Re: Sling TV vs Direct Now TV

If the intro offer was their out the door, steady price it'd be okay, but I see to get most (not even all) of the sports channels I get with Playstation Vue for $34.99, they want $60.

It does say no annual commitment though, so how do they have an "introductory rate"? When does it go up? Just what is your credit rep locked into paying off if you accept that "intro rate"?

That, and look at how many devices you can use/when/where. Is it only through your ISP? A set amount of devices? All platforms? I was stoked when an emergency came up and I had to go to Florida on a weekend, but was still able to log into Playstation on a friend's OsX-based tablet to catch the Louisville game.

I don't trust DirecTV, so I cut the cord this season and I've been much happier. And I have a lot more entertainment money

Oh, and I'm watching a crapton more TV.

reverseknarf

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Dec 22, 2016, 11:53 PM

I cut the cord this February (previously had Directv). Here's my setup:

- Roku 4 connected to HDMI port
- iView3500STBII OTA DVR connected to component port
- Terk HDTVi OTA antenna for local broadcasts

My bill with Directv was $105/month, and I'm down to $30/month with SlingTV & Hulu. ($35/month during football season when I have the sports pack thru slingtv). After 6 months, I've paid for the Roku, OTA DVR, & OTA Antenna just from the difference in the monthly cost. Also for 3 months when Game of Thrones is on, we get HBONow (worth the extra $15/month to avoid spoilers).

I live in Raleigh (near RDU), and there are a ton of channels available over the air. I've used SlingTV for the WatchESPN login all season (except when we're on ABC, then I use my Over-The-Air antenna). Like others mentioned, the sports pack is a must (ESPNU, SEC network) during football season. I can DVR anything from the antenna, and WatchESPN lets you go back after the fact. I usually use the standalone WatchESPN Roku app, but there have been a few weekends where ESPN takes a dump, and it's down.

The stuff I (or my wife watches), we can get through those sources. With my antenna, I can get both the Raleigh and Greensboro CBS stations--which sometimes have different games on. People in town paying for cable can't even get the Steelers game (short of Sunday Ticket, or going to a bar), and I get it for free, ha. Also, my 2 year old son watches a lot of PBS kids (Daniel Tiger, Curious George, Dinosaur train, etc). All that's free, plus the PBS broadcaster here has 4 OTA channels.

Works really well, though I ran Cat5 wires from my router to the room with the Roku to avoid flakey wireless. I did have to change the QoS settings on my router to give the Roku highest priority--it would drop out when updating apps on my phone otherwise. I've heard that SlingTV wasn't always this reliable, and that they had outages/load problems during big premieres (EG: The Walking Dead). That has not been my experience--solid as a rock, though I do have to occasionally reboot the Roku due to stuttering. As soon as it comes back up, looks great, so clearly not a network/streaming issue on SlingTV's end.

The only drag is I have to stay off social media during the game because there's like a 30-45 second lag with SlingTV/WatchESPN so everyone is reacting on Twitter before I see the play. Kinda annoying, but not a huge deal.

I love it, and don't see myself going back to cable unless something drastic happens to net neutrality, which would allow Time Warner to jack up my cable modem bill for so much streaming. We will see...

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Sling TV vs Direct Now TV