Is Sling the Thing?

[LostLassie]

So, out of curiosity, since I'm not happy with the charges I'm getting from my new Time Warner cable installation (insisting they have to charge me for a box I don't have, or, charge me even more for the same service if I don't pay for one) I tried the free 1-week Sling download. The only thing I'd watch that I see missing is BTN.

Listening to Mike&Mike right now (yes, I know--ESPiN is the devil). Anyway, after just a couple minutes of glitches to start up the app, it connected. The picture looks better than my TV does with cable. (Greeny looks older--must be real HD). Playing just fine. I haven't tried the TV set up yet, but I already have a Roku that was a gift a couple years ago, so supposedly I can stream through that into my TV, as well. Although, it doesn't seem to be a problem to be online at the same time Sling is on, as I'm doing it right now.

So, Question: Anybody else tried this service for longer than a few days? Any major problems or issues?
It seems like a much better deal for me than the $60-or-so more a month that they want for cable. Looks like I can get most OSU games on it.
Recommendations?

 

[Magua]

Never used it myself but my social media timelines are always full of friends/followers bitching about how terrible the service is when watching some sort of prime time/big game event.

 

[wolves2002]

I have been using it for a few weeks. I have seen some blips and freezes on ESPN during events. But having a Sling ID will also get you into WatchESPN which you can install on your Roku. I found it to be a more reliable stream on Monday night.

 

[Abenaki]

Never used it myself but my social media timelines are always full of friends/followers bitching about how terrible the service is when watching some sort of prime time/big game event.

I've been intrigued/tempted by Sling as well, but this seems to be the case in my timelines also. I had a friend who just kept posting pictures of the TV with a Sling logo throughout the game on Monday.

Perhaps @wolves2002 has a solution with WatchESPN, but I'll be waiting a little longer before making that jump.

 

[SloopyHangOn]

I have been using Sling for a month now.

The only issue I had was the premier of Fear The Walking Dead. The entire service (not just AMC) was down for a half an hour. Then when it came back up, it was pretty poor quality. Otherwise I get crisp, full HD streaming quality TV pretty much 95% of the time.

I watched the Va Tech game on it for the first half, had a few quality drops but nothing too annoying or any hiccups. I switched up to the WatchESPN stream at halftime (your SlingTV credentials count as a service provider) and it was perfectly smooth the rest of the way.

I have my PC hooked up to my entertainment system with hardwired internet. However, I have had a similar experience when it was only on Wi-Fi.

To the best of my knowledge, the apps for various streaming devices are significantly more polished and better at keeping signal than the PC App. However, they did just update the app yesterday morning and I have seen significantly better performance from it than in the past. I have a Roku Streaming Stick in the mail, so we'll see how well that does when it gets here.

Otherwise, for 25 bucks per month (I have the additional sports package) it gives me everything the wife and I want. Namely ESPN(s), SECNet, AMC and various travel/food channels.

 

[SloopyHangOn]

So, an update. I got my Roku stick yesterday and so far it holds quality and signal WAY better than the PC app.

The other thing I've noticed is that regardless of the streaming device, ESPN is going to have hiccups and issues because of the way it loads commercials. The SlingTV app loads commercials on the fly while ESPN's stream is on the "Commercial Break" screen and sometimes they load too slow and try and overlap one another, sometimes they load half-way and freeze the stream, sometimes they don't load at all and you get an error.

I have had WAY more success with ESPN using WatchESPN than on either device using SlingTV, but aside from that I highly recommend the service as long as you don't have terribad internet speed. I get a solid 5MB stream to the service itself (300Mb Net) and don't have any issues loading/changing channels or keeping quality stream, especially with the Roku device.

 

[gmen6981]

So, an update. I got my Roku stick yesterday and so far it holds quality and signal WAY better than the PC app.

The other thing I've noticed is that regardless of the streaming device, ESPN is going to have hiccups and issues because of the way it loads commercials. The SlingTV app loads commercials on the fly while ESPN's stream is on the "Commercial Break" screen and sometimes they load too slow and try and overlap one another, sometimes they load half-way and freeze the stream, sometimes they don't load at all and you get an error.

I have had WAY more success with ESPN using WatchESPN than on either device using SlingTV, but aside from that I highly recommend the service as long as you don't have terribad internet speed. I get a solid 5MB stream to the service itself (300Mb Net) and don't have any issues loading/changing channels or keeping quality stream, especially with the Roku device.

I've been using it for about a month, and so far I'm generally happy with it. As others have mentioned, getting occasional glitches, but runs great for the most part. I've been pushing to my big screen using an HDMI cable from my laptop.(Waiting for the Roku stick I got from Sling to arrive). The only downside that I see is that you can only view on one device at a time. I also have the add on sports package, and it's all well worth the money in my book.