Apple TV vs. Roku — comparing the two best 4K set-top streamers – AppleTV 4 Jailbreak (appletv4jailbreak.com)
In the age of streaming, set-top boxes are becoming more ubiquitous. AppleInsider compares two high-end titans in the industry — the brand new 2019 Roku Ultra and the Apple TV 4K.
Apple TV 4K
Apple offers two different set-top boxes. The original Apple TV HD and the more powerful Apple TV 4K. Here, we will focus on the latter.
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The biggest difference between the two is that the Apple TV 4K offers 4K and Dolby Vision playback whereas the Apple TV HD is limited to 1080P and packs a slower processor.
The new Roku Ultra
The updated 2019 Roku Ultra
While the Apple TV 4K is a few years old now, Roku has just updated the Roku Ultra. The new Roku Ultra maintains all of the previous features such as 4K streaming, but also adds a few new features.
The Roku Ultra remote hardware was updated with two new customizable buttons that can be used as shortcuts. Shortcuts can be created with your voice and can perform a search or open an app that you do most often.
The Roku Ultra remote has a new pair of shortcut buttons — labeled ‘1’ and ‘2’
On the side, the volume controls now have a mute button added below.
Roku has also optimized a few of its biggest streaming apps, such as Hulu, to launch even faster. The new fast channel launch opens the apps almost instantly when chosen without the long load times. The optimizations are only applied to some of the apps so if you spend most of your time in smaller one-off channels, this may not make a huge difference.
Apple TV 4K versus Roku Ultra in hardware
Both Apple TV 4K and Roku Ultra are quality set-top boxes, and neither qualifies as a streaming stick jutting out from a HDMI port. Apple TV is a bit taller while taking up a smaller footprint. Roku Ultra opts for the low and wide profile instead. Neither of them feels particularly large.
Roku includes their remote in the box which has many more controls than Apple’s Siri remote. It has a microphone at the top for Roku Voice search, a universal power button, TV volume controls on the side, the new shortcut buttons, and shortcuts to Netflix, Hulu, ESPN+, and Sling.
One of the coolest features of the remote is the headphone jack located on the left side. This allows you to connect any old pair of headphones (or the JBL earbuds included in the box) for private listening mode. It bypasses the TV’s speakers and instead sends the audio to your headphones.
Siri remote for the Apple TV 4K
The Siri remote is comparatively smaller and trades the plastic for metal and glass. There are only a few controls on the…
