Great now I can't decide between ATV3 or Roku 3, assuming both are the same price which is better for my needs?
<--- PC user mostly
<--- Netflix & HBO only, no other streaming
<--- 100% wireless
What say you AT Apple nerds?
I have the appletv 3, 2, and Roku (highest of last gen, 2xs?) and I like them all for different reason, with the ATV being my go to.
ATV 2
+Plex support (after jailbreak) is fantastic
-I'm sure there's a work around, but after jailbreak's I couldn't update so no hulu, hbogo, and I couldn't get airplay mirroring to work right
-Crashes sometimes, but more due to the jailbreak/hacks than anything
ATV 3
+ My go to because everything works quickly, without drama (very wife friendly)
+ If you have iDevices or a mac you will absolutely love airplay. Me and my wife fling music, video, apps, whatever with ease. It's why I haven't needed to jailbreak - i just fling plex mkvs from my iPad to my appletv (Actually, I've recently discovered a quick mkv->quicktime/mp4 transcoder so use iTunes for all local media, which is very organized and slick)
+If you use iTunes ATV's media playback options are slick as shit - having used a wdtv, roku (with plex), boxeebox, and others they all seem to have a more early 2000s UI and structure (file view/folder view). Plex on roku isn't bad, it just feels pretty old school
-APPS! Need more apps! But I kinda like that apple waits to really make sure there's consistency and that everything works before releasing new apps, while roku has hundreds of apps but I'd say 1/2 are crap web video portals and others just don't work with server errors and the likes
+Most of the big guys are covered - hulu, netflix, vimeo, hbo, espn. The hbo addition means I don't use my roku much at all anymore
+Fast menus, modern slick interface
Roku
+very dev. friendly, and lots of apps
-I can really see this model catching on, but most of these apps are made by amateurs or IPTV pay providers, I would love if say NBC, Fox, etc. had their own apps
-Inconsistent quality between providers. Meaning the Hulu App plays well/decent quality while the CNN news app plays what looks like 56k realvideo
-Inconsistent menus. Post upgrade the main UI looks great, but the apps still feel very 2001, kinda WEB-TV feeling
-Pre-roku3 feels sluggish, you hit enter and sometimes WAIT..And wait
-Unless you're using plex local media playback is pretty non-existant. Plex works, but I swear video quality is a step down from ATV (or multiple steps down depending on the day), and buffering issues more of an issue. You can live with it but even on ethernet the apple tv seems to do better. On wifi I just don't know how the ATV streams 720p+ high def local media with 5.1 without buffering, my roku just can't do it. Actually, no other wifi streamer has been able to do what the aTV does over wifi.
Roku 3's fixed some of my concerns but the ability to fling content to my tv (or sidetable radio since I use airport express) is kinda awesome. The new ability to use appletv as a 2nd monitor (to extend not just mirror) is pretty interesting too, if the latency isn't too bad I could really see myself editing video on my laptop and keeping my plasma as a real time monitor, something I can't do with a roku (and long HDMI cable fans don't have a toddler who will trip or pull on any cables across a living room).
