AirTV, the new Android TV streaming box with tight SlingTV integration that Dish showed off at CES, will have OTA channels and streaming options listed separately when customers first set them up, unlike the demo unit that trade show attendees saw. The ability to integrate OTA options and streaming services was a big feature for the AirTV that was shown off at CES, alongside streamlined software that made navigating the two content sources side by side a breeze. According to a Tweet from SlingTV CEO Roger Lynch, however, the feature will be coming via an update in the near future. Lynch stated that the software shown off on the AirTV box that was at CES was actually a beta version that had not quite been fully ironed out at the time of the show, but that those involved felt was worth showing off due to the presence of that unusual feature.
The discovery was brought to Lynch’s attention by customer Mark Reaume on Twitter, who expected to see OTA and streaming channels sitting nicely together when he received his AirTV box. Since Lynch did not give an exact timeline for when the update would hit, customers can expect to continue seeing separate streams for the time being. Likewise, Lynch did not specify if the update will be shipped on newer units, so customers thinking of purchasing an AirTV, until further notice, should expect to have to install an update to their device in order to see the streams together, whenever such an update is available.
AirTV is another member of the 4K Android TV box club, sold by Dish for $99 and available since its announcement at CES. The headline feature is the one stated above as missing, but it has a good number of other features, making it a well-rounded device in its own right. Netflix and SlingTV are built in, and the software skin over the usual Android TV UI makes navigating content a bit easier, with a focus on streaming content and OTA TV over traditional apps. It does also sport full access to the Google Play Store, which makes it a fairly full-featured member of the Android TV family, though it lacks the raw power of something like the NVIDIA SHIELD TV.