Coincidentally, my free trial ends tomorrow, and I will not be renewing.
Their bitrate is roughly double the other popular services.
For example a 1 hour 4K TV show is about 9-11GB on AppleTV+. On Disney and Netflix and Amazon, it's about 4-6GB. On HBO MAX it's about 7-9GB.
The audio is the same across them all more or less. Most using 768K DD+ with Atmos these days.
Just curious: Is this comparing the same codec? x264 vs AV1 will have a massively different bitrate. So, if a service is using AV1, that could actually be better for the consumer.
How is this so hard to get right?
I have a Apple TV 4K (and Roku doesn't do much better, to be clear), connected to a Marantz Cinema 70s (8K, Dolby Atmos, 7.2), and little to nothing that is done either on the receiver, ATV, or playback source does anything to alleviate the huge frustration that is "being able to hear dialog cleanly without rupturing a speaker, eardrum or both when there's an explosion".
As for Roku... I have the Roku Ultra hooked up to the same... but, since Plex released an ATV app, I don't really need it...
However, you’re in luck. The center channel is reserved almost exclusively for the dialogue track in film and TV, so you should be able to turn it up and hear it more clearly without affecting anything else.
Well of course, it's nothing indeed -- they're simply passing through the audio as it was originally mastered, as they're meant to.
All your equipment is doing it right, assuming it's all configured correctly. And I assume it's not that the Roku "doesn't do much better", but does it exactly and precisely the same.
If you have an issue, it's presumably with the mastering standards, not with any of your equipment. Which is a whole other conversation around relative decibel levels in mixing, but it has nothing to do with technology.
Netflix 4K subscription will get you high bitrates, even for 1080p. I'm surprised MAX is that high; it used to be the worst.
It's been solid for me, to the point that I subscribe to other services through the built-in channels feature in order to be able to avoid generally worse streaming apps (like Paramount+) but I always watch using Apple stuff.
On my WebOS TV's, AppleTV works exceptionally well, only Hulu and Netflix beat it in terms of reliability.
Paramount+ on the other hand. Total POS.
Don't struggle through a slow old Roku.
And, of course, I'm not really pitching Roku, if you've got another solution or want to switch companies, that's fine too. I'm just saying, anyone reading this who has a Roku a few generations back and having simply never thought about what to do about it, have a look at replacing it. Or any other streaming box that is generally choking. I remember getting into TiVos when they cost the modern equivalent of about $350-$400 and I still haven't fully internalized that streaming boxes can cost, well, more than "a coffee at starbucks" but at this point "less than a full meal for my family at a fast food joint".
They're not the cheapest thing out there, but you get a lot of muscle (and longevity) for your money.
Aside from that, having a little extra power available can be nice for being able to smoothly play back video formats that the hardware doesn’t have acceleration for, obviating need for transcoding (via Plex or similar).
I owned the 1st gen (used) and 3rd gen. Terrible investments (imo).
jFYI, lots of other services also have no-ads plans. E.g. Netflix.
Apple TV is your physical device (or software loaded on your TV).
Only Netflix appears to work consistently well on all my devices. Kudos to that team.