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

Monday April 24, 2017 12:08 PM PDT by Juli Clover
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.

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.

Tag: Sling TV
43 comments


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Zorn
26 months ago

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.
Rating: 4 Votes
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CarlJ
26 months ago

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.
Rating: 3 Votes
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willmtaylor
26 months ago

Ziggo (Provider) , The Netherlands.

I just took a look, 77 channels for €24
So I get a bit less (Channels) for a bit more (Money), but still a lot more than in the states for less.

Well congratulations on not living in The States, I suppose.

Apples to oranges.
Rating: 2 Votes
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Chris Grande
26 months ago
I dropped Sling after two days, service/streaming/app were horrid.
Rating: 2 Votes
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justperry
26 months ago
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.
Rating: 2 Votes
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tazinlwfl
26 months ago
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.
Rating: 2 Votes
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Zorn
26 months ago

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.
Rating: 1 Votes
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Number 41
26 months ago

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.
Rating: 1 Votes
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macduke
26 months ago
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.
Rating: 1 Votes
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willmtaylor
26 months ago

What service?

Post #34 (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/sling-tvs-cloud-dvr-functionality-comes-to-apple-tv-for-5-per-month.2043041/page-2#post-24526289)

Seriously, it's like 2 posts up.
Rating: 1 Votes
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