First black mark

[Ronnie-]

Well it was bound to happen, but talk about timing.

We finally get amc and I go to fire up sling tv to watch the walking dead, and waiting, waiting , waiting.

Move from the Roku to the fire tv. Same thing.

Ok, maybe it's my home internet, so I grab the iPhone, lte signal, and it fails to load.

Yes, these things happen, but this service needs to be rock solid reliable to be a viable alternative to say or cable.

For me, it just got it first minus in so far as usage goes at one of the times I'd genuinely want to use it.


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[Kraven]

I couldnt connect around 2pm on Saturday.

 

[Character Zero]

I have hiccups from time to time. Sometimes the stream will stop and I have to click on the channel to get it to reload.

 

[Kraven]

Based on the technical side of the service, its very good. Impressive almost.

But as for the channels, there's nothing that I "can't live without" so I'll be ending my sub at the end of the month.

 

[Scherrman]

Well it was bound to happen, but talk about timing.

We finally get amc and I go to fire up sling tv to watch the walking dead, and waiting, waiting , waiting.

Move from the Roku to the fire tv. Same thing.

Ok, maybe it's my home internet, so I grab the iPhone, lte signal, and it fails to load.

Yes, these things happen, but this service needs to be rock solid reliable to be a viable alternative to say or cable.

For me, it just got it first minus in so far as usage goes at one of the times I'd genuinely want to use it.


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This is a very big reason why cutting the cord is not an option for me. Watching TV using the internet isn't reliable enough yet. Not near as reliable as Dish.

 

[Ronnie-]

This is a very big reason why cutting the cord is not an option for me. Watching TV using the internet isn't reliable enough yet. Not near as reliable as Dish.

Well, in fairness the same issues can happen with sat or cable.

 

[Scherrman]

Well, in fairness the same issues can happen with sat or cable.

Not near as much. Not even close for me. I know it's different for everyone because of internet providers but I know I would run into issues almost every day. My son watches videos on his iPad everyday and usually runs into some buffering issues. They don't last long but I don't want short little buffering delays when I'm watching shows. If it only happened once every other week or so then I'd be fine with it.

 

[Ronnie-]

This was more of an issue with Sling TV itself, as my internet was still solid, so in that regard, it would be the providers issue which is what I mean when I said it could happen with any method of delivery.
However I get your point. My internet is pretty solid, if I were getting daily or even weekly issues I would have to look at other options. I rarely if ever have any issues with any streaming service I use.

 

[STL]

Not near as much. Not even close for me. I know it's different for everyone because of internet providers but I know I would run into issues almost every day. My son watches videos on his iPad everyday and usually runs into some buffering issues. They don't last long but I don't want short little buffering delays when I'm watching shows. If it only happened once every other week or so then I'd be fine with it.

That buffering on the iPad could very well have been a wifi issue and not related at all to Sling TV (or Netflix, etc.). For a fair comparison you really need to compare your experience using a wired-connection device -- like a Roku 3 or a HTPC -- because you aren't using your home's wifi to watch satellite/cable.

 

[Scherrman]

That buffering on the iPad could very well have been a wifi issue and not related at all to Sling TV (or Netflix, etc.). For a fair comparison you really need to compare your experience using a wired-connection device -- like a Roku 3 or a HTPC -- because you aren't using your home's wifi to watch satellite/cable.

Oh, I'm not bashing the Sling service at all but the fact that it has to rely solely on a person's internet connection. There are just more variables that can cause interruption with a smoothly running show this way. You could be in the middle of a movie and all of a sudden it freezes. Now what? Is it my device? Is it the site I'm using? Is it my internet? Is it my router?

Internet in my area is not good enough yet for my whole house to watch TV based off of it. Maybe some day.

 

[STL]

Oh, I'm not bashing the Sling service at all but the fact that it has to rely solely on a person's internet connection. There are just more variables that can cause interruption with a smoothly running show this way. You could be in the middle of a movie and all of a sudden it freezes. Now what? Is it my device? Is it the site I'm using? Is it my internet? Is it my router?

Internet in my area is not good enough yet for my whole house to watch TV based off of it. Maybe some day.

Gotcha. Hopefully you get better internet service soon.

That said, comparing performance you get on your iPad (over wifi) still isn't really fair when comparing performance you get when watching satellite (when your DVR is wired directly to your TV). You could use DISH's or D*'s apps to stream (over wifi) to your iPad -- then that would be an apples to apples comparison. If that works better (than Sling TV, Netflix, etc.) then your internet service is definitely your limiting factor.

 

[Scherrman]

Gotcha. Hopefully you get better internet service soon.

That said, comparing performance you get on your iPad (over wifi) still isn't really fair when comparing performance you get when watching satellite (when your DVR is wired directly to your TV). You could use DISH's or D*'s apps to stream (over wifi) to your iPad -- then that would be an apples to apples comparison. If that works better (than Sling TV, Netflix, etc.) then your internet service is definitely your limiting factor.

I already watch plenty of streaming shows. I have a Roku, Smart TV, multiple iPads and iPhones, and Hopper with Sling which I occasionally stream shows on. For the most part they all work great but it is still less reliable than regular satellite TV.

 

[STL]

Well if you are streaming from your Hopper to your iPad (at home) and seeing any problems, then those should not be due to your internet service provider (since you are really only using your home network). And that would also mean it very well could be something you can fix it yourself (with a better wifi setup). That is all I was trying to point out.

 

[STL]

I had several issues with Sling TV tonight trying to watch TNT (NCAA basketball). It hung up on me at least three times, and I even got some weird "no allowed" error (or something like that). It even forced my new Roku to reboot once (so that took awhile to come back from). Every time I had the problem, I was able to pull up the game on http://www.ncaa.com/march-madness-live/ without any issue -- so this does appear like a Sling TV issue. BTW, I'm using a Roku 3 with a wired ethernet connection. If this continues, I will not be happy with Sling TV.

 

[Kraven]

I wouldn't necessarily conclude its Sling at fault as there could be a multitude of culprits.
You're pretty much guaranteed to be closer to the Sling servers than I am and I dont have any issues.

 

[Yespage]

The one thing I hate most about streaming, when trouble happens, is it the computer (when streaming on the computer), software running on the computer, roku device need a reboot, does the router need to be reset, it is my Internet provider, is it the distributor?

On cable or dish, it usually is pretty obvious that it isn't on the downstream end.

 

[STL]

I wouldn't necessarily conclude its Sling at fault as there could be a multitude of culprits.
You're pretty much guaranteed to be closer to the Sling servers than I am and I dont have any issues.

Did you watch the Arkansas/Wofford game in its entirety? That's the one where I had the multiple problems. Being I could stream it from the other source without any issue, I think the problems are pretty damning of Sling TV. When I had the biggest problem (the odd "not allowed" error) I did change to TBS on Sling TV and it was working fine -- albeit I didn't stay on it long -- then I went back to TNT and still got the same error which then seemed to cause the Roku to reboot. If I could rewind with TNT (on Sling TV) then this wouldn't be such a big deal. I have watched Sling TV a fair amount over the last several weeks and didn't experience the problems I had last night, but I also haven't been watching TNT (but rather mostly ESPNs). We will see how tonight goes, but if Sling TV cannot deliver more solid performance that last night I can see a lot of people dropping them down the road.

 

[Ronnie-]

Second week in a row. The only two times I've tried to use it that it has not worked.

After a third I'll likely cancel.


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[Ronnie-]

ESPN works. So....


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[realbbbb]

Did you watch the Arkansas/Wofford game in its entirety? That's the one where I had the multiple problems. Being I could stream it from the other source without any issue, I think the problems are pretty damning of Sling TV. When I had the biggest problem (the odd "not allowed" error) I did change to TBS on Sling TV and it was working fine -- albeit I didn't stay on it long -- then I went back to TNT and still got the same error which then seemed to cause the Roku to reboot. If I could rewind with TNT (on Sling TV) then this wouldn't be such a big deal. I have watched Sling TV a fair amount over the last several weeks and didn't experience the problems I had last night, but I also haven't been watching TNT (but rather mostly ESPNs). We will see how tonight goes, but if Sling TV cannot deliver more solid performance that last night I can see a lot of people dropping them down the road.

I had the exact same error while trying to watch the WVU-Maryland game last night on TNT via SlingTV (Roku 2). In the first half, it froze probably 3-4 times and each time, it stopped, then gave the "Content Not Authorized" error. Eventually I exited out of the Sling application and restarted it and it was fine for the 2nd half (there were occasional quality changes but no freezing/errors). Prior to that (I signed up on Wednesday last week), I had experienced some intermittent freezing/buffering issues while watching the games Thurs/Fri but had never received the "Error - Content Not Authorized" message. And similar to what others posted, I tested the stream of the games on my laptop via the March Madness NCAA website without any issues when those errors happened last night (i.e. not an internet service issue).