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Dish delivers live, recorded TV to iPad via Sling

Satellite provider has offered the ability for its subscribers to watch television content from mobile devices for a few weeks. Now the company is offering it in full screen on the iPad.

Don Reisinger
CNET contributor Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has covered everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Besides his work with CNET, Don's work has been featured in a variety of other publications including PC World and a host of Ziff-Davis publications.
Don Reisinger
2 min read
A view of a user's DVR recordings on Dish's iPad app.
A view of a user's DVR recordings on Dish's iPad app. Dish Network

Dish Network subscribers can now watch content from their DVRs in full screen on Apple's iPad.

The satellite provider said today that its Remote Access app is available for free to iPad users in Apple's App Store. The app lets people watch live TV and DVR recordings, as well as manage their DVR. The service was already available on PCs, Macs, Apple's iPhone, Android-based devices, and both the BlackBerry Bold and Curve.

However, in order to get it to work, Remote Access users need much more than just the app.

First off, subscribers will need a Dish ViP 722 or 722k HD DVR. In addition, they need to connect a Sling Media product--such as the Sling Adapter offered for $99 to Dish subscribers--to their respective satellite box. From there, they can use the Remote Access app, which will be linked to the Sling product, to access their TV content.

In an e-mailed statement to CNET sent last month when Dish first announced its "TV Everywhere" service, a company representative acknowledged that current Slingbox owners could already achieve this functionality by connecting the Slingbox to a DVR and accessing it either from a computer or mobile device.

The representative was quick to point out, though, that Dish's mobile app is free. Currently, Sling sells its iPad app for $29.99 in Apple's App Store.

However, Dish doesn't necessarily view Sling as a competitor. The Dish representative said the company's "goal with the Sling Adapter is to take Sling from a techie product to a mass-market product."