Sling tv

RavingMac

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Not sure this is really the best place to post this, here goes.

Thinking of dumping DISH and had been hoping for Apple to announce their rumored service early this month (which didn't happen). Now I am considering going with SLING TV (from DISH).

Anyone tried it? If so:

1) How are you getting it (Roku, PC/Mac App, Other)?
2) Do you like it?
3) What about local channels?
4) Comments, thoughts or general advice?

Thanks
 

bobtomay

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I'm in the process of dumping Dish.

I just subscribed to SlingTV a week ago. Thus far all I've watched from SlingTV was the last episode of Fear the Walking Dead and a couple of Chopped episodes using Airplay to the AppleTV from my Mac. Haven't set it up on the Roku yet. There is no record and watch later option which is the biggie to deal with if you're in the habit of only watching pre-recorded so you can skip commercials. The other is no single guide showing the listing for all the channels, so you have to go through each channel one at a time to see what's on or get a channel guide somewhere else. I'm planning on giving them the $20 for 2-3 months before I decide to keep it or not. I don't know that I'll be able to get into a habit of needing to sit down at a specific time to watch a show I want to see again or not. You may as well get their free week subscription and try it out. I still don't know how to watch any of the Epix channels on it. - edit - have to subscribe separate for them...

For OTA, I bought the $49 Tivo and a lifetime subscription at half price (Labor Day weekend sale) and a 3 yr warranty since the subscription dies with the unit - cost me less than I'd been paying for 2 months worth of Dish. Already had a good rooftop style antenna I had set up in the attic a few years ago. The Tivo picked up 80+ local channels here - my favorites list still has about 40 of those. Some of the features are not quite up to the standards of the Dish Hopper and I'm still figuring out all the stuff it has to offer, but I already highly recommend it. I've got my Netflix, Amazon, and Vudu accounts set up on it. Heard Hulu is now offering an ad free service, but haven't checked it out yet - will need to compare that to SlingTV if they are.

When it comes right down to it, I can purchase every single TV show that is not free OTA and that I both want and have time to watch for at least $1-1.5k less a year than what we'd been paying Dish.

edit: Just looked and Tivo still has the lifetime pass at half price on the OTA only Roamio. Based only on my last couple weeks with the unit, I have no hesitation in saying if you're considering dumping cable/satellite - do it and get the Roamio.

Have to take a look at what you really watch & want or you could end up spending close to the same as cable or sat and have to deal with multiple devices to watch.
$20 for Sling + $5 for Epix & TCM
$12 for Hulu + $9 for Showtime.
$15 for HBO from several places now.
Figure in another $9 for the Tivo service if you buy lifetime.
And all of a sudden you're up to $70
What I want is Encore Westerns and haven't found a way to get that yet.
Encore is going to need to step up to the plate with everyone else or get left behind.
 
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RavingMac

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Thanks, Tom.
This is the kind of info I've been looking for. FWIW I hadn't realized the channels on Sling weren't on-demand. That in itself is a deal killer.
What I am now considering is to get the TiVo pkg, and then just buy the shows we watch through iTunes. Every time I've looked at this I end up spending at lot less than my Dish subscription.
 

bobtomay

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Browsed the Sling app a little more this morning.

A few - History, A&E, HGTV, Food Network, Lifetime you can scroll back up to 72 hours and watch those shows or restart a currently playing show from the beginning. Epix you can watch anything that's aired in the last week.

Most of the others - AMC, TNT, TBS, TCM, IFC, Sundance, ABC Family, Disney, ESPN - you can only tune in to live TV.

Still no guide like we're use to - the only "guide" - only shows what is "currently" playing - no view to see what's up next except to look at every individual channel.

Don't yet know if the Roku app has more flexibility or not yet.

Individual shows, I'll likely split between iTunes and Vudu, whichever has the cheapest price at the time I'm ready to push the buy button.
 
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bobtomay

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One thing to consider when getting the Tivo - whether to buy the 3 yr warranty or not. I typically do not buy any warranties, but did this time only because the Lifetime subscription belongs to the device - not the user. Looking at upgrading the recording capacity this morning and you have to use an external eSATA drive - the only one they advertise from WD is no longer manufactured but is available from Amazon and is a 1TB drive. You can easily upgrade the internal drive - and WD makes up to 3TB drives specifically for this use, but that would void the warranty. Guess I'll worry about that later if/when I start running our of space on the 500GB drive it comes with.

I'm also wondering if Tivo is about to come out with a new Roamio - maybe one that uses a USB 3 drive. The options to purchase the year or lifetime subscription were not available on this device previous to this month.
 

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Thanks for the great info guys. I've been keeping an eye on more of these devices as cable costs rise. Unfortunately to get good Internet speed I'm having to carry some channels we never watch these days. The lack of any kind of integrated guide would drive my wife nuts. Wouldn't do much for my sanity either.
 

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The Tivo is a very nice device with integrated guide and 4 tuner recording capacity. Don't think I've had it set to record more than 2 at a time yet, but it also records stuff it thinks you might like as long as you have room on the drive. I've found a few shows it's recorded on it's own that were right up my alley - has a thumbs up/down button you can use so it will learn the type of shows you like.
 
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Update:
1) Went to TiVo site and deal not available, but googled Lifetime Service Sale, followed link and it allowed me to purchase TiVo Roamie with 1/2 price service. Account and email shows order is processing, so we shall see if it actually ships.
2) While searching, I ran across info for a Dvr from a company named Tablo. It purports to record OTA and Streaming, currently works best with Roku as streaming content source.
3) I just happen to have an old WD eSata Drive (used it for expansion on a previous Dish DVR)

EDIT: Link to info on Tablo DVR
https://www.tablotv.com/
 
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Slydude

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I had an old Series 2 TiVo years ago. I liked it but my wife hated it because the tuner kept changing the channel in the middle of the night as it did it's data dump. Our cable company is now using a TiVo box as their cable box. We looked at it recently, because our current box is being erratic. If we have to replace the current box, I think all of the replacements are TiVo units.

@Tom I did not see any way for the TiVo to let you build up a series of favorite channels and go directly to those channels quickly. Did you notice any way to easily create a list of favorite channels? I was able to duplicate similar behavior using the Blu-moo device for the iPad. I was also wondering if you are able to disregard YouTube and other "non-television" results in the search function? Hope that isn't too confusing.

@RavingMac Alas TiVo dropped the lifetime service contract some time ago. There was some question at this time whether " lifetime" meant the life of the machine or the life of the customer. I did not bother arguing with them because at the time we were not using our TiVo and knew that I had forgotten all of my account information and couldn't pull all of the information off of the TiVo.
 

chscag

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I wish you guys would quit talking about saving money with all these new fangled gadgets. Just do like I did and sell your soul to Verizon and put up with their rising prices and useless channels - currently $120/month and going up after this contract expires. Remember that old song by Tennessee Ernie Ford? 16 Tons of number 9 coal and you owe your soul to the company store (Verizon). :Shouting: ;P
 
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RavingMac

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I wish you guys would quit talking about saving money with all these new fangled gadgets. Just do like I did and sell your soul to Verizon and put up with their rising prices and useless channels - currently $120/month and going up after this contract expires. Remember that old song by Tennessee Ernie Ford? 16 Tons of number 9 coal and you owe your soul to the company store (Verizon). :Shouting: ;P

Lol

:D
 

bobtomay

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You can set your favorite channels - have to go into Settings - Channels - Channel List and mark your favorites - The Guide then has an option to show all or your favorites. So, I had to make a list prior to going in to mark them.

Don't see a way to limit where it searches online and don't see that as an issue either since any search result default option (if it is available on TV) is to record the next episode or create a pass from the results screen. You have to move from the default option to do anything with the other locations a show may be available.

I looked at the Tablo - it was going to cost more 1st year than the Tivo with lifetime service since the 4 tuner Tablo was $300 and then still have to pay a monthly subscription and buy a hard drive to use it. Read quite a few reviews comparing them also and the Tivo just seemed to be rated better over all. The Tablo could have one leg up if it automatically shows all your Roku stuff on the Tablo instead of having to switch between devices - but I don't think that's the way it works. Think they just have an app for the Roku.
 
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RavingMac

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Advantage of the Tablo to me (if it works) is ability to record Sling TV shows.
 
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RavingMac

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U

Thanks for that info. Got the "records streaming" from an online article comparing DVR options (will have to see if I can find it again).

I trust Tablo's take on this more the article I read, so that makes the TiVo the hands down choice IMO. DVR without channel guide is next to useless, and I would bet more heavily on TiVo being around 3 years from now to provide one, than a company I only just read about today.

EDIT: Found it, and of course, I misread the article. ;P
Doesn't say exactly what ?I thought it did.
http://www.cutcabletoday.com/ota-dvr-comparison/
 
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RavingMac

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Adding this post because thread says there should be two more, but system won't let me see 2nd page that it claims is there.
 

chscag

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I'm replying via the mobile app. It appears we are under attack again.

Probably best not to reply to messages unless you're using the mobile app.


Sent from my iPhone using Mac Forums
 
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RavingMac

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TiVo has shipped. Will update after I get it and have a chance to play with it for awhile.
 
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RavingMac

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TiVo is here. Seems to work well, but right now on the wrong side of the learning curve. Didn't expect the guide and operation to be that much different from DISH . . . Wrong!
 

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My wife is not a fan of TiVo either. She didn't like the guide either. She almost did a happy dance recently when we finally trashed our Series 2 unit a few weeks ago.
 

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