[2/13/17] A couple new channels I have added to my Roku.
Google Photos lets me display my Google photos as a slideshow and individually. It also has a screensaver, but photos come out tiny.
Hallmark Channel. This was on Fire TV previously and now it's on Roku. Don't see it yet in the Movies & TV category or the TV Everywhere category. Had to search for it to find it. Wait, there it is. Number 195 out of 721 in Movies & TV. I expect it to be moving up in the coming weeks.
Actually the content is rather skimpy with only two shows listed: Home & Family and When Calls The Heart. There's more movies though with 30 listed, though 5 of them are Kitten Bowl. There are two of the Good Witch Movies: Good Witch's Garden (2009) and Good Witch's Family (2011). Authentication required. Time Warner Spectrum supported, along with DirecTV and Hawaiian Telcom. But no PlayStation Vue or Sling. Checking Roku, I see The Good Witch (the first film in the series) is free on Popcorn Flix and OVGuide, among others. I'll try Family Flix (powered by OVGuide). Disappointingly the movie is 4:3 with no captions. Try Popcorn Flix. Same thing. Checking the DVD on Amazon, the movie is 1.33:1 (4:3) with no mention of subtitles.
[1/20/17] Oddly the lineup of TV shows on FreeForm on Fire TV is a little different than on Roku. It has 31 shows including The Mindy Project which is not on Roku. Roku has 34 shows including Baby Daddy, The Middle, Reba, Young & Hungry which are not on Fire TV. They both have the same 27 movies. Checking the Apple TV, it has the same shows as on Roku, but has only 25 of the 27 movies, missing Campus Confidential and The Spectacular Now.
Checking the website, they list 37 shows and the same 27 movies. They have all the shows available on Roku/Apple TV plus The Mindy Project. The other two are shows which are not yet available to watch: Famous In Love which is a new show coming in April and Happily Ever After: The Twins (stay tuned for a new season).
Here's the current list of TV shows: 10 Things I Hate About You, Baby Daddy, Becoming Us, Beyond, Bunheads, Cheer Squad, Dead of Summer, Famous In Love, Greek, Guilt, The Twins: Happily Ever After?, Jane by Design, Job or No Job, Last Man Standing, Lincoln Heights, Make It or Break It, Melissa & Joey, Monica The Medium, Next Step Realty NYC, Oh My Josh!, Open Road, Party Girl, Pretty Little Liars, Reba, Recovery Road, School of Doodle, Shadowhunters, Startup U, Stichers, Switched at Birth, The Fosters, The Middle, The Mindy Project, The Nine Lives of Chloe King, Time for Bed with Punam Patel, Twisted, Young & Hungry. They used to have Gilmore Girls, but it's not listed now.
[1/6/17] FreeForm has come to Fire TV. Like ABC, it doesn't support validation from Time Warner Cable, but does support Hawaiian Telcom and Playstation Vue. It works, but I prefer the Roku app. The Roku app has better captions (I think it uses the Roku captions) and rewinding shows is cumbersome on the Fire TV (if you can get it to work at all).
[12/10/16] Here's a chart from CNet (updated 12/7/16) showing what apps or "channels" are available on the Apple TV (old and new), Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast, Android TV
[11/20/16] Activating the ABC app on the Fire TV. For no great reason, since all the shows are also on Hulu (as far as I can see). I see DirecTV, Playstation Vue, Hawaiian Telcom, but no Time Warner Cable.
[11/16/16] OK, now I see season 5 of NCIS Los Angeles on the Fire TV USA Network app. Activating through Hawaiian Telcom again because when I activated it through TWC/Spectrum it had a blank square in the top right where the logo of the TV service appears.
[11/14/16] USA Network finally arrives on Fire TV. But when I tried to activate, I didn't see Time Warner Cable on the list. Hawaiian Telcom, Playstation Vue were supported.
Checking the Roku. Oddly NCIS: Los Angeles has only one episode available on the Fire TV (season one, episode one). But the Roku has the entire season five in addition to that episode. Asks me to log in. And strangely, the Roku authentication does show Time Warner Cable | Spectrum as one of the choices. (But here's a sneaky workaround.)
Maybe the app is still in beta, but it says "coming soon" on the icon on the menu.
Anyway, log out and try the workaround Roku login. It worked. But still only season 1, episode 1 for NCIS: Los Angeles. And NCIS too. I do see season 2 of Mr. Robot though.
And now I don't see the Coming Soon designation. Maybe it was left over from the preview app that I had installed earlier (and uninstalled).
[10/22/16] Here's a disadvantage with the Watch ESPN app on the Fire TV. I was looking to replay the UCF-UConn football game, but didn't see it on the app. I checked the web and the game was on. So I switched to the app on the Roku and the game was there. Don't ask me why.
[10/1/16] Did some more experimenting with The CW app on my Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. Looks like the problem occurs if CC (closed captions) are on. If CC is on, then the video gets stuck trying to load the commercial. But if you turn off CC, then the commercials play through fine. Luckily you can turn off CC while the commercials are stuck trying to load.
[9/30/16] The CW app is back for the Fire TV. Searching from the Amazon web page brings up two entries. One is dated Sep 29, 2016 and the other one is date Sep 30, 2016. The Sep 30, 2016 one is the one works with the Fire TV. The earlier one works only on the Fire tablet.
Tried installing from the web page and apparently the install failed. OK, go to the Fire TV. Don't see it in the apps section, but found it with a search. And it installed OK from there.
The interface looks more modern than the one on the Roku. Captions are OK, but not customizable as far as I can see. I wish I could make the background semi-transparent.
Playing Legends of Tomorrow. It played OK for several minutes than now has paused with a spinning circle. Maybe it's buffering or maybe it's stuck. Waiting a few minutes. Still spinning. In other words, it's stuck.
Let's try CW Seed then. Doesn't appear in search. Let's try from the Amazon web site. App last updated 6/11/16 and not compatible with Fire TV.
OK, let's try playing the video again. It resumes (just before) where it left off, but then got stuck again. Try another video. Stuck. Try The Flash. Stuck. It looks like it gets stuck when it's trying to play a commercial. So it's still buggy. I'll try again later.
[9/29/16] CW arrives on Fire TV. Apparently it will also give access to CW Seed. Let's take a look.
Hmm. Don't see it in the apps section. Doesn't come up in in search. Let's try add it with the link in the article. Sorry we couldn't find that page.
Log into Amazon. Search for CW. Comes up with CW and CW Seed. But I can only add it to my tablet not to my Fire TV. Maybe the article is premature.
Hmm. AFTV News is reporting it too. Looking at the comments, the app got pulled.
Searching further, I see that the CW Seed app is now available for Apple TV. But you have to download it from the app store. Well, that lets out the owners of an older generation Apple TV (like me). Looking at the site, the app is currently available for Amazon Fire (the tablet), Android, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Roku, Apple TV. No mention of Amazon Fire TV yet.
Search some more. I see that on iTunes that The CW app was updated today and "Apple TV: Yes".
And I see a story over three years old that stated that The CW was coming to Apple TV.
[9/27/16] Noticed that Xumo appeared on my Roku and I don't remember adding it on purpose. It reminds me a lot of The Scene and I thought The Scene had just undergone a name change. But apparently not.
Let's compare. Xumo features Fail Army, newsy, The Pet Connection, Buzz Feed, Sports Illustrated. The second row has recommendations: Funny or Die, Bloomberg Politics, People Are Awesome, Just For Laughs, Field & Stream.
There are 10 comedy channels, 8 sports channels, 10 news channels, 15 entertainment channels, 7 fashion channels, 10 lifestyle channels.
Let's compare The Scene. The Scene has 34 "brands". Among them are Wired, Buzz Feed, GQ, The Weather Channel, newsy, Vogue, Golf Digest, Vanity Fair, Variety, The Onion, Forbes, Glamour. The developer is Conde Nast which is a magazine publisher. Xumo's holding company is Viant. Viant was acquired by Time which is of course another magazine publisher.
So what about common channels like Buzz Feed and newsy? Newsy is owned by E.W. Scripps. Buzz Feed is apparently an independent company. So apparently they made separate deals to be carried on The Scene and on Xumo.
[9/27/16] CW arrived on Roku today. No cable subscription necessary! I guess they'll make their money on ads. This is almost like TV B.C. (before cable), where TV networks made their money on ads (and there were like three of them). OK, let me switch to my Roku from my Fire TV to check it out.
Checking it out, the interface looks viritually identical to CW Seed (except for the Latest section). I guess that makes sense. And, yep, all the shows are there: Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl. All have five episodes. Oddly they're not in synch. For example, Arrow has the first episode of last season, while The Flash has the 17th episode, etc.
Seems to be streaming OK and the captions look OK, maybe a little big. Changed the Roku captions size from default to small. Now maybe a little too small? Both are acceptable. Sometimes the captions go a bit off the screen (like they did on CBS All Access), but not too bad.
Thumbs up. This is a keeper.
[9/27/16] CW app coming soon to Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV. Don't know if it will come only to the fourth generation Apple TV, but it apparently will support AirPlay. No cable subscription needed?
[9/14/16] NFL channel finally updated for this season for Roku. Very slow initially when trying to access NFL Network/Redzone and NFL Now. I thought my Roku locked up.
Authentication required for NFL Network/Redzone. Don't see Time Warner Cable or Playstion Vue, much less Sling. But do see Hawaiian Telcom, DirecTV and DISH. [Yeah, NFL not listed on the Oceanic site.]
[9/13/16] Activating FreeForm on my Roku. Doesn't support Time Warner. Does support Hawaiian Telcom. Don't see DirecTV either. Do see PlayStation Vue, but not Sling. Since FreeForm used to be ABC Family and ABC owns Disney, I would assume it's the same for the Disney Channel.
OK, activating Disney XD. Again no Time Warner Cable, but I do see DirecTV along with Hawaiian Telcom. Also Playstation VUE, but no Sling.
[9/12/16] CNBC channel has been updated for Roku. There's no longer the portfolio list with associated clips. Instead you can watch complete shows (with verification) and clips. Unlike the Apple TV app, there's no live TV.
The clips have no captions, but the complete shows do (though they lag the video).
I haven't been able to get the videos to play on the Roku HD. The menu comes up but when I press OK, nothing happens.
It's progress. But I'll miss the portfilio.
[8/20/16] Checking the Roku TV, I see five new channels available: Science Channel, ID (Investigation Discovery), TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery.
Let's try Animal Planet. I assume the process will be similar on all of these as the developer on all is Discovery Communications.
Looks like the whole lineup is there including live TV. Taking a look at Dr. Dee: Alaska Vet. The season 2 episodes are unlocked while the season 1 episodes require verification. Going to Insane Pools: Off the Deep End, all the episodes require you to sign in to watch. Same with My Cat From Hell.
OK, let's sign in. Need to activate from computer (or tablet or phone I guess). Time Warner Cable is supported. Also DirecTV and Hawaiian Telcom. Also PlayStation Vue, but not Sling TV.
The captions are pretty small. But it uses the Roku caption settings so you can change them. Changed the size to medium and it looks fine.
Well since Roku has three shows to a row, I'll add Discovery and Science. Had to select my provider, but didn't have to log in again. Still had to enter the activation code.
The video froze and the Roku locked up temporarily a couple of times. Don't know if it's a problem with the channel or the Roku TV.
[8/20/16] Browsing AFTV News, I see that TNT and TBS have come to Fire TV.
On the TBS app, I see 13 movies are available including 50 First Dates, Splash, Kindergarten Cop. As far as TV is concerned, there's 8 episodes of Conan, 10 episodes of 2 Broke Girls, 13 episodes of Big Bang Theory. Also Angie Tribeca (10 episodes - all of season 2), Family Guy (5 episodes), Friends (5 episodes), Full House (5 episodes), Seinfeld (5 episodes).
Requires activation. Activating it, I see TBS is also available on the Apple TV (I assume only on the new one). Time Warner Cable not supported. Hawaiian Telcom supported as well as DirecTV. Also see PlayStation Vue, but not Sling. I see they have decent customization of close captions. Hey Steve Wozniak was a guest on Conan. That was way back on March 7, 2016. Not quite the current episodes that you can catch on Nowhere TV on the Roku (at last look). But that's OK.
On the TNT app, I see 19 movies available including 2012, The Da Vinci Code, The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Green Mile, Grudge Match, S.W.A.T., The Shawshank Redemption, Olympus Has Fallen, Transporter 3, War of theWorlds. And TV shows such as the Last Ship (11 episodes), Rizzolli & Isles (3 episodes), The Librarians (5 episodes), Bones (10 episodes), Castle (6 episodes), Charmed (5 episodes), Grimm (5 episodes), Hawaii Five-0 [yes it's a zero] (5 episodes),
Didn't have to activate. I assume it took the activation from my TBS sign in. Checking Hulu, I see they have some of the TNT shows, but nothing from TBS (well they do have Family Guy and Seinfeld, but those are syndicated shows). And of course, Netflix has Friends. Wait a minute, Hulu has season 1 of Angie Tribeca. Never mind..
[8/20/16] See that Hallmark Channel Everywhere has come to the Fire TV. Apparently requires a cable subscription. It automatically logged me in (on the computer) using I don't know what account. Probably my Time Warner Cable account. Content is limited. There's 21 movies, Chesapeake Shores (which is a TV series that just premiered), and 10 episodes of Home & Family (which is their daily lifestyle show).
OK, now I see I gotta log in. They do support Time Warner Cable as well as Hawaiian Telcom and DirecTV. Don't see Playstation Vue or Sling though.
(Don't see an NFL app though, which I why started searching through the apps in the first place.)
[8/13/16] Hulu will no longer carry the CW lineup. But never fail, the CW app is coming to Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV (4 only?), Chromecast.
[8/12/16] And since I've been using the Fire TV more and more lately, I can tell you that the Fire TV now supports Fox Now, FXNow, CNN Go (still doesn't support Time Warner Cable), NBC Sports (since I've been watching the Olympics on it), Yahoo (but my internet too slow so the video constantly buffers).
So the Fire TV is getting there. It still doesn't have NatGeo and CNBC though. If it ever gets NatGeo, I'd have less temptation to switch back and forth to/from the Roku and Apple TV.
[5/19/16] Updated chart with Starz (not available on my 3rd generation Apple TV, but now available on the fourth generation). Added Vudu which is available on Roku, but not Fire TV or Apple TV. Flixster which supported UltraViolet has now been dropped by Fire TV. There's no device that supports the three main formats. Apple TV supports only iTunes. Fire TV supports only Amazon Video. Roku supports Vudu and Amazon Video. Well I guess Amazon Video is the most universal as I can stream it to the Apple TV from my iPad.
[5/18/16] Noticed about a month ago, that CBS All Access was now available on my Fire TV. I believe it's because the OS got updated. Then when I checked my Fire TV Stick, I saw that it wasn't available but soon after it became available when the OS got updated on that device as well.
Sling TV is also on the Fire TV joining Roku. But not on Apple TV (but you can AirPlay it).
[3/14/16] Notice America: The Story of Us no longer on the History Channel website or app. Well it's on the website, but not the videos. Looking at the app, I no longer see Mankind Decoded on the list of shows, but it's still there when I do a search.
[3/13/16] History Vault Channel comes to Roku. $4.99 a month. This should mean less shows from The History Channel on Netflix and on the regular History Channel app. Shows like America: The Story of Us, Mankind: The Story of All of Us, The Men Who Built America. No longer on Netflix. The first two are still available on the History Channel app, some episodes for free, some episodes for subscribers.
[2/26/16] Checking if the Fox Now app on the Apple TV still supports my twc account. Logging in to twctv, apparently the only TV live channel I can get now is QVC. Turning to On Demand, I'm locked out of most of the shows. The only ones I see unlocked are from FOX (e.g. American Idol), so maybe it might work. Let's see. There's a lot of episodes available even to non-subscribers. But, for example, the first twelve episodes of Grandfathered are locked to non-subscribers. Try log in. Still logged in to twctv. Go to foxnow.com/activate. Hey it worked. Fox apparently is one of the few networks that support my basic account. I would guess ABC and NBC too. But ABC doesn't support Time Warner. And, browsing now, apparently you no longer need to log in to NBC to watch all the shows available? What about CBS? Looks like to watch anything on the Apple TV you have to be a subscriber. Now if Apple TV (or Roku) were to get a CW TV app, I could give up my Hulu subscription, since all the shows I regularly watch are from CW (The Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrw), ABC (The Middle, Goldbergs, Fresh Off The Boat), and CBS (Supergirl, Limitless). Actually I think I might be able to stream from the CW TV app on the iPad. But never installed that app yet. I think I might try that.
[1/5/16] Got a email from Roku that some new channels are available. Install USA Now. Requires authentication. Time Warner is supported. Also DirecTV, Hawaiian Telcom. No Sling TV.
Signed on. But got an error. Apparently not accepting my stripped down Oceanic account. OK, let's try Pat's signin. But how to do it? It kept detecting that I was signed on with my account. OK, sign on to usanetwork with Pat's account on the computer first. Then activate the Roku after that. OK that worked. Can now watch Mr. Robot.
How about HGTV? Hey there's Live TV. Need to sign in with your TV provider. I see Time Warner, DirecTV, Hawaiian Telcom. But don't see Sling TV even though they carry that channel live.
Select Time Warner Cable. Put in activation code. OK, it's working. I assume it took Pat's sign on, so I don't know if my sign on would work.
I'll assume it'll also work with the Food Network and Travel Channel since they were all mentioned in the same blog post. I guess I'll add the Travel Channel too then. Travel TV looks similar to HGTV in that it also supports Live TV. After entering the code. it prompted me to sign in. I entered my on signin and it worked. Watching Live TV. So I assume my signin also supports HGTV.
WTH, let's add the Food Network too. Yep, also supports Live TV. Put in the code. Must have assumed I was already logged in. Started to play. But then locked up. Try to get back to the home screen, but got a blank screen. Apparently the Roku locked up.
HGTV, Travel Channel, and Food Network also available on Fire TV. Supposedly available on the Apple TV too, but don't see them on mine. Maybe only on the new Apple TV. Yeah, "beginning with the 4th generation."
NatGeoTV asked me to log in again. My account is not authorized. Logout and re-activate. Darn it automatically logged me in with my sign in. Logout and re-activate. Clear cookies on Chrome from the past hour. Log in with Pat's account. OK, that worked.
[11/24/15] CBS All Access arrives on Amazon Fire TV. OK, they finally caught up to Roku and Apple TV. Noticed Watch ABC is also on Fire TV. Hmm. Don't see CBS All Access while browsing on the Fire TV. May have to add it via the web. Roku also recently added Watch ABC. NBC reportedly coming to Fire TV. Fox Now and FX Now "soon".
Searching... Haven't found CBS All Access yet, but noticed Drama Fever and MBC On Demand. So the Fire TV might not be a bad choice for my sister. The ad (by AdRise) on MBC On Demand is pausing. I guess because of my slow internet connection. Also taking a long time to buffer before playing the video. This is almost like iTunes on the Apple TV. Forget it. I'm not going to wait. Wait, it started. Then paused again. Agony. Forget it.
Did a voice search. Search for CBS and CBS app. Nope. Didn't come up.
OK, go to amazon.com. Search for CBS. Maybe this is it? Nope, compatibility with my device is x'd out. Well maybe I'll need to wait a day or two. Ah, reading the story... It runs only on Fire OS 5 which is not yet on the 1st-gen Fire TV.
[11/1/15] CBS All Access and NBC (and M2M) arrive on Apple TV. CBS All Access might make the Apple TV my favorite streamer. The main thing missing is Amazon Instant Video, but I can view that with AirPlay.
[10/4/15] NBC comes to Roku (cable subscription required for full access). CuriosityStream too ($5.99 monthly for HD). NFL channel finally updated for Roku.
[9/16/15] TV Everywhere is what Hawaiiantel calls their support for apps. And they do support a lot of them. I thought they didn't support FXX (or something), but I guess they do now. [8/31/16 - checking the app list, Hawaiian Telcom supports almost everything, but oddly one notable exception is Fox. Time Warner Cable has a lot more notable exceptions: like Disney, CNN, TNT, TBS. Playstation Vue supports almost everything too. Sling? Not many.]
[6/7/15] NatGeo TV has arrived on Apple TV. Requires activation for full episodes. Time Warner Cable, HawaiianTelcom, DirecTV supported.
[4/7/15] CBS Sports and USA Now has appeared on Apple TV. But don't excited. Unlike the iPad app, no live sports. And USA Now requires authentication. I'll check if Time Warner Cable is supported.
CBS Sports has long been on the Roku for years. No live sports here either. Mostly I go on to to watch Fantasy Football Today. The Apple app has more content than the Roku app. Features clips from shows too (like Jim Rome for example).
USA Now is also available for iOS, Android, Windows 8, XBox One. But not the Roku. Checking USA Network on my computer, it shows I'm signed in to Time Warner Cable, so I guess they're supported.
Funny when I tried it out on the Apple TV, the play button said sign in, but it never asked for me to sign in. Apparently it knew I was already logged on. Then I went to settings and logged in and it automatically logged me in. But then I logged off and now it asked me to authenticate. Featured shows are Dig, Suits, Chrisley Knows Best, Sirens, Burn Notice. I thought they might be on Hulu. OK, let's go to Hulu. Dig asks to connect to a participating provider. But not many are supported. Time Warner Cable, Hawaiian Telcom, DirectTV are all not supported. Suits? same thing. Chrisley? same thing. Sirens, Same thing. Burn Notice. Same thing and only two episodes. Season 1 of Sirens is on Netflix. And all of Burn Notice is on Netflix. Psych is also on Netflix. So the other series might be coming to Netflix next year.
OK, let's activate the Apple TV. Yeah Time Warner Cable is supported. USA Now is kind of like Hulu Plus as it features the newer episodes and not the entire series (except for Christley Knows Best which has the entire series which started in 2014).
[4/28/15] NBC Sports Live Extra added to Apple TV. Full access requires cable subscription. Time Warner Cable supported (as well as Hawaiian Telcom and DirecTV). Also on Roku.
I also see WatchABC in the Apple TV background. Hey, how come it's working now? Ah, I see this was updated in December to allow access to last week's shows without having to sign in with a provider.
Let's see try the recent episodes which require a sign in. Nope, doesn't support Time Warner Cable, but does support Hawaiian Telcom [and DirecTV]. But I guess it doesn't matter that much because all (or practically all) the shows are also available on Hulu Plus, including the recent episodes.
Let me check CNN Go again. I see that you can play some clips, but subscription is required for full access to shows like Mike Rowe's Somebody Gotta Do it. Once again Time Warner cable not supported. And once again Hawaiian Telcom (and DirecTV) is supported.
[4/25/15] Noticed Fox Sports Go on the Fire TV. Supports Time Warner Cable. Don't see this on Roku or Apple TV.
[3/27/15] Another new channel on Apple TV: CNNgo. Live feed and archived shows requires a TV subscription. Time Warner Cable not supported. (Supported are AT&T U-verse, Cox, DirecTV, Dish, Optimum, suddenlink, Verizon FIOS; also Hawaiian Telcom). That's disappointing. And after I arranged my channels and everything...
[3/25/15] Three channels added to Apple TV: Ted Talks, Tastemade, Young Hollywood. Probably won't watch any of them. Well maybe Ted Talks, though it's also available on youtube. (Ted has had a Roku channel for a while. Tastemade too. But not Young Hollywood yet.)
Another one not likely to come to Apple TV: Sling TV. As it would compete with their upcoming service.
[3/15/15] Via Cordkillers 61, CNet has an article with a table listing what "channels" are available/not available for the Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Google Nexus Player (how come Google gets two choices?).
Not listed is CNBC. The Apple TV app allows you to stream live as well as have On Demand access to past shows (cable subscription required). The Roku has a CNBC app, but it just plays clips and allows you to enter a portfolio of your stocks with live updating. Not available on the other streamers as far as I know.
AppleTV's YouTube app is also much more responsive than the comparable youtube app on the Roku (very sluggish on the Roku 2 and Roku HD, I don't have a Roku 3 anymore). And it's now been updated to support captions.
Their On app has interesting internet shows, while the On app for Roku has some (20) movies instead.
Probably the most nobable app missing from AppleTV is Amazon Instant Video.
What's currently on my Roku that's not on my Apple TV? NBC News app (no live TV). Livestream app where you can watch local news live. TIME, CNET, Nat Geo TV, Portico, Nowhere TV (where you can watch Conan and access TWIT for example). Plus some lesser watched channels like SnagFilms, TubiTV, Shout Factory, Rewind, Classic TV, Crunchyroll (actually AppleTV has an app, but you can only watch a few sample episodes for free), KDrama, DramaFever. Not to mention Plex (watch network TV shows on your TV for free), Flixster (not available for AppleTV contrary to the CNet article, probably confused it with Flickr), Vudu, Facebook, Pandora. Plus CBS Sports, Sports Illustrated, The Hawaii Channel, Roku Recommends.
What's on my Apple TV that's not on my Roku? The Weather Channel, ABC News, Sky News, A&E, fyi, 120 Sports, ACC Sports, Tennis Channel, Red Bull TV, Fusion, dailymotion, Vimeo, Podcasts, Radio, Lifetime, iCloud Photos, Apple Events (which pops up whenever Apple makes a major public presentation). (Some of these are available on Roku, but I don't have them on since I rarely watch these.)
So what do they have in common (that I have on both my AppleTV and my Roku)? Netflix, Hulu Plus, Crackle, FX Now, Fox Now, HBO Go, On (see above), Yahoo! (I thought they used to have movies on the AppleTV app, but I guess they took it off), WSJ Live, CBS News, Bloomberg TV, CNBC (sort of, see above), PBS, Smithsonian, History, Watch ESPN, MLB.TV, NBA, NFL Now, The Scene, Youtube.
I guess the Roku is more fun to play with (and waste time with) checking out some of the obscure channels available. But the vast majority of what I normally watch (namely Netflix, Hulu Plus, ESPN) is available on both. The major difference is CNBC which is a different experience on both.
I like the system captions on the Apple TV the best. The Roku captions are OK too, but I didn't particularly care for the Roku 3 captions for Netflix and Hulu Plus (see my Roku 3 entry somewhere below -- The Fire TV captions are similar to the Roku 3 in that they used the app captions rather than the system captions).
And what of my Amazon Fire TV? I still have it, but I rarely use it. It's in a cabinet at my mom's place.
[3/16/15] And what about cable TV? There's still some stuff I would watch (or at least have playing in the background) that's not on the streaming boxes. Like The Today Show (though the clips are available on the NBC News app), Regis and Kelly (now Kelly and Michael), Family Feud, Wheel of Fortune, NBA on TNT (I guess I could subscribe to Sling TV), NBA TV (I guess I could subscribe to League Pass), NFL (some games were on the iPad Fox Sports app). And UH Sports. A good antenna would take care of the first four and most of the NFL games. [Oh yeah, Lakers and Clippers basketball. I can watch on my iPad, but participating provider required to access.]
[4/22/15] Noticed there's no FX TV app on the Amazon Fire TV.
[8/14/15] NBC News launches on Fire TV on 6/17/15
Let's make my own chart (see also cnet's chart updated 4/6/16) [my spreadsheet]
App Roku AppleTV FireTV
Netflix + + +
Hulu Plus + + +
Crackle yes yes yes
youtube yes yes yes
HBO Go + + +
Showtime + + +
Starz + 4 +
Amazon Video + ap +
iTunes no + no
Vudu yes no no
Sling TV + no +
Watch ABC * * *
NBC * * *
CBS All Access + + +
Fox Now * * *
FXNow * * *
The CW yes ? ?
USA Now * * no
PBS yes yes yes
History * * *
NatGeo * * no
HGTV * 4 *
ESPN * * *
Fox Sports Go * no *
NBC Sports Live * * *
NFL * * no
Aol On yes yes yes
Yahoo Screen yes yes yes
CBS News yes yes yes
NBC News yes no yes
ABC News yes yes no
Fox News yes no yes
CNN Go * * *
Bloomberg yes yes yes
CNBC * * no
Fibbage no no yes
+ subscription/pay service
* full access with participating provider
ap - with AirPlay
4 - on 4th generation only
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