Manhattan Aero Review

Design

• Small
• Remote needs line of sight

Compact is the word to describe the Manhattan Aero. Like Sky Stream, the Aero feels more like a ‘puck’, a device you can place beside your TV and forget about.

Given its Internet-first proclivities, there’s an Ethernet (LAN) port to shore up a hardwired connection to a router, plus USB-C (to plug in another media device), HDMI (to connect to a TV) and power. Of course, if you still want to use an aerial you can still plug that into your TV, but then why would you want the Aero in the first place?

Why? Well, you’re a household (or accommodation) where connecting to an aerial is not easy or possible, especially if you’re not connecting to a TV in your main room. This is where the convenience of Wi-Fi makes sense.

A 1.2m HDMI cable is included, as is a voice remote control (with batteries!). The remote is not something I particularly love. The buttons feel stiff, and there is lag (or just full-on unresponsive) when pressing the buttons or navigating the interface.

The remote also has to be in line of sight to the streamer, so the Aero can’t be obscured behind the TV.

You can use the remote that came with your TV, but you’d be missing out on some of the features the remote offers.

User Experience

• TiVo OS
• Voice Search
• Freely EPG

There’s a slight Jekyll and Hyde aspect about Freely devices with the user experience. That’s not to say that there’s a good part and a bad part, but that with Freely – more so than I felt was the case with Freeview Play, which felt more like a portal – that there are two interfaces that make up Freely devices.

Here, we’ve got the Freely side, where you’ll find the UK catch-up and on-demand apps such as iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, STV and others. Freely has to be downloaded before you can access it and scan for the channels too, which doesn’t take too long.

Then there’s the TiVo OS side, and this too has access to the UK catch-up apps but is also where the ‘glocal’ apps reside such as Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and more recently, HBO Max – though it’s still missing a few in the form of Apple TV and Paramount+. At least it’s not the Humax AuraEZ, which only supports UK apps.

However, I do feel you’re navigating between the two interfaces rather than it being one joined-up whole, not helped by TiVo having its own ‘Watchlist’ while Freely has its ‘My List’. The two are separate and while that’s not a surprise, it also seems inefficient.

There’s also, at least to my knowledge, no account sign-up for Freely. You can log into iPlayer, Channel 5 and others, obviously; and within those apps each has its own ‘Watchlist’ too, which makes keeping track of what you’re watching more of an assignment than enjoyment.

More than that, if you were to ever get a second (or third) Freely device for your home, there’s no means of sharing info across all devices. They’re all siloed from one another, unlike Sky Stream.

Freely’s service has an EPG, and clicking on it does plunge you straight into what is playing. There’s plenty of programming to dive into, and you can restart programmes too, though this will take you into the app itself.

For now, I’ll focus on TiVo’s interface. There’s a carousel at the top for select/promoted titles. There’s access to lots of free content which includes what’s available on UK apps and Ustream with a big emphasis on bang for your buck. Programmes usually start straight away, usually after an ad plays.

You can select which apps you want to add or remove from the homescreen, offering some room for manual personalisation.

Dig deeper and there aren’t too many rails or rows to go through, which is a good thing as too much (see Fire TV) can lead to too much choice. Choose a title, and there’s also a “May also like” that flings more titles in your direction. TiVo performs a steady job in giving you things to watch without being overwhelming.

The ‘Others Are Watching’ section is a neat idea, taking what others are (or have watched) and feeding it to you, adding the watercooler conversation that’s sorely missed around TV these days.

There are, or at least have been, a few quirks with TiVo OS. The Movies Available to Rent section had Gary in it – the special episode from The Bear, which is not a ‘movie’. The same can be said about Scrubs and The Testaments, which aren’t movies and aren’t available to rent.

There’s also a focus on Rakuten TV over most other subscription apps despite titles being available elsewhere. I thought it might be a blanket choice, and that logging into Disney+ might change things, but Disney+ titles would still appear as being available in Rakuten TV rather than on Disney. The Spider-Man series is available on iPlayer, but you wouldn’t know that from looking at the Watch Now rail.

The Substance is mentioned to be available in both Prime Video and Rakuten TV but not in MUBI – which it is also on – and the same applies for Die My Love. I’ve seen another title – Homicide: Hours to Kill – as part of a True Crime themed section, clicked on it only to find the title is “currently unavailable”. As I mentioned, there are a few quirks.

Search through voice is a way to find more titles, and you can refine its focus by asking more questions though I’ve not found it to work very effectively. Sometimes it’s just better to start a new search instead.

Voice search is also a little hit and miss. I’d concede that I’m perhaps not the clearest speaker but sometimes the voice control simply doesn’t understand what I’m saying. I search for Tom Hanks movies, and then ask for romantic comedies (or rom coms), and TiVo understands neither.

Action films with Tom Cruise it understands, but then it also brings up Thelma and Louise as one of the search results. In a few cases I have to speak slower for TiVo to understand.

The interface itself can be a little sluggish from time to time, and it’s not also the quickest to load. The Aero has been updated consistently, but the lag is always most noticeable upon power up, which is not the best first impression.

I do like the visual aspect of TiVo and seeing the original posters for content, a change from the weird, random and not especially recognisable posters you see on the likes of Netflix.

Features

• 4K HDR support
• Dolby Atmos pass-through
• HDMI CEC

I’ve mentioned some of the features already in Voice Search. HDR support equates to HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG. There’s no Dolby Vision, and given how popular it is in streaming services, that’s likely to have ramifications for the picture performance.

Most of the apps seem to support 4K HDR10, although for some reason Netflix appeared in HD HDR which I couldn’t figure out how to fix (it’s definitely not my subscription). HDR10+ on streaming apps is not as widespread, unless you have a Samsung TV (which don’t support Dolby Vision).

But let’s not say that HDR10+ can perform in the same way as Dolby Vision because that’s not technically true. HDR10+ gives more leeway to the capability of the TV display; Dolby Vision tells it what to do. And I’ve always found Dolby Vision more capable than HDR10+.

There’s Dolby Audio support, and the Aero can pass-through immersive Dolby Atmos content to another device (soundbar, AV receiver) that can handle the data. You can also plug in Bluetooth headphones, and an update expected later in 2026 will enable the Aero to connect to Bluetooth gamepads too.

HDMI CEC is supported, though it can be a bit of a bugbear. If you use the Aero as your main device, then turning it off will turn off your TV as well. For me that’s a slight annoyance, as I might want to play a game or stream from an app the Aero doesn’t support, and it turning off the TV off is not entirely helpful. You can turn HDMI CEC off in the settings if that’s an issue.

Performance

• Dimmer HDR performance
• Not the most detailed sound

When it comes to reviewing the performance of the Aero, I compared the apps on the streaming device against that of the TV. I’ve got a mid-range Sony A80L OLED, so it’s a fairly capable model and I’d prefer to stream through the apps on the A80L than the Aero (all the screenshots are HD SDR, and not representative of the player’s HDR performance).

The lack of Dolby Vision has an impact on HDR10 streams on the Aero, often dimmer and not as punchy in terms of colour. Watching series two of Daredevil: Born Again, there’s less precision with the highlights, less contrast and a softer image. Dark detail is not the best either – watching Spider-Noir in black and white there’s quite a bit of detail missing in the darker parts of scenes.

But Freely and Manhattan may cry that’s not fair, what about HDR10+? But not every TV supports HDR10+ – Philips, Panasonic, Hisense, and TCL and Samsung do, but not LG, Sony.

The lack of brightness is also visible in an HLG stream of The Capture on iPlayer – to the point where in a pivotal scene in the first episode of season three, I can barely see people’s faces, it’s so dim – whereas the performance on Sony is bright, with punchy blues and excellent contrast. It’s like someone has dimmed the lights. What’s strange is that the performance shouldn’t really be all that different with HLG.

An HD stream of Oppenheimer on iPlayer looks good, bright with rich-ish colours, but it’s not the sharpest or most colourful performance compared to the iPlayer app on the Sony.

The sound is also slightly underwhelming. With Oppenheimer, there’s more punch, detail and clarity when the atom bomb goes off on the Sony – voices are also louder and clearer too.

With Spider-Noir on Prime Video, while the sound on both the Sony TV app and Aero is clear and spacious; there’s more detail and clarity played through a Sonos Arc Ultra on the Sony.

Factor in the slightly stuttering nature of the Aero, with video and audio stuttering despite being placed next to the router, pressing the back button during a video but audio is still audible, and resumption of streams not always the quickest with the Manhattan – some areas could be further addressed for the Aero.

Should you buy it?