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Sling TV - for Xbox

8K views 124 replies 27 participants last post by  spid 
#1 ·
Just announced yesterday:

http://news.xbox.com/2015/01/ent-sling-tv-coming-to-xbox-one

Our vision at Xbox is to bring your games and entertainment together. Important to that vision is our focus on partnering with television providers and content distributors to deliver rich, differentiated TV and video experiences. Today, we’re pleased to share the news of a relationship with the newly announced Sling TV, which is backed by DISH. Sling TV is an over-the-top, television service that will deliver live sports, lifestyle, family, news and information channels, Video-On-Demand (VOD) entertainment, and the best of Internet video for $20 per month. With Sling TV, there’s no commitment, contract, credit check, hardware installation, or hidden fees. Channels will include ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS, Food Network, HGTV, Cartoon Network, and Disney Channel. And Xbox One will be the exclusive gaming console when it launches in the coming weeks.

What’s more, as the first gaming console where Sling TV will be available, we’re excited to announce that all Xbox Live members will get an exclusive extended free trial for one month at launch.*

”Xbox is onboard as the first gaming console where Sling TV will be available,” said Bassil El-Khatib, vice president of Sling TV. “We created the live Internet TV service for millennial consumers underserved by the pay-TV industry. One of the keys to reaching this audience is being on the devices they use, and we know millions of consumers are turning on their Xbox every day to access content they love.”

“We’re thrilled to partner with Sling TV as they bring this exciting new service to life, and we look forward to launching the Sling TV app on Xbox One in early 2015 as the first gaming console where the service is available,” said Mike Nichols, Corporate Vice President, Marketing for Xbox. “We’re committed to bringing great entertainment options to gamers and our relationship with Sling TV is an important milestone in that journey and in offering more choices to our Xbox fans.”

*Sling TV is offered at $20 per month; Xbox Live members must sign up for extended free trial

Looking forward to the trial. Cut cable a few years back, but do miss the occasional big game on ESPN at home [hello, college playoffs].
 
#2 ·
Looks interesting.

Hopefully they can expand it to be semi ala-carte. i.e if I could tack on "NBC channel pack", "Discovery channel pack" , etc . Sling + OTA Antenna becomes interesting to me.

For me cutting the cord was more out of principle than savings.....Hated paying for a large pack of channels of which I only ever watch a tiny handful. Which is why I really don't see something like Sony VUE being all that interesting since its the same thing as cable. Ideally for me a semi ala-carte solution where I can get 10-15 channels I want with a reasonable price would be the best.

The only strong negatives I see so far is the "only 1 device stream at a time" and no DVRing.
 
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#3 ·
I'm looking forward to having two games on at once through snapping my OTA TV and streaming ESPN at the same time. Hopefully the 360 gets access to a Sling TV app as well, since I use it primarily as a streamer on a second TV these days.

Since this service is still provided through DISH, I wonder how long until these channels untether further and go ahead on their own like HBO and SHOWTIME. I guess in that case they'd split up to ABC/Disney-owned, CBS/Viacom-owned, and Comcast/NBC owned channel packages first, before being offered one-by-one.

Man, wish this would get going before the national championship this Monday. Still trying to figure out if it's worth the $20/month after the trial, but I may hold off getting a subscription until pro & college football seasons start again next fall.
 
#4 ·
Was excited at first, but realize its not a Sling 'Box' app. I dont need any more monthly fees, thank you. I know this is good new for cord cutters, but for those of us who still pay for cable, the Sling Box is the greatest piece of hardware but doesnt really have a good way of getting that onto another TV, short of using HDMI out on a laptop. Theres apps for phones and tablets, which are also great, but I dont knwo if there are any streaming devices that actually have the app. Does Chromecast/Roku/Fire TV have it? Why not XB1/360?
 
#7 ·
Theres apps for phones and tablets, which are also great, but I dont knwo if there are any streaming devices that actually have the app. Does Chromecast/Roku/Fire TV have it? Why not XB1/360?
Google TV has an app. The Android version would possible work on things like the Fire TV, and might be able to work in conjunction with the Chromecast.
 
#5 ·
Now if Microsoft coold only get their ears out of their butts and fix the audio issue where the surround channel audio erroneously comes from the rear surrounds. Then it might be worth using the XBOne for content from something like the SlingTv and other apps. But because of this issue I rarely use my XBOne for anything other than gaming or BD playback. SInce their audio is mapped correctly. UNlike the HDMI input and apps.
 
#9 ·
I was excited at first, but no DVR support is a deal killer for me. I can't see paying $20 / month to go back to the pre-VCR days. I watch maybe 2 games a year live in bars, otherwise I always buffer.

Of course, this has its own side effects - we were watching the 9th inning of the last baseball game of the season when San Francisco erupted in sound around us :)
 
#12 · (Edited)
Will the Walking Dead even be made available for On Demand streaming with SlingTV? Otherwise you need to watch it live. And if you have to watch it live then I don't see the point.
I'm in the middle of the 7 day trial of Sling Tv. If everything was available for On Demand viewing and for pausing, rewinding etc, then I could see a use for it. But everything isn't.
 
#13 ·
I'm in the middle of the 7 day trial of Sling Tv. If everything was available for On Demand viewing and for pausing, rewinding etc, then I could see a use for it. But everything isn't.
Same here. My two biggest issues with Sling thus far is the 1-device at a time and the inconsistency with being able to watch things live or on-demand. In some cases Sling allows on-demand from up to 3 days but they block out being able to fast forward those......makes no sense. I can count on one hand the # of things I have watched live in the past few years. Its either on-demand or DVRd where I can FF thru commercials. The closest I get to live is waiting for a live show being record to be in about 20min then I start :)

With a streaming/internet system like Sling TV it is expected that we will not be subject to having to watch live....otherwise what is the point.

The 1-device at a time is on Sling.........but sadly I think what is avail on-demand and what can be rewinded/forwarded is being controlled by the content providers themselves.
 
#15 ·
But live TV? Even if they paid me $100 each month, I would not watch Live TV.
 
#18 ·
The Walking dead is one of the worst for commercial breaks . There seem to be many more breaks for the same number of commercials. I don't really notice it since I would never watch it live, but people were complaining about it on the Walking Dead thread here.
 
#23 ·
Good to hear; set the app to download at home via SmartGlass. Just in time for NCAA tourney games on TBS & TNT [already get CBS OTA] and the final run of Mad Men on AMC next month...

Anyone know if it lets you sign up for the free extended [month] trial through the Xbox App, or will that have to be done through their main website?
 
#24 ·
If you're a current Xbox One owner, you get a 1-month free trial.

If you buy a new Xbox One at the Microsoft Store (B&M or online), you get a 3-month free trial.

"If you’re not already a proud owner of an Xbox One, you can receive three free months of Sling TV service with the purchase of a new Xbox One, only at Microsoft stores and microsoftstore.com."
 
#28 ·
Works fine on my end. Picture quality is solid. I see bunch of stuff is only for rent. Right now I don't see myself paying $20 for this. I still have time before this 1-month trial expires. Watched Friends last night on TBS.

Don't forget to cancel before that since you have to enter your credit card information when signing up for the service. Otherwise it will automatically take the needed amount off your card for the subscription.
 
#31 ·
Signed up last Friday, and so far pretty underwhelmed. I primarily used Sling to watch the NCAA Tourney on TBS and TNT. While during the day it streams decently, come evening it has a hard time keeping the higher bitrate going. Started getting the 'spinning circle' instead of broadcasts. So much so that I ended up watching the late Notre Dame-Butler game on my computer- which also didn't receive the clearest stream, but at least didn't keep pausing.

Giving them room to make adjustments; most of the issues seem to be buffering related- perhaps it can't load as much data in advance because the data streams are 'live'. For comparison HuluPlus and AmazonVideo don't give my xbox any troubles, and I consistently watch them during primetime with sharp video feed and no buffer delays. Hopefully Sling TV just needs to adjust some internal connection settings to clear it up. If not, I'll unsubscribe at the end of the free trial.

At least customer service was quick & easy; when I first signed up through my xbox it kept giving me an error code before I could watch for the first time. A call to their service number got it working.
 
#39 ·
I have both an Xbox One and a Roku 3. Sling does great on the Roku. The video is high quality and I have very little buffering issues. The Xbox One is another story though. The picture fades in and out from low to high quality, I have freezing, and the buffering can be insane. I have a 50meg broadband connection. I don't understand why there is such a difference but it really is night and day for me. Everything else on the Xbox is fine except Sling. I plan to keep Sling and ride it out till they get the kinks out but I will watch exclusively on the Roku for now
 
#32 ·
So far I'm not too impressed with Sling either. Every time there was a commercial the video becomes low quality then it gets better. Hopefully they can fix this issue. I also didn't think the picture quality looked all that great and I have fast internet at home.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#33 ·
It sound slike it's gotten worse. I tried the seven day free trial the first week it was available. And picture quality was surprisingly good. It was the fact that all content could not be paused, rewound, or fast forwarded that was the problem with the service.
 
#34 ·
I have been watching Sling on a Roku and have been really pleased. Picture quality is very good and haven't had too much buffering although I have fast internet so that helps. I purchased an Xbox One yesterday and watched the NCAA games last night. There were a couple of times that the pic would go low quality but I assumed that had to do with the number of people watching as in a server issue? It cleared right up each time. It is our main source of TV and so far we are very happy. I am sure there will be kinks to work out but I do think they have done a nice job to this point ;)
 
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