Sling TV - Amazon Fire TV/Stick deal

[KnightedIbis]

For those of you interested, Sling finally launched about a week ago - you get ESPN among other channels for $20 a month, and basically the full suite of ESPN channels (including SEC Network) for $5 more a month :O

Anyway, I saw this deal and had to pull the trigger - you get either a free Amazon Fire Stick or $50 their Fire TV... There is also a promotion for a Roku Stick or Roku 3 discount.

http://www.aftvnews.com/free-fire-tv-stick-or-50-off-a-fire-tv-with-sling-tv-subscription/

I use an Xbox One, Apple TV 3 and a Fire Stick at home, and the fire stick is fantastic.

 

[Lurky]

That's a pretty awesome deal.... do you know if sling allows you to watch ondemand as well, or is it all live?
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[UCF-icenhl-06]

i heard it uses WatchESPN...which basically means youre totally fcuked for the College Football Playoffs.

 

[KnightedIbis]

They do have on demand services but only specific channels (not ESPN) you can even watch three hours forward or back on those channels that allow it. I believe.

Also you get watvhespn access, but I'm 100% certain the main station is fed from watchespn.

 

[HAL 9100]

I'm really tempted by this, but I'm not sure there's much savings for me by making this move. And there are things I would miss by dropping cable.

On the other hand though, it's basically $10 for a 3 month trial of it if you buy a Fire TV.

 

[brahmanknight]

I'm shocked it took you this long to post this, Ibis.

 

[KnightedIbis]

Originally posted by brahmanknight:
I'm shocked it took you this long to post this, Ibis.

Haha - I just saw the deal on reddit and pulled the trigger today. I kept forgetting to try the service out, but I'm in now.

I'll try and give it a spin tonight and give an update tomorrow. Either way, I should be dropping off the cablebox in the next week or so.

 

[chemmie]

5 minutes of looking and my head is about to explode. It is amazing that I can take hours reading crap about credit cards and ways to get more miles and points for travel, but I get bored in 5 minutes reading about how to save $50 a month.


Sooooo...

A Fire Stick just gives you the same stuff an XBox or SmartTV would get you? HBOGo, WatchESPN, Netflix, Amazon?
What the hell does a Roku do?
SlingTV would give you a bunch of channels, most of the popular ones like ESPN, CNN, etc.? It runs on the Fire Stick?

 

[chemmie]

With the exception of ESPN, I don't really watch live TV anymore.
Is there a way to record shows from this? Or, are you still stuck using Amazon or something else to buy recorded shows?

 

[KnightedIbis]

Originally posted by chemmie:
With the exception of ESPN, I don't really watch live TV anymore.
Is there a way to record shows from this? Or, are you still stuck using Amazon or something else to buy recorded shows?

There is an on demand service for most of the channels, I'm not sure on which - I'll know more once I start playing around. Like I said before too, you can also go forward and backward for some set amount of time for some of the channels to watch anything that has played.

But like a fire stick - if you have Prime - gets you access to all of that, plus you can get this and netflix on the stick - I also play Pandora on mine.

 

[chemmie]

Roku looks like it has a lot more channels for watching.
What is so great about the Fire Stick?

 

[KnightedIbis]

Originally posted by chemmie:
Roku looks like it has a lot more channels for watching.
What is so great about the Fire Stick?

You want the Roku if you want more flexibility. I have Prime, so I got a deal when they rolled out the fire stick. You can't go wrong either way, but you will have more apps/channels on the Roku.

 

[chemmie]

Damnit.

Brighthouse 35mb internet is $78 a month, just for internet. They are gonna rape you either way. Paying that, it isn't much of a savings, really.

 

[UCF-icenhl-06]

Also pretty sure you would need a Sling TV account per TV since each account can only watch one channel at a time and doesnt allow multiple logins

 

[KnightedIbis]

Originally posted by UCF-icenhl-06:
Also pretty sure you would need a Sling TV account per TV since each account can only watch one channel at a time and doesnt allow multiple logins

Good point, this is a major concern for most users considering making the switch. You can use all the "watch apps" in addition to your main stream, but only one logged in "main" stream

 

[NinjaKnight]

I have Sling right now, not that impressed. It's pretty laggy when switching channels on my Roku 2 and buffering takes awhile too. Also coming from Netflix/Amazon/Hulu I really forgot how much I hate commercials.

 

[HAL 9100]

Originally posted by NinjaKnight:
Hulu I really forgot how much I hate commercials.

I take it that you don't watch Hulu much.

 

[HAL 9100]

Originally posted by chemmie:
Damnit.

Brighthouse 35mb internet is $78 a month, just for internet. They are gonna rape you either way. Paying that, it isn't much of a savings, really.

Comcast is having a promotional deal of 105 mpbs + SD basic cable + HBO for $50 out here, which is pretty good. But I'm sure that'll turn into like $80 or $90 after the promotion. 50 mbps is $60 after a promotion. $60+$20+Netflix/Hulu/Amazon = ~$100. Saving $10-20 a month is nice, but it's not some epic savings. Especially when that extra money does get you a lot more content too.

 

[1ofTheseKnights]

The govt sponsored monopolies have done a bangup job making it not make sense to cord cut
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[NinjaKnight]

Originally posted by HAL 9100:

Originally posted by NinjaKnight:
Hulu I really forgot how much I hate commercials.

I take it that you don't watch Hulu much.

Hulu has some, but not nearly as bad as regular TV.

 

[chemmie]

Originally posted by 1ofTheseKnights:
The govt sponsored monopolies have done a bangup job making it not make sense to cord cut
Posted from Rivals Mobile

but...but...but... 85 told us there is no such thing as monopolies and oligopolies!

 

[1ofTheseKnights]

Well we can't have startups digging in the dirt!!! (Says the govt sponsored monopoly owned msm)
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[goodknightfl]

Originally posted by HAL 9100:

Originally posted by NinjaKnight:
Hulu I really forgot how much I hate commercials.

I take it that you don't watch Hulu much.

I killed Hulu for that very reason. Plus it was pretty glitchy. I do like Netflix though. Between that and over the air, I am ok.

 

[HAL 9100]

FYI, Amazon has the Fire TV $15 off right now. So I just pulled the trigger on 3 months of Sling + Fire TV for a combined $94.