And yet another inglorious end to a TiVo app. This time around, the TiVo Stream 4K has lost launch partner Sling TV. It just up and vanished… despite TiVo email marketing (text below) I received a few weeks ago and Sling TV continuing to advertise its deep TiVo integration.
Press the GUIDE button on your remote control and see all your TiVo+ channels – including Pluto TV, Freevee, Tubi and more – plus Sling or YouTube TV (subscriptions required). With a list of channels, times and what’s playing, it’s easy to browse for great entertainment in the
Guide.
For me, the TiVo Stream Android TV dongle never lived up to the company’s integrated content pitch, for a variety of reasons. This certainly doesn’t help. Nor did betting the farm on someone else’s platform (Google), who then decided to assert their own content discovery interface elements ahead of licensee TiVo. The Stream’s primary differentiator and saving grace was the ability to de-TiVo the whole experience, via various hacks, and serve as a decent Channels DVR endpoint — with numeric keypad remote.
All is not lost for Sling TV aficionados, as the Amazon Echo Show 8 & 10 now streams live television. It’s been a long wait. In limited testing, Sling TV has been somewhat sluggish on my original 8 (par for this device) and the video feed dropped a few minutes into viewing. But I expect it’ll improve and am looking forward to consuming “television” from this countertop and desktop form factor.