Apple TV. What am I missing?
Discussion
We got the free annual membership to apple tv and tv plus with a new phone so signed up. But now it is about to go to 5.99 a month.
Trouble is, it looks like there is pretty much naff all on to watch!
Morning show was good, long way up ok, but production looked a bit rushed to me.
That film with Tom Hanks in the boat, had a weird ending, like they had to complete it with not enough in the can due to Covid!
And pretty much everything else half decent is chargeable.
Am I alone in thinking it is all a bit crap really ?
Trouble is, it looks like there is pretty much naff all on to watch!
Morning show was good, long way up ok, but production looked a bit rushed to me.
That film with Tom Hanks in the boat, had a weird ending, like they had to complete it with not enough in the can due to Covid!
And pretty much everything else half decent is chargeable.
Am I alone in thinking it is all a bit crap really ?
We got it free via a new iPhone. I thought the boat film was good (Greyhound is the actual name), don’t want to give away any spoilers but the ending made sense to me.
We’ve also enjoyed the Long Way Up if you like (electric in this case) bikes and travel, South America was just stunningly beautiful. The other Long Ways are on there too.
But other than that I’ve not seen much else I want to watch, need to have a look around to see what else is there.
We’ve also enjoyed the Long Way Up if you like (electric in this case) bikes and travel, South America was just stunningly beautiful. The other Long Ways are on there too.
But other than that I’ve not seen much else I want to watch, need to have a look around to see what else is there.
Long way up and Ted lasso were good, Greyhound I thought was a disappointment. I tried some of the other shows but watched a couple of episodes and gave up. Something that stood out was the picture quality from a streaming service, which is excellent.
I keep getting my free subscription extended, but once that stops i'll cancel it.
Just renewed my Disney plus subscription as they're are about to massively expand the content.
I keep getting my free subscription extended, but once that stops i'll cancel it.
Just renewed my Disney plus subscription as they're are about to massively expand the content.
LordHaveMurci said:
Turns out neither my 2nd Gen Fire TV or my Panny TV support it & it doesn’t look like you can cast it to a TV so I guess I won’t get any use out of it at all 
No content and not compatible with most kit => extra pointless.I think they piled into it without a real plan (or clue) apart from splashing money on a handful of original content that you can be sure is all Netflix rejects.
It's the most useless streaming service ever, free or not. I regret wasting the effort on signing up.
pquinn said:
LordHaveMurci said:
Turns out neither my 2nd Gen Fire TV or my Panny TV support it & it doesn’t look like you can cast it to a TV so I guess I won’t get any use out of it at all
No content and not compatible with most kit => extra pointless.I think they piled into it without a real plan (or clue) apart from splashing money on a handful of original content that you can be sure is all Netflix rejects.
It's the most useless streaming service ever, free or not. I regret wasting the effort on signing up.
It will be interesting to see how these all develop in future.
El stovey said:
The Apple fitness services looks similar and again all bundled together with the Apple one.
It will be interesting to see how these all develop in future.
Apple don't seems to have done that well historically with 'content' (other than music). Their social media attempts were rubbish (i think their platform was called 'ping').It will be interesting to see how these all develop in future.
I'm the same, 'The Morning Show' didn't grab me. I watched about as much of the Beastie Boys docu as the wife could bare (I enjoyed it at least).
For me it suffers from a similar problem as prime "Here's a million things to watch, but very few are actually included in your subscription, why don't you spend some time trying work out which is which for a laugh" but unlike Prime there's not actually very much on Apple+ at all. Add in Apple's usual hardware restrictions and it's a platform too far for me, when I've already got, Netflix, Prime, Disney Plus and NowTV.
For me it suffers from a similar problem as prime "Here's a million things to watch, but very few are actually included in your subscription, why don't you spend some time trying work out which is which for a laugh" but unlike Prime there's not actually very much on Apple+ at all. Add in Apple's usual hardware restrictions and it's a platform too far for me, when I've already got, Netflix, Prime, Disney Plus and NowTV.
Some of the shows are good (Ted Lasso, Tehran and a couple of others).
I can't vouch for some others as not my sort of thing.
They say it's about quality rather than quantity (although, other than production values, I'm not convinced all the shows are of high quality story-wise - that's what's more important). That in itself is fine, however it means you can just subscribe for a couple of months a year, watch all you want to then and then cancel - not the best sustainable model.
There's also as much quality on Netflix, Prime, NowTV. Of course there may be dross (but not all dross is dross to all people) but as there's so much on there, you can always find something entertaining to justify paying every month.
If they don't make more content, they really need to buy it in (and they can still decide to just bring in stuff of "high" quality).
After all, you don't spend more time watching a quality 10 hour show than an average 10 hour show. It's not like music where you re-listen many many times.
I can't vouch for some others as not my sort of thing.
They say it's about quality rather than quantity (although, other than production values, I'm not convinced all the shows are of high quality story-wise - that's what's more important). That in itself is fine, however it means you can just subscribe for a couple of months a year, watch all you want to then and then cancel - not the best sustainable model.
There's also as much quality on Netflix, Prime, NowTV. Of course there may be dross (but not all dross is dross to all people) but as there's so much on there, you can always find something entertaining to justify paying every month.
If they don't make more content, they really need to buy it in (and they can still decide to just bring in stuff of "high" quality).
After all, you don't spend more time watching a quality 10 hour show than an average 10 hour show. It's not like music where you re-listen many many times.
The good stuff on it is very good - I would say that on a like-for-like basis their original content is better than Netflix and Amazon.
The trouble is that there's not much of it and I dislike that when you find something that takes your fancy, you find you have to subscribe to yet another sub-channel. Amazon are doing this more and more now as well.
I have some fingers in the broadcast pie and I'm told that a lot of new stuff was stymied as a result of Covid but that there's likely to be a flurry of new shows coming in over the next year (Ted Lasso has been commissioned for a second season and optioned for a third).
Like others though, it's frustrating that I'm confined to watching on my Mac and unable to get it on the big telly, despite that and all the usual plug-ins attached to it being up to date.
The trouble is that there's not much of it and I dislike that when you find something that takes your fancy, you find you have to subscribe to yet another sub-channel. Amazon are doing this more and more now as well.
I have some fingers in the broadcast pie and I'm told that a lot of new stuff was stymied as a result of Covid but that there's likely to be a flurry of new shows coming in over the next year (Ted Lasso has been commissioned for a second season and optioned for a third).
Like others though, it's frustrating that I'm confined to watching on my Mac and unable to get it on the big telly, despite that and all the usual plug-ins attached to it being up to date.
poo at Paul's said:
That film with Tom Hanks in the boat, had a weird ending, like they had to complete it with not enough in the can due to Covid!
We had to turn on subtitles as couldn't decipher the muffled grunts the characters were making. Not found anything worth watching on it yet!
pquinn said:
LordHaveMurci said:
Turns out neither my 2nd Gen Fire TV or my Panny TV support it & it doesn’t look like you can cast it to a TV so I guess I won’t get any use out of it at all
No content and not compatible with most kit => extra pointless.I think they piled into it without a real plan (or clue) apart from splashing money on a handful of original content that you can be sure is all Netflix rejects.
It's the most useless streaming service ever, free or not. I regret wasting the effort on signing up.
Echo that For All Mankind is worth a watch, with S2 about to start.
I've binned the renewal after getting 12 months free with Apple TV 4K (that I bought to mainly stream other platforms). Apple cancelled the account immediately rather than letting it run to the end of the period like most other subscriptions do. I thought that was pretty poor.
I did enjoy The Banker on there and The Morning Show was ok, but otherwise not worth the money at all. That was first and last entry into the Apple ecosystem. I'm looking to sell the Apple TV shortly and won't be back.
I did enjoy The Banker on there and The Morning Show was ok, but otherwise not worth the money at all. That was first and last entry into the Apple ecosystem. I'm looking to sell the Apple TV shortly and won't be back.
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