[Streaming TV] Sling vs. Roku: is Sling better?

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LoneRanger

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Am I understanding Sling properly: I don't need a cable TV subscription to watch the offerings on Orange, Blue, or Orange & Blue combo deal? Broadband internet (30 Mps or better), wireless router, and the Sling Box are all I need... no traditional cable TV subscription?

I looked at Roku's site and it appears you have to maintain a traditional cable TV subscription to watch the channels they offer...? Or did I miss something.

I'm looking to drop traditional cable TV and go full stream ahead.

I posted about this a couple months ago but I'm serious now because Wide Open West just screwed me a second time. I was late on the bill recently because I forgot to pay it early before leaving town and it went late by time I got back. They now cut your bandwidth down to 0.2 Mps (200Kbps) just enough to allow you to load their online bill pay and pony up. THEN they charge you a $22 "Re-activation Fee" to restore your bandwidth back to, in my case, 30Mpbs. I was ten days late. I know that was bad but cut me down to 200 Kbps and then charge me to "re-activate" when all that involves is a tech or billing person 5 seconds of time clicking through a dialog box on screen to restore me?

So done with WOW.

Oh yeah, the $22 "re-activation fee" is on top of a late fee on the billing side, forget what that was maybe $20.
 
You need internet 15mbit is fine for sling.

For slingtv you dont get a sling box.

You can watch slingtv on many things.. your phone.. a roku etc.


A SLING BOX is for watching your TV from anywhere. ie streaming your home satellite tv to your tablet etc.
you need decent upload speed at least 5mbit up for good results.

2 widely different products there with similar name.

For slingtv options... easy choices if you want ESPN.. get that package (blue?) if you dont get orange(more channels)
if you want it all.. get combo.

I have multistream orange beta for 20$/month

I get espn through a time warner cable login @watchespn.com

IIRC if you sign up for 3 months they will send you a free Roku2 box.
you can also watch from PC but unless they fixed their pc app the sound will de-synchronize after 30min or so.
on the roku its perfect.

https://www.sling.com/devices/roku
go for the free roku 2 no need for roku3 w/voice(at bad deal price)


Off Topic kinda

try calling your internet provider's customer service.. explain it was your first late blah blah etc and ask them to waive the fees.. you generally have a pretty good chance of success.
 
So does the Roku involve a monthly subscription fee? Just want to watch the channels they offer, on my home TV. It's an older non-smart HDTV so looks like I need the Roku 1 box although my TV does have HDMI-- I hook my laptop up to it by HDMI and play Youtube stuff and rent movies off Amazon to watch on the TV via my Laptop.
 
Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
So does the Roku involve a monthly subscription fee?


roku is a player.

you would then subscribe to slingtv which has a monthly fee.

you arent required to have any cable/satellite programming.. just internet

you get TV channels from sling tv.

roku has many other uses as well but in this case you would just be using it to play slingtv's programming which is monthly fee.

The base roku device has no "tv" and no monthly fee.

PS: I edited my above reply after you replied.
 
No worries on the edit, I do the same thing and just did, too. Thanks for the info, this helps a lot. Looks like a Sling subscription and the Roku box is the ticket I'm looking for. Going to ditch WOW and go back to Time Warner for one of their offers that is broadband internet only. Don't need land line phone, I live off my cellular for all calls (Republic Wireless, awesome and uber low cost).
 
should be able to get regular roadrunner for 34.99/month for 12months (call in a year to get price again)

The computer app works ok but the sound will de-synchronize from the video.

Go for the 3 months slingtv for 63$(after tax) and get the free roku2.. which is easily worth 35$

you can also experiment with free "channels" on the roku ie weather, music etc.

The remote also works well and is not laggy!
 
You need the Roku, Amazon fire, or Apple Tv to watch Sling. The Sony PlayStation Vue is better than Sling, with 55 Channels for $30 and with cloud DVR available on all 3 devices.
 
I use only Roku with Cable Internet. There are free channels and pay channels but a much lower price than cable tv. I pay less than $20/mo for Hulu plus and Netflix and get plenty of what the family wants. IT's not better than cable or worse just different. Some benefits are you can watch shows anytime you want like a dvr. Some shows on Hulu are aired next day after on TV 1st time.
 
Been doing this a lot lately. Roku and I have a Chromecase which allows me to stream from my phone to the TV....check out showbox.
 
We like our Roku also. Recently we had to disable the autoplay--there is a feature that will start the next episode in a series. But it would clip the ending joke on Vicar of Dibley so the wife figured out how to disable that--but it still puts the end into a small box at the corner. That's about the only thing we dislike.

The kids have their own "account" which means when I scroll through in the evening, none of the kids shows show up as "recently watched" or "here's what we think you'll like".
 
I've been subscribing to Sling over the past few months. I initially paid the 60 bucks for three months and got a free Roku, because I wanted a Roku for the basement TV, and was thinking about Sling anyway. We subscribe to the most basic of cable just to get all of the local networks. Sling offers only two of the local five, so that's sort of a no-go for us in terms of using it to watch local TV. I do watch some History channel on Sling, though, and we do use it for stuff on NBC Sports or Fox Sports. We have what they now call Sling Blue for $20/month, because that's the one I chose a few months ago when they were beta testing it. It now apparently costs $25.

Sling works pretty good, and we're happy with the service (and the concept). Their pricing is getting up near the realm of "might as well buy cable", especially if you buy the $40 package. I'd prefer an a la carte package option, where you can build your own package and it prices it based on that. But, I understand how they group stuff together to drag the less popular networks along with the big boys...
 
Roku is the Bomb. Very satisfied with all three of ours. They are cheap and I found ATT-T or WOW Cable-provided 30 speed internet will avoid freezing TV picture, when the internet is busy with users in our home.
 
So with 30Mbps broadband going into an 802.11n router, a Roku connected to the viewing TV, and a Sling subscription I am good to go with watching the channels contained in whatever Sling package I get, yes? I don't need to subscribe to traditional cable TV to cover copyrights for some of the cable channels Sling is offering, right?

Don't care about local channels (4 here). Get my local news (if interested, which is becoming more seldom) off each channel's web sites or the local newspaper's web site. NBC is about the only network TV I occasionally tune in and I can live without it if necessary.

Only shows I follow are AMC's Walking Dead, TNT's Last Ship, and Ghost Adventures on Travel Channel.
 
Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
So with 30Mbps broadband internet going into an 802.11n router, a Roku connected to the viewing TV, and a Sling subscription I am good to go with watching the channels contained in whatever Sling package I get, yes? I don't need to subscribe to traditional cable TV to cover copyrights for some of the cable channels Sling is offering, right?


That's my understanding.
 
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