Sling TV & Amazon Fire TV Promo - Worth It?

http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/12/8026927/free-amazon-fire-tv-roku-streaming-stick-sling-tv



So there's a promo going on right now that if you prepay for 3 months of Sling TV with Disk Network ($20 X 3 = $60) you get $50 off an Amazon Fire TV (normally $100 or you could get $50 off a $100 Roku 3 or a free Fire TV Stick/Roku Stick).



My question: Is it worth it from a non-Utah resident sports perspective? Looks like basic Sling offers ESPN and ESPN2 but no ESPNU. What would the Amazon Fire TV add to the picture? I already have Amazon Prime and can watch Amazon/Netflix movies on my TV/tablets.



What's important to me: Would I be able to "DVR" my BYU (and other sports games) and watch them later? They are advertising live TV, but I like to be able to record and watch later (usually when kids are in bed).



I see there is a Sports Extra package with Sling that adds in ESPNU along with some other sports channels for an extra $5 a month.



So, will most of my BYU football/basketball be covered? I can obviously still get BYUTV online. Can I watch my games anytime or does it have to be live? I currently have DirecTV at like $60 a month or something...



Does anyone have Sling/Amazon Fire TV that can rate it?



Thanks!!

byufan4ever wrote:
http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/12/8026927/free-amazon-fire-tv-roku-streaming-stick-sling-tv



So there's a promo going on right now that if you prepay for 3 months of Sling TV with Disk Network ($20 X 3 = $60) you get $50 off an Amazon Fire TV (normally $100 or you could get $50 off a $100 Roku 3 or a free Fire TV Stick/Roku Stick).



My question: Is it worth it from a non-Utah resident sports perspective? Looks like basic Sling offers ESPN and ESPN2 but no ESPNU. What would the Amazon Fire TV add to the picture? I already have Amazon Prime and can watch Amazon/Netflix movies on my TV/tablets.



What's important to me: Would I be able to "DVR" my BYU (and other sports games) and watch them later? They are advertising live TV, but I like to be able to record and watch later (usually when kids are in bed).



I see there is a Sports Extra package with Sling that adds in ESPNU along with some other sports channels for an extra $5 a month.



So, will most of my BYU football/basketball be covered? I can obviously still get BYUTV online. Can I watch my games anytime or does it have to be live? I currently have DirecTV at like $60 a month or something...



Does anyone have Sling/Amazon Fire TV that can rate it?



Thanks!!

I'm not sure I understand the promotion, but I bought a ROKU several years ago, when I found out BYUTV was a free channel on it. It streams better than just hooking your internet up to your TV. BYUTV has a sort of DVR function, but it is not something you control. They just keep the most popular recent broadcasts on it for a little while. Then they are pulled off of the DVR and uploaded as episodes you can view later. There is a time lag between being pulled from DVR and uploaded as an episode. I love the Roku. It was an initial hundred bucks, but after that it is free, unless you download a channel that has a monthly subscription, like amazon prime, netflix, etc. We have amazon prime because we buy all kinds of things on amazon.

I love my Roku. If it had an ESPN package I could buy, I'd drop my satellite altogether.

If ESPN ever figures out their real value to the marketplace, they'd kill the dish/directv/cable companies.



People laugh at the WWE-tv model, but it's the future of live broadcasting.

Schmoe wrote:
I love my Roku. If it had an ESPN package I could buy, I'd drop my satellite altogether.

It does now--that's what he's talking about. Sling TV did it's soft lauch a couple weeks ago, and is now open for subscriptions. It is available on Roku (I believe versions LT and higher)



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So I thought that I'd share my experience using Sling TV/Dish TV's live streaming of sports.



First, a little backstory. I previously had a 32" TV with SD (not HD) channels from DirecTV. I was paying $79 a month just for TV. I recently upgraded to a 48" HDTV and wow, the SD channels look ugly that big. I didn't notice it before, but on the bigger screen it really is pretty bad. So I started looking into upgrading to HD.



One option would be to upgrade to HD though DirecTV although there's an installation fee and an extra $10 a month (although I talked them into waiving it for the first year).



Along with my new TV I also purchased a Roku3, my first one. I was able to start streaming shows and movies in HD. But what about sports? I added SlingTV to my Roku and signed up for the free 7 day trial. I watched the Gonzaga game and it was amazing. Basic SlingTV is $20/month with ESPN and ESPN2 as the sports channels that it carries and for an extra $5/month you get ESPNews, ESPNU, SEC network and a few other minor sports channels. The catch is that these are all streaming live. No way to program, record, pause, replay, or skip commercials. Still, I liked it well enough that I signed on for a month (there is no contract, just month-to-month) and have plans to cancel my DirecTV altogether.



However, during the Santa Clara game, just a minute or two into the game and the ESPN2 channel goes blank with an "Oops, something happened and we're looking into it. Try again in a few minutes" message. Well, luckily, I still had my DirecTV so I switched to watch it in ugly SD. Every commercial break I would check the SlingTV channel but it was still blank. Moments after the game was over I checked again and guess what? It was back up and running!! What the??!



The only thing I use DirecTV for is sports. Mostly BYU football and basketball, with a little bit of NBA (Spurs) and English Premier League. I''ll have BYUTV (Roku) and ESPN family (SlingTV) and TNT (SlingTV) so most of my BYU sports will be covered so I'll only be missing out on EPL but I really only watch maybe a game a month so that's not a big loss.



My next step though is to figure out how to program/record these live streaming sports from SlingTV. I just don't want to be at the mercy of live TV scheduling. Especially during the football season I like to be able to record the day games and watch them at night after the kids go to bed and skip the commercials. I've started looking into PlayLater which says that it's the "world's first DVR for online videos." If anyone has any experience with PlayLater that would be helpful. Oh, and SlingTV is suppose to be adding ESPN3 in the future which allows watching replays of certain games. That could definitely help as alternative to having to watch sports live.



I'll keep you guys updated on how the SlingTV goes and if I dive into the PlayLater. My plan is that Roku + SlingTV + PlayerLater can eliminate any need for that $79/month satellite bill. I guess I'm turning into a cord cutter, lol.

Let us know how it goes. I really want to drop Comcast but after having a DVR for the past 7 years, it would be a huge adjustment.

Good news! First, I was able to watch the Portland game just fine. The channel had to buffer and reload once, but that was it. And the picture quality from Sling TV is amazing. It's better than the picture I get from watching HD movies from Netflix/Amazon via the Roku.



Second, I found out that the basic Sling TV package enables you to access WatchESPN/ESPN3. I tried it out on both my PC and TV/Roku and it worked great. When watching a replay you can pause, rewind, skip ahead (past the commercials!). Unfortunately with Sling TV you cannot do any of that for the live streaming and I believe most ESPN games don't make it to the "replay" status until the live game is all of the way over. So for last night's game I would have had to wait until 12:30/1:00am CT to watch the replay and get the full "DVR" abilities. I checked before the BYU game and it looked like they had added just recently ended games to the replay so that's good that they get added quickly.



So no need to get the PlayOn software, which I did research a little bit and wasn't too excited about it or any of it's competitors.



I hear you about loving my DVR. But for me it's worth it. I'll be saving $60/month so I can live with live streaming and ESPN3 replays. I may even watch tonight's game on replay.



Hope this helps!

byufan4ever wrote:
Good news! First, I was able to watch the Portland game just fine. The channel had to buffer and reload once, but that was it. And the picture quality from Sling TV is amazing. It's better than the picture I get from watching HD movies from Netflix/Amazon via the Roku.



Second, I found out that the basic Sling TV package enables you to access WatchESPN/ESPN3. I tried it out on both my PC and TV/Roku and it worked great. When watching a replay you can pause, rewind, skip ahead (past the commercials!). Unfortunately with Sling TV you cannot do any of that for the live streaming and I believe most ESPN games don't make it to the "replay" status until the live game is all of the way over. So for last night's game I would have had to wait until 12:30/1:00am CT to watch the replay and get the full "DVR" abilities. I checked before the BYU game and it looked like they had added just recently ended games to the replay so that's good that they get added quickly.



So no need to get the PlayOn software, which I did research a little bit and wasn't too excited about it or any of it's competitors.



I hear you about loving my DVR. But for me it's worth it. I'll be saving $60/month so I can live with live streaming and ESPN3 replays. I may even watch tonight's game on replay.



Hope this helps!

One of the best financial decisions I ever made was cutting DirecTV and going with Roku...that and my OOMA home phone. Streaming TV is the wave of the future.