For cord-cutters, there’s nothing in the marketplace fairly like AirTV. Although it’s not the one networked TV tuner and over-the-air DVR combo you should buy, it’s the one one which ties into Sling TV, letting you watch native broadcasts and streaming cable channels via a single app.
AirTV now has a brand new model of the tuner that’s smaller and extra enticing, with Wi-Fi 5 for streaming over both a 2.4- or 5GHz community. But whereas the thought of mixing over-the-air and Sling TV is neat as ever, the $100 AirTV 2 tuner corrects hardly any of the unique model’s errors. Some large limitations on audio and video high quality nonetheless apply, and the Sling app can nonetheless use extra methods to combine over-the-air channels.
If you’re dedicated to Sling TV for the lengthy haul, you may be capable of look previous these shortcomings for the sake of getting all of your TV channels in a single place. But those that wish to benefit from free over-the-air TV ought to as an alternative look to different DVR options similar to Tablo, Channels DVR, or Plex.
This overview is a part of TechHive’s protection of the best over-the-air DVRs, the place you’ll discover evaluations of competing merchandise, plus a purchaser’s information to the options you must think about when purchasing.
How AirTV 2 works
Be conscious that the AirTV 2 itself will not be a streaming video participant, and it doesn’t join on to your tv. Instead, it hooks as much as any over-the-air antenna and streams reside TV to different gadgets, together with telephones, tablets, most streaming gamers, and a few sensible TVs. That approach you possibly can arrange a single antenna wherever you get the very best reception and watch on any TV all through the home. You may plug an exterior USB onerous drive into the AirTV 2 and report native channels, successfully turning the gadget right into a whole-home DVR to your antenna.
The AirTV tuner has a coaxial enter to your antenna, an ethernet port for non-obligatory wired community connectivity, and a USB port for recording to an exterior onerous drive.
What makes AirTV distinctive from different networked tuners is that it streams native channels via the Sling TV app. Although a Sling TV subscription is non-obligatory (costs begin at $30 per 30 days), including one provides you a single menu for each antenna and cable channels.
Once the AirTV 2 is plugged into outlet energy with an antenna hooked up, you possibly can full the setup via the Sling TV cell app for iOS or Android. This entails connecting to the AirTV’s Wi-Fi sign in your telephone’s community settings, getting into your router’s Wi-Fi password again within the Sling TV, after which connecting as soon as extra to your property community. (The AirTV additionally has a 10/100Mbps ethernet port if in case you have the infrastructure to help a hardwired community connection.) The AirTV will scan for channels primarily based in your zip code and pull in information information fromo the web, at which level you should utilize the Sling TV app on different gadgets to observe.
Using the Sling TV cell app, you possibly can join the AirTV tuner to your property community for streaming native channels.
Unfortunately, AirTV’s over-the-air integration nonetheless doesn’t work on all variations of the Sling TV app. You can entry native channels via Sling TV on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, iOS, and Android cell, however not on Apple TV, sport consoles, internet browsers, or sensible TVs from Samsung, LG,or Vizio. (In truth, the unique AirTV tuner labored with a separate AirTV app on Apple TV, which wasn’t built-in with Sling, however this app doesn’t work with the AirTV 2.)
As with the unique AirTV, the brand new model nonetheless has two TV tuners, so you possibly can watch or report as much as two channels without delay. You may watch native channels outdoors the home on any gadget that AirTV helps, however solely with one stream at a time.
Better collectively
Once put in, AirTV feeds native channels into the Sling TV app on streaming gadgets (such because the Nvidia Shield TV, pictured right here).
Compared to having your native channels on a separate enter or relegated to a separate app, accessing them in a single menu along with your streaming cable channels is handy. Just like with Sling’s cable channels, you possibly can add over-the-air channels to your favorites record and consider them alongside cable channels in a grid information. If you’ve connected an exterior onerous drive to report native channels, these recordings will seem in the identical DVR menu because the recordings from Sling TV’s cloud DVR.
The DVR integration does invite a possible level of confusion, although: You can not report Sling TV channels to your onerous drive, nor are you able to retailer AirTV’s over-the-air recordings in Sling’s cloud DVR. That means it’s essential to handle two totally different DVR swimming pools, and reveals that you just’ve recorded from each sources may have separate listings within the DVR menu.
Sling TV’s grid information integrates with native channels as effectively, although different elements of the interface don’t.
The Sling app additionally continues to deal with the antenna as a second-class citizen in some areas. Over-the-air applications don’t present up in search outcomes, for example; as an alternative, it’s essential to hunt them down via the grid information. That content material doesn’t seem in Sling’s “Continue Watching,” “Sports,” or “On Now” sections, both.
Same outdated points
Limited integration isn’t the one problem AirTV has but to resolve.
On the DVR facet, recording choices are nonetheless naked bones in comparison with different over-the-air DVRs. You can restrict recordings to particular person episodes or new episodes, however you possibly can’t auto-delete older episodes to preserve cupboard space. AirTV doesn’t help further buffer instances initially and finish of recordings both, so that you may miss the ending of a present—or a sport—if it runs lengthy.
Using a USB onerous drive, you possibly can report native channels, although the DVR choices are restricted.
The viewing expertise for DVR can be substandard, with no ad-skipping options and no visible preview while you quick ahead or rewind via recordings. AirTV doesn’t even auto-record reside applications, so you possibly can’t time-shift reside TV with out first hitting the report button, backing out to Sling’s menu, then re-launching the still-in-progress recording.
As for video high quality, AirTV continues to prime out at 30 frames per second for all over-the-air channels, which implies reside sports activities, information, and discuss reveals will look choppier than direct antenna output. And identical to the unique AirTV, the brand new model doesn’t help encompass sound.
While watching reside TV, the pause button doesn’t work for native channels until you create a recording first.
Is AirTV 2 for you?
Despite these points, AirTV 2 has a few saving graces.
The first is price as a pure over-the-air TV resolution. At $100 for the {hardware}, AirTV 2 is likely one of the least costly methods to seize reside TV from an antenna and distribute the video to a number of televisions round the home. Connect a USB onerous drive (you possibly can a 1TB model for lower than $50) and the AirTV 2 turns into a whole-home DVR that’s cheaper than the likes of Tablo, Plex, Fire TV Recast, and Channels DVR, particularly as a result of AirTV has no subscription charges.
Adding Sling TV channels makes this setup even higher, and with a beginning value of $30 per 30 days, you may find yourself spending so much much less in comparison with reside TV providers that embody native channels. (YouTube TV, for example, prices $50 per 30 days, and Hulu with Live TV and Fubo TV each begin at $55 per 30 days. AT&T TV Now is even pricier at $65 per 30 days.)
Still, you’ll must assume lengthy and onerous about whether or not AirTV’s restricted video and audio high quality, patchy Sling integration, and bare-bones DVR options are price that additional financial savings. As with every thing else on the earth of cord-cutting, it’s a matter of trade-offs.