You may or may not be able to reduce your cable subscription to cable. The
problem is that in order to receive several of the channels offered on the
Apple TV one must be able to get those channels presently on their cable.
Suggest you think about getting an app called Sling TV for your phone, see
information below.
below...
Imagine everything you liked about cable. You probably enjoyed surfing the
channels, watching the shows people were talking about when they aired
instead of months after. And, if you were lucky enough to own boxes of a
certain caliber, pausing and rewinding said TV shows in real time.
Now, imagine everything you hated: the costly bill at the end of the month,
the bulky, expensive equipment that marred the side of your house and
entertainment center. Not to mention the service contract that never seemed
to end.
But what if you could get everything you loved about TV without any of those
gripes?
That, in a nutshell, is Sling TV.
It's live TV streaming whenever and wherever. No contracts, no equipment and
no costly statement.
Sling TV? Is it the same thing as a Slingbox?While there are some concepts
borrowed from Slingbox, Sling TV is in a different league when it comes to
cutting the cord.
Sling TV is a US-only service offered from DISH that allows you to watch the
channels you'd typically find on basic cable for $20 a month without a
contract, subscription to DISH or any pesky cable equipment on your roof or
in your living room.
What devices can I use to watch it?Create an account on DISH's website and
use that info to login to the app on iOS, Android, Amazon Fire TV and Amazon
Fire TV Stick, Google's Nexus Player, Xbox One and Roku TV. The service will
also work on select LG and Samsung smart TVs, and on Macs and PCs via a
website portal. The service is expected to come to Google Chromecastlater
this year.
The system is more eloquent than apps like TWC TV or Xfinity, and while the
latter is almost universally available, trying to remember whose name and
email you use to login can ruin a session before it even starts.
What channels are included?So far, channels on the basic, $20-per-month plan
include ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS, HGTV, DIY Network, Food Network, Travel
Channel, CNN, Cartoon Network, ABC Family, Disney Channel, AMC, IFC and,
most recently, A&E, History, H2, Lifetime, Bloomberg and most recently,
Polaris+.
The biggest change to this roster is HBO. Starting April 12 for the premiere
of the new season of Game of Thrones, Sling TV will offer live HBO for $15 a
month to current "Best of Live TV" subscribers. Also new is the addition of
DishWorld multi-lingual content to Sling TV.
In addition to the base subscription, seven add-on packages are available
for $5 apiece each month:
a.. Kids Extra, with Disney Jr, Disney XD, Boomerang, Duck TV, and Baby
TV.
b.. Sports Extra, which includes the SEC Network, ESPNEWS, ESPNU,
Universal Sports, Univision Deportes, beIN Sports, ESPN Buzzer Beater, ESPN
Bases Loaded and ESPN Goal Line.
c.. Lifestyle extra, with Cooking Channel, DIY, truTV, WE tv, FYI, and
LMN.
d.. Hollywood Extra, which includes live and video-on-demand content from
EPIX, EPIX2, EPIX3, EPIX Drive-In, Sundance TV and Turner Classic Movies
(TCM)
e.. World News Extra, with HLN, News 18 India, Euronews, NDTV 24x7,
France24 and RT.
f.. Deportes Extra includes Azteca, beIN Español, beIN HD (English),
Univison, Univision Deportes and UniMás.
g.. Películas & Novelas Extra includes Azteca Corazon, Cinelatino, De
Película, De Película Clasico, Pasiones, Univision tlnovelas, Univision and
UniMás.
FunctionalityNow, remember when you asked about Slingbox? Well, it's true,
Sling TV and Slingbox share a few similarities beyond the first syllable.
Sling TV allows you to pause, rewind and fast-forward live TV on some
channels (note the word "some" there), and the ability to watch shows a few
days after they've aired.
Also similar to Slingbox, Sling TV lets you watch its service on most mobile
devices anywhere in the world. That is, as long as you can establish and
maintain a bitrate of about 1.5 Mbps for high-quality streams, 0.8Mbps for
medium resolution, and 0.5 Mbps for low-quality.
Sling TV on Roku TechRadar was given two platforms to test Sling TV. One was
Roku (specifically on a Roku 3) and the other was iOS, which we'll get to in
a minute.
By and large, the experience on Roku was everything I've come to love about
a cable box: simple functionality, clean layout and crisp picture.
Installing the app was as easy as going to Roku channel store, finding the
Sling TV app and pushing it to my Roku 3.
Coming from the home screen, Sling TV's interface loads up In a matter of
seconds. The time it takes to get from home screen to live TV is
astonishing - it's leagues faster than the time it takes my DirecTV cable
box to boot up.
Once loaded, the stream was crisp and clear. (This obviously is a YMMV
situation, as my home setup isn't identical - or even necessarily in the
same ballpark - as everyone else.) A quick test of my network showed I was
pulling around 26Mbps over Wi-Fi, which worked fairly well at high-quality
1080p 99% of the time.
The only stark contrast to traditional cable, at this point at least, is the
amount of content available on Sling TV.
Comparatively, the 40-or-so channels offered on Sling TV are just a drop in
the bucket compared to the over-800 I have available on DirecTV. And because
you aren't able to record a show like you can on TiVo, you're limited to
watching whatever's on or whatever's been on in the past few days.
Sling TV on iOSSling TV on iOS is a vastly different experience. Not only
are you trading down to a smaller screen size, but you're also losing
connection stability and clean interface of the set-top app.
Using an iPhone 5S for testing, I took Sling TV with me for a gauntlet of
daily errands. As you might expect, over LTE the stream was nearly flawless.
Dropping down to 3G, however, presented real problems as seconds slipped
away to buffering screens.
Problematically, when you return home, continuing what you were watching on
your phone isn't as simple as starting up your Roku. You'll need to go into
the menu, find the show you were watching and rewind it manually.
DISH is clearly (and rightfully) afraid of the account-sharing trap that
has befallen HBO Go and Netflix, and doesn't allow two devices using the
same account to run the service simultaneously.
Trying to use both a phone and a Roku at the same time won't work either.
DISH is clearly (and rightfully) afraid of the account-sharing trap that has
befallen HBO Go and Netflix, and doesn't allow two devices using the same
account to run the service simultaneously.
Overall, I found the iOS experience less enjoyable than the set-top app, but
still impressive. Being able to take TV figuratively anywhere is an
appealing, practical proposition for morning commuters or long-distance
travelers.
Sling TV on Amazon Fire TVSling TV made a splash this week by offering a a
free Fire TV Stick to new subscribers. To activate your subscription on your
new device, check out Sling TV on the "featured app" section of the
storefront, start the download, enter in your account info and soon you'll
have live TV on your favorite Amazon device.
The interface on Amazon Fire TV looks almost identical to the service on
Roku, which is to say clean and convenient. Pressing the "list" button on
Fire TV remotes brings up a channel listing while the three media control
buttons do their things on playback-enabled channels.
The service looks a little clearer than it did on Roku - Sling probably set
the highest visual quality as a default on Amazon devices - but it does seem
to hit a few more snags. The system was stuck in buffering for such a long
time at one point that it completely shutoff. Whether this was a one-time
fluke or a persistent problem remains to be seen...
Sling TV on Xbox OneWhen I heard Sling was shooting for five platforms in
five months, I had my doubts it could keep up with the development pace. Yet
here we are just two months later talking about the fourth version of the
system, XboxOne.
If you've used the service on any of the set-top boxes so far, you'll
probably know what to expect here.
The channel interface is brought up with a flick of the stick in any
direction, while the menu button (formerly known as start) opens up a menu
for video-on-demand movies. Last but not least is the share button (again,
formerly known as back) that brings up a menu that filters channels by
category.
One major change worth noting is that Sling - unlike some apps on Xbox One -
actually utilizes the Kinect to take in voice commands and allows you to pin
both video-on-demand and specific channels to your home screen.
During testing I noticed a fair bit of latency (38ms compared to 30 on my
tablet), which caused the service to stop and stutter multiple times. This
occurred with a 4.24Mbps download speed and could be a worrying sign for
potential Xbox One users.
Fred OlverOverall the service looks great and is functionally stable on Xbox
One, but its performance - as users have noted in the comments - will
definitely vary depending on your connection speed.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Laury-Johnson, Shawnese (LARA)" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2015 10:26 AM
Subject: RE: Apple Tv
Thank you so much. I'm definitely going to wait. I'm thinking of reducing my
current cable subscription down tremendously after getting the apple tv.
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of Sieghard Weitzel
Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2015 11:12 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: Apple Tv
Nobody knows which if any of the new features will be supported by the third
generation Apple TV. It is likely that one of the big features will be an
app store for the Apple TV which allows you to install apps which third
party developers will make. These could be anything from games to apps from
organisations like CNN or BBC to apps from music services like Spotify,
Deezer and so on. This will hugely enhance the functionality and usefulness
of the Apple TV since it of course is logical that you may want to play
content from a music service or news organization via your TV or sound
system the Apple TV is attached to. Of course the app store may be supported
by the third gen Apple TV, but nobody can say for sure.
Another expected enhancement to the Apple TV is SIRI integration and
control. My guess is that you will be able to talk to the Apple TV via the
remote and tell it to open a certain app or play something etc. I highly
doubt that the third gen Apple TV which is already 3-year old hardware will
be able to support this.
Next is the upcoming offering of a subscription based TV service. Once
again, maybe this will be supported or maybe not.
One should keep in mind that while the second gen Apple TV still can play
Netflix and a bunch of the existing channels, it does not even have Youtube
support any more. This quietly disappeared a few months ago.
Lastly there is the expected integration and support of many connected home
automation devices like thermostats, lights, locks and so on. You may not
have these now, but such devices will be the norm rather than the exception
in the coming years.
I think in general that it is simply a bad idea to rush out and buy an Apple
TV now even though it may only be $50 especially because we already know
from rumours that a new Apple TV maybe announced as soon as September 9.
That is only 3 weeks away and within another week or so we probably know for
sure if Apple is sending out invites for a September 9 event or if it will
be held a week later. Why not wait these few weeks and see what happens, if
no Apple TV is forthcoming you can still spend your $50 in 3 weeks, but what
you can currently do with the Apple TV will not replace your existing cable
subscription.
I would give the same advice to somebody who wants to buy a new iPhone
although that is a bit different because iPhones are updated annually
whereas the last Apple TV update was 3 years ago. It is my guess that while
a new Apple TV will probably cost more than $50, it will not be hundreds of
Dollars simply because it is in Apple's interest to keep the price low so
people get it and then subscribe to channels, consume paid iTunes content or
buy apps from the new Apple TV app store which of course will generate a new
source of income for Apple.
Best regards,
Sieghard
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of Laury-Johnson, Shawnese (LARA)
Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2015 4:53 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: Apple Tv
I have another question about the apple tv with regards to getting it now or
waiting for the new version to be released. If I get it now and they do come
out with a new version will I be able to update what I have or will I have
to purchase something additional?
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of Brian Fischler
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2015 4:59 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Apple Tv
If you have the extra money why wait for the new Apple TV which we do not
know when it will be coming, you can buy an Apple TV on Amazon currently for
$50, totally worth it. And on another note you do not need a TV to connect
it to if you have a receiver or Sound Bar as I hooked mine up without a TV
via optical cable $5 bucks for the cable on Amazon. Good luck.
On Aug 17, 2015, at 1:42 PM, Chuck Dean <[email protected]> wrote:
I just replaced my Roku box with an Apple TV. The AppleTV is very
accessible, and easy to use. The Roku box has absolutely no excess ability
whatsoever, and was almost impossible for me to see what was on the
screen.
I plan to wait and see what the new AppleTV brings, I may buy it and
replace my current Apple TV box, which I bought about a month ago.
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