Apple TV and "hockey puck"

[fireman0174]

So, I'm contemplating signing up for Apple TV. I'm wondering about the need for what I called the "hockey puck", the black square device with a remote that has the Apple logo on it?

Do I need it to watch Apple TV? If not, what does it really do?

 

[ferrarr]

There are two different things...

Apple TV - the hardware, https://www.apple.com/tv/
Apple TV+ - the service, https://tv.apple.com.

Both are separate purchases, but Apple TV+ is also offering a free one year trial. You can stream to any of your Apple devices as long as they are using a supported OS.

 

[fireman0174]

There are two different things...

Apple TV - the hardware, https://www.apple.com/tv/
Apple TV+ - the service, https://tv.apple.com.

Both are separate purchases, but Apple TV+ is also offering a free one year trial. You can stream to any of your Apple devices as long as they are using a supported OS.

Thanks.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

The Apple TV+ service is available on a large number of devices other than Apple's own hardware. Here's their complete list of what devices it's available on (includes "Smart" TVs and other streaming boxes like Roku):

How to watch Apple TV+, MLS Season Pass, and more

 

[fireman0174]

The Apple TV+ service is available on a large number of devices other than Apple's own hardware. Here's their complete list of what devices it's available on (includes "Smart" TVs and other streaming boxes like Roku):

How to watch Apple TV+, MLS Season Pass, and more

So none of my home TVs fall under the "SMART" category. The same is true of my BluRay dvd players.

Would I be correct in that the only way I can see AppleTV on my "big screen" television sets is to purchase the "hockey puck"?

 

[fireman0174]

More info. I do have the Apple TV app on my Macs, etc, but it's television sets that I'm interested in having Apple TV app on.

 

[MacInWin]

Would I be correct in that the only way I can see AppleTV on my "big screen" television sets is to purchase the "hockey puck"?

Yes

 

[Lifeisabeach]

So none of my home TVs fall under the "SMART" category. The same is true of my BluRay dvd players.

Would I be correct in that the only way I can see AppleTV on my "big screen" television sets is to purchase the "hockey puck"?

You can get any of the devices that it's supported on. That article I linked to gives you all of your options. The Apple TV "hockey puck" isn't the only one of this type of device that the service is available on. Though personally, I prefer the ATV. I've twice tried Roku and didn't care for it. My biggest issue was that password entry was an unholy nuisance. On my ATVs, I can simply copy my very complex passwords from my password manager on my iPhone and paste it into the remote app for the ATV. You theoretically can do the same with the Roku app, but it has never worked for me properly. it's like when pasting it, the app scrambles it or something.

BTW, you don't have to use the remote that comes with the Apple TV. I thoroughly despise it and instead use a Harmony universal remote that controls every device in my home theater system.