What can I use Apple TV for in an Android household

Question

I recently got an Apple TV (the new siri version) at a stupidly cheap price (Supermarket mislabeled it as the last version) it seemed rude not to buy it! But now I'm not sure what to do with it.

Unfortunately most / all of the information online talks about how well they integrate with the Apple ecosystem.

So my question is what can I use an Apple TV for if I'm an Android household.

P.S. I was going to put some of my use case here, to stop it being too broad a question, but I also suspect that might limit the answers a little (and stop it being as useful for other's doing the same google search I did!)

Answer 1

If you have a cable TV subscription, you can watch quite a lot of TV content through the different networks' apps. If you own a lot of your own content, sitting on your network, install Plex Media Server on your PC/Linux/whatever, and the Plex app on the ATV.

I'd mention that you can play games on the ATV too, but I haven't found any worth the time yet...

Answer 2

iTunes Content

If you'd bought the Apple TV 3, you could buy iTunes content from your Apple TV. Not yet on the Apple TV 4.

If you have Windows desktops to go with your Android mobile phones (we're an all Mac household with Androids and Blackberrys for phones, no iPhones), you can use iTunes with your Apple TV to buy content and then access it from your Apple TV.

Alternative Film World

Vimeo.com also has a lovely app full of great free creative shorts and music videos. There's also an online store of indie films. Highly recommended to get out of the mainstream. 90% of the revenue goes to creators.

Mubi.com is a great subscription service where you are offered a new film every day, either a great classic or foreign or cult or festival style. You have thirty days to watch each film. Depending on your tastes, you'll only find three to seven films you'd like to see in a month but that's pretty good for $5/month. Here's the activation page for Apple TV.

Answer 3

The YouTube app works well, and as you can sign in with your Google account you can synchronise your history (and playlists, etc) which is a quick-enough substitute for AirPlay/Chromecast for that media source.