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

selmaborntidefan · Feb 4, 2018

OK, so the last two years I've bought someone's season tickets and gone to 5-6 games per year (I'm not traveling 1200 miles round trip for Mercer, folks, I made sure they got used though). This year not gonna do it. I'm about to be totally debt free and trying to stockpile money for retirement as I'm now 48 so I will likely limit it to 1-2 games per year so long as I'm living in the Plex.

My other decision this fall was to try the streaming service from SlingTV. I'm gonna be blunt - it sucked. Not that I didn't get plenty of games There were multiple problems.

1) I was about 90-120 seconds behind everyone else. I had to go turn my phone off the night of the UGA game because I kept getting texts from folks right before something huge happened.

2) Because of this, of course, my participation in our game threads here was nonexistent. After the FSU game - where I was both behind and reading comments - I knew what happened well before I saw it, which stunk.

3) The other problem - limited by comparison - was that any game that had a LOT of people watching it kept sticking and losing the connection. I can say a LOT of bad things about cable, but I never lost a connection based on "oops, too many people are trying to watch the game."

So.......since I have seven months to fix this and I'm likely only going to the Auburn (and possibly Mizzou) games next year....what do you use, what's the cost and is it any good?

I'm cancelling my prescription (for madness) after today. No contract was the one redeeming feature. (Folks, I literally don't watch anything on TV but Tide football and some MLB regular season stuff and that only because my brother has the MLB package).

Looking for recommendations from the best fan base in cfb please.

Thx.

Bama Lee · Feb 4, 2018

We are cutting the cord this spring. We are going with the Fire-stick and,from the best that I can tell, Hulu Live. There does not seem to be any other option for watching college football live. Any others out there who have cut the cord?

Con · Feb 4, 2018

I would like to cut back on cable but Selma’s story is what scares me away from doing so. Anyone who has a working solution is much appreciated.

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BamaFanTN · Feb 4, 2018

We use PlayStationVue you can get ESPN, ESPN 2, SEC network for $30 month or add ESPN U for total $45 month. If you are in some markets you also get network channels but if you don't use a digital antenna to get those. You can record the games but have to wait till it's over to rewatch so no taping and starting the game 45 late. No issues at all this year.

UAH · Feb 4, 2018

Bama Lee said:
We are cutting the cord this spring. We are going with the Fire-stick and,from the best that I can tell, Hulu Live. There does not seem to be any other option for watching college football live. Any others out there who have cut the cord?

I have been on Sling for three years or so. I just switched over to WOW internet which provides more consistent speed but does clearly fade during during periods of high use. I have begun to explore moving to the latest Roku device and evaluating whether or not a cable booster could provide more consistent streaming.

I have an antennae which provide perfect HDTV for the CBS games. It is a very good day when I don't have to watch the ESPN delayed broadcast on Sling.

I am always evaluating alternatives such as YouTube TV and Hulu. It seems that Hulu is the only one carrying the SEC network. At $35.00 a month however we get very close to basic cable cost and we have to begin to ask whats the point?

This is a very good thread for us to exchange ideas as streamed content and technology evolves.

Intl.Aperture · Feb 4, 2018

I've used Sling TV for 4 years and never had an issue. I pay for pretty snappy internet.

There is a delay but all my friends know not to text me about the game or I'll cut their nads off.

So, to be fair, Sling doesn't suck, your local bandwidth and provider sucks.

Sling requires the data that it requires to stream live television at a consistent 60fps and 1080p. There is compression happening but you still need a healthy internet connection for it to work properly.

For anyone with dicey internet or really bad peak hour usage sucking up all the bandwidth, I'd not recommend Sling.

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BamaFanTN · Feb 4, 2018

BamaFanTN said:
We use PlayStationVue you can get ESPN, ESPN 2, SEC network for $30 month or add ESPN U for total $45 month. If you are in some markets you also get network channels but if you don't use a digital antenna to get those. You can record the games but have to wait till it's over to rewatch so no taping and starting the game 45 late. No issues at all this year.

Meant to say using ROKU stick and separately a ROKU tv.

JQBama42 · Feb 4, 2018

I cut the cord two years ago and have used SlingTV and a cheap antenna to watch games. While the picture quality isn’t always the greatest and it does freeze on occasion, I saved $90 a month dumping a utility that I rarely used, other than football season. It did suck missing the first series of the Florida State game because too many users were watching. If it would have froze during the walk off touchdown in the championship game, I may be reconnected to that cord now.

bamagradinATL · Feb 4, 2018

I’m a DirecTV Now subscriber. The package I have includes all of the ESPN Networks plus the SEC Network. I pay around $38, I was an early adopter so this same package today’s goes for $60. In the Dallas market we get ABC, CBS, FOX & NBC. Not all markets get their local affiliates. An antenna for over the air was not an option becauSe I live too far away from the antenna that broadcast local stations. When I signed up, I pre-paid for 3 months and received a free Apple TV device.
During my first attempt at cord cutting, I chose sling because they were the best option available. I found their package options too lacking. I had to also purchase a subscription to the CBS in order to watch SEC football.

NationalTitles18 · Feb 4, 2018

I have DirecTV. They have the Choice package for a rate of $50/month for 12 months, but then the rate goes to $105/month. That would get you the SEC Network. Lower tier packages do not. The only way I know with them to get a la carte is with their internet delivered service, making it not much difference for you. Since I have limited bandwidth and reliability here I can't cut out cable/satellite if I want to watch the games.

Redwood Forrest · Feb 4, 2018

Well, we watch ESPN on Hulu which has a "watch espn" button. We use someone else's (mother-in-law) cable password. It is about a one minute delay ...... but totally free. Can't beat that.

TideFan in AU · Feb 4, 2018

Cable. Until I stop hearing people talk about all the tradeoffs involved in "cutting the cord", I'm sticking with what works. It's worth it to me to not have the delays, the bad picture quality, and freezing streams involved in the alternatives. No one that I personally know has really been happy with the swap and they have experienced exactly what you have.

JDCrimson · Feb 4, 2018

We recently moved and decided that was the perfect opportunity to try streaming. We use a combination of Amazon Fire, Direct Now, Nextflix, Watch ESPN, Youtube, and Google Home We are saving at least $150 per month. It works for us. We don't have DVR capability though it's available now. Honestly, you don't need DVR because most Bama games are archived for replay on Watch ESPN.

Admittedly, I now don't watch as much TV but I see it as a good thing. Takes a little getting used to but the money saved is hard to ignore.

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WylieTexasTider · Feb 4, 2018

selmaborntidefan said:
OK, so the last two years I've bought someone's season tickets and gone to 5-6 games per year (I'm not traveling 1200 miles round trip for Mercer, folks, I made sure they got used though). This year not gonna do it. I'm about to be totally debt free and trying to stockpile money for retirement as I'm now 48 so I will likely limit it to 1-2 games per year so long as I'm living in the Plex.

My other decision this fall was to try the streaming service from SlingTV. I'm gonna be blunt - it sucked. Not that I didn't get plenty of games There were multiple problems.

1) I was about 90-120 seconds behind everyone else. I had to go turn my phone off the night of the UGA game because I kept getting texts from folks right before something huge happened.

2) Because of this, of course, my participation in our game threads here was nonexistent. After the FSU game - where I was both behind and reading comments - I knew what happened well before I saw it, which stunk.

3) The other problem - limited by comparison - was that any game that had a LOT of people watching it kept sticking and losing the connection. I can say a LOT of bad things about cable, but I never lost a connection based on "oops, too many people are trying to watch the game."

So.......since I have seven months to fix this and I'm likely only going to the Auburn (and possibly Mizzou) games next year....what do you use, what's the cost and is it any good?

I'm cancelling my prescription (for madness) after today. No contract was the one redeeming feature. (Folks, I literally don't watch anything on TV but Tide football and some MLB regular season stuff and that only because my brother has the MLB package).

Looking for recommendations from the best fan base in cfb please.

Thx.

Selma, come watch the games with Tide In Texas! We have multiple watch party locations: We were awarded the 2016 out of state chapter of the year by National Alumni Association.

City Council in Uptown, Bonnie and Clyde’s in Grapevine, Red Hot and Blue near North Park and downtown FW. (The DT FW location will be changing.) We are looking for a location in Plano/Allen as well.

The uptown location typically has 100+, typically under 50 crowd. Grapevine has 150+ and most folks are 45-65. I have never been to FW or the one near North Park but, have been told they have 50+ in FW and 30ish near North Park. I believe those spots are also a little bit older crowd.

If you are unaware of TNT, the website is:

HTTP://WWW.TIDEINTEXAS.COM

Also, if you are a golfer, the TNT Crimson Classic benefitting the Lee Roy Jordan Scholarship fund is coming up May 7. Lee Roy will be there as will a yet to be announced UA Head Coach (Not Saban

unfortunately) and likely former players. There will be a lot of cool auction items such as a Saban/Tua signed ball with the CFP logo and final score stitched on the ball.

teamplayer · Feb 4, 2018

We haven't cut the cord yet, but I did just get rid of two of my four boxes and DVR capabilities and the movie channels. Doing those things saved us about $55 per month. I use Roku on the other two TVs and have Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu. It provides more viewing opportunities than we could possibly ever use. I'm hoping once my wife gets used to using the streaming services that we can get rid of cable with her blessings, so I have read with interest the different options that you guys have used. A coworker said that he has had success with Hulu Live, but I don't have any personal experience with that.

selmaborntidefan · Feb 4, 2018

Intl.Aperture said:
I've used Sling TV for 4 years and never had an issue. I pay for pretty snappy internet.

There is a delay but all my friends know not to text me about the game or I'll cut their nads off.

So, to be fair, Sling doesn't suck, your local bandwidth and provider sucks.

Sling requires the data that it requires to stream live television at a consistent 60fps and 1080p. There is compression happening but you still need a healthy internet connection for it to work properly.

For anyone with dicey internet or really bad peak hour usage sucking up all the bandwidth, I'd not recommend Sling.

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I've literally never had a problem with anything Internet connection related until I got Sling.

The FSU game went off 5-6 times; I came here to find out what was going on.

Tide&True · Feb 4, 2018

At some point I plan to use streaming with Hulu. Currently have cable. Since cable providers are losing customers they are bound to raise rates to compensate.

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bat123 · Feb 4, 2018

I have DTV in my home in Atlanta and use a Slingbox 500 and stream, I've done this for over 6 years and have not missed a game, I also use a Majic Jack and talk to my friend during the games and I only have 5 to 10 second lag here in Abu Dhabi.

selmaborntidefan · Feb 4, 2018

Tide&True said:
At some point I plan to use streaming with Hulu. Currently have cable. Since cable providers are losing customers they are bound to raise rates to compensate.

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They didn't have what we needed last year or I would have done that.

Con · Feb 4, 2018

Intl.Aperture said:
I've used Sling TV for 4 years and never had an issue. I pay for pretty snappy internet.

There is a delay but all my friends know not to text me about the game or I'll cut their nads off.

So, to be fair, Sling doesn't suck, your local bandwidth and provider sucks.

Sling requires the data that it requires to stream live television at a consistent 60fps and 1080p. There is compression happening but you still need a healthy internet connection for it to work properly.

For anyone with dicey internet or really bad peak hour usage sucking up all the bandwidth, I'd not recommend Sling.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

When you say “snappy” for your internet do you mean higher speeds than the normal Comcast internet?

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

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