Apple TV or Amazon Firestick?

MAF260

Member
Messages
7,662
Discuss...

I'm not bothering with Sky etc at my new place as I just don't watch TV enough to justify it and can also use the Sky Go+ subscription I have at my other house if I need it.

I don't have a smart TV here yet either, just a decent HDTV, so am considering one of the above to enhance my viewing pleasure. Trouble is I have no knowledge or experience of either and so am putting it to my forum friends (and Benny) to educate me and guide my purchase. I have a iphone and ipad if that helps to inform.
 

highlander

Member
Messages
5,214
If we did not have a smart TV mark it would be either fire or Google sticks from the reviews I've seen and heard. Both are cheap enough to buy, try and throw if pants........Apple TV, like all thing Apple, is overrated IMO.
 

allandwf

Member
Messages
10,958
Mrs allandwf has an apple TV box, she uses it mainly for Netflix, seems to work well, only drawback is if you don't have other apple stuff, like me, you need iTunes loaded on something to access it. We have had to do this once after a power cut or surge . It required a reset. It was a pain, but other than that it seems to work well.
 

rockits

Member
Messages
9,167
I have Netflix and access to Amazon Prime through various means. If your TV isn't smart then it might not have mirror tech that you can stream video from your iPad etc. I do have a Roku 3 box which is great to access catch up TV & Netflix....also Spotify. Doesn't do Amazon video though I don't think. The Roku 3 does have mirrorcast though so you could use that to stream anything from your phone or tablet.

Does an Amazon Firestick do Netflix & Spotify?

The Netflix & Spotify are £10 per month each but the kids use it as well. I guess as much as it pains me to say it Amazon Prime/video is pretty good value at £59 for the year.
 

wink

Junior Member
Messages
85
if you already have an ipad & iphone then you'll get on fine with the apple tv. I have amazon prime & you can stream content from the ipad to the apple tv seamlessly. I guess if you didn't have any apple stuff then you might look at roku etc. but frankly I'd say the apple tv is a no-brainer.
 

Ewan

Member
Messages
6,757
We bought an Amazon firestick about 6 months ago and it works well and is easy to use. Only cost about £35 (from memory) plus the Amazon Prime membership that we have anyway for the free delivery on all the clobber my wife buys...
 

conaero

Forum Owner
Messages
34,594
Agreed on the Apple TV, we don't every use it only to mirror our phones which you can do with a Chrome Cast via the iPhones Google app.

Have Sky which is bollox really...you pay £60 a month to be pumped adverts and only get repeats of everything. I should just get the WD and Car SOS box set and stick them on a hard drive IMHO.

Then just use the Freeview in the telly which is enough.

Anything else you want to watch you can find online and just stream it to your telly via Chrome Cast or Apple TV from your SmartPhone.
 

drewf

Member
Messages
7,159
Agreed on the Apple TV, we don't every use it only to mirror our phones which you can do with a Chrome Cast via the iPhones Google app.

Have Sky which is bollox really...you pay £60 a month to be pumped adverts and only get repeats of everything. I should just get the WD and Car SOS box set and stick them on a hard drive IMHO.

Then just use the Freeview in the telly which is enough.

Anything else you want to watch you can find online and just stream it to your telly via Chrome Cast or Apple TV from your SmartPhone.

Spot on. £720 a year on adverts? Madness. There just isn't enough decent content on the tv to bother with paying that much for it. Amazon Prime (which gets hammered several times per week for delivery anyway) provides the tv on demand and films as a bonus.
 

Corranga

Member
Messages
1,219
Fire stick.

I have various ways to ways to watch online content (various games consoles, 2 Smart TVs, Chromecast, laptop via HDMI socket..), and the Fire Stick is my preferred one.
Chromecast is good, but annoying as often the phone / laptop you connect to it drops out of the connection loop meaning it's a hassle to pause for example.

My smart TVs are both a couple / few years old and the interface is ****.
Games consoles are fine, but I don't see the point in using them for this sort of thing, and the cost of a proper remote (rather than using the game controller) equals the Fire Stick..

Fire Stick has a remote which works perfectly and the interface is good.
We use ours for:
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Music
Netflix
Plex (streaming from my own home server running Plex)

Still use the Chromecast for NFL Gamepass (no app on Fire Stick) but prefer to plug in my laptop as it caches the NFL stream and gives much better quality on my 10meg connection due to the caching.
 

Contigo

Sponsor
Messages
18,376
It was MAF asking, remember? Expect some pain for a sentence full of jargon!

I'd expect the luddite he is to be completely flummoxed and confused by such technical wizardry but installing Sky TV for a living does teach me all this new tech stuff :D
 

drewf

Member
Messages
7,159
I'd expect the luddite he is to be completely flummoxed and confused by such technical wizardry but installing Sky TV for a living does teach me all this new tech stuff :D

:)

New?? XBMC is hardly new... Used to run it on a single-board computer with BSD in pre-Kodi days, certainly more than 10 years ago. Then I was never at home with time to watch tv, and it was left to fall by the wayside. Would I bother nowadays? Not a chance - 20 quid alternatives are far easier to buy, plug in and just use.
 

Contigo

Sponsor
Messages
18,376
:)

New?? XBMC is hardly new... Used to run it on a single-board computer with BSD in pre-Kodi days, certainly more than 10 years ago. Then I was never at home with time to watch tv, and it was left to fall by the wayside. Would I bother nowadays? Not a chance - 20 quid alternatives are far easier to buy, plug in and just use.

New to Mark old hat for the rest of us.
 

CatmanV2

Member
Messages
48,557
:)

New?? XBMC is hardly new... Used to run it on a single-board computer with BSD in pre-Kodi days, certainly more than 10 years ago. Then I was never at home with time to watch tv, and it was left to fall by the wayside. Would I bother nowadays? Not a chance - 20 quid alternatives are far easier to buy, plug in and just use.

Actually ran it on the XB for which it is named....

C