this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
82 points (93.6% liked)
Television
4610 readers
69 users here now
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I rage-quit after 4 episodes of Foundation, so I don't remember how we were watching, but it was either on a PS3 or in Firefox on a Linux box. Those are the only two things I have ever had hooked to the TV. I haven't used the PlayStation for ages, so we were probably watching it through a browser.
https://support.apple.com/guide/tvplus/watch-in-a-web-browser-apdc0cb7ad64/web
You need an account, but not an Apple device.
You can't watch Foundation with any expectation of it matching the books. I said I wouldn't watch it but I broke down after I finished For All Mankind. The only thing that really bothered me is Gaal being so hysterical. Chill the fuck out girl.
I wasn't expecting it to. The visuals were stunning, and the actors were good, but the writing was atrocious, the plot devices annoying, and all of the characters were uniformly unlikeable - especially the main ones. Gaal wasn't the only one; maybe just the most extreme.
I forced myself to watch almost the entire first season, but rage quit when it got to the point when I spent entire episodes wanting to shout at the characters to stop bring so stupid.
It wasn't a bad adaptation, because the only thing it shared with the books were some names; I was expecting that. It was a bad show, with awful writers, and that I couldn't stand.
I sympathize with the wanting shout at characters.
What bugs me the most is that in Foundation, the plots often involved smart people being outsmarted by smarter people. In the show, people cause their own failures through their stupidity. There's no intellectualism in the show; it's action and people reacting, often poorly just as a lot device. I can't stand characters being stupid just to further a plot.
Grrrr. And it was so beautiful. So. Frustrating.
So now I need a computer hooked up to my TV and I have to navigate using a keyboard and mouse, very user friendly.
In my house Apple TV has a Samsung tv app, a Vizio app, and is installed on a Roku.
Also unless your chromecast is ancient, they also have a chromecast app
I have a Chromecast Ultra, bought in early 2020. At the time it was the newest (4K) Chromecast. It was replaced later that year with another device that would support apps.
It's since been replaced again, this new device costs ~$100 bucks. My device cost ~$70 bucks when I bought it (maybe less). Now I could upgrade to this brand new device but the ONLY new thing I would be able to do is watch Apple TV.
Sure there is a solution now, but Apple spent the last 4+ years ignoring me. Even if I upgrade my device I still have to use it the way they want me to (remote control) and not the way I want to (casting from my phone).
My point is that Apple has ignore Android users since the product launch. There are rumors that they're building an Android app, but it's not available yet. The article in question fails to acknowledge that Apple has ignored a large audience of users.
You may be overestimating how many people stream using a regular android device. My last employer was a streaming service and a fraction of a fraction of our user base was using our android app compared to the number of people installing an app on a tv directly or using any of the set top boxes that have apps. Even cable companies are providing app stores on their set top boxes now and they had more MAU than android at least for us
So, you're not complaining about having to have an Apple device, you're complaining about is that Apple doesn't have an Android app for whatever Android TV device you're using?
You can watch Apple TV on your Android phone, or your Android tablet, through a browser. You can watch it on your laptop or desktop through a browser. You could even watch it on your Android TV device... through a browser. You could cast it from your browser on your Android phone to your Android TV. Or, like a great many people do, you could - yes - hook a computer (laptop?) up to your TV and watch it that way. I bought a $10 mouse/keyboard remote for mine that works as well as any remote I've ever had. For a little more, you can get one that's more remote-like in form factor, although I prefer typing on the larger one.
Anyway, there are tons of ways to watch Apple TV on Android devices.
So apps aren't important anymore? Every other streaming platform I pay for has an app and I can easily use it to play all my content.
Also is Apple TV still limited to 1080p when using a browser? Looks like maybe if I use Mac and Safari I can get 4K, but otherwise I'm limited to 1080p.
Also, why am I jumping through all these hoops? How about I pay for something and I get good service?
You implied that, as an Android user, you couldn't watch Apple TV without an Apple device. If you really want you, there are several ways without buying Apple hardware. I think the PlayStation has an app.
I'm generally in favor of native apps, but in the case of streaming TV, I'd rather use a browser - it's one less application to install that provides questionable value over a web page, and gives me far more options for viewing content in a variety of situations. At one point we had Prime, Netflix, and Apple all at the same time, and I used a browser to watch all of them; there was almost no difference.
I don't know the answer to the resolution question; we've canceled all of our streaming accounts.
My perspective may be different. Aside from my Android phone, I don't use anything other than Linux. Having access to services through a browser, rather than having to install apps that companies rarely provide for Linux, is a vastly superior accessibility solution.