Apple

Why does this question keep getting reposted? Maybe time for a sticky?

Can we please pin a post about this?

Apple TV 4K + Infruse PRO app = ❤️

I personally like being able to pair my AirPods easily while gaining Spatial Audio. I like the ability to use my iPhone as a remote which is honestly better than the actual remote imo. I also like the ability to use Siri for almost everything.

I've had an AppleTV for a while, but one new benefit (starting with tvOS 17) is built in VPN support. If you combine the support for VPNs with Tailscale, it becomes incredibly convenient/powerful.

Basically, Tailscale is a "mesh VPN" of your devices. All your devices get the Tailscale app and they can talk to each other like they are on local WiFi together, no matter where they are. The most amazing thing, though, is you can nominate devices to be an "exit node", where you can route traffic through the exit node (and the AppleTV can be an exit node)

Of course this has been possible for a long time, but it has always required you to be a huge nerd and have a server in your house running at all times (not to mention configuring it all..). Now, you can just (for example), open the Tailscale app on your phone/computer and tell it to use the AppleTV as an exit node...now, no matter where you are, your internet traffic will be routed through you home internet connection.

I am Canadian, but I live in Spain now. To watch streaming services from back in Canada, you can use a commercial VPN, but it's a game of cat and mouse (the services ban IP addresses from VPN services). Now, I had my parents install Tailscale on their AppleTV, and I can tell my AppleTV to use their AppleTV as an exit node..and bam, no more regional restriction...and the best part? I was able to get my parents to set this up in about 2 minutes over the phone :D

Things I benefit from:

Apple Ecosystem: easy to input text using your phone rather than on screen keyboard. One underrated feature is airpods. The spatial feature when using them is very very good.

Speed: It's the fastest TV box/streaming device out there. Snappy and responsive. I have a Shield and I love it but only yesterday it crashed on an app and rebooted itself.

Codec support: I'm a heavy Plex user and via the device itself and an app called Infuse I consider it the best Plex experience regarding its UI and it flawlessly plays everything I have on my home server. Ethernet connection is also important to be, something a lot of streamer sticks tend to omit these days.

Mic: I personally think it has a pretty decent mic and voice assistant. I've had experience with the Shield (google) and Fire sticks (Alexa) and I never used their mics because they could never recognise what I was trying to say. The Siri remote is fantastic. I don't use Siri in day to day life but on the Apple TV Siri does its job well compared to others.

It can do a lot more. It has a bit of a gaming ecosystem but you need to pair a controller for that, but that could be useful in a pinch. You can game stream to your TV with apps like Steam Link or Moonlight from your PC. The app support is pretty good, all the streaming services are well supported here.

Negatives: If you are a home theater nut with an expensive surround sound setup, the Apple TV 4K does not support lossless surround sound. Also, you cannot sideload apps on it, or at least you cannot do so easily. Android TV wins out by a mile if sideloading is your jam. Android TV has some great sideload apps like Smart Tube Next and SoundTV as just some examples.

Privacy. “Smart” TVs track anything and everything you do.