Product Comparison: Sling Media AirTV vs Roku Ultra

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Sling Media AirTV DVR Capable Dual-tuner

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Best Pick

Roku Ultra HD and 4K UHD Streaming Media Player with HDR

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General Specifications

Brand

Sling Media

Roku

Model

AirTV

Ultra

Origin

China

About the Product

Stream local channels to your devices. Forget paying a monthly bill for your favorite local channels. AirTV lets you watch local news, sports, and entertainment channels like ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX – all for free! Add an external hard drive (sold separately) to record up to two local channels at a time.

Looking for our ultimate streaming player? Meet the new Roku Ultra for HD and 4K Ultra HD TVs. It comes fully loaded and delivers a powerful streaming experience with a quad core processor, 802.11ac dual band wireless, and the latest streaming technology.

Key Specs

Max Resolution

1080 p

2160 p

CPU Cores

CPU Speed

1.5 GHz

Max Resolution

Sling Media AirTV

Roku Ultra

What customers say about "Key Specs"

Sling Media AirTV DVR Capable Dual-tuner

The HD works fine before and after use with the AirTV. No complains!
It plays flawlessly and the HD channels display beautifully. Recording works great as well.
I put the antenna on a nearby shelf, plugged the AirTV box into my router with an ethernet cable, powered it all up, and was watching HD TV channels in minutes.
Picture is very clean on HD channels. Found more channels than my TV on the scan. I like the interface.
Although this device integrates OTA TV with the Sling TV app seamlessly as advertised, unfortunately it is not true HD.

Roku Ultra HD and 4K UHD Streaming Media Player with HDR

The display at 4K resolution is stunning on a 65" display, it is a pleasure to use.
The screen resolution is an improvement over my old Roku 3 which I do really appreciate.
Really enjoying this new ultra. The sound and picture quality are both great. Even normal resolution looks better from the Roku than my Apple TV, Direct TV stb, or streamed content from my oppo BDP-103.
The 4K works really well. Though it took some fiddling to set up. It's been pretty solid since. Very happy overall.
The unit is under 4 months old and has up to date firmware. Many apps lag subtitles up to 3 seconds. The unit is now flickering all the time.

Size & Weight

Color

Black

Height

1.7 in.

0.85 in.

Width

7 in.

4.9 in.

Depth

4.3 in.

4.9 in.

Weight

32 oz.

8 oz.

Sling Media AirTV

Roku Ultra

Sling Media AirTV

Roku Ultra

Sling Media AirTV

Roku Ultra

Sling Media AirTV

Roku Ultra

Hardware

Processor & GPU

Pixelworks XCode 5116

ARM Cortex A53

RAM

0.512 GB

1 GB

Storage

0.128 GB

0.512 GB

Interfaces

USB, DC-IN, Ethernet, Over the air antenna

Power, HDMI 2.0a, Ethernet 10/100, microSD card, USB

RAM
Storage

Sling Media AirTV

Roku Ultra

What customers say about "Hardware"

Sling Media AirTV DVR Capable Dual-tuner

Worked well with my existing HD antenna with USB powered signal booster. 21 channels found!
I'm using a wired connection straight into a Gigabit switch, into my gigabit router, into my 100Mbps internet connection. Works fine!
If your having issues with this product it may just be your antenna, weak signal in your area, or a weak Wi-Fi. The hardware works and does what it's supposed to do. Extremely happy!
There is a little lag when you first connect, but that usually clears up after half a minute or so, like sometimes happens with streaming devices.
USB doesn't seem to be USB 3... Really? It's 2018... I am very dissapionted.

Roku Ultra HD and 4K UHD Streaming Media Player with HDR

The main reasons I chose the ultra over the premiere+ was the optical audio out, usb port, and voice search on the remote.
I was impressed with the ability to remove some categories on the left like the "store" for movies and TV shows and news, further simplifying the interface.
No problems with it, works great. I wanted a new roku for the faster processor than roku 3 and greater support for upcoming live TV through plex via a cablecard network tuner.
The downloads are capped at 3.5 mb a second and unit blanks the screen as if it is resetting the screen resolution all the time.
As soon as I plug in the USB drive, the unit starts rebooting. Over and over again.

Software

Operating System

Android 6.0

Roku OS

Compatibility With Other OS

iOS / Android

Included Apps

Sling TV, AirTV

Roku, PBS, NBC News, Tubi, Hulu, SlingPlayer, Pandora, Spotify, TuneIn, iHeartRadio

What customers say about "Software"

Sling Media AirTV DVR Capable Dual-tuner

OTA channels available in SlingTV app so it's on all my mobile devices.
Integrates with Roku seamlessly, you hit the Sling button on the Roku and you are in.
The set up for the AirTV was straight forward via the app and was able to scan 73 channels.
SlingTV app keeps prompting that the DVR storage device is connected and ready to use. Very annoying.
Doesn't show up as a Live TV Source in Fire TV even though the capability does exist and other apps such as PlutoTV are listed.

Roku Ultra HD and 4K UHD Streaming Media Player with HDR

The roku interface is simple, intuitive, and mostly uncluttered. Setup was a breeze.
Apps open almost instantly and I have yet to have an app crash. The settings are easy to work with.
It is phenomenal with the Harmony Hub remotes, every app shows up as an icon on the remote and you can just tap the icon to swap "sources". No idiotic inaccurate wiping like stupid AppleTV4.
I had constant issues with the Plex app crashing or saying my server was too slow to stream a given video, etc.
Roku's apps all have crippled search functions, if even they do have a search.

Features

Form Factor

Desktop

Additional Modes

Gaming

Supported Formats

HEVC, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VP9

H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC, VP9, AAC, MP3, WMA, FLAC, PCM, AC3/EAC3, DTS, ALAC, JPG, PNG, GIF

Wireless Standart

Wi-Fi 802.11ac 2X2 Dual-Band

802.11ac MIMO dual-band wireless

Remote

Standard Remote

Enhanced voice remote with personal shortcut buttons, TV power, volume, and mute buttons, plus headphone jack for private listening

Extras

Built for Sling TV, Record live local channels, Dual Tuner, Integrated DVR

Includes Premium JBL headphones, Works with Google Assistant, Works with Alexa

What customers say about "Features"

Sling Media AirTV DVR Capable Dual-tuner

This device is dual tuner for recording 2 shows at once. Runs cool so you can stick it in a closet somewhere out of site and forget about it.
You can connect the AirTV to your home network using either an ethernet cable (not included) or over Wifi. The ethernet option does seem to make playback a little smoother.
My friend went through the set up process in the app and connected it to his wifi network. The process was simple, fast and one time.
You can download free apps that will tell you the best channels to use for your WiFi devices so you're not fighting for bandwidth at peak times and face buffering issues.
If you have a good powerful antenna and a good wifi your good to go! Set up was a breeze.

Roku Ultra HD and 4K UHD Streaming Media Player with HDR

The remote control built in audio jack for headphones is perfect. Volume is easily loud enough and audio quality is decent.
The Android remote control app is very good and offers the ability to do private listening.
I love the remote, which I think is bluetooth based, rather than IR. Don't have to point it at anything, very responsive, and it has a headphone jack right on the remote.
Headphone jack in the remote - That's a nice feature and it stops arguments for a number of reasons especially if you have a TV in the bedroom that you share with someone.
The remote has a volume lever on it so you can adjust the volume. The earbuds are pretty nice too and you can use a different set of headphones if you like.

Warranty / Certifications

Manufacturer Warranty

1 year(s)

Certifications