That's why while Sling has some appeal, I would also be interested in ways to transfer DVR recordings for offline viewing before leaving on a trip.

Not sure if I'm typical but I have almost half my DVR filled with stuff I haven't gotten around to watching yet. It would be great to take some of that content on a trip, in case you have some down time and you can catch up on some of it.

I played around with Zumocast app. for iPad, which lets you stream from computer or transcode and transfer content to iPad for viewing offline, which lets you for instance watch on a flight.

Of course, most DVRs encrypt the recordings and won't allow third-party products to decrypt them. Direct TV is suppose to be working on something called Nomad, which would either just stream or allow transfer to mobile devices. But knowing them, they may charge an upfront fee as well as monthly fee.

People can get torrents of TV shows or just rip DVDs for offline viewing so the business model of Sling and other similar products is somewhat doubtful.