The DirecTV app for iPad got a significant bump in capabilities today by adding live streaming to giving you essentially a portable TV you can take to any room of your house.
You have to be on the same network as your DirecTV receiver, and not all channels are available. I'm not seeing the pay movie channels, or the local channels, which are all a matter of rights with the owners of those channels. I counted 38 available channels for streaming, including CNN, Fox News, National Geographic, FX, History Channel, Discovery and many more. You can watch the video in a window hovering over the program guide, or watch full screen.
With my multiple tuner DVR I could be watching one channel on the iPad while someone else could be watching another channel on that same receiver, which is pretty handy.
This new update also allows you to change start and end times of a recording if you think a program time needs adjusting. The app has also added an option to set parental controls on your receiver from the iPad.
Other TV providers, notably Comcast, have been working on streaming live TV to the iPad. The app is free and requires iOS 4.2 or later.
Go get it. It's a worthwhile update.
Gallery: Screenshots of DirecTV for iPad with live streaming
DirecTV adds live video streaming on iPad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love my iPad2, but I don’t think I’d prefer to watch live TV on that instead of my 65 inch screen in my TV room. I don’t think it can be called a TV Everywhere option if you’re restricted to your home network for it to work. Working for DISH Network and using the Sling Adapter a ton, it’s easy to see that it’s a better choice. The Sling allows streaming of live TV as well as all of your DVR content, the Nomad only allows up to 20 hours.