Cord-Cutting, Or How to Stream your Way to Success

I got sling invite... checked channel list... meh I'll sign up for football again but not now. I really just wanted all the basic networks PLUS what they offer, but not worth $20 full time to me.

I just found this site:

http://www.couchtuner.eu/

Using IE and ADBlocker plus, it seems to work well on the three or four different shows I tried. I suppose with a Chromecast, I could get these to my TV without running an HDMI cable, but I know next to nothing about Chromecast for Firesticks.

Started the 7-day trial today. We'll see how it goes and how much I use it.

SlingTV has added AMC and a sport pack for $5 more a month that has SEC Network, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, ESPN Buzzer Beater, ESPN Bases Loaded, ESPN Goal Line, Universal Sports, Univision Deportes, and beIN Sports
Sling TV Adds AMC And Sports Options As It Goes Live | Deadline

Column_sl said:

Cable companies must be hurting right now Comcast just offered me a 50 dollar flat rate for 150 down and 20 up with the modem, and they threw in a digital box with there standard lineup with HBO, and comcast version of Netflix.

That's 5 bucks more then I pay now for just internet from them....

Still said no because I want cable to die, and for them to go all internet.

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Watch your bill carefully. This is what happened to me with this same type of no contract deal:


EDIT: just saw you said no but my cautionary tale still applies for anyone who takes a deal like the one offered you from Comcast.

I was paying $164/mo for the triple play, I called to cancel cable and switch to just their Blast PLUS! internet, best price available to me as an existing customer at the time was $76/mo. I took it. I got a call from Comcast 3 days later offering me a double play package which included all the cable channels I had just cancelled plus the Blast PLUS! internet package for $79/mo for 12 months with no contract. I took the deal. First bill comes and charges are $106. I call, they say "I see the notes on the deal you got, the bill was erroneous and you should see a statement credit on your next bill". Next bill comes and charges are for $123. I call and again get the same response. Third bill comes and again charges are $123, I call and they say there are no records of the deal I was promised and apparently signed up for. That promotion wasn't supposed to be available to me, the customer service rep made a mistake, there are no notes on my account saying that's what I agreed to, that I agreed to the $123/mo. After a ton of back and forth, escalating as far up the chain as I could and eventually recording my calls with them and threatening to bring my lawyer in to listen to the recorded calls I had with their rep promising me that package and locking me in I got this response:

"The best I can do is give you the package you were promised at $79 but you have to sign a 2 year contract and the price goes up to $123 the second year"

I said hell no, I'm going to get what I was promised. They called back 30 minutes later:

"Ok I can give you the $79 but you have to sign the 2 year contract, but you can cancel after the first 12 months at no charge". I made sure I was going to get statement credits for the overpayments (auto pay was on) on previous statements. I made them give that to me in writing this time AND at this point (this was a 3 day fiasco) I had been recording all the conversations myself as well. They were so stubborn they wouldn't even just give me what they sold me in the first place, they made this stupid "rule" that has the same end result as my original plan agreement.

TL;DR Fuck Comcast, document EVERYTHING they offer you, get EVERYTHING in writing and never trust them. And yes this really happened. It had gotten so bad I was about to bombard every single one of their social media accounts with my story and their customer rep names.

I've had multiple people tell me that SlingTV is shit for picture quality, like it won't stream in HD, or if it is HD its a very, very compressed 720p. I haven't seen it firsthand, but I trust the couple friends that have tried it. I hope that's something they're working on.

Anyone here seen it working to comment on the picture quality?

If it doesn't look better than streaming from random sites like mmatv or firstrow or whatever, then it's not worth the money, that's for sure. Once I actually pay for a service, I expect good quality.

joeboo_sl said:

I've had multiple people tell me that SlingTV is shit for picture quality, like it won't stream in HD, or if it is HD its a very, very compressed 720p. I haven't seen it firsthand, but I trust the couple friends that have tried it. I hope that's something they're working on.

Anyone here seen it working to comment on the picture quality?

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It is NOT excellent picture quality. Your buds are correct. 720P with slight compression not heavy IMO. It is sharper than the attached photo if that helps.

Yeah, it's definitely not full blown 720p HD. It's still better than the non-HD channels on MMA-TV. The HD channel streams on MMA-TV look better.

No DVR support and being jews on bandwidth is pretty disappointing. Live sports are going to suck with compression like that unless you're watching on a tiny tv or have bad eyes.

First step, but only a half one. Hopefully as competition heats up in this sector and assuming Title 2 goes through the TV landscape could look very different in 5 years.

Cancelled Sling TV. Not ready.

Brahma_sl said:

Cancelled Sling TV. Not ready.

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I'm thinking about doing it as well. Not being able to record shows and watch them whenever is a huge drawback. I'm not available to watch a lot live. I want to continue subscribing to support the idea and show that there's interest, but it's just not good enough yet. Bummer.

Alkorin_sl said:

That's a shame. Netflix/Hulu Plus aren't quite enough. Like 80% of what I want, I guess.

Anyone know if Amazon Prime is worth it if you already have Netflix and Hulu Plus? I'm not entirely sure what it brings to the table and I don't really want to pay to find out. Free shipping is somewhat of a non-starter for me, because they won't ship most things to Canada from amazon.com anyway.

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If you want and can't get a News channel it is an easy way to get one. ESPN to but by now we all know a dozen ways to find sports online. It's also a good reason if you don't have Hulu plus and don't want it.

amazon prime is worth if you do any online shopping. subscribe and save on top is a huge savings for families. for streaming, it's the weakest of the 3 by far, but the easies to add titles if you are willing to buy shows. its has the most toddler kid shows now, netflix let a bunch expire and amazon picked them up.

a_skeleton_03_sl said:

Yeah News channel is the number one reason I might pay for Sling TV. I pay for Netflix just to feel good about pirating all my TV shows. The $20 is worth it.

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Ironically I pirated a lot less because of Netflix. Granted when the movie/tv studios started pulling out of Netflix I went right back but even so my overall pirating has gone down quite a bit. Just like steamsales have pretty much ended any game pirating I use to do.