Former Cable Lovers-Have you given up cable for Sling TV?

[aristocatz]

I love my cable & my DVR, but my DH really wants to switch to Slingbox. It would be a significant savings & I know I'm being selfish!! I just don't know if I can give up my cable. Most of the channels I enjoy are offered on Slingbox, but admittedly I will really miss E! Entertainment-it's my vice after my babies go to bed & I have an hour or so with a glass of wine & celebrity trash news & silly reality shows I'm not sure if there are any other non-cable options to access E tv.

Anyways, any former cable lovers made the switch to Slingbox or something related? Are you satisfied with this move?

Thanks!

 

[Mizzoufan]

I have never heard of Slingbox.

 

[Nennie]

I'm not familiar with slingbox, but we gave up cable for a Roku and Amazon prime!

 

[usnuzuloose]

After giving it up it did not bother me. I need a landline so it costs more without cable.

 

[aristocatz]

I'm not familiar with slingbox, but we gave up cable for a Roku and Amazon prime!

What are your thoughts on those? I am also looking into Hulu Plus.

 

[bcla]

I've got DISH with a receiver box with Sling's Hopper technology. I'm not familiar with Sling's service (Slimg TV?) other than it operates over Internet.

I will say it's nice having a box where I can access stuff on my DVR over the Internet, as well as a service that allows me to stream various channels.

 

[wenrob]

From my understanding Slingbox is one stream at a time so if someone was watching in the living room, another couldn't watch in the bedroom. It's mostly live so you wouldn't be able to watch things 'on demand.' It's just starting up so I suppose things will evolve over time.

Oldest DD subscribes to Netflix. There are tiers for how many streams you can have. She pays $8.99 a month for two which is nice because she got me hooked on Once Upon a Time and if one of is behind we can both watch where we're at on different TVs. Pluses: No commercials, wide variety and the ability to watch on more then one device at a time. Minuses: Not everything is available all the time and you have to wait for the most current season. So season 4 of Once Upon a Time just ended but won't be available until season 5 starts.

We plowed through 1-3 and wanted to watch 4 but didn't want to pay $40 at Amazon/iTunes/Vudu so we decided to get a month of Hulu. Pluses: Current seasons available. You can suspend and restart your account whenever you want. Minuses: One stream at a time, no other option. Commercials. Sometimes I'll be watching and there will only be one or two and one night I got lucky and had none for two whole episodes. But last night it felt like every time I turned around there was a string of commercials. Not a huge deal and for $7.99 versus $40 or waiting several months it's not a bad deal.

Amazon Prime is nice and I've binge watched my fair share on it but I don't know that I would get it if it didn't come with my Prime membership.

I don't know if any of that helps and I'm sure others are way more experienced with them than I am. Me? I'm addicted to my TiVo and thoroughly spoiled watching my shows when I want. If I HAD to give up cable for financial reasons I'm sure I could make the streaming services work for me. But I don't so I won't. I'm a brat when it comes to my TV watching habits. Like you having to have your E, I have to have my TV Land, haha.

 

[Mizzoufan]

Sounds a lot like Netflix but not as advanced as Netflix.

 

[bcla]

Sounds a lot like Netflix but not as advanced as Netflix.

I believe there's a recorder, and it's not purely video on demand.

 

[wenrob]

I believe there's a recorder, and it's not purely video on demand.

A recorder? Like a DVR? I don't think so. At least not what I've read about it. One of their big catch phrases is "live TV." And my understanding is there's very little on demand.

 

[Lynne M]

Sounds a lot like Netflix but not as advanced as Netflix.

SlingTV is very different from Netflix. It's live TV, streamed over the internet, so you don't need cable. There's a base package of channels (ESPN, TNT, TBS, Disney, HGTV, a bunch of others) for $20/month. Then you can add other specialized packages (news, sports, kids) for $5 each.

 

[Minnesota!]

We have Roku and Netflix love it! Thinking of adding SlingTV, though!

 

[3 MEN AND A BOAT]

I've had Netflix for years, got Amazon Prime for the free shipping but also use the streaming as a bonus. Added Hulu several years back, I love all 3 of these services, especially after I upgraded to a Roku 3 from my previous Roku (I think the original version) as it didn't seem to stream Hulu very well, it would hick-up and glitch often.
Anyways I added Sling maybe 2-3 months ago and so far I'm not sold on it, it glitches more than any of my other streaming services, although admittedly I live out in the country with sub-par internet service (supposedly 10mbps) but it goes out often. Anyways this is to say Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon stream fine and work almost flawless now, but Sling glitches more often causing me to have to turn it off and restart it.
I'm not sure if I'll keep it yet, my wife would have already turned it off but I like the idea of the Disney channel for our kids.
Paul

 

[Mizzoufan]

SlingTV is very different from Netflix. It's live TV, streamed over the internet, so you don't need cable. There's a base package of channels (ESPN, TNT, TBS, Disney, HGTV, a bunch of others) for $20/month. Then you can add other specialized packages (news, sports, kids) for $5 each.

Thanks for the explanation!

 

[HM]

Hmmm. We just bought (and will have delivered tomorrow) an Amazon Fire Stick. We are hoping that we can use this on the non-main tvs in our house so we can turn our Cable boxes in and still have more to watch than aerial tv shows. We are starting with one and thought if it worked for us, we'd get more for our other TVs. Sling TV sounds like another option.

 

[Nayan]

A SlingBox is totally different from Sling TV.

http://www.slingbox.com

https://www.sling.com/package

 

[erin1715]

I'd like to know more about this. I can't figure out if you still need a cable box in addition to the Slingbox or not?? The last thing I would want is to pay for this in addition to cable. This is the first service outside of cable that I've seen that offers sports viewing. The only reason I'm hesitant to get rid of cable and go to something like Netflix or Hulu is because of the lack of live sports.

 

[Nayan]

If you're after live sports, then you can either keep cable, cut cable and watch what's available over-the-air with an antenna or sign up for Sling TV and have ESPN. A SlingBox only allows you to view remotely. It does not have anything to stream or view on it itself and is in no way a replacement for cable or anything else.

 

[erin1715]

If you're after live sports, then you can either keep cable, cut cable and watch what's available over-the-air with an antenna or sign up for Sling TV and have ESPN. A SlingBox only allows you to view remotely. It does not have anything to stream or view on it itself and is in no way a replacement for cable or anything else.

Ok then it's not what I thought it was. I guess we're keeping cable for now...

Whoever comes up with the solution to watch live sports without cable will be a millionaire.

 

[Ambear]

Sling, hulu, and my ota antenna has worked wonders for me. I can watch pretty much any show I want for like, $28 a month.