Question for SlingTV users and other tech geek stuff

[UTE98]

This really is about football, watching football.

So I checked the SlingTV channel listing and it looks like SlingTV Orange has PAC12 and the ESPNs. So I wouldn’t need the SlingTV Blue package until the Arizona game which is on FS1.

1. Did you get Pac12 with just Orange last year? (May be dependent on where you live I don’t know, I’m in Colorado)

2. Is it easy to add the Blue after a few weeks? (With the 7 days free, I can just watch the North Dakota game with Orange, then add Blue a couple weeks later)

3. Since they now allow up to three streams on Blue and one on Orange is it worth keeping after the season? (I already have Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, so don’t know if I’d really need it, other than basketball, and I’d be fine just watching the games on Pac12 if it is in the Orange package.)

Tech Geek stuff

Also just picked up a cloner box from Amazon, and have burned 3 Blu-Rays and they appear to be good quality, especially since we’ll likely only be watching them on tablets and chromebooks. Don’t have the 5.1 surround sound, but I can watch the Blu-Rays for that, I want portability. I can’t really tell the difference between the original file (usually about 7G) and the smaller HD file produced by Handbrake (which is about 3G). The biggest problem is my old iMac takes about 4 hours to compress it, and runs very hot due to the stress from the HD being so full. I’m hoping when I get my new 4TB external HD and back everything onto it things will get much faster, any input? Sadly my iMac only has a 500G HD, and I’m at about 472G right now.

Here’s the device I got, I got it on a flash sale for $79.99. And so far the USB 3.0 64G Flash drives I bought are working great. (2 for $28 at Costco) So I have a while to burn before I’ll need the external HD, think I’ve still got room for 10-14 movies on them, burned a 10G movie to the 16G USB which comes with the box, so that ones done for now.

http://amzn.to/2wXBhl0

[Tony (admin)]

That cloner box looks cool. So I can just plug my Roku hdmi into it and hit record? Can you schedule recordings? Regarding slingTV what I’ve been doing is signing up for the whole package that has the ESPN’s and Fox’s plus pac-12, and only during football and basketball season. Then I cancel the whole thing in the offseason.  I use over the air antenna for the the alphabet soup channels and the HD quality is better than cable. Not sure if that answers your question.  I think I need that cloner box.

[UTE98]

The cloner box is cool, however you need to be there to start the recording (hitting the record/stop button) and finish it unless you aren’t worried about a huge file.

I’ve read of people just hitting start then editing the movies/video game play/tv later the only limit to how much it can record is the size of your USB. And I’m pretty sure if you start with a USB thumb drive with at least 32G of free space you’ll record pretty much all you want. I think my iMac would catch on fire if I tried to load a 32G file in to edit. But if you’ve got the computer, editing software and time it wouldn’t be too hard.

My co-worker is a major tech geek and told me about it. Many cloning devices need an HDMI splitter so the PS4/XBox360/DVR/BluRay player picks up the “approved” device to allow DRM to flow. This box just sits in the middle. All you have to do is hold the button for about 5 seconds if the content isn’t showing up on your TV. This one only records via incoming HDMI, but the HDML-Cloner Box Pro has some other inputs for about $30 more.

this will record at either 1080 or 720 depending on what the signal is and you switch back and forth by holding the rec/stop button.

I got in on Saturday and am already way stoked about what I’ve done so far. You could run your Roku HDMI into it, however I am not offering an opinion on the legality of that. From the research I’ve done others have used the Cloner to record DVRed TV shows, Netflix, Hulu, etc. Again, not getting into the legality of that. But Digitial Right Media owners need to adapt to the new reality of today and figure out a better way to distribute content. CDs/DVDs/BluRay disks are a minimal cost, and ones and zeros are even cheaper. Sports, as I’ve said many many many times before, are about the only reason the cable/satellite are even still viable. Luckily SlingTV is making my life easier and cheaper.

[UTE98]

Oh, and it’s just bigger than the size of an altoid container. Pretty small.

[Tony (admin)]

I saw a higher rated one that looks to be about $30 more and it allows one to schedue a recording. Looks promising.

[siouxfan512]

Hey guys,

Really pumped for the North Dakota/Utah game in a few weeks. I’ve never used SlingTV, but will this game be available through it? If so, I plan on using the app on my Roku and signing up for the free trial week to watch. If not, what are my other options?

[Puget Ute]

Since you only need the network for that one game, getting the free trial on Sling is an excellent way to get it. As I recall when I signed up, I was watching TV within about 10 minutes. (It would have been faster if I used my laptop or desktop instead of the old iPad)

Also, check out this site during the game. Our Chat is fun, and we will take good care of you.

[Tony (admin)]

As long as your free sub comes with Pac-12 networks yeah you’ll be golden. Welcome.

[Puget Ute]

I like the idea of that cloner box. I can think of a way to do the same thing running a Kodi server, but the cloner box seems less clunky.

I believe the program PlayOn can do the same thing, and can be scheduled to record future shows.

I used to run SlingTV. It was great for PAC-12 networks, and I think it was relatively easier to use. I now have DirecTVNow instead, and IMO the quality is much better. But it is a bit clunkier to use, and of course it does not include PAC-12 network. I will need to do something different for the games, and might just get SlingTV again a month at a time. SlingTV still appears to be the easiest/cheapest legal way to pay for PAC channels via streaming. (CenturyLink now has a streaming option, but it costs $45 + $10 for sports channels. I don’t know enough about Playstation Vue, but that might work as well.)