"Sling TV" Still Good?

[dddave]

I remember in past years, several friends from the US praising "Sling TV".  It was necessary to have a dedicated PC based in the US to use it but once set up, they could watch almost anything.   

I'll be travelling to the US this coming spring and was considering setting up a Sling system at my Sister's house.  

Lately however, I've been doing some reading and "Sling" seems to be not looking all that good any more.  Limited content unless subscribed to expensive "combo" packages and even then, many major providers: HBO, Hulu, ect. not included.  I also have read international access is more difficult with VPN blocking on many of the content sources.  Maybe no longer that good a deal.

Any "Sling" users out there?

[longball53098]

Never used it but this article was on my news channel today:

 

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/sling-tv-has-a-new-price-new-channels-new-features-here-is-what-you-need-to-know/

[TonyBB]

There are two different things - Slingbox and Sling TV.  Slingbox (slingbox.com) is a physical device you could set up at your sister's place in US. It's basically a little web server box that has video/HDMI connection to local source, like cable box. From Thailand you could access this via the Web and watch whatever TV channels are available at your sister's house. I had experience with one of these things years ago. Advantages: No VPN required. No account required... you're just freeloading off your sister's cable service. Disadvantages: Requires high quality internet service at your sister's house, including fast uplink speed. Your sister's family may hate you if whenever you watch TV from Thailand it slows their internet. ????  I also recall some times the Slingbox had to be reset, and no one was home on the US side to do that!

 

I think Slingbox is what you had heard about in years past.

 

Sling TV - unrelated company - is a popular streaming service in US that has a cable TV-like channel line-up. We have this in US and we access the service over VPN when we're staying in Thailand. Does not require any "box" or PC at your sister's house. It's just a cloud TV service like Netflix or others. Disadvantage is that it is blocked outside US and you have to use a VPN to get around that. 

Edited February 8, 2020 by TonyBB

[dddave]

On 2/9/2020 at 5:13 AM, TonyBB said:

There are two different things - Slingbox and Sling TV.

Thanks for this.  I was totally unaware they were separate companies.  Great information.