Sling TV Accidentally Reveals Its Set-Top Box For Cord Cutters (engadget.com) 86
The Sling TV team has inadvertently spilled the beans on its previously leaked media hub for cord cutters. Zatz Not Funny discovered a briefly available landing website for the AirTV Player, and it's clearer than ever that Sling (read: Dish) is catering to those determined to leave cable and satellite behind. From a report on Engadget: The set-top box will revolve around a home screen that merges over-the-air TV tuning with not only Sling TV, but Netflix -- you won't have to jump between apps or devices to watch both your local news and the latest season of Black Mirror. And since this is an Android device (notice the "G" button on the remote), there's a good chance that other online services will be available as well. It's not certain how much the AirTV Player will cost or when you can get it in your hands. However, a launch at CES in January seems likely given that Dish tends to have a major presence at the trade show. It could be a big deal if there aren't any rude surprises in the pricing or execution, though. Until now, you've typically needed a separate over-the-air TV tuner device (like Nuvyyo's Tablo DVR) if you wanted local live programming wrapped in a slick interface.
OTA programming + a la carte "premium" content (Score:3)
Other than an easier way to snag OTA content, I'm not sure what this box offers. Most new TV's, home theater receivers, and blu-ray devices already offer a plethora of streaming options built right in (or you can just pick up a Roku or similar device). It would have to be an extremely compelling "experience" at an even more compelling price point to get any traction.
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It would have to be an extremely compelling "experience" at an even more compelling price point to get any traction.
I'll tell you what would get me to spend my money on yet another streaming device: if it would a) work properly and b) integrate my queues into the launcher so I don't have to launch the app manually (and wade through the bullshit) to watch a show.
Re:OTA programming + a la carte "premium" content (Score:4, Informative)
With Tivo it can search, and play across a number of OTA saved and streaming content all from one box.
You can add Tivo minis in other rooms around the house that connect with the main unit (I have the Tivo Roamio OTA [tivo.com]) for your other rooms in the house.
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Do they have something for people who don't want any kind of tuner? I can't get any TV in my area anyway. All I want is the streaming, the interface, and actually working worth a damn unlike the Fire TV stick.
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If you're only wanting to stream, get the Roku 4 or the FireTV unit (not the stick, too slow).
You can search and stream over those the easiest....
You can side load Kodi on those too (at least with the FireTV you can, I think roku too)....and with apps on that, you can stream in some regular TV chann
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I guess I will try Roku next. I have Kodi on my Fire TV stick, which is actually what it's best at. If I get a Roku and like it, I'll probably make the stick just boot into Kodi. The Amazon launcher is ugh anyway.
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Fire TV (Amazon) started doing something close to that. I was looking for a movie (Floyd Norman: An Animated Life) and thought it might be available on prime. I used the Fire TV Search function. Nope. Not on prime -- but it had "Other Viewing Options" with NETFLIX there. I selected it and POOF. Netflix launched and automagically started playing the movie.
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LOL!
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Comcast X1 has Netflix. Everyone else scrambling to catch up.
What will really distinguish the X1 over the Sling box will be the absence of recurring monthly charges and the presence of world class Comcast service.
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Yeah, my Roku devices have done this kind of integration for years via cross service search.
Streaming boxes are a dime a dozen these days. This thing will really have to differentiate itself somehow, otherwise it's just another one of those.
I have looked into paying for Sling in the past, but it just seems too expensive. It would be fine if that were the only service to pay for, but as an add-on to a streaming portfolio it basically doubles the bill and gets you back into cable TV range.
With most "smart" TV
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I think you are right... in as much as ebooks costing as much as paper backs are "appropriately priced"
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"I think you are right... in as much as ebooks costing as much as paper backs are "appropriately priced""
I've never understood that. If I buy an ebook I really cant do anything with it other than READ it. With a RealPaperBook(tm), I can re-sell it. I can donate it. I can prop up a wobbly table with it.
With an ebook, maybe you are paying for not taking up gobs of your living space and maybe that has some extra value -- but not a value of parity of price.
Re:OTA programming + a la carte "premium" content (Score:5, Interesting)
and they all offer it in really shitty interfaces on underpowered hardware. The Apple TV4 and the Nvidia Shield utterly destroy any smartTV made in the quality of the apps and the UI. Plus I get updates, unlike the craptastic netflix app in my panasonic smart TV that has not been updated in 2 years and they are using a processor from 1989 to run it.
Low bar (Score:2)
It would have to be an extremely compelling "experience" at an even more compelling price point to get any traction.
Compared to the "experience" offered on most TVs, home theater receivers and blu ray devices that is a pretty low bar to clear. I have a smart TV, Apple TV, Roku, and blu-ray and all of their streaming experiences are pretty much terrible.
I'm also still waiting for someone to have a well designed stateful [techtarget.com] universal remote that actually knows what state the device it is controlling is. Virtually all remotes currently are one way remotes that have to guess at what the device they are controlling is doing.
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Devices have no way of transmitting their state back to the remote so how are they supposed to do it?
If the device has dedicated power on, power off, and separate input signals the remote will already send the correct signals to put the device in the correct state with one press of the help button. If that doesn't work it will walk you through steps to get it straighten out.
You can always hit the devices button, select the component to control. And then send the command from there if you don't want to use
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You are aware you don't need to configure activities and can just use the Harmony remote as a standard universal remote. You can think and manually power on your devices and change inputs to your heart's content.
The rest of us will enjoy having convenience and just have things work with a button press. In an old setup, I had an audio receiver but I didn't want to use it for basic stuff on TV like the news. I was able to program a macro that with a single button press would turn on the AVR, then enter the
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I am aware, I also remember having a book of codes I had to go through trying to get my devices to react to those remotes.
Sure those remotes worked, but so did horses pulling buggies. Sure there are some people who are Luddites, but most of us moved on to the superior option.
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It just sounds like the previous poster needs to fix his harmony configuration. Ive been using a harmony for ~10 years with no issues, once you get it programmed properly. In a complicated setup its a godsend as well. Being able to hit one button to drop an electric screen, turn on projector, turn on reciever, turn on stb/media player, and set it all to the right inputs is great. Plus being able to hit one button to swap between media player and stb and being able to power it all off with one push, plus hav
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The lack of a compelling price point is why people like me are leaving cable and satellite services. When you are served up 50 channels of shit with three decent channels, and they (meaning the content providers and the satellite purveyors) still want to charge a ridiculous amount plus add-ons for HD, box rental, etc., one can't help but believe that any new service provided by the old guard will be exactly the same, just packaged in a new box.
Now that I have cut the cord, and have found I don't miss my sat
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Sing refuses to support their own app on desktop, which was pretty shitty to begin with.
Do not trust them to make any promises.
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Other than an easier way to snag OTA content, I'm not sure what this box offers. Most new TV's, home theater receivers, and blu-ray devices already offer a plethora of streaming options built right in (or you can just pick up a Roku or similar device). It would have to be an extremely compelling "experience" at an even more compelling price point to get any traction.
Yea I'm still waiting for the right box. Right now I'm running a Windows Media Center on Windows 7 (Microsoft has killed it off now), and I use a SiliconDust HDHomeRun tuner for cable. I have the really cheap Verizon plan that gives me all the local channels and a few others (USA, TNT, SyFy, HGTV - because the wife has to have it). It's not bad, but I still have to switch remotes and shut down WMC for Netflix / Prime / YouTube / whatever. But I still want to DVR those tuner shows. That's mostly network s
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A Tivo can do all of that. It has a cable card slot and can record and playback protected content. If you buy Tivo Minis you can access them on multiple TVs
The Tivo has a single global search that can search across TV listings as well as Netflix, Hulu, etc. The one limitation is you can view purchased Amazon content, but not Prime Video which is limited to Rokus and FireTVs.
There is also free software people have made that can connect to your Tivo over the network and download recordings off it. You can
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A Tivo can do all of that. It has a cable card slot and can record and playback protected content. If you buy Tivo Minis you can access them on multiple TVs
All that does is replace my tuner. I already have a tuner, it works fine. I just need a front-end. I can watch anything coming from the tuner that's non-protected anywhere in the house, even on the FireTV stick.
A TiVo with less than half the recording space is $350, and another $150 for a mini. I can already do everything I want with the non-protected content, so no new functionality there. In fact with the SiliconDust I don't need a bunch of conversion stuff - it's already done. I can watch it anywhere
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You said you were waiting for the right box, I just made the suggestion that it exists.
I used WMC before. I looked into building my own MythTV box, I looked at every available DVR software package commercial or otherwise. Tivo is leaps and bound better and having a system that just works is great.
Tivo also has a product called the Stream that's integrated into it, I can watch TV over the Internet too. Or on a FireTV with the Tivo App, but that's just recorded content not live TV like the Mini.
Tivos can be
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You can run Windows Media Center on Windows 10. Some great guys have made a patched version which works well. Windows 10 gives you Netflix and Amazon on the same box. https://forums.mydigitallife.i... [mydigitallife.info] also there is this https://www.tablotv.com/tablo-... [tablotv.com]
Thanks for the links. I'm going to have to try out the WMC for Windows 10. Might be a way to keep that running for a bit longer, and an easier way to switch to streaming.
The Tablo looks interesting, but it's pretty the same thing as the SiliconDust tuner, except it only tunes ATSC and not QAM. SiliconDust does have some ATSC-only devices like that, but I'm already using one with the cable card. The SiliconDust DVR separates the recording devices from the tuner box, so I can record to a NAS and/or the WM
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My experience:
I have a "smart" TV and a "smart BluRay player". One Panasonic and one Samsung. The Panasonic (last I checked) only still had one service available and the Samsung bluray basically bricked its smart capabilities by insisting on firmware updates. It still plays discs, but barely. I just wanted to watch Netflix, why did it have to update Angry Birds or whatever it did?
My Roku is pretty sweet.
I recently added a Chromecast into the mix, but it's horrible. Last night I wanted to watch somethi
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If you've cut the cord, then yes. Over-the-air switched to an all-digital, hi-def signal many years ago. It's how I watch PBS, NFL football and the occasional college game. (My wife also watches some of the crappy network morning shows.) Along with Netflix and a little pirating, it helps keep our family's monthly TV costs under $10.
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After paying $40 for an antenna to receive live TV, wouldn't you need to pay $750 more to TiVo to be able to record live TV? That's $200 for the DVR and either $150 per year or $550 one time to make it work.
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Well, not necessarily. I got my series 3 HD TiVo used with Lifetime Subscription for $100 about five years ago. You can transfer the lifetime subscription with a call to TiVo support. Similar prices are common on Craigslist for newer models like the Roamio and Premiere. Spare parts are readily available from WeaKnees, and TiVos are about the same difficulty to service as a desktop PC.
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I paid $140 for a Tablo instead. Currently paying $5/mo for the guide, but they off a $50/yr or $150 lifetime subscription as well.
Congratulations! You invented...the smart TV! (Score:2)
Sounds like all the "smart TVs" I've been buying for a while. What's the need for this third-party box then?
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Try "Vizio" products. They're pretty solid (and don't do any of this at my house).
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Well for one thing, the Sling application is absolute garbage on every single platform it has ever been ported to. So maybe having dedicated hardware would actually make it usable?
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Get a Logitech harmony. It would be a single button press to switch between the Roku and live TV. You can even name the activities Netflix and TV.
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I'm not even 40 and I have two TVs in the house that a "set-top" box could sit on top of. One I received in college, the other I bought myself shortly after. Neither are my main TV anymore because they aren't 1080, but they are still in good condition and use. About 15 years old tops.
TIVO Bolt / Roamio OTA already do this (Score:2)
You can use the TIVO Bolt (not Bolt+) or the Roamio OTA with an OTA antenna. It also connects to Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, etc. and allows you to search for content across all of these platforms. In fact, you can setup a OnePass that will list available streaming options for a show across the variety of content providers, as well as record any broadcast of that show and present it all for you in one place.
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I was going to make a similar comment but you posted first. I've owned some model of TiVo since Series 1, and are currently running a Series 3 and Premiere in our house. Both happily consume OTA content, and the Premiere has OnePass and connections to pretty much every online streaming service. We paid up front for Lifetime service on both devices, and I've had to replace a few hard drives and power supplies over the years, but those replacement parts are readily available through WeaKnees and very easy to
Is this new? (Score:2)
Until now, you've typically needed a separate over-the-air TV tuner device (like Nuvyyo's Tablo DVR) if you wanted local live programming wrapped in a slick interface.
What, like the Freeview+ box I've had for two years, which has BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Wuaki, YouTube, Curzon and several other on-demand services that I've never heard of installed on it, as well as being able to receive over-the-air channels?
catering to those determined to leave cable and satellite behind.
I don't know about the US, but "cord-cutting" doesn't mean discarding satellite on the other side of the pond. We've got Freesat here, 200+ channels free-to-air beamed down from space.
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We've got Freesat here, 200+ channels free-to-air beamed down from space.
"Cord cutting" is when you either subscribe to zero paid media services or a limited number of cheaper on demand streaming alternatives (Netflix).
wonkey_monkey's point is that in Britain, not all satellite TV is "paid media services".
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Wait what? How is Freesat completely free? I mean they must be making money somehow right?
Does it record? (Score:1)
If this thing doesn't record then it can go fuck itself. Paying a la cart for multiple services is bad enough, but if you can't even record anything to trim out the ever growing number of commercials then fuck them.
I just love how some OTA apps now make you watch more commercials than if you just paid an MVPD for the shit---and not only that IT'S THE SAME FUCKIN FOUR OR FIVE COMMERCIALS CONSTANTLY ARRRRGGGHHHH.
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Sling silently dropped all support for their previous products (Slingbox) in the hopes of getting people to move to Sling TV. I wouldn't trust them even if it could record. (It can't, by the way.)
A set-top box that is *also* a Netflix client? (Score:3)
Tivo already did it (Score:2)
Uhh, you don't have to "jump between devices or apps" on a Tivo either... Rather, you get the shows listed in your main program layout, then once you play, sure, it would have to launch netflix.. I highly doubt this is any different..