I want to subscribe to a streaming service with TNT and ESPN for the playoffs. I'm considering Youtube TV or SlingTV. SlingTV is $25 (I need more than 1 stream), DVR is $5 more, but SlingTV won't be able to pause/record ESPN games. Youtube TV is more expensive at $40/month, but it has NBA TV and DVR. I can't find any limitations on pausing live ESPN. Anyone have experience with these two services? I tried SlingTV a few years back when they first launched and the streaming experience was not great. I'm sure it's better now though.
I had Sling for a few months (cancelled recently). For the live stuff, the quality was usually so-so, sometimes bad. With the on-demand stuff, it would always freeze, or reset my Roku when it got to the first commercial. Just wasn't worth it for me. Pro tip: If you know someone with cable, ask for their cable login. Use that to get the ESPN app and TNT app on Roku. Both of those work much better for me, for streaming. I've never tried DVR with any of this so I can't comment on that.
Sling is the best. I've tried all of them. Directv is the worst one while youtube tv is the 2nd worst. Oh and hulu tv sucks as well.
I'm using DTV Now and it's ok. Not great. Might try Sling just cuz it's $15 cheaper a month. One time recently DTVNow incorrectly blacked out a Rockets game on TNT and I will be bitter about that until the day I die.
I share YouTube TV with another person to lower the cost. It's been great for me so far, and the channel selection is quite good for what I'm paying. It includes the normal sports channels as well as MLB Network and NBA TV. DIRECTV NOW crashes a lot, Sling's channel lineup is weird, and PS Vue limits streaming to one home network. YouTube TV is my favorite of the ones I've tried.
Tried Sling TV, it sucked, would not recommend Currently using Hulu TV, works great, would highly recommend Haven't tried Youtube TV
I use Directv Now and it's okay. The software on Amazon Fire is pretty horrible. I only got it because ATT gave me it at a steep discount with HBO go with my wireless plan.
Well **** after reading the anti-Sling comments in here I guess I'll just stick with DTV Now. But if anyone sees a YouTube TV promo/discount let me know and I'll give that a try.
Have used Sling for ~3 years now and it's definitely better than when it started. Streaming device and internet speed matter. We were using an older Roku and it would struggle to playback smoothly a lot of the time, but on the new Fire TV (not the stick, the little box/dongle that is more powerful) and Xbox it works pretty well. Some occasional buffering. Have another friend who switched to Sling a while back and it struggled on their Roku, so he went and bought the Nvidia TV box and it is seamless for him.
I jumped in on Youtube TV before they raised the price. I have an account from a family member that I used to log into the TV apps but I got soooo tired of the app signing out from time to time. Having to sign in again to each app is a pain especially when watching on Multiple TVs. On top of that using an Antenna to get local channels was also a major pain for me. Youtube TV resolves both issues for me as I get local channels now and don't have to sign into most of the apps I watch now plus I get DVR like features and I get to share my account. I've only shared with one person since it's only 3 concurrent streams. I wish it was at least 1 stream per shared account which would be 6. That would make sense since you're allowed to share out with 5 people. What if all of us want to watch at the same time? Especially if we're Rockets fans I was pissed as the rocket games on TNT were blacked out. Not sure if that's everyone but it seems to be as I can't even log into TNT with my original account. Anyway TLDR 1) YoutubeTV nearly eliminates need for antenna. 2) Resolves the hassle of logging in TV apps all the time 3) DVR is pretty good 4) I can watch Star Wars Rebels (all seasons) 5) Tennis Channel Picture Quality is average to above average
I love YouTube TV, I am grandfathered in at the $35 price... and once they added the Turner channels, I don't miss anything. The sharing with up to six people rocks too. For Rockets/Astros I use Reddit's stream subreddits (/r/mlbstreams and /r/nbastreams) and stream them on my Xbox One.
I started using YoutubeTV a little over a month ago (before the price increase) and so far it's been very good when streaming via my Chromecast Ultra. It's the first solution that is good enough for me to cut the cord. Channels tend to be either 720p/60fps or 1080p/30fps. My only real complaint so far is that TNT NBA broadcasts are 30fps instead of 60fps, thus they look a bit choppy. Hopefully that'll improve soon.
Sling TV, Youtube TV, DirectTV Now, and Hulu all have 14 days to a month free trial, so you can basically go through each one to have you covered till the finals since that will be on ABC We had a lengthy discussion on this last month http://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php?threads/2018-playoffs-for-cordcutters.289349/
From my understanding, TNT could only show a limited number of games in the Houston area, as I recall, they blacked out the Boston game in Dec, Lakers game on Tuesday, and another I can't remember. I don't remember the Rockets being on TNT that many times where they had to pick/choose the ones they'd black out in Houston. According to this site, they had 12 scheduled on TNT, 10 on ESPN, 6 on ABC, I'm guessing TNT had to limit it to 9? ESPN had 10, I don't recall any of their games being blacked out. It's a cool feeling to know your team is on the national stage that many times a season
I'm signing up for youtube TV this weekend. In addition to the other channels and unlimited DVR space, the Tennis Channel is what sold it for me.
Sling tv sucks Direct tv kinda sucks too but not as much Would look into getting Kodi on your roku and then getting gears tv (google it)
