What you guys think of SlingTV?

[Lyfer]

Signed up for 30 day trial today on my Xbox one. Also using it on my roku for the bedroom TV. I think it's a fantastic idea and like it so far vs my $130-140 Uverse bill. Wish it was $8-10 instead of $20.

 

[Raincity]

I have been using it to supplement my basic cable package and have no complaints so far.

 

[Spydermag68]

I like it. It is better than playing full pice for a bunch of channels I do not watch.

 

[sportage]

An option. But a bit pricey.
$20 plus another $5 for EPIX 1,2,3, and another $15 for HBO.
Having the on demand feature for the movie channels is nice.
Guess it depends on needs.
More so for those using only OTA, and online streaming.
Then you have to consider your internet ISP data allowance, if that applies.

 

[ra1nman]

I like it, jumped on their 3 month promotion to get a discount on a Fire TV. Considering I only watch 1/3 of the channels they offer it works out pretty good. The single stream that they limit you to is a non issue since i'm the only one watching the majority of the time.

 

[13Gigatons]

I hope it doesn't get popular otherwise it will give other streaming services ideas that they can jack up the rate.

 

[vi edit]

I've been highly annoyed by it. I have *zero* issues with Netflix or Amazon prime streaming video. They take about 10 seconds to buffer initially and then are flawless after that.

Sling? Good freaking luck. Half the time the app loads I get a blank screen. The time that it does work it may run for 2-5 minutes and then stall out for 30 seconds with the "spinning circle of buffer purgatory" on screen. Then it will try and resume and I'll get some moving pixelated garbage for another minute or two until it catches up.

It's infuriating. Last night I was *trying* to watch the Bulls vs Cavs on TNT. It was aweful and I was ready to cancel my subscription right then and there. I'll wait for the series to get over so I can at least attempt to watch the rest and then cancel.

I'm done with it. And when it does work, it's got some sort of annoying frame rate issue where it's not really running full frame and it bugs my eyes out.

I'm doing this from an Xbox One. Haven't tried any other streaming platform for it.

 

[gorcorps]

I've been highly annoyed by it. I have *zero* issues with Netflix or Amazon prime streaming video. They take about 10 seconds to buffer initially and then are flawless after that.

Sling? Good freaking luck. Half the time the app loads I get a blank screen. The time that it does work it may run for 2-5 minutes and then stall out for 30 seconds with the "spinning circle of buffer purgatory" on screen. Then it will try and resume and I'll get some moving pixelated garbage for another minute or two until it catches up.

It's infuriating. Last night I was *trying* to watch the Bulls vs Cavs on TNT. It was aweful and I was ready to cancel my subscription right then and there. I'll wait for the series to get over so I can at least attempt to watch the rest and then cancel.

I'm done with it. And when it does work, it's got some sort of annoying frame rate issue where it's not really running full frame and it bugs my eyes out.

I'm doing this from an Xbox One. Haven't tried any other streaming platform for it.

Huh, that's no good

I might do a trial on my Roku to see if it has the same issues. If it worked as well as the other streaming apps I'd probably get it just for ESPN alone (MNF).

 

[NuclearNed]

I've liked it a lot so far. I get virtually all the channels that I previously watched on Dish, but at only $20 a month. In the Fall, I'll probably pick up the sports pack for football. The only annoyance I have is that sometimes it freezes/locks up. I don't know if that problem is with the SlingTV app, or with the Fire Stick...

 

[Genx87]

Sounds interesting. I may get an amazon fire tv stick and get a free trial of this. The biggest thing is the ability to watch food network. If that can be accomplished then we are golden.

Would be nice to have a DVR function however.

 

[sourceninja]

...

 

[saratoga172]

When it works it works great. That's about 50% of the time though. Last night I had the clippers and rockets game running on my pc and the it started getting mini skips. This happens after about 20 minutes of run time. Then the audio gets out of sync and will sometimes loop.

Other times it just won't load at all. And others it will jump between super pixelated and hd quality. It's improved quite a bit over the past month.

For reference I run it on my pc most with a 75/75 connection and a direct connection. Other times on my iPhone 6 over wifi. Seems to be a little better on the phone when it launches. And sometimes on the Xbox one across my apartment on wireless n.

 

[webdave]

Sounds interesting. I may get an amazon fire tv stick and get a free trial of this. The biggest thing is the ability to watch food network. If that can be accomplished then we are golden.

Would be nice to have a DVR function however.

If you sign up for 3 months you can get a free fire stick or $50 off a fire tv. Food network works fine and it has some DVR functions. Each channel has on demand shows. You can pause/rewind/fast forward shows as well.

 

[webdave]

I've been highly annoyed by it. I have *zero* issues with Netflix or Amazon prime streaming video. They take about 10 seconds to buffer initially and then are flawless after that.

Sling? Good freaking luck. Half the time the app loads I get a blank screen. The time that it does work it may run for 2-5 minutes and then stall out for 30 seconds with the "spinning circle of buffer purgatory" on screen. Then it will try and resume and I'll get some moving pixelated garbage for another minute or two until it catches up.

It's infuriating. Last night I was *trying* to watch the Bulls vs Cavs on TNT. It was aweful and I was ready to cancel my subscription right then and there. I'll wait for the series to get over so I can at least attempt to watch the rest and then cancel.

I'm done with it. And when it does work, it's got some sort of annoying frame rate issue where it's not really running full frame and it bugs my eyes out.

I'm doing this from an Xbox One. Haven't tried any other streaming platform for it.

I watch on Xbox and Roku. The Xbox has had issues since the app came out. Having to force close the app is common. I don't have any of the issues I have on the Xbox on the Roku.

 

[Genx87]

If you sign up for 3 months you can get a free fire stick or $50 off a fire tv. Food network works fine and it has some DVR functions. Each channel has on demand shows. You can pause/rewind/fast forward shows as well.

Saw that. Probably go that route. At worst I am out 20 bucks if Sling TV sucks. But still have the Amazon Fire Stick.

 

[Xonim]

If you sign up for 3 months you can get a free fire stick or $50 off a fire tv. Food network works fine and it has some DVR functions. Each channel has on demand shows. You can pause/rewind/fast forward shows as well.

I've been on the fence about signing up, mainly for base + sports package and maybe HBO ... I wasn't aware of this offer. Tracked it down, going to run it by the wife, but I think we're probably going to go with it.

So question...

I currently have one TV hooked to htpc, one w/ Chromecast, and I'm happy with both of those. The 3rd TV is hooked to a laptop that needs to be replaced but I've been putting it off. Would I be better off with a fireTV box or stick for the 3rd TV?

 

[Majes]

The concept is great. The execution is quite lacking.
Load times are very long.
Sometimes it doesn't load.
Half the time it works fine.
The other half it's blurry or buffering.
Every week or two there's a night it wont work at all.
The interface controls are very poor (amazon fire remote) There's no way to go to a previous channel, user must scroll through an extremely laggy animated side scrolling list.
There have been a few times where the schedule is hours behind the programming and other times when it's just simply incorrect.

I figured it was just new software that has been poorly implemented. But it looks like some people are using it with no issues. I wouldn't use it other than the fact that it's saving me 50 bucks a month right now. It does work well enough to catch the ESPN coverage I need most of the time. When it doesn't work I just watch the gamecast online and rage.

 

[Vdubchaos]

We hardly ever watch TV anymore, mostly sports.

Shows that I want to watch, I just wait until they are released on netflix. I can wait...

 

[Alienwho]

If the new rumor of the XBOX one getting DVR functionality is true and it works both with the OTA antenna AND slingTV I'll purchase it for sure. We enjoyed our one month free trial but not enough to pay for it. I'd love to retire my HTPC setup for the above.

 

[Blanky]

I did 7 days. It was okay but I only used it for hgtv. The problem with it compared to Netflix and Hulu which I both subscribe to is that if you think I am paying $20/month to watch hgtv AND watch all the full length ads you can suck a load. Hulu has ads but they are short and merciful. Sling is simply too expensive at this time.

 

[Blanky]

If the new rumor of the XBOX one getting DVR functionality is true and it works both with the OTA antenna AND slingTV I'll purchase it for sure. We enjoyed our one month free trial but not enough to pay for it. I'd love to retire my HTPC setup for the above.

Would be great if Xbox one could prewatch hulu for me and DVD it. I would get a refurb for the main room just for that probably

 

[KeithP]

It is a mess. The UI is horrible, some channels have DVR like functions some don't and that can change on per show basis.

And don't come back with "the content owners restrict the DVR functions BS". So what? That doesn't make the end user experience any less frustrating.

-KeithP

 

[ElFenix]

When it works it works great. That's about 50% of the time though. Last night I had the clippers and rockets game running on my pc and the it started getting mini skips. This happens after about 20 minutes of run time. Then the audio gets out of sync and will sometimes loop.

clippers-rockets was crapping out on watch tnt as well. didn't have the other issues, though. :shrug:

 

[Blanky]

It is a mess. The UI is horrible, some channels have DVR like functions some don't and that can change on per show basis.

And don't come back with "the content owners restrict the DVR functions BS". So what? That doesn't make the end user experience any less frustrating.

-KeithP

yeah I noticed inconsistency watching the same show on hgtv. I swear I was able to fwd through a commercial one time but another couldn't.

 

[slayer202]

damn, I guess it's not worth trying