Forum Discussion

DumbBunny's avatar
DumbBunny
Reel Rookie
2 years ago

Device compatibility + set-up?

Greetings, Team Roku ---

[I cannot find the message I sent earlier today, so I will re-try. Maybe lost in the ether. Sorry if I am duplicating.]

I have a "dumb" TV, a Spectrum account, and an AppleTV+ box. Do to my dumb-bunnyness, I do not know why, but Spectrum said that I needed the ATV+ box to get the system to work, so I got one.

I would like to access PBS, MSNBC, and BBC America, none of which I can on Spectrum, but ARE accessible through Roku (I think).

New-to-Roku questions -

1) Is the AppleTV+ device compatible with a Roku device?
2) If so, how are they set up - serially or side by side?
3) In this sceanarion, what Roku device would be a good fit?
4) Will I need separate remote controls for the 2 devices?
5) I see how much Roku devices cost, but not how much the monthly charges are. Can you point me to that information?

I hope you all had a very merry National Fossil Day yesterday. ^_^

Thank you for your time. I appreciate it.
DumbBunny

TV & Player Setup

1 Reply

  • Strega2's avatar
    Strega2
    Roku Guru
    2 years ago

    Apple TV and Roku are just two separate devices connected to a TV.  They don’t need to know or care about each other.  Just like any other media devices attached to a TV (Blu-rays, DVDs, cable boxes, etc.) you just plug them into TV HDMI ports and switch the TV to the input you want to use at any given time.  I normally prefer to use the remote for each device but some people prefer various universal remotes.  As long as you avoid Roku “stick” models, then you can use universal (IR) remotes to control them. I don’t know whether Apple devices use IR remotes or something else.  (If “something else” then it will be harder to use universal/third-party remotes.)

    There is no inherent monthly charge for using a Roku device.  However, out of the thousands of channel/apps available on Roku, some have fees and some want you to authenticate with a TV provider (such as cable) – however authentication only works for channels that they are already providing – not for adding channels.  Some of the channels you specified will want you to authenticate through your TV provider (which it sounds like you can’t) or set up some TV provider on your Roku.  For example, this site, suggests that “Sling Blue +PBS” would be a package that includes those three (plus 42 additional channels).  I’ll point out though that Sling is also available on your Apple TV device.