Sling TV or.........?

lncoop

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Apr 18, 2010
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Thinking about going with Sling for my brain rotting entertainment needs. $20 per month gets me all the necessary channels and then some. Of course I'll need the internets, but it appears I can get 45 Mbps for $40 per month from AT&T. $60 per month is considerably less than I'd pay for fewer channels from any other provider and as such is a cost I find not infuriating, not to mention Sling has no contract which is also a good thing. My questions are these. Am I missing anything? What do I need to consider, in particular with regard to having multiple TVs in the house? Will this work? Would those who do this or similar recommend it (or similar)? Talk to me like I'm five.
 

GA_Boater

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A 5 year old would have no trouble! LOL

Sling Orange streams to one device - TV, PC, Phone, etc. Sling Blue allows multiple devices, so you need Blue to use more than one device at the same time.

Smart TV's with Internet should have no trouble playing a Sling stream. Dumb TVs need a streaming stick, like a Roku Express - Currently a free Sling offer by prepaying 2 months. There are many other reasonably priced sticks - Fire stick, Chromecast and others.
 

GA_Boater

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Yes, the Internet replaces cable, satellite and over the air antenna sources. So you need Internet access.
 

dingbat

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We cut the cable 4 months ago. I could write a novel on the things both good and bad I've learned since.

Internet connect: Keep in mind, its all about bandwidth, not speed. All told, we have 9-10 devices on-line at any given time. We ended up dumping Verizon's router for a Netgear Nighthawk to keep up with everything and upgrade from Verizon Fios 50/50 service to 100/100 to minimizing pausing.

For whatever reason, Sling and Samsung didn't get together to write an interface. You will need a third party interface to get Sling on a Samsung device. We took advantage of Sling's "pay in advance" offer for a pair of Roku sticks.

Different providers carry different channels. Selecting a provider is more about what you watch that anything else. We use Netflix more than Sling and we use "other" free TV networks /services more than the first two combined. Lots of movie and "open content" services available on-line for free. The problem is finding them. There is no "road map" per say and new content pops up all the time.

If your into sports, there is very little free content available leaving you to purchase some sort of the sports package if that's your thing. I could care less about watching anything other than our local sports teams so I bought a pair of rabbit ears for the flat screen. We now get 63 channels of local content and sports in HD as well.

There is no such things as "nothing to watch" on TV anymore ;)
 

jkust

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Aug 2, 2008
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We are subject to one single cable carrier for connecting to the internet which is Comcast. The most bare bones price just to get on the internet at the lowest speed available is $77 per month. To go one step further our almost completely bare bones satellite package is $194 per month but we use it at our main house and in the summer at our lake house where there is only satellite as a means to get tv. One of my tv's has I think a Chromecast built into it. It seems like nothing is actually free to watch when I play around with it.
 
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Tnstratofam

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Aug 18, 2013
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2,679
We got rid of cable 6 years ago. We have 2 Roku streaming devices, and our son uses an apple streaming device in his room. We have 60 meg high speed internet through Charter. We also have a newer high speed wireless router which is a must if you have multiple devices streaming and or online in general. We also have an antenna for over the air local channels.

I'm not into sports enough to miss much, and there are some tv series that I have to wait a bit before they show up on either Hulu or Netflix. Cable runs about $60 per month, Hulu runs about $9 per month, Netflix about $9 per month. We are probably going to end up getting a subscription to Amazon prime at some point. For now we spend around $80 per month and have plenty of tv to watch. There are plenty of other free channels available both movie and tv on our streaming devices.


Pretty happy to pay the $80 we do now versus the $160 we were paying.
 

MTboatguy

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Jul 8, 2010
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Well I just paid my second month of sling, it is okay, not great, has quite a few glitches, but it works, I cut the satellite back at the end of November and have been with Prime, Hulu, Netflix and now sling, paying about $50 a month instead of $110 a month and for the most part happy, I am not happy, because so far I have not been able to find a solution to watching Daytona and the first few races of the season, but I will survive.

The one thing about sling that is really a pain, sometimes it will just stop, and you have to reboot the system to get back to working, so it is not quite up to snuff YET but they assure me it will get better.

There are pluses and minuses to going without sat or cable and I will continue with what I have right now, over paying the inflated prices that cable and satellite want.

That said, I am happy with the radio I listen to each day!
 

roscoe

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Oct 30, 2002
Messages
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No over the air available here since they went digital.
Only slow 2Mbps dsl available for $96.
Netflix for $10.

Just can't see spending more for more services, for the hour a day that I spend watching tv.

the roommate watches a bunch of tv, but not my problem
 

Tnstratofam

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Aug 18, 2013
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All of our over the air channels are digital. We initially used a digital converter box but they didn't last long. Still have one on the tv in my shop out back. Now all the tvs in the house are newer and pick up the local digital signals with a simple antenna plugged in where your cable normally goes. All the newer tvs in the last 5 years or so can convert the over the air digital signal with just an antenna.

I built a cheap attic antenna using metal ( old style metal ) coat hangers and a 1x3 about 30 inches long. Had to pick up a coax cable conector from a local electronics store like radio shack only ours is a local mom and pop place. Some used wire I had laying around and voila cheapo attic antenna. I think all told I have maybe $10 in it. I have since upgraded to a better power amplified anntenna that was $100 I think. Had to upgrade because we only picked up 7 of the 14 digital channels that are available in my area due to the interference from the mountains we live in. Now we get 14 channels over the air on clear days and lose 3 or 4 when the weather is stormy.

If you could pick up your local stations before the digital switch you should be able to now, and most stations now have 3 or 4 channels they broadcast versus just their main channel.

You can look up the cheap attic antenna plans on youtube and on Kim Komando's website.
 

roscoe

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Oct 30, 2002
Messages
21,657
All of our over the air channels are digital. We initially used a digital converter box but they didn't last long. Still have one on the tv in my shop out back. Now all the tvs in the house are newer and pick up the local digital signals with a simple antenna plugged in where your cable normally goes. All the newer tvs in the last 5 years or so can convert the over the air digital signal with just an antenna.

I built a cheap attic antenna using metal ( old style metal ) coat hangers and a 1x3 about 30 inches long. Had to pick up a coax cable conector from a local electronics store like radio shack only ours is a local mom and pop place. Some used wire I had laying around and voila cheapo attic antenna. I think all told I have maybe $10 in it. I have since upgraded to a better power amplified anntenna that was $100 I think. Had to upgrade because we only picked up 7 of the 14 digital channels that are available in my area due to the interference from the mountains we live in. Now we get 14 channels over the air on clear days and lose 3 or 4 when the weather is stormy.

If you could pick up your local stations before the digital switch you should be able to now, and most stations now have 3 or 4 channels they broadcast versus just their main channel.

You can look up the cheap attic antenna plans on youtube and on Kim Komando's website.

Thats nice, glad it works for you.
I'm 70 miles from tv towers, fringe area due to terrain when signal was analog.
Not happening now.
Living "behind" a microwave repeater antenna doesn't help according to the experts.
2 miles south, people with a tall antennae get a signal, but not here.


The thing is, even when I had satellite, I could rarely find anything that I really wanted to watch.
Seemed like a big time sponge, soaking up all my free time, with nothing to show for it.

The only thing I am missing are the Packer games.
So I go to friends, relatives, or the bowling alley to watch, if I'm not working or out on the boat.

I feel that getting additional services like Hulu or Sling, would just put me back where I was, so no benefit.
 

Redfred1

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Sep 23, 2013
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629
We are in the same boat like roscoe; right at 90+ miles to the local station towers. And more than half of the locals are not my language. We had Direct TV for years; Dish cut me a better deal. $112 a month.
 

lncoop

Vice Admiral
Joined
Apr 18, 2010
Messages
5,147
I'm right in the middle of a big town (Little Rock) so I think I'll be able to receive locals via antenna. I dug a little deeper and it turns out I can get internet for $30 since I already use AT&T for wireless. I also read up some more on streaming and it sounds like Vue is probably the best choice. My main objective is to be able to watch college sports, especially football and bball, and so much of that is now on ESPN. Still haven't decided exactly what to do but it's sounding like $35 per month for Vue might be the ticket.
 

dingbat

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Joined
Nov 20, 2001
Messages
15,414
Still haven't decided exactly what to do but it's sounding like $35 per month for Vue might be the ticket.
Check to see what service restrictions apply.

Sling restricts the number of connections (Blue = 3 connections) you can have open at one time but not the location.

It appears Vue restricts connections to a registered IP address and zip code, meaning you can only watch at home.
 
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