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I went on Sling TV's website and I am totally confused. I have had either cable or cable through Verizon Fios for like ever. I only have one smart TV in my house. So would I plug the Fire Stick they provide into The USB port on my smart TV and would I be ready to go or is there more to it?
I think you can use it on multiple devices - I did a free trial of it because I was away, am obsessed with Mad Men, and the place had no cable...downloaded the Sling app to my tablet and was able to watch it live. Really easy to set up, probably the same for fire stick. I didn't subscribe because I'm not ready to cut the cord, but Sling is a complete game changer and I probably will cut it one of these days.
I went on Sling TV's website and I am totally confused. I have had either cable or cable through Verizon Fios for like ever. I only have one smart TV in my house. So would I plug the Fire Stick they provide into The USB port on my smart TV and would I be ready to go or is there more to it?
The PC (personal experience) and XBOX apps (anecdotal evidence) are garbage with constant freezing, crashes or audio loops/delayed audio or errors at startup. The PC app hasn't been updated in weeks. Supposedly the service works better on Roku and Fire TV. I chose the Fire Stick with my promo and it works somewhat better. Better than on the PC for sure but periodic quality drops occur with that device as well.
PQ is often quite poor in dark scenes due to crushed blacks
This is assuming you can watch the service at all without buffering or crashing during popular shows like NCAA Final Four or Mad Men
At this point, I basically only use the service for WatchESPN credentials, which works flawlessly on the same computer that chokes on the channel with Sling PC app. No chance I'll renew after my 3 months are up.
Actually, you don't need any cable/satellite account/service.. all you need to do is sign up (for 7 day free trial). Then you can view Sling TV on your computer, Roku box, Amazon Fire box/USB, XBox, mobile app, et. al.
The only caveat is that unlike Hulu+ or Netflix you can't stream to multiple devices w/ the same Sling TV account! So if you want to stream to multiple destinations (TVs, computers, tablets, smart phones, etc.) you may want to consider investing in Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV (but confirm as I'm not sure it can d/l Sling yet)... or build a home theatre PC w/ XBMC, MythTV etc. so you can stream movies, TV content, music, videos, pics etc to any destination/node in you home or office ;-)...
Are you kidding me??? You quote a DISH TV tool as a spokesperson LOL! I've streamed Sling TV over Roku, XBMC and Fire and NEVER seen ANY issues w/ pixeling, buffering or "blank plague"... in fact, I'd have to say that the signal is SIGNIFICANLY better than I've personally experienced from TWC or DISH LOL!
Actually, you don't need any cable/satellite account/service.. all you need to do is sign up (for 7 day free trial). Then you can view Sling TV on your computer, Roku box, Amazon Fire box/USB, XBox, mobile app, et. al.
The only caveat is that unlike Hulu+ or Netflix you can't stream to multiple devices w/ the same Sling TV account! So if you want to stream to multiple destinations (TVs, computers, tablets, smart phones, etc.) you may want to consider investing in Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV (but confirm as I'm not sure it can d/l Sling yet)... or build a home theatre PC w/ XBMC, MythTV etc. so you can stream movies, TV content, music, videos, pics etc to any destination/node in you home or office ;-)...
Does streaming these types of services have anything to do with your current internet provider? Currently all I use my computer and internet services for is keeping up with banking, credit cards and occasional message board viewing. Aren't internet providers going to be charging more based on usage in the future or am I reading all of this incorrectly?
Good question. Streaming video takes considerable bandwidth so it'll affect your Internet connection to some degree (the impact will depend on your connection's speed), so in that sense your ISP may "charge you more" as you may decide you need to increase your throughput due to the video-streaming and order more bandwidth. However, your ISP can't charge you more for using bandwidth for any specific purpose, or for type of (legal) use, so long as it's not a throttled or on-demand connection (like ISDN used to be).
Good question. Streaming video takes considerable bandwidth so it'll affect your Internet connection to some degree (the impact will depend on your connection's speed), so in that sense your ISP may "charge you more" as you may decide you need to increase your throughput due to the video-streaming and order more bandwidth. However, your ISP can't charge you more for using bandwidth for any specific purpose, or for type of (legal) use, so long as it's not a throttled or on-demand connection (like ISDN used to be).
Yep... astounding that we're still charged per GB on cellular contracts. If they could get away with it, home ISPs would charge per kb, lol.
Are you kidding me??? You quote a DISH TV tool as a spokesperson LOL! I've streamed Sling TV over Roku, XBMC and Fire and NEVER seen ANY issues w/ pixeling, buffering or "blank plague"... in fact, I'd have to say that the signal is SIGNIFICANLY better than I've personally experienced from TWC or DISH LOL!
Dish Network owns and operates Sling TV but please, feel free to keep resorting to hyperbole instead of facts. Your personal anecdotes obviously are indicative of everyone else's experience and clearly even trump an admission by Sling's owner of technical inadequacy.
Dish Network owns and operates Sling TV but please, feel free to keep resorting to hyperbole instead of facts. Your personal anecdotes obviously are indicative of everyone else's experience and clearly even trump an admission by Sling's owner of technical inadequacy.
As a Sling user, I have not had a perfect experience, and I have seen Ergen's comments. That said, it has been good enough for me. My (old) Roku 2 struggles to the point it's unusable, but the Roku 3 is fine. I suspect folks' bandwidth plays a difference, too. I have friends who are constantly buffering with Netflix on their ISP, and I doubt they'd have a good experience. OTOH, Earthlink via TWC works great for me on Netflix and, with the right streaming device, Sling.
I do use Sling largely for ESPN, and of course can use my Sling credentials on WatchESPN, so there's that. I do think they can improve the service, but for my early-adopter needs, I'm satisfied for now.
As a Sling user, I have not had a perfect experience, and I have seen Ergen's comments. That said, it has been good enough for me. My (old) Roku 2 struggles to the point it's unusable, but the Roku 3 is fine. I suspect folks' bandwidth plays a difference, too. I have friends who are constantly buffering with Netflix on their ISP, and I doubt they'd have a good experience. OTOH, Earthlink via TWC works great for me on Netflix and, with the right streaming device, Sling.
I do use Sling largely for ESPN, and of course can use my Sling credentials on WatchESPN, so there's that. I do think they can improve the service, but for my early-adopter needs, I'm satisfied for now.
I was happy to give them a shot for three months and still get something tangible like the free Fire Stick out of it but I canceled. The nice thing is after cancellation, they let you use the service until the pre-paid expiration date so no worries there. Like we've both said, WatchESPN works great. I'll use that for the last month.
If they can eventually get their PC app working properly and stay out of the news for dropping the ball during big events, I'll give them another shot later this year. Until then, I'm not going to fund what is essentially a beta product on multiple platforms or pay $20/mo for one usable channel (WatchESPN) on my HTPC.
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