Cutting The Cord– Considering Switching to Sling TV

[ltsddd]

Has anyone tried or used Sling TV (please do not confuse Sling TV with Slingbox)?

[bababooey]

I had it for a week. I was able to sign up and install the app on my Roku stick.

What I liked:
It did work for the most part. I only have OTA stations and it was nice to supplement some stations with this service.
The video quality for a streaming service was adequate in my mind as well.

Didn’t Like:
Although they say Roku is supported and you can install the app on probably just about any Roku, they finally came out and said they don’t support MY Roku after complaining about on demand not working.
Limited to only watching it on one TV (1 TV per account), I have several!
Overall the content offering vs. the price was not compelling enough for me to continue with the service.

I’ve got HBO GO/NOW on PS4 which I’ve been watching way to much of. Also, Sony has the VUE service which when it comes to San Diego, will offer many more services then sling, albeit at a higher price point.

[FlyerInHi]

[quote=bababooey] Also, Sony has the VUE service which when it comes to San Diego, will offer many more services then sling, albeit at a higher price point.[/quote]

How do they limit availability by market? By IP address, or billing address?

Edit:
I guess by IP address:

PlayStation Vue will detect your home network and location. If you are in an eligible location, your “Home” address will be set as the home network and the ZIP code you are located in at that time. During this process, you may be asked to verify or edit your ZIP code.
https://support.us.playstation.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5450/~/ps-vue%3A-frequently-asked-questions

[ltsddd]

[quote=bababooey]Limited to only watching it on one TV (1 TV per account)[/quote]

This is the main reason why I haven’t jumped in, yet. You could actually register more than 1 device.
However, only 1 device can be used at a time.

I think I might try it out for a few months and see how I like it. At least I like the pricing part already $20 vs ~ $100 per month.

[all]

ltsdd, did you ever try Sling TV? I am looking for a way to stream BeIN Sports with no cable subscription.

[Anonymous]

I’m planning to try the 7-day eval of the service on my Roku 2. Getting tired of the high cost and charades with Time Warner. Only reason I would get it is for Sports (ESPN, etc) although the sports channel I watch the most is Golf Channel and for that I am stuck with Cable. But I can’t continue to justify paying $50-80 more per month just for a few select channels. I could care less about 90% of the cable channels and outside of Bill Maher I don’t watch HBO any more, it is pretty irrelevant to me with Netflix so cheap.

[ltsddd]

[quote=all]ltsdd, did you ever try Sling TV? I am looking for a way to stream BeIN Sports with no cable subscription.[/quote]

all,
I have been using it for a few months now with the cheapest plan of $20/month. That plan has most of the channels that I normally watch so it’s been working out fine. FYI, my internet download speed is about 65 mbs so it works flawlessly most of the time. But if you have other high-bandwidth apps running (i.e. multiple concurrent youtube streaming) then it will lag quite badly. All in all, I am quite happy with it. If nothing else I do save about $100/mo switching from cable tv.

btw. – the trial period is 7 days if you do it via theie website, but if you do it via the Roku then it’s 14 days.

[FlyerInHi]

itssd,
do you think the Roku is the best streaming device out there? Simple and easy to use?
I’m trying get my parents to cut to cord. It’s hard to get old people to change.

[Anonymous]

I’ve had my Roku2 for just about 2 weeks now, it is pretty nice. Definitely a Roku or similar device with Wifi capability is a no-brainer as long as you have high speed Internet (at least 10Mb/s), you can put it anywhere, not dictated by cable outlets.

Only complaint I have so far is the remote control. Need to find a universal remote that can do TV and Roku. Haven’t researched it yet but assume they exist.

Another feature I noticed with Roku is you can watch Time Warner cable on a live stream. So in the meantime before I officially cut the chord, I can at least replace one of my HD boxes with the Roku and save $11 per month off the cable bill.

[ltsddd]

[quote=FlyerInHi]itssd,
do you think the Roku is the best streaming device out there? Simple and easy to use?
I’m trying get my parents to cut to cord. It’s hard to get old people to change.[/quote]

I have only used the Roku(2?), so I don’t know how it’s compared to other devices. Changing channels on the Roku does take a bit of getting used to. You don’t get that instance gratification of flipping the channels. Instead you’ll be pressing the buttons a few times just to get the navigation bar, browse the channels, and then select the channel. It’d be nice if you could “flip” the channels by using the up/down buttons on the remote.

[FlyerInHi]

[quote=deadzone]I’m planning to try the 7-day eval of the service on my Roku 2. Getting tired of the high cost and charades with Time Warner. Only reason I would get it is for Sports (ESPN, etc) although the sports channel I watch the most is Golf Channel and for that I am stuck with Cable. But I can’t continue to justify paying $50-80 more per month just for a few select channels. I could care less about 90% of the cable channels and outside of Bill Maher I don’t watch HBO any more, it is pretty irrelevant to me with Netflix so cheap.[/quote]

Is there anyway to get Bill Maher without HBO? I love the guy. I watch him on YouTube but I’d be willing to pay him $20 per month directly for entertainment.

I paraphrase Bill Maher here (I think he got inspiration from Thomas Jefferson)
Kindness is a bad response to assholes. Only ridicule and contempt are appropriate.

[Anonymous]

With Roku or similar streaming device you can get HBO Go for $15 per month and get all the Bill Maher.

Regarding Sling TV, my trial so far is not promising. Tried to watch an NBA game and the video quality just did not cut it. Picture went fuzzy at one point and in general it could not keep up with the speed of the game. And this is with the TW 50Mb/s Internet service.

[jonnycsd]

I got a 30 day trial on an Amazon Fire Stick for college football bowl season. It worked great and I will keep the service.

[Anonymous]

I’m canceling my Sling trial, the picture quality watching ESPN just sucks. Not good enough to replace cable yet. Still hopeful for the future.

[ltsddd]

I think if your internet connection is truly 50 mbs then you shouldn’t have the degraded picture problem; unless you have other devices streaming at the same time. Try checking your internet speed at http://www.speedtest.net/. Another possible bottleneck is between your wifi and your streaming device.

[Author]

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