RichC2

They have big issues during Adult Swim on a near nightly basis, it's annoying.

bluetoast

I dropped it a month or so ago. Wasn't using it too much, and would cut out or get choppy during the main times I would use it (Mad Men, Walking Dead).

Eddie W

I have now dropped this for the 2nd and last time. The only reason I re-subbed was so I could watch Banshee on Cinemax for the 2 months it's on. But it's so un-watchable that I'd rather skip it altogether.

I'm an all streaming guy so I've got them all. But this is in a class by itself. Clunky software that makes if difficult to even channel surf. Then if you land on a channel the picture quality fluctuates wildly between 'meh' and 'Real Player circa 2002'. That is, when it's not buffering & stops altogether.

Good idea I guess, but man this service needs some work.

EddieMoney

Currently finishing up another "trial" run. Seems to work well, but I won't pay for it. When I had 18 MB Internet, it was a mess. My service now is 60 MB and it runs fine, but Jesus, no one should NEED that speed for streaming.

RichC2

It only uses 5mbps, you may of just had an inconsistent signal with your ISP, or Sling (One of the reasons I switched to Playstation Vue was my inability to watch Adult Swim of all things. It would freeze and drop constantly around the same time every night). I think that their buffering also just isn't up to par yet (of course, that would cause a Live TV time delay)

bluetoast

Oh yeah the menus and navigation are awful.

Meathead

I picked it up again to get the Final Four games... It was working for the most part, including the 1st two episodes of Fear the Walking Dead (but that could be it's not popular enough anymore to be an issue). It was terrible in the hour leading up to the GoT premiere last night. They still can't handle peak viewing times. I was getting dropouts and bandwidth down to .3MB/s. I ran a Speedtest from another device at the same time and got full speed to servers hundreds of miles away. It's Sling's crappy service not my internet. At least the free trial of HBONOW worked flawlessly for the GoT premiere.

They've now added an additional service that gives 3 streams plus FOX,FS1,Nat Geo, FX in place of ESPN/2, Disney, FreeForm and something else. They can't even get 1 stream working properly...

I'm dropping again when the month is up.

JCWBobC

The new Sling TV beta package has multiple streams but no Disney or kids channels.

HBO Now wouldn't work at all last night when I tried to sign up as it kept looping back to the renew screen. According to a lot of people on Facebook they all had the same problem. On Sling it blacked out every few seconds and all they said was to close the app and go back into it, which didn't solve anything.

Meathead

Yeah they swapped out the Disney channels (including ESPN) for the Fox Channels. If you want both it's $39.98/mo and an even more clunky interface. But at this price... might as well go back to cable.

I couldn't sign up for HBO Now directly via my Amazon Fire TV. I called HBO Now's support and they had me sign up thru Apple/iTunes and then sign in on the Fire TV. Apparently there are issues (even if you are able to sign up) with the account via Amazon. I had no issues streaming the GoT premiere.

mike1977

I couldn't even log in to reactivate my account. I then launched the app on my Roku and found out why... my account email was changed to DM (plus some numbers) before my email address. And there isn't anywhere to update your email.

Ky-Fi

So I've had Sling for about 3 months now with my Roku, and I love it.

I don't have superfast internet, so I have to make sure I have no other devices accessing, but when I do that I rarely get any problems. Once in a while the video quality drops down a notch, but a few seconds later it usually goes back to HD. I have cable for the local channels, and Sling gives me just the additional stuff I was looking for: weeknight sports with the ESPN channels, AMC for their originals, and a couple movie channels---especially El Rey, that plays the kind of movies I like.

This was pretty much exactly what I was looking for, and it works great. And compared to dealing with cable companies, this part was astounding: they told me what channels I'd get, they said it would be $19.99 a month----and I actually get those channels, and my bill is actually $19.99 a month.

EddieMoney

I am trying it again, and it is running faster and smoother than it ever did for me before.

Ky-Fi

Sling has added Comedy Central and BBC America to its basic lineup, and now it's also offering all the Fox and NBC (including sports) networks on other packages. It seems they're getting some regional sports networks, as well.

https://www.sling.com/

JCWBobC

Just wanted to let wrestling fans know that Axis TV on Sling airs NJPW from this year and will be having 2 live shows in July. They are advertising a G1 special from California on July 1st & 7th.

Meathead

Their customer service and support continues to be abysmal. I was on the legacy blue pricing ($19.99). In April I made an change to the extras then when my account cycled I lost the entire base package (only had the extras). They did get the rest of the channels back that day and said it was a system issue. After weeks of waiting for my account to be straightened out (and several emails that it would be fixed) I came to find out they discontinued legacy pricing in April. No notice to subscribers or their technical department (as that was the issue with losing the base channels).

Their support is so bad they were telling me the legacy pricing was still valid (and would be fixed) and it was discontinued in support emails... at the exact same time.

DJariya

I subscribed for the past 6 months mainly to have access to Pac-12 Network (I work there and my provider, Directv, doesn't have it)

However, with it being summer now and my work there being on hiatus (no sports in summer), I decided to cancel. I may come back again in the Fall. But, I don't need to spend the extra $25/month right now when I'm paying for Directv. I did see they added cloud DVR capabilities. I was also finding that I have an over-abundance of content to watch.

stingermck

Univison just dropped El Rey from Sling. And now time for me to drop Sling

kenbuzz

I had been getting bundled TV, Phone and Internet services from a local Telco that invested heavily in FTTH technology... and I have been extremely happy with their service and pricing compared to the other nearby options (AT&T U-Verse and Comcast). I was grandfathered under an older package that capped my speeds at 50/20 and had been considering signing up for new 1G service when I learned that they were planning to re-do everything anyway as they were going to get out of the TV business as of 31 October.

Seems that so many of their customers had switched over to OTT services to stream TV programming that it was really no longer cost-effective for them to offer TV - the combination of increasing access charges from the content providers (see "ESPN") and the dwindling number of home subscribers to spread those costs across were going to result in HUGE price increases... thus driving more customers to OTT solutions, and increasing the death spiral.

Consequently, my service dropped from $140/month to $70/month, and my internet speed increased sixfold from 50/20 to 300/300. I signed up for Sling because with the local telco dropping TV I would no longer have access to NFL Red Zone this fall. I really only watch Live TV for sports anyway. I opted for the Sling Blue package ($25/mo) because it includes NBC/FOX and their regional sports networks, which I felt was more important to me than the ESPN/Disney channels in the Sling Orange ($25/mo) package. It also gets me SYFY and FX/FXX (which Orange does not). If I find that I can't live without ESPN, I can upgrade to the combined Orange+Blue servce for $15/mo extra but it's gonna be a tough sell. The upside is that with Blue I can get Red Zone as part of the Sports Extras package ($10/mo), which also includes NHL Network and BEIN Sports (among others) and I can subscribe to all of that when I need it this fall.

I also signed up for the $5/mo DVR (50h) service. Combining that with the ability to stream at home on my Roku, on the road via my Chromebook, or (sitting at my desk) on my Smartphone is nice. And I've not experienced ANY of the quality or service availability issues mentioned previously in this thread.

My total monthly cost is $30 right now ($25 for Sling Blue + $5 for DVR). It will go up to $40 during football season. Combine that with the $20/mo I'm now paying to get the local Indianapolis channels live via OTT, my total cost will be $50/mo ($60 in the fall). That means I'm still saving money (my telco bill went down $70) and I'm getting significantly faster internet speeds. Much more for much less.

I realize that channel lineups change frequently. For those who are interested, here's a rundown of the current differences between the three basic sign-up options:

Common Channels:
A&E, AMC, AXS TV, BBC America, Bloomberg TV, Cartoon Network, Cheddar, Cheddar Big News, CNN, Comedy Central, El Rey(*), EPIX Drive-In, Food Network, Fuse, HGTV, History Channel, IFC, Lifetime, Local Now, Newsy, TBS, TNT, Travel Channel, Tribeca Shortlist, Viceland

Unique to Sling Orange:
ACC Network Extra, Disney Channel, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, Freeform

Unique to Sling Blue:
BET, Bravo, FOX, FOX Sports 1, FOX Sports 2, FOX Sports Regional Channel(s), FX, FXX, Galavision(*), National Geographic, Nat Geo Wild, NBC, NBCSN, NBC Sports Regional Channel(s), NFL Network, Nick Jr, SYFY, truTV, Univision(*), USA

(*) - Currently off the air due to Univision pulling service.

It's $25 for Orange or Blue, or $40 for both.

Here in Bloomington I get FOX Sports Cincinnati, FOX Sports Midwest, and NBC Sports Chicago. So I get all the Reds and Blues games, and can monitor the Blackhawks to see if their fans have stopped disrespecting the anthem or not. Lol.

The Sports Extra package lineup and price depends on your baseline package.

Sling Orange Sports Extra ($5/mo addl) adds:
ESPN SEC, ESPN SEC+, ESPN U, ESPN NEWS, ESPN Goal Line, ESPN Bases Loaded

Sling Blue Sports Extra ($10/mo addl) adds:
NFL Red Zone, Golf Channel, Olympic Channel

Sling Orange+Blue Sports Extra ($10/mo addl) adds:
All channels shown above.

And all of these include these same core Sports channels:
NBA TV, PAC 12, NHL Network, BEIN Sports, Stadium and Outside TV

TheBigDave

Sling TV is offering new customers a free Roku Express or 50% Off a Roku Ultra.

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/deal...-roku-express/

kenbuzz

^ Yup. I got the Express, even though I've got tons of Rokus already. Figured I could flip it on eBay or donate it to a needy Otter.

thematahara

So, looks like Dish pulled HBO off of Sat and Sling TV.

Ive been using sling for around 2 years now and have been pretty happy with it, but this is probably a deal breaker.

How are the other choices between Hulu, Playstation, etc?

kefrank

Hulu Live appears to be the best value, but unfortunately the only platforms that it works on are the following:
This makes it a no-go for people who have smart (non-Samsung) TVs that are Android TV-based or do their streaming through the PS3/PS4, which happens to be my two use cases. I have Chromecast as well, but they don't handle 60fps so that's a no-go for sports, which is the main reason I have broadcast TV at all.

I've been doing Playstation Vue for several months now and I've been very happy with it overall. It has some unique features on the PS4 that are nice, including 2- or 3-program split screen.

piranesi

In the last two weeks ATT has killed off my wife's favorite streaming service (Drama fever), my favorite streaming service (Filmstruck), mainly it seems because they don't want what they call "niche" content distracting from their massive tentpole IP they're gong to inject into their own watered-down streaming service, and now they're essentially trying to kill my sat. company by leveraging their content acquisitions to force me onto their own platform.

I'm going to stick with Dish as long as I can against this crapcan monopoly that's forming. hell, Game of Thrones stopped being unpredictable or interesting two years ago.

But as the ATT armada keeps growing, the high seas are looking more and more bootyful every day. Yaaaaargh, mateys.

shadokitty

I noticed a few days ago that Sling has added some of the Discovery family of channels. No Discovery, Animal Planet, or Science, but they have added Destination America, AHC, and ID. Perhaps the others will come in time. Or maybe they are in a different package.

The Questyen

I have a free Sling 30 day code if anyone wants it.