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#1
12-03-2020, 09:28 AM
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Streaming devices (Apple TV, Fire Stick, Roku, etc.) / Smart TVs
Anyone use a streaming device? Something like Apple TV, Fire Stick, Roku, etc? Or use a Smart TV? I just bought an Amazon Fire Stick Lite for $30 CAD and it's so convenient.
Although my Blu-ray (connected to my TV) has a Netflix button on the remote control it doesn't have YouTube or Amazon Prime buttons. The Fire Stick gives me this option, along with many other apps to streaming services, so I'm no longer limited to watching those services on my laptop, or a laptop connected to the tv. Do you have anything similar, whether a streaming device or a Smart TV? 
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#2
12-03-2020, 09:39 AM
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I have a smart TV with a Roku hooked up to it. The smart TV can get Netflix, Prime, Youtube, and other streaming services. I also subscribe to Acorn and Britbox. Though the smart TV can also stream these channels for some reason it can't get the captions for either service, which I depend on, so I have to use the Roku to stream these channels since it does carry the captions.
I also have another non-smart (dumb?) TV with a Firestick attached. It used to have a Roku stick but when I was trying out Youtube TV at one point I found out the Roku stick didn't support Youtube TV. So I switched to the Firestick. And then I dropped Youtube TV anyway. It seems there's never a simple solution with this stuff.
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#3
12-03-2020, 09:41 AM
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We already had a firestick when we got our $200 roku-enabled teevee
last year. I plugged the firestick into one of the HDMI ports and kept using it instead of the on-board roku. I used to not know what to think of "rokus and firesticks and smart teevees and such", but now perceive them as just ways to get to netflix, amazon, youtube etc through the teevee... -Mike
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#5
12-03-2020, 11:25 AM
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Amazon Fire Stick user here.
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AKA 'Screamin' Tooth Parker' You can listen to Walt's award winning songs with his acoustic band The Porch Pickers @ the Dixie Moon album or rock out electrically with Rock 'n' Roll Reliquary Bourgeois AT Mahogany D Gibson Hummingbird Martin J-15 Voyage Air VAD-04 Martin 000X1AE Squier Classic Vibe 50s Stratocaster Squier Classic Vibe Custom Telecaster PRS SE Standard 24
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#6
12-03-2020, 11:26 AM
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At work I use Firesticks to feed info to commercial displays. At home we have Apple & Roku.
The commercial displays I buy have same innards as smart TVs and I hate them relative to the "dongle" approach from Apple, Amazon, Roku, Google etc... It's a lot like Car Play vs what the car companies put in your dashboard. The tech giants' dongles are always more up to date and better. It all works well or well enough but Apple's reputation for "just works" stands out in this stuff. By that my mother and wife have no challenges or frustrations compared to the other stuff we have.
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ƃuoɹʍ llɐ ʇno əɯɐɔ ʇɐɥʇ
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#7
12-03-2020, 11:32 AM
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One downside of the AppleTV device is that is doesn't support the Xfinity app that allows Comcast customers to stream to multiple TVs. It's an odd omission, since both iPhones and iPads support the app.
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#8
12-03-2020, 11:36 AM
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Apple TV user mostly. Our TV has the Roku interface built in, but I find the TV's Roku responds slowly enough to input that it's frustrating at times. The Apple TV is very snappy in that regard, though I find the remote controls "we value a clean look and simplicity in appearance over ease of use" design less effective than it could be. In theory you can use an Apple tablet or phone to replace the control, but to do that you need to the put the Apple TV on WiFi when I have it on more robust wired connection.
Anyway, Apple TV offers most all the video streaming services as well as working with Spotify and playing a large iTunes library I have on the network. I get nice sound from it into my AV receiver for movies and the like.
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----------------------------------- Creator of The Parlando Project Guitars: 20th Century Seagull S6-12, S6 Folk, Seagull M6; '00 Guild JF30-12, '01 Martin 00-15, '16 Martin 000-17, '07 Parkwood PW510, Epiphone Biscuit resonator, Merlin Dulcimer, and various electric guitars, basses....
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#9
12-03-2020, 12:23 PM
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Quote:
4K Smart TV with most things built in including Spotify (but with unavoidable pauses...), Netflix, Viaplay (a Scandinavian streaming service), Prime Video etc. It has a passable Dolby Atmos and a very good Dolby Vision and other HDRs. My Blu-ray player will work as a network player if I had a NAS but I’m happy to put discs in for the most part. Some music I got as high res files are sitting in a USB connected to the back and they sound amazing. I still like the feel and the ritual of vinyl too. I wouldn’t mind 4th gen Apple TV as it’s the only way to watch films purchased through Apple in 4K as far as I know, but don’t have enough for it to be really worth it yet.
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Gibson ES-335 Studio 2016; Furch OM34sr 2015; Fender MiJ Geddy Lee Jazz bass, 2009; Taylor 414CE 2005; Guild D35 NT 1976; Fender MIM Classic 60s Tele 2008; Fender US Standard Strat 1992; G&L ASAT classic hollowbody 2005; Ibanez RG350MDX 2010(?); Ibanez Musician fretless, 1980s; Seymour Duncan Tube 84-40; Vox AC4TV; Ex-pat Brit in Sweden
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#10
12-03-2020, 12:35 PM
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We have a couple of Fire Sticks (probably the same as what they now call "lite", but it was all they had a 2-3 years ago she we got them). Our cable system has apps for Netflix, Peacock, and Prime Video and we get a few premium channels in our cable package. It plays on a smart TV that also has Netflix and Prime Video.
We bought the fire stick for when we spend winters in a place we rent down south, and they're a necessity during those periods. It's how we get everything but local channels and allows us access to our premium channels. But we keep them plugged in at home because they both have Apple TV and HBO Max, which we have subscriptions to (free with Apple TV for another few months and HBO Max is included with HBO, which we get in our cable package). And we can't get Apple TV or HBO Max anywhere else. So we have at least three different ways to get Netflix and Prime Video on each of our two TVs at home, but we mostly just use the app in our cable system because it's the most convenient and uses the main cable remote. When we want to use the smart TV apps, we need to find the TV remote. And when we want to use the Firestick, we have to use the TV remote (to change the source) and the Firestick remote (which eats AAA batteries and an AMAZING rate)! But for anything we want to check out on Apple TV or HBO Max, there's no other way. The smart TVs could be dumb as a rock and it wouldn't make any difference to us. This stuff is only mildly confusing to me, but it baffles my wife. On one hand, that's frustrating for her. OTOH, it's one of the key factors that convinces her I'm of more use to her alive than dead because without me, she can barely even watch TV. As long as we stay within our cable system, she'd more or less OK, but when we need to use the firestick, she's almost helpless. So it helps keep me breathing! -Ray
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"It's just honest human stuff that hadn't been near a dang metronome in its life" - Benmont Tench
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#11
12-03-2020, 01:18 PM
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and the Firestick remote (which eats AAA batteries and an AMAZING rate)!
Hmmm... only an hour or so ago my firestick remote quit working. The commercial went off and gunsmoke came back on and I couldn't unmute the teevee... must be the batteries... when I looked they were the originals! This thing must be a couple or three years old... -Mike
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#12
12-03-2020, 01:25 PM
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Quote:
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#13
12-03-2020, 03:05 PM
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I use an Amazon Firestick with a very cheap Vizio TV from Walmart. The combination seems work very well for this TV junkie...
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Emerald X20 Emerald X20-12 Fender Robert Cray Stratocaster Martin D18 Ambertone Martin 000-15sm Last edited by RP; 12-03-2020 at 07:15 PM.
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#14
12-03-2020, 04:47 PM
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We have three Apple TVs (one for each TV). Apple provides a great interface, both in the overall navigation, as well as many of their apps, so the overall user experience is better. Plus, if you're already immersed in the Apple ecosystem, it's easy to connect other devices, media, etc. We stream our photos from our Mac onto the Apple TVs and use our favorite / most recent photos as the TV screen savers.
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"It's only castles burning." - Neil Young
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#15
12-03-2020, 05:38 PM
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We got a Roku years ago when they first came out, but it kept updating itself and resetting all the saved parameters overnight. We soon gave up. I actually dread the day our 12 year old Sony gives up the ghost and we have to buy a new "smart" TV. We could stream content (I have watched some YouTube videos on occasion) but choose to spend our time in other pursuits. If there isn't anything on broadcast channels or saved on the DVR from broadcast, that is a sign to do something - anything - else.
Of course I've spent way too much time recovering from orthopedic surgeries and turning into veal over the last few years. When all that you can do is watch the tube, the appeal wears off pretty quickly.
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