According to the NASA Earth Observatory, the damage to the Virgin Islands is obvious even from its Landsat 8 satellite, which was able to capture highdefinition. Updated November 24, 2003. TSReader Analyze, Decode and Record MPEG2 Transport Streams click here Whats HereSling TV Review Is it Worth 2. Per Month This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure page for more info. Weve tried Sling TV on several occasions as we canceled our Direc. TV contract last year and thought a review of the service would be good. We were intrigued by the idea of getting access to channels like ESPN for 2. I often get asked how to cut the cord and many hold back out of fear that theyll miss out on sports. This only results in you spending more each month than you need to. I used to be one of those people and was excited about getting ESPN and ESPN2 for 2. I want. We had a good overall experience, but ultimately decided not to keep it and have come to the same conclusion with each instance weve used the service. Heres a Sling TV review for 2. How Sling TV Works. As mentioned, Sling TV is a no contract way to get television content. Ironically, it was launched by Dish TV in 2. As Ive shared in the past, we now get all of our content through the Amazon Fire Stick and are more than happy with that as a replacement. We also get our local channels with the Mohu Leaf which has worked great for our needs. Sling TV is an Internet based TV service that offers just over 3. They also offer a 2. ESPN. They offer a premium tier that offers all base channels for 4. You simply download the app to get started. You can get a free 7 day trial straight from the Sling TV website and be watching TV in a few short minutes. Sling TV works on a variety of different devices. We only used it on our television, but you can use it from the following devices As you can see, there are a fair number of options to use Sling. The installation, at least for our television was relatively simple. I set up our account for it through the Sling TV website as they offer a free 7 day trial. I then downloaded it through our Amazon Fire TV Stick, and was set up in a total of maybe five minutes. I will add that while I was setting it up on our Fire Stick there was an ad to try it free for 1. I chatted with their customer support area and they instantly upgraded me so keep that in mind if you sign up. I will also add that Sling TV is a mix of live TV plus on demand shows, so its really a marriage of Netflix and the channels you want from cable. What Channels Do You Get With Sling TV The Sling TV app offers a base package of 2. Those channels are ESPN TBSESPN2 Travel Channel. AMC Adult Swim. Food Network CNNA E H2. History Channel Cartoon Network. The Amazon Fire TV stick is another in a growing line of cord cutting options for those who want to slash their cable bill. We canceled DirecTV 18 months ago and the. TNT ABC Family. El Rey Lifetime. HGTV Galavision. IFC Bloomberg Television. Disney Channel PolarisComedy Central ESPN3. BBC America Free. Form. Vice. Land Ax. S TVNewsy Cheddar. Local Now Fla. Ma. Maker. Sling TV also offers eight, add on packages for an extra 5 per month per package. Those packages are Sports Extra which comes with nine channels, including ESPNews and the SEC Network. Kids Extra which offers five channels, including Disney Junior and Boomerang. Best of Spanish TV which lists 1. Univision and ESPN Deportes. Deportes Extra which provides seven channels, including Azteca. Peliculas and Novelas Extra which includes nine channels, including Uni Mas. Hollywood Extra which comes with six channels, including Sundance TV and TCM. World News Extra which offers seven extra channels, including HLN and RT. Lifestyle Extra which lists six channels, including DIY and the Cooking Channel. In total, Sling TV offers access to 6. They also offer HBO Now if youd like access to that for an additional 1. Sling TV What to Like. Theres a lot to like about Sling TV. Most importantly, its fairly inexpensive and does not require a contract. That alone is worth consideration. It lets you access some of your favorite shows if youvecut cable without the nasty cost. I also like that its compatible with so many devices. You can use it on your phone or even on a video game console if you like, so theres obviously a lot of options. We only used the television interface but it was relatively straightforward. You simply launch the app on the Fire TV Stick heres our Amazon Fire TV Stick review or Amazon Fire TV heres our Amazon Fire TV review and navigate to the channel you want to watch. The app provides a Whats On section so you can see whats live. You can also navigate to the specific channel to see what on demand programming they have available. I will add that many of the channels have pause, rewind and fast forward features, which is nice though it does not work on channels like ESPN, TBS or TNT. dditional tip Love NFL football but dont know how to watch your favorite team without cable Heres how to watch NFL without cable and still catch all the actionThe other thing of note I really liked is the 3 Day Replay Sling TV offers. Its not available on all channels, but is on most. This feature allows you to access content that has been on the given channel during the past three days. They also offer a similar Start Over function that allows you to jump back to the beginning of a show. While not the full features found in a DVR it does offer some ways around it. Sling TV What Not to Like. The main complaint I had with Sling TV was buffering issues. We have a relatively fast Internet connection 4. Mbps download speed, 6. Mbps upload speed and 9. The most glaring time I saw this was while trying to watch the college football playoffs in January with the championship game being the worst. It took 1. 0 1. 5 minutes for the game to come on though Im sure its because there were many other people trying to access it at the same time. That being said, they had much worse problems during March Madness last year so its something to keep in mind. Additionally, theres no way to look at whata on without kicking your out of the platform altogether ultimately forcing you to start over every time you want to watch something different. Want another no contract optionCheck out Direc. TVs new service in my Direc. TV Now review. Similar to Sling, Direc. TV Now offers a free 7 day trial to test out the platform. Another thing to keep in mind is Sling TV only works on one device at a time on the base package. That wasnt an issue for us though it may well be for you. Lastly, some of the more popular channels are linear only which means live is the only option you get with no ability to fast forward or rewind. This can be a problem as theyve not rolled out DVR capability yet, though it is available in beta testing to some customers. Sling TV Review Final Thoughts. Ultimately, I believe Sling TV is the beginning of new things for those who want to cut the cord. As such, its not perfect. My hope is that they continue to improve its functionality and clear up the buffering issues. I think for those who want to cut the cord and still have access to channels like ESPN it can be a good option for the 2. Thats also not to mention the fact they seem to be adding new channels and capabilities to the platform regularly. We chose to forego signing up after the free 1. We have Netflix and HBO Now plus we can access a lot of content for free thanks to our Amazon Prime membership and Amazon Fire TV Stick. That saves us nearly 9. You can also try out Hulu, who offers plans for 7. Click here to look at their plans to see which is best for you. If youre looking for something to include in your home theater system, then the Amazon Fire TV will be better suited for you thanks to its 4k capabilities and ability to connect to Alexa. Likewise, you can get the Ti. Vo Roamio if you want to have a DVR, with no monthly fee, in your home entertainment system though its important to point out it only allows you to record shows from a network, and not something from a platform like Sling TV. We also get local channels with our Mohu 5. Sling TV, with ESPN and AMC for 2. Month, Launches Today. Heres Our Review. On Monday, Dish Network announced the launch of its Sling TV service. It features everything below, plus the surprise addition of AMC. Here is Rob Pegoraros review of the service from January 2. Dish announced throughout. Finally, youre going to be able to watch ESPN online without paying your cable company for a hundred bizzaro channels you dont care about. Starting today, Dish Network will start taking customers for a 2. Sling TV. If you have a cable subscription that includes ESPN, or if you know somebody who does, you can still view it on the Watch. ESPN site or app instead. Ive spent the past few days trying Sling TV extensively on three devices an i. Pad mini, a Nexus 9 tablet, and a Roku 3 loaned by Dish PR plugged into a 4. HDTV. Research, you know. What You Get. Slings basic 2. ESPN and ESPN2 plus Watch. ESPN access, CNN, the Cartoon Network including Adult Swim, TNT, TBS, the Food Network, HGTV, the Travel Channel, the Disney Channel, Univisions El Rey, Galavision, Maker Studios, and ABC Family. AMC will be coming to the bundle, too, though Dish Network hasnt yet announced when. A 5month Kids Extra option adds Baby TV, Boomerang, Disney Junior, Disney XD, and Duck TV, while the 5month News Info Extra throws in Bloomberg TV, Cooking Channel, DIY, and CNNs HLN. Dish has also announced a few other bundles An AMC Networks bundle includes BBC America, BBC World News, IFC, Sundance. TV, and WE TV a Univision bundle that will offer Spanish language entertainment and news and a 5 Sports Extra add on, with SEC Network, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, Universal Sports, Univsion Deportes, be. IN Sports, and highlights networks ESPN Buzzer Beater, ESPN Bases Loaded and ESPN Goal Line. Phew And thats it you dont need to rent a cable or satellite box. For more great tech news and reviews, follow Yahoo Tech on FacebookThe Sling apps show whats on in a simple horizontal list of channels. Its not the most elegant interface, but when you have only 2. Theres also a search feature, but the version I saw was blindly literal and not worth the bother it found no programming about football because that exact word didnt appear in any show titles, for example. When youre watching a show, you can pause live TV, rewind it 1. ESPN, CNN, HLN, TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, ABC Family, Boomerang, and all three Disney channels locked out those features. Sling TVs Apps Arent the Same. Sling looked its best on the Roku 3. On a 1. 5 Mbps Fios connection, programs began playing within seconds and never buffered or paused. Two minor outbreaks of pixelation cleared up almost instantly. For some bizarre reason, Dish hasnt said what resolution Sling can deliver, but from my couch the picture looked about as clear as anything Ive seen on Netflix or Amazon. From up close, though, it didnt seem as sharp as over the air reception. The i. OS app also generally worked well, but the one feature youd think would be there Air. Play video output failed when I tried it with a borrowed Apple TV. Each attempt ended with Apples generic An error occurred loading this content message. Story Continues. The Android app, alas, was unusable on the Nexus 9. The audio kept dropping out, followed seconds later by the video halting for a few seconds before picking itself up again. Dish also recently announced that Sling TV will be coming to Googles Nexus Player, select Smart TVs from LG and Samsung, and the Xbox One in the coming months. Cord Cutting for Beginners. Sling, introduced at CES, doesnt represent a total break from cable TV. Its a similar idea, although with a vastly smaller and cheaper bundle of channels. But youll still probably wind up paying for stuff you didnt want. And like a lot of cord cutting solutions, Sling TV lacks important offerings. It has no local stations, for example. The national and regional sports networks out to cash in on ESPNs money printing formula arent on Slings menu either. And if you sign up for enough online only services to replace a cable TV subscription Netflix, Hulu, maybe HBOs upcoming addition of online only viewing you might get close to paying as much as you would for cable or satellite, anyway. But by merely offering a budget priced, online only alternative, Dish Network has officially recognized that cord cutters like me exist. We arent interested in the same old thing, and now we dont have to settle for it. Email Rob at robrobpegoraro. Twitter at robpegoraro.
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