Apple TV vs. Roku SoundBridge
We’ve had the Apple TV for a couple of days now – the 160 GB version, which means that everything can be replicated to its hard-disk. So how do we feel it compares to the Roku SoundBridge, given that we bought both devices as music players and don’t need to synchronize the broadcasting of music to more than one room (in which case, other devices might offer a more appropriate, but more expensive solution)?
Both devices get their music from a dedicated Mac mini server in our office which runs both iTunes (for the Apple) and Firefly (for the Roku, which will now be moved to the cellar to continue its service there). The Roku has no local storage, so always streams from the server; the Apple TV can stream if the music isn’t already on its hard-drive, otherwise it plays from its own disk. In practice we never had any problems streaming to the Roku although the server is on another floor, separated by a reinforced concrete floor. Both can update their software from the internet at the touch of a button. Both are extremely simple to set up and should cause a non-techie no problems to get up and running, and both have active, helpful user groups in the internet if you do have any questions.
The Roku can only serve music, audio-books and podcasts, in various formats including WMA, FLAC and OggVorbis; the Apple TV can also serve music, audio-books and podcasts (but only those formats that Apple supports), but in addition TV-series or films (bought from iTunes), You-Tube videos, or your photo albums. The Roku can use iTunes libraries via Firefly, which means that it can (like the Apple) understand and serve up the smart playlists you have set up in iTunes – even if iTunes is not running on the server at the time.
The biggest difference is that the Apple has an iTunes-like display (on your wide-screen TV) of all the album artwork, so you can scroll through the artwork by album (or by artist or playlist) and pick the music you want to play. That is what sold the Apple TV to Ruth of course, although if you’ve seen her comment on the previous post about the Apple TV, you’ll see that she doesn’t think she’s agreed to move the CDs out of the lounge! Navigation on both devices is simple, but the Apple has the nose ahead here with the huge, easy to read display on the TV. It also has a nice screen saver, which cuts in after a couple of minutes with no input from the remote control, that can be configured to show your CD cover artwork or a selection of photos from your photo-album.
The one thing the Roku has, which we both really miss on the Apple TV, is the ability to build a temporary playlist on the fly using the remote control – the Apple TV can only offer you the existing playlists from your iTunes on the Mac. That is a major disadvantage, as we used the generation of a temporary playlist all the time on the Roku – the playlist is available until you stop playing it. I don’t see any reason why the feature couldn’t be added to the Apple device, so we are hoping it might come along in a future software update.