HBO Now coming in April for $14.99 per month, Apple TV price cut to $69

[gotbeer]

HBO Now coming in April for $14.99 per month, Apple TV price cut to $69

 

 

It's going to be interesting how this plays out.  Considering on Dish, HBO is $19 a month and on DirectTV $17.99 a month.  

[Angels_Make_Me_Drink]

I will definitely be picking up an Apple TV again, at that price. I had it before, sold it for full value, and have been waiting for the price to drop. I use my ps4 right now for streaming, but the Apple TV is nice. 

 

I'll also be picking up HBO next month for GOT. IDK if I will keep it after, though. I probably will for True Detective. 

[Tank]

AMD, what do you use your apple tv for?

[Chimi]

I have an Apple TV and I love it.  It's great to rent movies or TV shows on and the apps like HBO GO and Showtime Anytime are good to have.  I rather navigate the Apple TV than my cable box to watch those.  Not to mention, the cable box is in the living room and having the Apple TV in the bedroom gives you both HBO and Showtime without the need of the box.  It also links to your iPhone (if you have one) and projects whatever is on your iPhone screen onto the TV.  So say you have an iPhone app or want to surf the web, you can easily put it up on your TV screen instead of having to look at the phones screen.  I admit I've played quite a few of the games on my iPhone on my TV screen.

[mrwicked]

I still think AAPL buys HBO and ESPN.

[Adam]

I heard Perry's, Inc. put a bid in for both two days ago

[ten ocho recon scout]

Got an apple tv for christmas a year ago and still havent opened it...can someone give me a rundown for what it does?

Like it doesnt give anything free i assume, it just streams things like netflix to my tv?

[Tank]

if i have apple tv, do i still need a dvr?

 

can i hook up apple tv AND my cable box to the same tv? do they work together or is best to keep them separated? fwiw, i have at&t u-verse.

[mrwicked]

Got an apple tv for christmas a year ago and still havent opened it...can someone give me a rundown for what it does?

Like it doesnt give anything free i assume, it just streams things like netflix to my tv?

 

apple gets you:

1 airplay: so you send anything from your iphone/ipad/mac to your tv. its worth the $99 for this alone, for $69 its a steal. 

2 access to itunes

3 access to streaming sevices (like you mentioned, netfix, hulu, etc) 

[mrwicked]

if i have apple tv, do i still need a dvr?

 

can i hook up apple tv AND my cable box to the same tv? do they work together or is best to keep them separated? fwiw, i have at&t u-verse.

 

you can totally keep more, they aren't mutually exclusive

and can definitely hook both up, just have them be separate HDMI inputs (or if you only have 1 HDMI input, grab a cheap HDMI switch from monoprice or kinivo or octava)

 

the way we use it:

directv: for game of thrones, downtown abbey, live sports, etc. typical cable stuff.

appletv: for streaming movies/shows on netflix, streaming shows on hulu, renting movies/shows on itunes

 

i have an appletv for each tv in my place, even guest rooms. its a badass little device.

[RallyMo]

I would think that if Apple wants to get ESPN, they'll have to buy Disney.

 

Hell, they could almost buy Disney outright with all the cash they have on hand.

 

Not that they'd do an all cash deal, but still...

[Angels_Make_Me_Drink]

AMD, what do you use your apple tv for?

 

Pretty much everything that Chimi said.

 

Streaming is the main thing--Netflix, HBO Go, Youtube, my iTunes, etc...Its just convenient being able to rent movies from iTunes right there and being able to play it through a quality sound system through your receiver and TV rather than an iPad, computer, or phone. Its also nice for being able to show pictures to everyone instead of just having to pass your phone around, etc...

 

For $69, its a damn steal. I have been regretting selling it for awhile now and when I saw Apple announce today that they were dropping it to $69, I ran out to Best Buy and price matched them. I just set it back up and I've just got my music on playing as some background noise. 

[2002_halos_II]

I have a Roku and haven't paid any subscription fees to stream from anyone. Yet. I did get a message that there is a new SLING channel.

 

So HBO NOW is stand-alone and you don't need to subscribe to HBO with your tv service?

[gotbeer]

I have a Roku and haven't paid any subscription fees to stream from anyone. Yet. I did get a message that there is a new SLING channel.

 

So HBO NOW is stand-alone and you don't need to subscribe to HBO with your tv service?

 

Define anyone.  I'm intrigued at what is included on the Roku.

[2002_halos_II]

Define anyone.  I'm intrigued at what is included on the Roku.

I got the Roku thinking I might stream MLB to my TV. Never did it. There are free channels but they are worthless.  I haven't  used it for streaming pay per view movies from HULU or VUDU or any other channel. Actually VUDU lets you purchase movies but not interested.

 

So the Roku is just sitting there - I turn it on occasionally to keep the battery alive.

 

[Vegas Halo Fan]

Every time I get a free trial of one or more of the pay networks, it seems like every movie they run is at least 20 years old.

Edited March 10, 2015 by Vegas Halo Fan

[TobiasFunke]

Just bought Apple TV a month ago. Pissed I didn't buy it sooner.

[Tank]

does apple tv require some kind of user fee, or is it free to use once it's hooked up? 

[red321]

We use it for Netflix and movie rentals. The Netflix feed is much better on Apple TV than through the Samsung Smart TV app. We always get an HD feed with the AppleTV, not always with the Samsung. We can also Airplay items from our phone...not just iTunes but if I'm listening to Internet Radio or other things. It's fun Rickrolling the wife/daughter from another room while they are watching some lame RomCom.

 

The remote sucks, but if you have an iPhone you can have a slightly better remote experience.

 

If you have Apple Products, it's a nice streaming device. If you don't...the Roku, Chromecast, or Amazon versions probably integrate better with Android.

Edited March 10, 2015 by red321

[red321]

Does slingbox work with hotel wifi that requires a web log-in? (eg. you connect via wi-fi and then have to open a web browser and enter a password)

[HeavenlyHalos]

I've been thinking about getting this for awhile, and at that price I will probably pull the trigger. With that said, I would love to hear what some of your favorite apps are to get an idea of what it offers. Can you get the ESPN, Comedy Central and FX apps?

[DowningRules]

I gave up Directv over a year ago and watch everything on Apple TV.  For those who don't know much about how it works, it's basically a little box that gives you a bunch of apps which appear on your tv.  Some are free, some you pay for (i.e.:  HBOgo, netflix, etc.).

 

I, er, borrow my mom's cable info to watch the ESPN app during baseball season (have no need for it when it's not sexy baseball times.)

 

For those that do it, I'm intrigued with how you stream from your phone/device to your Apple TV.  What setting does this on the phone (I have an iPhone5).

 

I've also wondered why the picture is so much better quality on Apple TV compared to smart tvs/dvd players.  I think better components are part of it but it's almost like apple tv streams off its own server or something.  Not being a techie, I never could understand why the quality is so much more superior. 

[Amazing Larry]

For those that do it, I'm intrigued with how you stream from your phone/device to your Apple TV.  What setting does this on the phone (I have an iPhone5).

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201335

[red321]

Red, I haven't tried that yet, but assuming if the connection is good enough it would. On your pad or laptop at a hotel, you would be watching through slingbox.com.

It would be no different than streaming from any other website.

If the connection is slow, the picture would suck or just audio would come through.

 

Devices like the chromecast and Amazon Fire Stick can't handle hotel wi-fi because most of them require a separate log in than the normal wi-fi log-in. It spits you over to a browser to log-in. They promote it working in hotels, so maybe it does handle that.

[mrwicked]

I gave up Directv over a year ago and watch everything on Apple TV.  For those who don't know much about how it works, it's basically a little box that gives you a bunch of apps which appear on your tv.  Some are free, some you pay for (i.e.:  HBOgo, netflix, etc.).

 

I, er, borrow my mom's cable info to watch the ESPN app during baseball season (have no need for it when it's not sexy baseball times.)

 

For those that do it, I'm intrigued with how you stream from your phone/device to your Apple TV.  What setting does this on the phone (I have an iPhone5).

 

I've also wondered why the picture is so much better quality on Apple TV compared to smart tvs/dvd players.  I think better components are part of it but it's almost like apple tv streams off its own server or something.  Not being a techie, I never could understand why the quality is so much more superior. 

 

AAPL has their own CDN - content delivery network.

It's a huge deal.

http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2014/07/apples-cdn-now-live.html