Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Sling TV is adding cloud DVR, letting you record 100 hours of TV at a time

sling tv tablet
Image used with permission by copyright holder
With more live TV streaming services entering the fray, simply offering a cable-like service over the internet is no longer enough — features matter just as much. One of the advantages services like PlayStation Vue and the upcoming DirecTV Now offer that Sling TV doesn’t is cloud DVR functionality. Soon, however, that will change, and Sling TV’s cloud DVR does away with one major pitfall that mars its competitors’ offerings: the 28-day shelf life on recordings.

“Unlike other OTT services, we’re delivering a true cloud DVR with no 28-day restriction on your recordings, marking another win for Sling TV and our customers,” Sling TV CEO Roger Lynch said in a statement. “Two years ago we became the first live OTT provider, and we continue to innovate and bring the best experience to our customers.”

Cloud DVR functionality is available to subscribers of either Sling Orange or Sling Blue. Instead of limiting how long recordings can be kept, Sling TV takes a different approach, limiting recordings to a total of 100 hours. As capacity reaches the maximum, the service automatically makes room for more new recordings by automatically deleting the oldest recordings that have been marked as watched.

While traditional DVRs are limited by the number of tuners, cloud DVRs have no such limitations, so the upcoming cloud DVR can record multiple programs simultaneously, meaning users don’t need to worry about conflicts. On the other hand, there is one major issue: Sling TV says DVR functionality isn’t available on every channel. There is currently no word on what channels won’t offer DVR functionality, but this shouldn’t come as a surprise, as even now certain Sling TV channels don’t allow fast-forwarding or rewinding live TV.

The cloud DVR service will be limited at first, available only to Roku users who sign up for the beta. The service will launch in December, and Sling TV says it will roll out to additional platforms over the next few months, though it hasn’t specified which platforms will come first. The company also plans to add new features in the future, which could include the ability to upgrade storage space or protect recordings from deletion.

If you’re interested in trying out the cloud DVR beta and own a Roku device, you can sign up at the Sling TV website. If you don’t have a Roku but are interested in Sling TV, the company just launched an offer giving a free Roku Streaming Stick to customers who sign up for a month of its Best of Live TV service.

Start your free trial today

Kris Wouk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…
Sling TV will give you a free Google Nest Hub if you prepay for 3 months
walmart slashes prices on all original google nest home devices hub 2

We love a good freebie, especially right around the holidays, when every penny counts. If you've been thinking of buying a Google Nest Hub, Sling TV has a pretty sweet offer for you: Sign up and pay for three months of service -- even at the lowest cost of $25 per month for the Sling Orange channel lineup -- and you'll get a free Google Nest Hub.

Why the generosity on Sling's part? On the one hand, there's nothing like a freebie to drive up your subscriber numbers. We've seen AT&T's DirecTV do it in the past with Apple TV giveaways, and there's no doubt it works -- at least in the short term. If Sling is looking to show an increase in their fourth-quarter subscriber numbers, this is a good way to do it.

Read more
The Beats Pill is back, baby!
A pair of Beats Pill speakers.

In what's been one of the worst-kept secrets of the year -- mostly because subtly putting a product into the hands of some of the biggest stars on the planet is no way to keep a secret -- the Beats Pill has returned. Just a couple of years after Apple and Beats unceremoniously killed off the stylish Bluetooth speaker, a new one has arrived.

Available for preorder today in either black, red, or gold, the $150 speaker (and speakerphone, for that matter) rounds out a 2024 release cycle for beats that includes the Solo Buds and Solo 4 headphones, and comes nearly a year after the Beats Studio Pro.

Read more
Ifi’s latest DAC is the first to add lossless Bluetooth audio
Ifi Audio Zen Blue 3 DAC (front).

Ifi Audio's new Zen Blue 3 wireless digital-to-analog converter (DAC) will officially be available to buy for $299 on July 9. When it is, it will be the first device of its kind to support a wide variety of Bluetooth codecs, including Qualcomm's aptX Lossless, the only codec that claims to deliver bit-perfect CD quality audio over a Bluetooth connection.

Admittedly, there are very few devices on the market that can receive aptX Lossless (and fewer that can transmit it), so it's a good thing that the Zen Blue 3 also works with the more widely supported aptX Adaptive, LDAC, and LDHC/HWA codecs (all of which are hi-res audio-capable), plus the three most common codecs: AAC, SBC, and aptX.

Read more