News I'm testing Sling TV to cut the cord — here's the pros and cons

[admin]

Is Sling TV's price its ultimate feature as a cord-cutting service?Here's what I like and hate about Hulu with Live TV.

I'm testing Sling TV to cut the cord — here's the pros and cons : Read more

 

[sk7]

I was a big fan of my sling service until this week. Sling changed it where when you replay a program via it's DVR feature you are ***forced to watch lengthy un-skippable commercials. Lengthy is an understatement one set of forced commercials (where it totally disables your remote) was like 7 minutes. I'm a long time subscriber but that is a dealbreaker for me.

 

[chileboy]

I moved to Sling Blue from Verizon FiOS a couple of months ago and I'm quite happy.

I have the new interface on all 4 (yeah, I know) of my Roku devices, and I'm limiting my comments to them, as I'm not a big fan of streaming on my Android. There were some real glitches with the new interface at first, but they've largely straightened them out already.

I've seen other complaints about the DVR with the streaming channels - but honestly I am quite happy with it. I almost never use FF/RW - I generally use the skip functions, and I find it works very well. When a commercial break comes, I can skip ahead in 30 second increments, and the thumbnails (which appear instantly for me) make it very easy to see where you are. One the program reappears, I just skip back 10 seconds once or twice. I find it's better than the FiOS Quantum DVR I was using.

The AirTV Anywhere I am also using is another story, The DVR, quite plainly, sucks. There's no thumbnails at all, so it's impossible to tell where you are, so it's a struggle to find where the segments begin. And it's very laggy at times. Plus I swear there's a bug that sometimes jumps you back to the beginning of the segment you're watching instead of forward in the recording. So this is the biggest issue for me. I am a big Late Show fan, and since CBS isn't one of the streaming local channels, I'm forced to record the OTA signal, and it can be tedious to watch.

Which is my only other real issue - I'm hoping - longing - for the day when CBS and ABC are included in the streaming package. Between that and a AirTV DVR improvement, I'd be fine.

Also, since you mentioned PBS, the AirTV Anywhere - which I do recommend in spite of its shortcomings - allows you to stream more than one PBS channel. You'd have a great signal in NYC - I live about 15 miles outside of Manhattan, and I can receive 60+ channels perfectly - many of which can be interesting, some of which I've never even heard of (and, as an aside, several are in Spanish if that is meaningful to anyone reading this). And the new interface integrates the OTA seamlessly, and they are also available on the mobile device.

I'm a big Yankees fan, so not having Yes is an issue for me - although I'd probably care more if they were having a better season. But for now I'm stuck with national broadcasts or the few still shown on PIX11.

Anyway, that's my mini-review. I'm quite happy with it after many, many years with cable and I'm optimistic it will continue to improve, and hopefully remain a budget-friendly alternative.

 

[chileboy]

I was a big fan of my sling service until this week. Sling changed it where when you replay a program via it's DVR feature you are ***forced to watch lengthy un-skippable commercials. Lengthy is an understatement one set of forced commercials (where it totally disables your remote) was like 7 minutes. I'm a long time subscriber but that is a dealbreaker for me.

I have not seen this, but it would certainly bother me as well - on what shows did you encounter that?

 

[sk7]

UPDATE: I complained to Sling about the unskippable DVR ads and they told me to wait 1 day and update to the new Sling experience. I waited the day and then updated as they suggested - they have indeed now REMOVED the unskippable DVR advertisements I'm happy to report.

I would add that the ad thing was my main complaint and otherwise I was happy with it other than the old user interface which was a disaster. Now the new updated interface is vastly better.

 

[sk7]

I have not seen this, but it would certainly bother me as well - on what shows did you encounter that?

It was happening on both recorded sports programs and new stuff like forensic files among other programs. The day I wrote my complaint to Sling it was occurring on literally any recorded program that I had and OMG it was bad. 30 minute program would force roughly 18 minutes of advertisements.

I'm happy to say with the latest update it's back to working the way it originally operated.

 

[Wilson_Energy]

When I signed up with Sling TV, it forced me to accept trial promotions for MGM+, STARZ, SHOWTIME®. I couldn't get rid of them on the website. I had to work with a chatbot that confirmed the promotions had been removed back in early Feb. I just checked my billings and they charged me $24/m for these services for two months. I chatted with an agent who said she had "no option" to refund the money. She acknowledged everything I said. I had to contest it with my credit card company which refunded the money right away and closed the dispute.

I think Sling is intentionally adding products to customer accounts and making it difficult to remove them and get credit for unwanted services.

Otherwise, I'm happy with the service as it functions. We tried it several years ago and dropped it because it was so difficult to use. It is much better now and doesn't drop, etc. like it did before.