The AirTV Mini has finally arrived (and only a month late)! Is it the affordable NVIDIA Shield TV dongle we had hoped for? Well, The Streamable has gotten it unboxed and taken the Android TV hardware for a test drive. And they come away relatively impressed.
The AirTV Mini ($80) is more expensive than the Xiaomi Mi Box S — which has been as low as $40 recently. The device is a nice alternative in the world of Android TV boxes for those who don’t want to spend $180 on the NVIDIA SHIELD — with good enough hardware and the latest version of Android (9.0). We would consider buying one, even if if we weren’t planning to use it with Sling TV — since it was a snappy Android TV experience.
Sure, it runs more than somewhat equivalent Roku and Fire TV 4K streaming sticks… but there aren’t really many compelling sub-$100 Android TV solutions. So here ya go. The Streamable tells me that while you can’t directly boot into the Andoird TV homescreen, it’s a simple matter of hitting the Home button to bring it up – and there it will remain until the next power cycle (which would be an infrequent event). Of course, the company also wants you to subscribe to sister service Sling TV and augment that setup with an AirTV network tuner to merge your antenna locals with Sling’s subscription content. And they’ll even sweeten the pot with Netflix deep linking.
They seem to be wanting to sell the AirTV network tuner. I already own two Homerun tuner boxes. One for cable and one for OTA. I’ll have to decide if I’ll go with Channels Plus for $80 per year or purchase the AirTV tuner and lock myself in with Sling TV. Sling TV is a higher subscription rate than Philo so it wouldn’t be that much of a difference. Right now I’m thinking Channels Plus may be a better choice.
Can you stream from a Tivo with this device?
Tivo was working on streamer clients. But we haven’t heard anything more since CES.
Larry, why would you have to lock yourself in with Sling TV if you were to buy into AirTV? AirTV’s service is free and does not require a Sling TV subscription. Going with AirTV is far cheaper than HDHomeRun!
Maybe “lock in” is not the proper term. I’m not sure what other term to use for investing in hardware that’s only usable by one app. (Unless you have information to the contrary.) Anyway, the idea would be to replace cable by using the AirTV app to combine SlingTV and OTA. I would have to buy two to replicate my Tivo. My Tivo has OTA capability but as you know Tivo doesn’t have OTT streaming apps.
I looked at FitzyTV and was excited until I found that there’s no local DVR. They appear to be selling cloud DVR space.
Meanwhile, last night I installed Channels DVR with Everywhere TV (Philo). It looks impressive. (And we apparently get some extra channels not listed by Philo.) It’s not the perfect user interface but it’s not terrible. It annoys me that they don’t have a Roku app. HDHomerun has a Roku app but doesn’t combine OTT provider content. I don’t like the $80 annual cost but at least I didn’t have to invest in additional hardware. I already have a FireTV box to replace the Roku Ultra.
For those that dont know you can stream your local stations with Slingtv app without a subscription . Just buy the tuner and download the app
a year or so ago when I bought my first airtv, Sling wouldn’t let me create a sling account without purchasing a subscription. All I wanted to do was create an account to use airtv for the free locals and ota dvr with external usb memory. Have they stopped requiring you to purchase a subscription?