There are various methods on how you can watch online content on
your TV. You may have a Blu-ray player or game system connected that have
streaming capabilities, or your TV itself may have apps with built-in streaming
services. If none of those are applicable to you, or if your device does not
offer the media streaming features that you really want, you can get a
dedicated media streaming hub.
Among the media streamers currently available, here are some
platforms that stand out: Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, and Google
Cast. These platforms, except for the Google Cast, have on-screen menu systems
and dedicated remotes so you can view whatever you want from the couch, without
a mobile device to control everything. Google Cast is different since it
depends on a smartphone, tablet, or PC with Cast-compatible apps to stream
content. Regardless of which device you choose, they each give you access to
many of the most popular music and video streaming services available.
Android
TV is Google's dedicated Android-based media streamer menu system, different
from the heavily modified version of Android used in Amazon's Fire TV products.
Simply put, Android TV is designed to bring the sorts of things you enjoy on
your phone to your TV. It offers voice controls -- a staple of Google
properties these days -- as well as giving you controls across other devices,
like your Android phone and Android Wear watch. The card-based interface
behaves in a familiar way, making it easier to do the things you want to do
without a convoluted menu system.
Android TV was the first
platform to offer Netflix 4K content outside of a TV with the Netflix 4K app
built-in, and it remains a powerful system.
Amazon's Fire TV
platform is developed around FireOS, a modified version of Android designed
with Amazon's content in mind. Fire TV devices are focused heavily on Amazon
Prime content, with Amazon Instant Video and Amazon Prime Music built
prominently into the menu system. There are plenty of other content services
available through Fire TV such as Hulu Plus, Netflix, and YouTube, but the big
advantage of Fire TV is having all of your Prime content right at your
fingertips.
Alexa, Amazon's version
of Siri, is a useful tool to use with the voice remote included with the
current Fire TV and Fire TV Stick.
The Apple TV serves a
variety of purposes now, thanks to its tvOS operating system, which has its own
App Store. The fourth-gen Apple TV includes a brand new Siri Remote. Included
is a dedicated Siri button that, when paired with universal search on the Apple
TV, allows users to easily look up content from a variety of sources with a
single search. Using AirPlay with your iOS device or Mac, you can stream
videos, photos, and music directly from your iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch or
Mac to your HDT, as well as mirroring their screens.
Under some circumstances,
Mac can use a TV equipped with an Apple TV as a second display.
Apple hiked up its
prices to $149 for 32GB of storage and $199 for 64GB for the fourth-gen. That’s
$50 more than the previous model, but with the Siri Remote, tvOS, App Store,
and much more, it’s easily one of the best streaming solutions on the market.
The team at Google
managed to find a way to improve it with the second-gen release. The most
obvious change is aesthetic. The previous Chromecast was a slightly chunky HDMI
stick, that's plugged into one of your TV's spare HDMI ports and was never seen
again (unless you decided to take it with you travelling).
The new Google Cast is a
shiny disc of wireless wonder, that comes complete with a longer (but not too
long!) HDMI cable. This allows the streaming dongle to be plugged in to tight
HDMI ports a lot easier. There are no remotes, no on-screen interfaces, and no
app stores to separately navigate. You just connect your Google Cast to your
home network and stream whatever you're watching on your smartphone or tablet.
It's easy to use and
economical, too since both the Google Cast and audio-only Chromecast Audio are
the least expensive media streamers there is at $35 each, and the Chromecast
Ultra is the least expensive 4K media streamer at $69.
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