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Starting today, Sling TV is expanding its Cloud DVR service to Apple TV users. Sling TV subscribers with an Apple TV can purchase 50 hours of Cloud DVR storage for $5 per month, which is a fee in addition to the standard Sling TV subscription cost.

Content stored in Sling TV's Cloud DVR remains indefinitely, and the service supports pausing, rewinding, and fast-forwarding through saved shows and movies. Most Sling TV content, including live TV, sports, and movies can be saved to the Cloud DVR service, but Sling says the DVR functionality is not available on all channels that it offers, including Disney, FOX, and ESPN.

sling-apple-tv-app.jpg
Here are some features currently available through Cloud DVR "First Look":

Watch anytime, anywhere- Record your favorite programs and watch whenever you want across all Amazon Fire TVs and Fire tablets, Android mobile devices, Android TVs, Apple TVs, Roku streaming players and Roku TVs. AirTV Player is not currently compatible with Cloud DVR.

Conflict-free recording- Record multiple programs simultaneously, and forget about recording conflicts.
Keep recordings as long as you want- With Sling TV, your recordings won't expire as long as you remain a Sling TV subscriber with Cloud DVR.

Auto-managed recordings- Sling TV will make room for new recordings by deleting your old recordings as you reach capacity, starting with your oldest 'watched' recording, so you can binge on your new favorite show.
To enable the Cloud DVR service, Sling TV subscribers need to sign into their Sling TV accounts on the Sling website and choose the "Add Cloud DVR" option. The service works on the Apple TV, Roku, Amazon, and Android devices.

Sling TV, owned by Dish Network, offers 30+ channels at prices starting at $20 per month. Three packages are available, with the high-end package that includes 50 channels priced at $40 per month.

Article Link: Sling TV's Cloud DVR Functionality Comes to Apple TV for $5 Per Month
 

justperry

macrumors G5
Aug 10, 2007
12,553
9,745
I'm a rolling stone.
I hate Online DVR, it's such nonsense, the content is already there, there is no need for a DVR, and the pricing, $5 for 50 hours a month LOL.

Edit: 30 channels for $20, I get 100+ for that amount, most of them HD.
 
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Actors

macrumors newbie
Jul 10, 2015
21
0
Can you tell me if there are channels in Spanish or can you watch them with subtitles?
 

CarlJ

macrumors 604
Feb 23, 2004
6,971
12,133
San Diego, CA, USA
I hate Online DVR, it's such nonsense, the content is already there, there is no need for a DVR, and the pricing, $5 for 50 hours a month LOL.
Yep, it's a racket. They're not recording anything for you, they're simply providing access to non-current content. With traditional DVRs, 30 million hard drives have local copies, with "online DVRs", one server has a copy. Tracking the amount of space used is nonsensical. It's just rows in a database table, saying user X "has recorded" episode Y of show Z. It makes about as much sense as selling and developing digital "film".
Edit: 30 channels for $20, I get 100+ for that amount, most of them HD.
When I had cable, I got 100+ channels. I watched less than ten. Could not care less whether the other 90 were there or not. It's all about having the right channels. I could see subscribing to a 30 channel plan, if it had the channels I wanted. But cableTV lost me a while back, I'm happy now with Netflix/Hulu/YouTube on my AppleTV.
 

Number 41

macrumors 6502a
Jun 15, 2009
745
970
I hate Online DVR, it's such nonsense, the content is already there, there is no need for a DVR, and the pricing, $5 for 50 hours a month LOL.

Edit: 30 channels for $20, I get 100+ for that amount, most of them HD.

That's not true at all -- there's a lot of live content that never ends up streaming, or stuff that only streams from certain extra services you have to buy on top of your channel selection.

I DVR a ton of live sports when I know I'm not going to be home for the start. I get that you think there shouldn't be an extra charge, but the $5 is more than worth it for a lot of people.
 
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Zorn

macrumors 65816
Feb 14, 2006
1,106
780
Ohio
That's not true at all -- there's a lot of live content that never ends up streaming, or stuff that only streams from certain extra services you have to buy on top of your channel selection.

I DVR a ton of live sports when I know I'm not going to be home for the start. I get that you think there shouldn't be an extra charge, but the $5 is more than worth it for a lot of people.

It's okay if you think $5 is cheap enough to be worth it for you, but his main point still stands. It's completely silly to charge anything for this, the content already lives up on their server and is being accessed the same way. The computer system serving this up doesn't give a damn if you call it on demand, or DVR, or fluffy unicorn playback. They are just taking advantage of the fact that most people already understand an extra "DVR charge" from their cable company, which is actually renting you a device with a hard drive, and think this must be the same type of thing.
 

CarlJ

macrumors 604
Feb 23, 2004
6,971
12,133
San Diego, CA, USA
They are just taking advantage of the fact that most people already understand an extra "DVR charge" from their cable company, which is actually renting you a device with a hard drive, and think this must be the same type of thing.
Wait... you mean they don't have racks upon racks of DVRs in a room somewhere with each subscriber's shows on them?
 
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timjcoffee

macrumors newbie
Jun 28, 2010
5
3
It's okay if you think $5 is cheap enough to be worth it for you, but his main point still stands. It's completely silly to charge anything for this, the content already lives up on their server and is being accessed the same way. The computer system serving this up doesn't give a damn if you call it on demand, or DVR, or fluffy unicorn playback. They are just taking advantage of the fact that most people already understand an extra "DVR charge" from their cable company, which is actually renting you a device with a hard drive, and think this must be the same type of thing.
So, the DVR service that is being sold here for an extra charge appears to be different from Sling's On Demand offering, as this purportedly includes the ability to fast forward as well as maintain access to content indefinitely, as long as you have "space" for it.

Neither of these are features included for all of Sling's On Demand channels. Additionally, some channels that do participate in Sling's On Demand offering are mentioned as distinctly not participating in the DVR feature, like Disney (for example).

So, I assume that's what the charge is for: Sling has to pay content providers to allow you to "store" content that you want to watch online, even though the content provider has decided to remove it from their On Demand offering.
 
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2010mini

macrumors 601
Jun 19, 2013
4,698
4,806
It's okay if you think $5 is cheap enough to be worth it for you, but his main point still stands. It's completely silly to charge anything for this, the content already lives up on their server and is being accessed the same way. The computer system serving this up doesn't give a damn if you call it on demand, or DVR, or fluffy unicorn playback. They are just taking advantage of the fact that most people already understand an extra "DVR charge" from their cable company, which is actually renting you a device with a hard drive, and think this must be the same type of thing.

Sling doesn't own the content. They had to negotiate rights to stream or store content on their servers or access it from the content owner's servers. That costs $$$ even traditional cable tv charges for DVR which is LOCAL.
 
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justperry

macrumors G5
Aug 10, 2007
12,553
9,745
I'm a rolling stone.
That's not true at all -- there's a lot of live content that never ends up streaming, or stuff that only streams from certain extra services you have to buy on top of your channel selection.

I DVR a ton of live sports when I know I'm not going to be home for the start. I get that you think there shouldn't be an extra charge, but the $5 is more than worth it for a lot of people.

Yes it is true.

You would be better off to have a Tv with USB recording capability, even cheap ones have that now, you can record more hours than 50 and it would cost you nothing after initial purchase of such a Tv.
 

tazinlwfl

macrumors 6502
Jul 14, 2008
320
462
Florida
I'm a fan of PlayStation Vue - their Cloud DVR feature is included, and an absolute must-have for these type of services. I use DVR mostly to catch up to a show I started late, or to pause and play back later (usually so I can skip commercials). The AppleTV app is much improved since launch, so I have few complaints. DVR and Profiles seem like a high-bar for live-tv streaming services, and PSVue handles both pretty well.
 

MattG

macrumors 68040
May 27, 2003
3,864
440
Asheville, NC
Wish I could have Sling here but we tried twice and it's simply unusable. Buffering...Buffering...Buffering. And I have Gigapower through AT&T U-Verse so, my Internet flies. Even on an Apple TV that's hardwired to my local network, Sling sucks.
 

avanpelt

macrumors 68030
Jun 2, 2010
2,954
3,873
I'm a fan of PlayStation Vue - their Cloud DVR feature is included, and an absolute must-have for these type of services. I use DVR mostly to catch up to a show I started late, or to pause and play back later (usually so I can skip commercials). The AppleTV app is much improved since launch, so I have few complaints. DVR and Profiles seem like a high-bar for live-tv streaming services, and PSVue handles both pretty well.

I thought about trying PS Vue, but the inability to watch quite a few channels on a mobile device unless said device was physically located within the metro area where I live made it a total non-starter for me. I'm not sure why they have that goofy requirement and DIRECTV Now does not.
 

Kabeyun

macrumors 68040
Mar 27, 2004
3,407
6,346
Eastern USA
It's okay if you think $5 is cheap enough to be worth it for you, but his main point still stands. It's completely silly to charge anything for this, the content already lives up on their server and is being accessed the same way. The computer system serving this up doesn't give a damn if you call it on demand, or DVR, or fluffy unicorn playback. They are just taking advantage of the fact that most people already understand an extra "DVR charge" from their cable company, which is actually renting you a device with a hard drive, and think this must be the same type of thing.
It's not silly if you're a DISH shareholder.
 

Zorn

macrumors 65816
Feb 14, 2006
1,106
780
Ohio
So, the DVR service that is being sold here for an extra charge appears to be different from Sling's On Demand offering, as this purportedly includes the ability to fast forward as well as maintain access to content indefinitely, as long as you have "space" for it.

Neither of these are features included for all of Sling's On Demand channels. Additionally, some channels that do participate in Sling's On Demand offering are mentioned as distinctly not participating in the DVR feature, like Disney (for example).

So, I assume that's what the charge is for: Sling has to pay content providers to allow you to "store" content that you want to watch online, even though the content provider has decided to remove it from their On Demand offering.

That is just an artificial restriction. There's nothing stopping on demand content from working with a fast forward button, other than silly licensing agreement nonsense.

Sling doesn't own the content. They had to negotiate rights to stream or store content on their servers or access it from the content owner's servers. That costs $$$ even traditional cable tv charges for DVR which is LOCAL.

Traditional cable providers charge you for DVR because the cable guy comes and brings you a piece of equipment, with a hard drive inside, which you agree to borrow from them to record your shows on. There's no DVR charge if you buy your own TiVo DVR, aside from the CableCard required for it to work on their system.
 
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macduke

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,100
19,598
Sounds more like you're licensing 50 hours of content to view whenever you want. I don't think $5 is bad, but the concept seems dated. I think anything should be re-streamable and just adjust the price of the plan accordingly. Just make it simple.
 
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2010mini

macrumors 601
Jun 19, 2013
4,698
4,806
That is just an artificial restriction. There's nothing stopping on demand content from working with a fast forward button, other than silly licensing agreement nonsense.



Traditional cable providers charge you for DVR because the cable guy comes and brings you a piece of equipment, with a hard drive inside, which you agree to borrow from them to record your shows on. There's no DVR charge if you buy your own TiVo DVR, aside from the CableCard required for it to work on their system.

Not true. Every traditional pay tv provider allows you to purchase authorized equipment outright and install it yourself. But you will still be charged for for their DVR service. Even TiVo charges for their service.
 

4jasontv

Suspended
Jul 31, 2011
6,272
7,548
It's not silly if you're a DISH shareholder.

Agreed. Most shareholder hate bad PR. It's better business to add value by making a feature included in price than risk losing customers over a nickel and dime scheme.
 

Justice21

macrumors newbie
Apr 24, 2017
1
0
I hate Online DVR, it's such nonsense, the content is already there, there is no need for a DVR, and the pricing, $5 for 50 hours a month LOL.

Edit: 30 channels for $20, I get 100+ for that amount, most of them HD.
Can you tell us more about 100+ for $20?
 

tbayrgs

macrumors 604
Jul 5, 2009
7,339
4,865
I'm a fan of PlayStation Vue - their Cloud DVR feature is included, and an absolute must-have for these type of services. I use DVR mostly to catch up to a show I started late, or to pause and play back later (usually so I can skip commercials). The AppleTV app is much improved since launch, so I have few complaints. DVR and Profiles seem like a high-bar for live-tv streaming services, and PSVue handles both pretty well.

I've tried all of the streaming options and we also settled on PS Vue as it has the least amount of compromises. Not being able to watch much outside of your home network could certainly be a limitation for some but I didn't need that functionality. Having DVR for all channels, a better guide and user interface, and the ability to watch on more devices simultaneously, while offering the best selection of channels for our preferences, made the choice pretty clear. We also never experience any of the connectivity issues we had with Sling or DirecTV Now
 

joueboy

macrumors 68000
Jul 3, 2008
1,576
1,545
DirectvNow need to hurry up. I'm already on a verge of canceling my service. So many lacking of features and inability to sign with third party apps compared to Sling. :mad:
 
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