extra clicky step to get to my Apple TV interface. I can't believe how bad it is. And Roku specializes in building these kinds of interfaces. You could tell me that some other standalone Roku device was good, but I'd be inclined to disbelieve you after coming into contact with this iteration of it.

There's a setting on my TCL Roku to change the start-up behavior. By default it opens the Roku home screen, but you can configure it to open a specific input, or the last used. Settings > System > Power On

It doesn't allow you to pick an app to open by default, which I think is a big miss.

From a LG and Samsung user completely agree.

Plus Dolby Vision and 4K actually works in my Disney+.. Since in my PS5 and Samsung QLED doesn’t for some reason

Samsung qled does not support dolby vision

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