How Do You Watch The Tide On TV? (Sling TV Was Awful This Year - Advice)

CrimsonForce

Hall of Fame
Dec 20, 2012
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the streaming companies better get on the ball quick and fix their services. I paid for Sling and a couple times when it didn't work well I went and found a couple of streams being made available elsewhere that both had no perceptible delay and worked a heck of a lot better than the stream I was paying for. Didn't watch them of course as that would be illegal but when the illegal stream is far better performing than the legal ones that is a situation ripe for issues. FWIW I would also try the WatchESPN APP on Roku with mixed results. Sometimes it worked well, others not so much
I agree about the Watch ESPN app. I have 2 TVs in my office area. One is hooked up to Direct TV and the other has an apple TV which I'll stream a game on if there's 2 good games at the same time. I have giga-bit internet which I get about 300 mbps up / down through wifi and I still have buffering and quality issues with watch ESPN..
 

kyallie

FB Moderator
Staff member
Jan 17, 2010
201,276
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Shakopee Minnesota, via Birmingham Alabama
ATTUVERSE.
Not as cheap as some of the others, but it is dependable, with a great picture.
I've thought about cutting the cord, but I'm not sold on doing so.
Maybe in the future...
Same here have fox spts. 1&2 all the espn channels , cbs spts. great picture, little or no interruptions, , 24 meg internet, no complaints, except the the base price is $133, after the govt. gets thru $147! I would have DTV, if I lived in the desert, but not otherwise, I've had Dish NW, and DTV twice, ATTUVERSE for me, but I'll still be looking!
 

EscaTider

Hall of Fame
Oct 2, 2008
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Flomaton, AL
For those that have cut the cord completely, what's your internet situation...cable or fiber? Cable is my only viable high speed option, and sling freezes repeatedly during peak hours. Staying with Dish for now, at least until they upgrade to fiber in our town- which is coming at some point.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 

CrimsonForce

Hall of Fame
Dec 20, 2012
12,757
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For those that have cut the cord completely, what's your internet situation...cable or fiber? Cable is my only viable high speed option, and sling freezes repeatedly during peak hours. Staying with Dish for now, at least until they upgrade to fiber in our town- which is coming at some point.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
I have AT&T's Giga-Bit fiber network which is 1000mbps up / down when wired in and about 300 mpbs up / down on wifi and I still get lag and quality issues on pretty much every sports streaming app. The streaming issues aren't perpetual but enough that I wouldn't want that to be my only means of watching live sports. The AT&T fiber internet is $90 in my area. It's price locked for life and doesn't have data usage cap..
 

UAH

All-American
Nov 27, 2017
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the streaming companies better get on the ball quick and fix their services. I paid for Sling and a couple times when it didn't work well I went and found a couple of streams being made available elsewhere that both had no perceptible delay and worked a heck of a lot better than the stream I was paying for. Didn't watch them of course as that would be illegal but when the illegal stream is far better performing than the legal ones that is a situation ripe for issues. FWIW I would also try the WatchESPN APP on Roku with mixed results. Sometimes it worked well, others not so much
I have observed the same situation with Sling and AT&T 2 wire internet. The Bama game would not stream on Sling or Watch ESPN. Just by accident I found someone was streaming the game over YouTube and it streamed perfectly.

Watch ESPN has not streamed well for me under the very best possible circumstances.

This leads me to suspect that Google/YouTube has much more infrastructure and capability for streaming than does Sling or ESPN. I could be way off on this from a technology standpoint but it causes me to look favorably to trying YouTube TV.
 

imauafan

All-American
Mar 3, 2004
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Huntsville, AL
This leads me to suspect that Google/YouTube has much more infrastructure and capability for streaming than does Sling or ESPN.
I can't say that Google/Youtube is better than Sling/Hulu/ESPN for live sporting events but I will find out soon since I just signed up for a free trial today. I definitely agree with you that the streaming infrastructure is the key. When I am having issues streaming a game I can switch to some other streaming program and not have any issues. Also, I can browse the internet with any problems so it is obvious to me the problem is not on my end.
 

CaliforniaTide

All-American
Aug 9, 2006
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Huntsville, AL
For those that have cut the cord completely, what's your internet situation...cable or fiber? Cable is my only viable high speed option, and sling freezes repeatedly during peak hours. Staying with Dish for now, at least until they upgrade to fiber in our town- which is coming at some point.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
We have cable, but Google Fiber just got laid down in our neighborhood in the last week.
 

imauafan

All-American
Mar 3, 2004
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Huntsville, AL
I signed up for a free trial of youtube tv after getting rid of hulu live and so far there have been no glitches with the UA-MSU basketball game.
 

imauafan

All-American
Mar 3, 2004
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Huntsville, AL
For the record after 2 days I have been MUCH more pleased with youtube tv than with either sling tv or hulu live. The basketball game Tuesday night was flawless as has been the fe other live events (non-sports) that I've watched.
 

cbi1972

Hall of Fame
Nov 8, 2005
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Birmingham, AL
This thread seems like a good spot to ask a technical question. I have Charter/Spectrum and have many Bama football games on DVR - including several national championship games. Does anyone know a way to transfer/copy those games to another media device? Is it even possible? These cable boxes are finicky and you're never more than a reset away from losing everything that has been recorded.
I used to do this, and it was a giant hassle, way more than something like this should be.

However, I was able to do it, and in the process, became far more intimate with the details of video codecs than I ever intended to be.

I also spent many hours per game viewing and re-viewing each play, cutting out commercials, looking for glitched frames, etc.

It was also not cheap in terms of cash outlay for hardware to support video processing, which is highly demanding in general.

Plus, occasional crashes while recording would waste time, and I would have to start over.

If you still want to do this, you will need a few things:

1) a fast computer with an enormous amount of free hard drive space, the bigger and faster the better. I used multiple 1TB drives in a RAID 0 (striping without parity) configuration for maximum speed, and that was just for the capture drive. For the storage drive, I used a 2TB drive, but if I were doing it again, I would go 6TB or better yet, a NAS with multiple drives. I now have such a NAS, but I don't do this video capture anymore.

2) A video capture card such as a Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro

3) Component video output on your DVR. HDMI is likely to have protection on it which will defeat capture, but digital copy protection is literally impossible with the RGB analog signal of component video.

4) A video capture/editing program (I used VirtualDub, which was not only free, but worked a million times better than other video capture/editing programs)

5) An audio editing program (I used Audacity)

5) Nearly infinite patience for computer programs not working for inexplicable reasons.

6) Excellent troubleshooting skills

7) A lot of free time

Note: I know I have made reference to some specific commercial products in this post, but I do so only because they have worked for me. I specifically recommend against having anything to do with this painful process. After editing together one of these games and checking it for video glitches, you will never want or need to watch it again.

If you are still reading this, and are still committed to pursuing this endeavor, I would be glad to answer any particular questions, or offer any further insights when you reach your breaking point of frustration, as I feel like I have been through it all and still have not murdered anyone nor destroyed any expensive equipment.
 

UAH

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Nov 27, 2017
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Just an update. After viewing this thread I changed over to YouTube TV with WOW internet wired directly to my Roku. I am totally pleased with the results and the quality of live TV.
I spend around $65 per month currently. I would expect the only improvements I could make from here would be if fiber became available and possibly updating my Roku box.
 

RTR91

Super Moderator
Nov 23, 2007
39,407
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Prattville
Just an update. After viewing this thread I changed over to YouTube TV with WOW internet wired directly to my Roku. I am totally pleased with the results and the quality of live TV.
I spend around $65 per month currently. I would expect the only improvements I could make from here would be if fiber became available and possibly updating my Roku box.
Is that $65 for YouTube TV and internet?
 

CrimsonForce

Hall of Fame
Dec 20, 2012
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Is that $65 for YouTube TV and internet?
I want to know where / how people are getting $30 internet that's usable. If you get stand alone internet in my area it starts at about $50 but you'll want to pay closer to $70 for higher speeds and no data cap..
 

UAH

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Nov 27, 2017
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Is that $65 for YouTube TV and internet?
Yes WOW offers basic internet 100 Mbps on a two year contract for $29.99 obviously it will increase after the contract. YouTube TV is $35. My modem is $10/mo. unless I purchase one Previously I had AT&T two wire which was slower than advertised for $57/mo with Sling for $30/mo. This current set up is much improved in terms of picture quality, lag issues and drop off in high use periods.

Watched the Bama BB game against MSU and the quality was near HDTV.
 

CoastGhost

Suspended
Sep 5, 2009
5,650
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North Carolina
When Sling ESPN starts doing its freeze thing, I can usually back out of the channel and restart and it runs normal for a while. That is a pain and it puts you even farther behind real time but an option none the less.
 

CrimsonForce

Hall of Fame
Dec 20, 2012
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Just announced, starting March 13, YouTube TV will go from $35/month up to $40/month for new subscribers - which will be most users since YouTube TV isn't available in most markets yet. I feel like when it's all said and done these streaming services will be about the same as traditional cable. It's like when T-Mobile came out with really cheap plans to greatly increase their user base. Once they achieved that goal they slowly started raising prices. Streaming is a little cheaper right now but probably won't be the case for much longer..
 
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