Sling TV
- Thread starter SoProudNole
- Start date
I've been using it for 6 months and really like it. Your service will only be as good as your internet connection so just keep in mind that if your internet goes down so does your tv. Installed an antenna for locals, use SlingTV for everything else. I can't see myself going back to anything else. Also saving about $70 a month.
Another factor in streaming is your router. I was using a piddly little router that was 5 years old and our home WiFi signal was absolute garbage. I recently bought a 1750Mb dual band AC router and my home WiFi speeds are fantastic. I was just using a piece of crap router.
I'm going to get either Amazon Fire TV or the Fire stick to test it out (my wife has a Prime membership) before we cut the cord. I saw that you can access Sling through Amazon Fire.
I'm going to get either Amazon Fire TV or the Fire stick to test it out (my wife has a Prime membership) before we cut the cord. I saw that you can access Sling through Amazon Fire.
Yep, we just upgraded the router and I was watching Sling on my iphone 6 last night and it was fantastic. Couldn't get it it to run on my crappy laptop running windows 8. But look forward to using it on my Mac and through the kindle fire for watching on TV.
Also, if you pay a certain number of months in advance for Sling, you can get a free Roku or 1/2 price Roku 3.
What brand of router if I may ask? Ours is "okay" and about three years old, but sometimes it's only just okay.
I bought a Netgear at Best Buy. My luck with D Link and Linksys routers isn't that great. I was down to deciding between the Netgear AC router and an ASUS N router. Before buying, I had done a lot of research on routers and didn't really see the difference between N and AC. The price difference was only $30 and I decided to go with the AC since it's the most up-to-date WiFi configuration.
Who are your ISPs in Nocatee? On our side of 210, you don't have a lot of options.
Been using it for two months now. Service has been inconsistent. Overall I'm happy, but be prepared for occasional glitches. It's not all about your internet speed or router. I have a wired connection with Comcast Blast Plus to my Roku 3 and Sling still stutters and drops at times. The problem is on their end and is server related. I do think it has improved lately. For me I can live with the hiccups to get ESPN and watchespn access with no contract/commitment for $25 a month.
Yep, just keep in mind it is a new product, and in improvement mode for sure. I use it on 3 devices in the house, an Android TV, Roku 3 and Fire Stick, and it runs the best by far on the fire stick. It actually runs great on the Android TV, but it has a problem with exiting the app properly, which can then cause frustration, because and this is the biggest annoyance at the moment. You can only have 1 stream running at a time. Meaning you cannot watch on 2 TV's at the same time. Plus they tie the watchespn into that one stream thing so you can't cheat the system and watch ESPN on that app, and say TBS on another. So if the app doesn't log out properly on the Android TV it can be glitchy opening sling on another TV.
So I have it set up for watchespn logged into my comcast internet ID, so I now can watch games on espn3 while the fiance can watch a show on another tv somewhere else. Now the Roku 3 is the only device I have issues with. It will freeze sometimes, and restart the Roku. I've also had it kick me out of watching a show on demand, and because it doesn't remember where you are and won't let you fast forward, that was annoying.
But I will 100% recommend it, I'm saving $100 bucks a month. I would just get a Fire TV or Fire Stick. Wireless N 5ghz router or better will be fine. Then for me I purchased a Tablo and an antenna, now I have my locals with a DVR that I can also watch through the fire/roku/android. So I've basically replaced my "cable box" with a streamer, I get all locals, DVR service, 20 something cable channels, on multiple tvs.
So I have it set up for watchespn logged into my comcast internet ID, so I now can watch games on espn3 while the fiance can watch a show on another tv somewhere else. Now the Roku 3 is the only device I have issues with. It will freeze sometimes, and restart the Roku. I've also had it kick me out of watching a show on demand, and because it doesn't remember where you are and won't let you fast forward, that was annoying.
But I will 100% recommend it, I'm saving $100 bucks a month. I would just get a Fire TV or Fire Stick. Wireless N 5ghz router or better will be fine. Then for me I purchased a Tablo and an antenna, now I have my locals with a DVR that I can also watch through the fire/roku/android. So I've basically replaced my "cable box" with a streamer, I get all locals, DVR service, 20 something cable channels, on multiple tvs.
Are you accessing the Tablo TV and recordings through the FireTV Tablo app? How's the quality? Do you have an issue with deinterlacing on the HD video on sports on the networks?
I've got everything running through my FireTV EXCEPT for my antenna/dvr service. I've still got that on my Windows Media Center which works fine, but I would rather have everything served through one box/interface and get rid of that PC. I can technically do it now through XBMC but the quality is pretty craptastic compared to watching it directly on the HTPC because the XBMC on FireTV doesn't handle the deinterlacing of 1080p HD well. It's acceptable for tv programs, but unbearable for sports.
In theory, Tablo is the perfect solution, but I've heard a fair amount of complaints on video quality. The video quality straight from antenna to the HTPC is pretty stellar, I don't want to spend the money on Tablo and take a big step back.
Yeah so the Tablo is only as good as a couple of things. The first and I think most important is the hard drive. Since it does not have a drive, you need to bring your own, you need a drive that can read and write simultaneously at a fast rate of speed. So don't cheap out there. Then of course I run it on the 5ghz band. I had trouble with stuttering on 2.4 The third is, it doesn't work great on the Roku 3 if you record in 1080p, so you need to record in 720 if you use a Roku.
But on my android tv and Fire stick, if works amazingly well. The only complaint I have is you need to have a pretty strong signal or you can get blotching. But if you get all the channels in green its great, and I have no problem with sports. I hated it at first on my Roku, but once I figured out it was a bit rate issue, I have zero complaints. It looks just like if I plugged the antenna in direct to the tv. Plus it can record 4 streams at once, and simultaneously output 5 streams to different tv's.
It's interesting that some find the Amazon Fire devices to be more reliable with Sling. I had a lot of problems with the Fire Stick I bought to test out the Sling TV service. When I decided to go for the three month deal, I specifically chose the Roku 3 for $50 rather than a free Fire Stick because everything I read suggested the Roku 3 delivered the best performance with Sling. I also liked the option of being able to hard wire it instead of relying on wifi. I think all this goes to show the issues are most likely on Sling's end, more so than which device you use.
Thanks, that's good to know. That might not be for me then, because my antenna reception is annoyingly sketchy. There wasn't a set-top antenna on the market that could bring in everything simultaneously, and I tried about all of them. I'm not out in the sticks or anything, it just seems like the directions involved. I finally had to build a huge antenna and put it in the attic. Even with that, I occasionally get some blocking. If the Tablo tuner is even a shade worse than my HDHomerun, it will be a disaster. The only option left is a big rooftop antenna, and I don't want to go that far.
Yeah I had the same problem with signal, even though I'm only 8 miles from the tower. I finally had to do this antenna https://www.antennasdirect.com/store/DB8e-Ultra-Long-Range-Outdoor-DTV-Antenna.html because it allows you to point it towards two different towers. I did put it outside as well, then did a 15db gain amplifier. Took a little bit of work, but it was worth it.
Yeah, that would be nice. That would put me at $500+ just to integrate my OTA/DVR into FireTv instead of switching inputs. I want to do it, but can't justify that...I'll just save it to see what comes next in these boxes. Thanks for the info.
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