[afavour]

> touch remote is a travesty

> you have to click Home again to get to your main apps

Both of these are changeable via settings (if you’re talking about the current generation remote, if the old one an Apple TV can be trained to use any other remote). I have a bunch of Roku devices and an Apple TV and typically prefer the Apple TV: the apps are of higher quality, Airplay is a great added feature and most importantly: no ads. Roku used to have barely any but they’re adding more and more and it’s getting obnoxious.

[Larrikin]

Roku has had airplay for a while now.

Also there's no software configuration to change that terrible touch remote into something usable. Rewinding to catch a missed line is always "I hope it works" moment.

[afavour]

I won’t defend that remote but the good news is that Apple TV doesn’t ship with it any more. It’s back to a much more normal one.

[tssva]

My experience with Apple TV was that Apple advertised their own apps regularly. Also most Roku devices released in the last couple of years including Roku TVs support Airplay.

[afavour]

Where did you see these ads? I see no ads at all on my Apple TV so I’m curious.

[fishtacos]

My experience reflects OP's as well. It's not "ads", but things like searching using the SEARCH button inside a non-Apple app returns results from the Apple store.

If one uses it in a search box inside the app, it works in the local context. Imagine having to teach one's elderly parents what the difference is when the remote only has something like 5 buttons and one of them doesn't work how it's supposed to in a consistent manner. Local context vs. global context in searches is an absurd concept in the purview of the average consumer. Hell - I can't understand it half the time because it's so counterintuitive.

That's shady behavior and prioritizes Apple's own services over EVERY competitor.

Besides its terrible remote (the gen I have, at least), the usability constraints are insulting.

Roku has other severe limitations, but they don't outright manipulate their UI and their user experience in such an underhanded manner.

[CharlesW]

I'm confused by this too, and prefer Apple TV because it doesn't display ads. In my experience Roku does continue to display "special" ads, even if you turn off all user-controllable options.

I think parent commenters are referring to how the Apple TV app — which is great, but can be avoided by using the Home screen — aggregates all available content, and has a dedicated Apple TV+ tab. In other words, the Apple TV app is also the Apple TV+ app.