With the season starting tonight I opted for two prepaid months of SlingTV last night. I did quite a bit of homework on SlingTV and the main complaint I saw for the past two years was buffering. And I’ve got some experience trying out new setups and devices.
I ALWAYS take a streaming device when i travel, usually four to five times a year. I’ve tried just streaming to an iPad using basic hotel wifi. It always seemed to buffer on Hulu/Netflix so I decided, I’ll try my AppleTV, and again, lots and lots of buffering. I’d almost given up, when I bought an Amazon FireTV Stick, and thought, it’s small, I’ll give it one more shot.
The Amazon FireTV stick worked like a charm. After it worked i did some more research and it basically works better because it requires a smaller amount of bandwidth to stream, I can’t remember the exact numbers but it was like 2/3 of the AppleTV, which yes results in a bit lower quality picture, but I’ve not really noticed the difference and I’ll take a bit of a picture downgrade to avoid buffering.
Okay fast forward to last night. I crank up SlingTV on my AFTV Stick and was a bit dismayed when I got an error message that certain videos were not available. I thought, “Crap I’ve made a mistake!!!!” I did the two months prepaid to get a Roku Stick for free, another device I can mess around with… So I left with the wife to run a 15 minute errand and when i got back tried again. I think some things had to update, kind of like when you get a new cable box. I watched the second half of the 2016 Utah – Washington game, and honestly it gave me hope, we were so close in that game, just a few small tweaks and a ref who knew what a block in the back was and the outcome might have been much different. The picture was clear, and no buffering. I was able to fast forward and rewind since it was an old game. I liked that it gave me the option to start over already in progress Pac12 programs. Not sure if that will be available for live football games.
So then I thought lets check out some other stuff, I was able to watch an archived copy of Utah’s top 12 players, pause, rewind, fast forward all worked. Picture was great and again no buffering. I also played around a bit with the interface, looking at different ways to look at available programming. I like that it has a grid listing, kind of like cable, so i can search for what I want to watch, you can also just look at what live sports are playing.
The fact I get all of the Pac12 networks, I didn’t get that with Xfinity, and the lack of buffering I’m cautiously optimistic. If you’re looking for full quality streaming, don’t know how that would work out, but after just a couple hours, I’m very optimistic about not only this season, but also all the sports I’ll get. Two months $99.96 after taxes, and I get a $40 Roku streaming stick.
Apple TV Mbps requirements
1080p Full HD (high definition): 8 Mbits per second
720p HD: 6 Mbits per second
SD (standard definition): 2.5 Mbits per second
Amazon FireTV and Firestick TV (same Mbps requirements based on a quick search)
SD – 3 Megabits per second
HD – then you need a minimum Internet speed of 5 Megabits per second
I think the sticks are a bit better for just streaming, but if you want extras go with the small box/AppleTV
Did I mention I bought a Screen capture device????? Oh, never mind, won’t need that.
An article if you want to do a bit more research
Mbps requirements for different quality streams SD to 4K
.
Loading ...
