Hi and hope all are well today. First, thanks in advance for any / all responses. Second, apologies if this isn’t the best place to ask this question.

I’m curious if anyone, has moved completely from using an AppleTV to something else. Current use case for the ATV is a few streaming apps (Crunchyroll / HiDive, Tubi, etc.) and Apple Arcade (a few casual games).

If you did completely switch, what did you decide on using? Did you go back to buying movies / using a DVD/Blu-Ray player, setup a mini PC and stream from websites / rip music and movies, use a gaming console instead, etc.?

Exploring options and entertaining thoughts for right now. Again, thanks and have a good day / evening.

Edit - 2024/01/01 - Just wanted to thank everyone for the lively discussion and resources (links, recommendations, etc.) related to my question.

  • emils@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    I’m curious why you would trust Apple and not the others you have listed. All of them will do literally anything to just earn more money and exploit you as much as possible.

      • Handles@leminal.space
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        9 months ago

        I mean, neither of you is wrong. On user privacy, Apple is probably the least worst of the big providers. At the same time their business model is to lock in users to their platform and hardware. “Once you’ve gone Mac you’re not going back” is the result of a deliberate design choice on Apple’s part.

        Sounds to me like OP is aiming to bypass the entire corporate cloud service mess by going self-sufficient via FLOSS?

      • utubas@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        Apple, the company that has by far the worst anti-consumer practices when it comes to technology and is actively lobbying against you being able to own your products?

          • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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            9 months ago

            Because Apple doesn’t rely on selling or advertising your data as a business segment.

            I find this very hard to believe.

          • the_q@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            A trillion dollars is hard to make without selling data, but fair enough.

            • WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              9 months ago

              It isn’t that hard when you convince a globe that your luxury phone is the only status symbol that matters.

              Apple isn’t perfect, but the premium you pay on their devices does mean that they wrap the data mining bat in some padding first before they beat you over the head with it. Microsoft and Google just keep adding more nails.

                • WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  9 months ago

                  Well, I worked for them for quite a while and never saw or heard anything that suggested a large scale data collection program existed beyond the usual analytics that people can opt out of. I’m on a plane, so I don’t have the time to do a deep dig at the moment, but for a quick anecdotal test, I’d say you could just open the menus of a Microsoft computer, Google computer, and Apple computer, and tell me who seems to be shoving more targeted ads down your throat.

                  Sure, if you use their Apple TV streaming service or other equivalent media thing, I’m sure they collect data, sell, and use it, but that is a far cry from some of the really invasive moves we’ve seen from companies that produce ad supported hardware/software.

                  The contents of my computer should be mine because I straight up own it. If I’m connecting to a subscription service that I don’t own, then I have a slightly lower expectation of total privacy.

              • the_q@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                Go to Google and search for “is Apple selling data”. Have fun reading about how, yes they have been caught doing it in the past and are still being suspected of it. You’re naive if you think just because it isn’t public knowledge yet that one of the cruelest companies on the planet isn’t in to some other nefarious crap.

                  • the_q@lemmy.world
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                    9 months ago

                    I’m not the one going to bat for a trillion dollar company simply because they said “trust me, bro”.

                    Even if you it opt out on Apple devices they continue to gather data. Why do you think they do that? Fun? They just collect it like Pokemon?

                    There only “feeling” I have is pity for naive users such as yourself. As long as Tim Cook keeps telling you it’s safe you can rest easy knowing you’re 100% not being lied to.

    • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Apple is a hardware company first, not an advertising and services company like Google and Roku, and not a literal massive online retailer like Amazon.

      Apple TV is the only one that doesn’t have ads on its home screen. I use an Apple TV to play all my physical media that has been ripped to mov and re-encoded with handbrake