Sling TV is a viable option for those who want to cut the cable cords. It is a cable streaming service which was launched in 2015. Since its launch, it is striving to become the winner in the industry. For this, they provide varieties of packages to watch your favorite shows at affordable prices. It does not bind you in any kind of contracts or legal terms. Thus you can enjoy TV streaming anytime. It is one of the most popular live TV streaming services prevailing in America. More than 2.4 million subscribers were recorded at the end of 2018.
It offers all the channels you wish to watch at affordable rates through its different packages. In addition to this, you can opt for add on packages also. What and how many channels you can view depends upon your selected package. It also provides you with an additional facility of renting the movies. You can rent a movie for some additional charge. Charges depend upon the selected movie. The validity of rentals is from 24 to 48 hours once you start watching it. You have 30 days time interval to start watching the rented movies.
You can watch your favorite shows with Sling on your Android TV device or at players like Xbox and Roku. All you need is a stable internet connection. In early days, Sling TV launched a desktop app which enabled users to view channels on their laptops. Now keeping user convenience in mind Sling TV can be directly accessed through Chrome beta for PC and MAC. The partnership between Sling TV and T-mobile allows users to enjoy unlimited streaming video through their T-Mobile Smartphone.
Features of Sling TV at a glance:
With the advantage of cutting the cord, Sling TV offers you a load of benefits through its attractive features. Let’s have look at its features:
- It allows you to watch your favorite shows after a few days of its airing.
- Now you can save money using Sling.tv 7 days free trial.
- While viewing live TV on some of the channels you can fast forward, rewind and pause. This facility is limited to some channels only.
- You can even watch your favorite shows while you are mobile. That means Sling TV allows streaming on mobile phones also. Your internet connection needs to adhere to certain data limits for streaming. For high-quality streaming, you need a bit rate of 1.5 Mbps. For medium quality streaming, you need a bit rate of 0.8 Mbps. For low-quality streaming, you need a bit rate of 0.5 Mbps.
- With its cloud DVR feature, you can save up to 50 hours of content to your account. With this feature, you can relax and watch your favorite show whenever you want. This feature is termed as First Look.
- You need not wait for the Sling TV interface to load. It does this job in seconds. The speed of jumping from Home TV to live streaming is also astonishing.
Sling TV interface:
The interface provided by Sling TV looks definitely fine. It strives to provide a consistent interface across multiple platforms. With its modular design and dark color theme, it provides a good look to users. Its utilitarian grey and black menu along its yellow accents will attract you the most. But the downside is its speed depends on your platform.
It is an intuitive layout with options including My TV, guide, On Now, channels, DVR, Movies, Sports, search and settings. The guide and DVR option depends upon your platform. You can find your favorite channel on the My TV option. The label itself describes the other options.
Although like other streaming services it lacks categories like Science-Fiction, Dark comedy movies and much more. In Xbox one, the interface provides you with the episodes closest to the season. This makes it quite cumbersome to search for on-demand videos. Another downfall which you may experience with the PC version is that if you switch to the main menu while watching a show, you cannot easily get back to show you were watching.
Despite certain downfalls, once you are familiar with its interface you can enjoy your streaming facility.
Sling TV and IOS:
If you have an IOS device then your experience with Sling TV would be entirely different. It performs its best with iPhone SE. with this device you will surely experience crisp and clear stream with perfect audio. But if you drop down with the internet speed, you will lose the high-quality stream.
The experience with IOS is impressive but still is less enjoyable when compared to the set-top app.
Sling TV and Amazon Fire TV:
Sling provides high quality visual with Amazon devices. Amazon Fire TV provides a clean and convenient interface for you. The list button of Fire TV allows you to view the listing of subscribed channels. With the three media buttons, you can perform the playback enabled channels functionality.
The only drawback experienced till now is a long buffering time of the system which eventually led to shutoff of the system.
Sling TV and Xbox One
If you have used any set-top box device then your expectations with Xbox one would be definitely higher. With a flick of the stick, the channel interface appears. With the menu button, you can view the list of video-on-demand movies. The share button provides you with the menu through which channels can filter by category.
In Xbox one sling uses the kinetic feature to intake voice commands. It also allows users to pin video-on-demand and specific channels to the home screen altogether. The thing which you may dislike is its performance variation. Its performance depends on your internet connection.
Various packages of Sling TV:
Sling TV is not only successful for the variety of content it sells but for also how it sells that content. Instead of binding users in any kind of contract, it provides the following packages. Along with these packages it offers multiple add on just like the extra topping on your favorite pizza.
Sling orange:
Sling orange is the basic package provided by Sling TV. It is a single stream package with a bunch of 30 channels. With this package, you can stream in only one device at a time. This package attracts user generally because it offers ESPN under reasonable cost.
Sling Blue:
If you expect a complete bag of channels, then Sling blue will be your choice. It is a multi-stream service with a pack of 40 channels. It supports 3 users streaming simultaneously.
However, splitting up of channels in this way makes Sling TV complex. This complexity increases when you opt for add on as well. But still, its cost, varied channels makes it attractive for users. The extra sport’s feature of Sling orange like ESPNU, ESPNEWS, Hotstar App and ESPN goal line will surely put you in the favorable side of Sling TV.
Add-on of Sling TV
Pay-per-views and new movie rentals are only provided by Sling TV. Other streaming services also provide movie rental feature, but with Sling TV it is much more convenient. This same applies to premium offers of Sling TV. The major thing to note is there is no notable difference in the pricing.
With its add-on feature, many users became addicted to sports channels. Another thing is that the DVR feature allows you to save your favorite shows. This is a great option with selected premium offers.
Additional packages include spanning sports, kid’s programming, and foreign language TV. Sling TV offers you channels in multiple languages including Hindi, Arabic, Polish, Portuguese, Italian, and German. This makes Sling TV above all the others.
Sling TV DVR and Accessibility
One of the attractive features of Sling TV is a DVR. It allows you to save up to 50 hours of content of your favorite shows. And what Sling TV takes in return is a small charge per month. The flexibility of this feature suits the user the most. You want this you can take otherwise no compulsion is enforced.
When talking about the accessibility of Sling TV, its features are at par. Users are allowed to customize the view. This can be done by making adjustments to edges, background, font of text and much more. However, this customization is restricted to a few platforms only. One thing which can distract you is the captions appearing close to the speakers instead of appearing at a specific location.
Another attractive feature is that Sling TV allows you to set parental controls restrictions. This feature is accepted by many.
Short views
The positive side of Sling TV(Pros):
- Low cost, thus affordable.
- Enjoyable picture and sound quality.
- A plethora of channels.
- Compatibility with a large number of devices.
- The DVR feature.
- Provides options for customization.
The negative side of Sling TV (Cons):
- Disruptions in the interface.
- HBO channel is missing. Thus, not suitable for HBO fans.
- Extra charges for the DVR feature.
- Less efficient search features.
- Not Happy? Check best sling tv alternatvies in 2019
Are Sling TV and you made for each other?
Sling TV’s features make it a widely accepted Live TV streaming service among the users. Its affordable costs with a pack of channels will attract you the most. It is a great option than a cable TV. For sports lovers, it’s the one which they will opt. Sling TV provides great value for the paid price. Just like Showbox this also High quality and variety of content are what everyone demands, and Sling TV rules in it. Thus it proves to be a great cord cutter option.
No denial of the fact that it has certain drawbacks. But the question is which Live TV streaming does not have? With its drawbacks, Sling TV still remains a much more flexible option than others.
Besides certain downfalls, Sling TV still remains a great viable option for Live TV streaming.
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