Technology @lemmy.world Lunch @lemmy.world 1 yr. ago

Apple TV vs Firestick.

So. I just bought a new telly and to my surprise, not, the OS is rather bad and has very limited amount of apps. Therefore I'll invest further in either Apple TV or the Firestick. Anyone got any recommendations, tips or hot takes on this? Which has more adds, and can it be blocked via DNS? Further read that Firestick could be jailbreaked, that has my interest 🦊

36 comments

Apple TV doesn’t have ads at all. If that’s all you care about, I would say go for that.

The Firestick isn’t really jailbreakable per se, but it doesn’t really need to be. You can sideload things with extreme ease. There’s a pretty decent app that allows you to watch YouTube with no ads or sponsored content shown. That alone is worth the cost of a Firestick for me. It does have some ads in the menu, but they’re not super obtrusive and never bothered me much. Plus the cost is much lower. You used to be able to put a different launcher on the Firestick and never see any Amazon content at all (ads) but they fixed that a while back and I haven’t bothered to see if that works again, but for all I know it might.

Edit: it does.
- Thanks for the insight, I'm actually able to get the Apple TV for the same price as the Firestick where I live. Second hand that is.
  
  Edit: No I cannot - i totally misunderstood the generations of Apple TV.. 😅
  
  I have both and only use the firestick to watch YouTube because I side loaded a YouTube client that blocks ads
  
  I have an older Apple TV (I think I bought it in 2017-2018), and the only thing it’s missing is 4K support. It’s not slow at all and it gets updates just fine. Only real “bad” thing is that the controller is the older model which is a bit clunky to use but you can get a new one separately if you want.
- Personally, I just like to AirPlay YouTube videos from Safari with an ad blocker to my TV whenever I want YouTube on it. So that’s one work around if you ever need it
  
  I just like everything to work with the remote. Plus I don’t like the idea of having to pull out and tie up my phone while I’m watching YouTube on the tv.
AppleTV UI is smooth, and it builds a “master queue” of programs you are watching or want to watch across services (similar to Plex). The exception to this is Netflix — they refuse to “opt in” to this service for some reason.

It also doubles as a Homekit hub if you need something like that.
My hot take is the AppleTV will last you years where the fire stick will probably get frustrating after a while.

By that I mean the AppleTV is fast. Of the other streaming devices I’ve used (newer chromecast, Rokus), my first gen AppleTV 4K still is snappy and feels better. I think I got this thing in 2018.

That may not be the end all for you, but when you compare a lot of these devices back to back, the AppleTV just feels better to use.
- I am not a fan of Apple but I completely agree. I was a home automation programmer for years and that included AV.
  
  Personally I use a Roku I got for free but AppleTV has unmatched quality and experience for a standalone streaming box.
  
  The only downside is that IP control requires you to set it up as part of your apple home. If you don't want to do that, you'll have to use IR and IR control sucks.
  
  I also much prefer the old remote design (without Siri) but that's just an opinion.
  
  My brother is a home theater project manager, and he generally likes Roku the best since they can integrate it easier (or something). But they just feel cheaper to me overall. And I have a pretty standard 5.1 setup (hopefully adding Atmos soon), so the AppleTV works great in my setup.
  
  I really like the original 4K remote. It lets you zoom around the interface so fast.
  
  Also agree with Apple vs Firestick. The Firestick felt extremely sluggish. I personally just use my Xbox, so if you already have one that it’s a great option. I just bought a Logitech external remote since I don’t like to use the controller all the time.
  
  The old remote as in the one that’s probably around 7 years old? There are two Siri Remotes. A glass one with just a track pad and some buttons and an aluminium one with a circular trackpad that also has physical navigation buttons and the rest of the buttons. Both have Siri
If you are going to pay for a lot of subscriptions, Apple TV is probably better.

If you want to use your own media from nas, stream torrents, ad free YouTube Vanced, use iptv subscription then Apple TV is not for you.
For what it’s worth, I have an Apple TV, I love it. Really smooth, fast interface. Works really well. Voice search isn’t even terrible! For an Apple product. It really improves the TV experience. My only frustration is mixed app support, e.g. Netflix has an app that works fine but it doesn’t integrate into the rest of Apple TV which sucks. Also.. apples walled garden can be annoying at times, so I also have a chromecast for the rare case I need to go around one of apples arbitrary restrictions.
- Netflix refuses to integrate with any other companies product FWIW, webos, tvOS, android, etc.
  
  Honestly, it’s so annoying. Netflix has started getting really bad and not just because of their refusal to integrate into the TV app
FireTV has a bunch of ads and it seems harder to remove on the newer models / firmwares. For Android, I would suggest something with Android TV like Chromecast with Google TV or Onn Android TV. I have no experience with apple tv so I can't be sure.
If you have other Apple devices, so you can make use of features like AirPlay, the Apple TV is a no-brainer.
I have a Fire TV Stick Lite and it's awful. The UI is sluggish and using it for anything is a chore. Perhaps if I had got a higher spec one it would be different, but honestly I cannot recommend this particular device at all.
- Thanks for the input 👌
I had a Firestick 4K then swapped it out for an AppleTV 4K. The Apple TV UX is really clean, fast, and lovely. The Fire TV stick had adverts and stuff in it and the UI, while simple, felt cluttered and a bit confusing in comparison. Fire TV just felt like an amazon storefront and it was difficult understanding what I did or didn’t actually have access to. On Apple TV, your content is featured first and foremost, and it recommends shows to you based on what you’re subscribed to rather than what it thinks you’ll spend money on.

The downside to Apple TV is that apps that haven’t fully integrated (namely Netflix) get kind of swept aside. There is no side loading and no browser, so you can’t get unofficial apps running on the system like on Fire TV. (I used to have a side loaded app that just let me stream movies and shows from some sketchy, foreign website) There’s also no VPN for Apple TV currently, but that’s coming with the next major software upgrade.
FireStick is somewhat hackable. You can sideload Android apps onto it. For example, I got Apple Music running on it https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/06/yes-you-can-run-apple-music-natively-on-your-android-firestick/

You don't have to subscribe to Amazon Prime to use the other TV services. You can also install Kodi if you want to play back local media.

The FireStick will use USB power - so you can use your TV's USB ports rather than a separate plug. It also has an Ethernet adapter - I think only the more expensive Apple devices use Ethernet.
I have a fire TV cube that feels very responsive and generally works well. I have never used an apple TV device though.
i have a firestick with jellyfin, it has some ads on the menu but i watch stuff from my own server so no ads there.

it should support most encodings and most of the stuff is in direct stream. this means you could run jellyfin on a raspberry pi and would work.
Why not a Roku device?
- I never could figure out why Roku got to be so popular. It’s not the best at anything, it’s just decent at the like 1-2 things that it tries to do. But so is just about everything else out there these days. You can’t sideload things on it, the UI is just sorta…there. It’s not configurable at all. It just exists. I’ve tried pretty much so every major media streamer out there and the Roku is, by far, my least favorite. It’s not really bad, it’s just not very good either.
  
  I recommend Roku to people who don't want to pay for an Apple TV because the UI is very simple and easy to use. It's just an app grid. My parents weren't able to figure out how to use Fire TV or Android/Google TV because it throws too much at them making it difficult to find what they are looking for. I also dislike that a lot of the content recommendations are for services I don't pay for, which makes them useless and nothing but ads.
If you want to watch Twitch, get the Firestick.
- Not much of a Twitcher, but thanks!
Neither. Both take away your freedom. This is subjective, but I would personally put a little media computer together. They sell them as small as a deck of cards and will have more than enough power to do 4K. Then, you can choose if you want ads, choose which services to use, choose which software you want, use whatever peripherals you want, etc.
- This is what I've been wanting to do, however, I still don't think there's any easy way to stream high quality content from streaming services due to DRM. I've already been experiencing this with my fancy new monitor, it is a very good monitor, but no streaming services allow higher than 1080p (or even 720p) video or HDR on PC, except for Netflix using the Windows app. Pirated content looks great with a 21:9 QD-OLED monitor though. For now I've just been using a Google TV Chromecast, which allows sideloading Android TV apps like the Fire stick.

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