Apple

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.

Yes

First off, apps open faster and are much smoother running, super fast navigation, picture quality is great, good UI and if in the Apple ecosystem the experience can’t be beat.

Apple TV 4K + Infruse PRO app = ❤️

Biggest benefit is this… it’s ridiculously overpowered for what it is.. a tv box

Why does that matter? Well every streaming box or tv you buy I guarantee you will slow down in a year or two… apple TV could last 5-10+ years and still be just as fast on day 1 as year 10

IMO ... I've tried ALL of them, for streaming it is the best by a mile.

If only they had a USB drive for my nature videos ( 😏 )...

.... I could finally bin my nVidia Shield.

Maybe the next one will have one... I'll be first in line.

For me, it's a much cleaner experience for everything from the UI, AirPlay, native Apple Music, and HomeKit integration to having the ability to disable HDR/Dolby Vision when they (quite often) look like garbage.

TLDR- Your TV OS is slow af. Apple TV is snappy af.

Basically everyone here is right, I’ve been using apple tv for years now and it has replaced what would have been cable boxes. My older TVs apps have stopped working after a few years and no longer support the latest features of Hulu YouTube and other modern streaming apps and are annoyingly slow in comparison.

I like the controls better. The ten second rewind and ffw are easier to use than the TV’s apps. In fact I haven’t figured it out yet on the TV apps. I used to love the integrated Up Next, but Netflix doesn’t participate and other services like MAX stopped working.

As an early adopter of TiVo I really liked their interface and features. I haven’t had it for many years, but just ordered their Stream 4k device. It promises to give that integration. I’m tired of keeping a list of shows and what service they are on.

ATV is fast and navigating menus is snappy and fun. Everything else I’ve owned or tried is quite the opposite.

Using AirPods is a great feature and a cinch to setup. FaceTime on the big screen is pretty cool. I get the games with my family plan and whilst not being amazing they do help pass time occasionally

I’ve got the new Samsung QN90C and while it’s UI is fluid and fast, I still got the latest Apple TV 4K (2022); it’s just so much better.

I’ve noticed that on our 1080p model, Netflix looked far better than the built in app on our older model 1080p Sony tv.

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

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 think it is funny that nobody has said it yet. I think you all have gotten used to things just being better.

Ads. There aren't a bunch of spammy aggressive ads everywhere. If you don't like the Apple promoted stuff, you can just toggle it off and get the up next instead. Android TV had a clean UI without a bunch of promoted content being hurled at you. Now it looks like a Fire TV.

Apple TV is just a less aggressive more comfortable way of watching TV.

My LG CX TV with AirPlay 2 can only mirror my MacBook Pro Max in 1080p, while the Apple TV 4K (3rd gen with Ethernet) can mirror or extend my MacBook in 4K with nearly flawless delay. It connects instantly vs intermittent results on the LG smart TV.

I have a solid wifi in the room, tried with an Ethernet to USB adapter (better results but still 1080p and sluggish). I keep the LG remote in a drawer, Apple’s remote is just solid. Bonus point coming from the Shield TV, you can set your home screen to only show a few apps you want without any suggested content.

Bonus tip, Moonlight app runs perfectly I stream my gaming PC to the TV in 4K 60hz with HDR, the touchpad on the remote acts as mouse input in windows. Amazing!

We buy TV shows and movies via iTunes. Prefer to buy from the one source.

The user interface is great and consistent no matter what brand of TV you have. Like if you have a Sony TV in the family room and a Samsung one in your office…

Technically, the Apple TV does everything excellently. Upscaling, HDR, audio formats.

I have a high end Sony TV and the UI is ugly and sluggish. Buttons on the remote are not intuitive.

All but NetFlix integrate into the TV app. The up next feature is excellent. Discovery of new content to watch is great.

The Ed Sheeran concert video is an Apple exclusive and brilliant.

Apple’s own content is the highest bit rates, 4K HDR, and Atmos.

Opinion: Apple TV 4K presents a complete user experience. Tracks the shows you watch across all apps. Is lightning fast. Great picture and sound. Yeah, it is worth it.

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

Appletv is just fast and powerful. I can't imagine using anything other than that again.

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

Can we please pin a post about this?

Excellent points made by many here.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is...if you buy movies or content to add to your digital library, I've noticed that Atv library on only Apple TV device has all the extra features that are usually included with movies, tv shows. I also have Atv app on my Sony OLEDs (AndroidOS) and there are no extras included in the library, only the primary movie or tv show. That to me is a huge bonus for AppleTV device. If you enjoy the extra features and bonus content from your digital content, you'll only get it with an Apple TV device.

I may be wrong because I haven't tested or seen every device that has Atv built into it but I would guess that Apple makes this an exclusive feature for only their products.

In addition to a lot of what has been said, being able to have multiple apps open at the same time and switch between them quickly (Switch quickly between Apple TV apps) is huge.

Saves so much time over Roku or other platforms when you have to completely close out an app and start over from the main menu. Switching between content (including live streams) in different apps is easy and quick.