The problem with Sling TV

I really like Sling TV. It was my first live streaming service, and it's my go-to service for when I want one. I don't do live streaming year round. Most of the year, I watch on-demand, but during college football season, I subscribe to a live streaming service to watch the games.

For my purposes, Sling TV has one big drawback. ESPN is on Sling Orange, and that plan has a single stream. That means only one person in the family can watch a stream at a time. If someone in the living room is watching Sling TV, no other TV (Roku, Chromecast, Fire TV, Apple TV, etc.) can watch Sling TV. The Sling Blue plan offers three simultaneous streams, but that plan doesn't include ESPN, which has most of the college games.

For other purposes, such as regular live streaming usage -- not how I use it, but how many do -- the problem is that there are no local channels. That's not an issue for me, as I have an antenna, and an Air TV device that integrates the live TV (and DVR) into the Sling TV app. But, for those that don't have an antenna, and where an antenna isn't feasible, Sling TV misses a large part of the content people want.

Now, I don't blame Sling TV for forgoing local channels, since the broadcast fees they would have to pay -- and that the other more expensive live streaming services pay -- would mean higher costs to Sling, and higher prices for their product.

It's the same way with the single stream. ESPN costs a lot of money for Sling to carry. That's why they have two plans. Sling Blue doesn't have the six Disney owned channels, including ESPN, that are on the Sling Orange package, but has more channel 17 other channels, giving it 11 more channels net. Sling Blue also has three simultaneous streams, as opposed to the single stream Sling Orange has.

Those are the main problems I see with Sling TV, but there's one other that some people have. That's the number of channels Sling TV offers. Cheaper services, such as Philo, carry more channels. Of course, more expensive ones carry more channels too. But the selection of channels Sling TV carries is actually fine, as far as I'm concerned.

While there are some things about Sling TV that I don't like, overall it's still my go-to live streaming service. It could be better, but the tradeoff is something I'm okay with. Sling TV is a good part of my Streaming Life. Not perfect, but close enough.

Baseball playoffs

I've been a baseball fan for years. However, I've not watched as much in the last few years. But I still love baseball, and am always excited about the playoffs. But, being a streamer, it's not always easy to watch live sports.

Live sports was not available in the early days of streaming, and some sports have been slower than others to be available for streamers. Baseball has been more available than some other sports, but it still has blackouts that keep streamers from being able to watch their nearest team.

The playoffs is a different situation, though. The only thing you have to worry about is finding a streaming service carrying the games.

Today's games are on TBS. You can stream TBS on:

• Sling TV (Orange, Blue, Orange+Blue)
• Hulu+Live TV
• YouTube TV
• DirecTV Stream

Note that Fubo, the streaming service that touts itself as the app for sports, doesn't carry TBS.

Tomorrow's games are on MLB Network and Fox Sports 1. The services that carry FS1 are:

• Sling TV (Blue, Orange+Blue)
• Vidgo
• Hulu+Live TV
• YouTube TV
• Fubo TV
• DirecTV Stream

MLB Network is on:

• Sling TV (Blue, Orange+Blue) with Sports Extra
• YouTube TV
• Fubo TV
• DirecTV Stream (Choice)

So, what one service carries it all? There are three, actually.

• Sling TV (Blue) with Sports Extra
• YouTube TV
• DirecTV Stream (Choice)

With any of those three services, you can watch the baseball divisional series. What about the league championships? Those are on Fox, Fox Sports 1, and TBS. To watch those games you'll need one of these:

• Sling TV (Blue, Orange+Blue) if you have an antenna for Fox.
• Hulu+Live TV
• YouTube TV
• DirecTV Stream

For the World Series, you'll need Fox, which is on:

• Hulu+Live TV
• YouTube TV
• Fubo TV
• DirecTV Stream

Or, an antenna.

To watch everything, all the baseball playoffs, what services have that?

• Sling TV (Blue) with Sports Extra, if you have an antenna for Fox.
• YouTube TV
• DirecTV Stream (Choice)

So, if you are ready for some baseball, you have some decisions to make, if that's to be a part of your Streaming Life this year.

Redbox

I saw an article online yesterday about Redbox now being available on some PlayStation devices. I knew that Redbox had a streaming service, and I think I had tried it before, but I didn't have the password saved in my password manager app, so I wasn't really sure. I've tried a lot of apps over the years, so there was the possibility that I was thinking of something else.

Anyway, I went to the Redbox Website, requested a password reset, and sure enough, there was already an account set up. Since I had used Redbox DVD service in the past, I had figured there was an account. But I am certain I had used a Roku streaming app for Redbox in the past. I don't remember anything about it apart from the fact I had it, but removed it, probably for lack of use.

I downloaded the app, launched it, and logged in. What did I find? Xumo. Or something like it.

It defaulted to live streaming, such as you'll find on Xumo or Pluto TV. Redbox had 105 live streaming channels plus another 10 music channels. Compare to Xumo's 228 live streaming channels (counting 13 music channels), and it looks like a lesser service. And I suppose it is when it comes to live streaming channels.

For movies, it became apparent the difference between Redbox and others. Redbox rents movies. But you knew that, if you ever visited one of their kiosks outside the grocery store of the drug store. The movie library appears large and you can rent or buy most of the movies. No, I didn't county them, because they're arranged by genre, and many movies are in multiple categories. It would take a while to county the unique film titles, and I'm not gonna do that.

There was a section of free ad-supported movies, and it's what you would expect. Maybe not the same films you'll find in Filmrise, Xumo, Tubi, and other similar services, but many of the same, and all similar.

This isn't a negative review of the Redbox service. It's not even a review of the Redbox service. It's simply me telling you my first impressions of it. If things went no further, I'd probably delete the app. But, I'm not going to. Not just yet.

I'm going to give Redbox a try. The live TV service, the free on-demand movies, and such, I will try. Not sure if I'll actually spend money to purchase a film, but I may rent one if it's not available on another service for free. I'll include Redbox in my Steaming Life for now. I'll report back later if it stays there.

Buying movies on the cheap

I've talked about this a little bit before, as part of another topic, but it deserves its own focus.

Being a movie fan, I'm always looking to add to my growing movie collection. I currently have 1,679 movies in my collection, all of which are available for streaming from my personal Plex server. I can watch them on my streaming devices, wherever I am. All I need is an Internet connection, and I can watch one of my movies.

My movie collection is bigger than most people's collection. One of the drawbacks is how much it costs. For all of these movies, I either own the DVD or purchased the streaming version. For the 200-300 or so movies on DVD, I used utilities to rip and place them on my Plex server. For some of the streaming purchases, I downloaded, ran through a utility where necessary, and put the resulting file on my Plex server.

Today, I'm not talking about how to save money on DVDs. Rather, it's about how to save money on streaming purchases.

I subscribe to Movies Anywhere. The big deal about Movies Anywhere is that if you buy a movie through one participating video service, you have it through all of those services. The participating services are:

• iTunes
• Amazon Prime Video
• Vudu/Fandango Now
• Google Play/YouTube
• Microsoft
• Xfinity (for Xfinity TV subscribers only)
• Verizon Fios TV (for Verizon Fios TV subscribers only)
• DIRECTV (for DIRECTV subscribers only)

This means that if you buy a movie from Amazon, you can watch it on iTunes.

What that also means is if Amazon has a movie on sale, you can buy it on sale, and still get it from another service, even if that services has a higher price for that movie.

Some of these services are always putting movies on sale. Sometimes, the movie is only $5 from, say, iTunes, and $15 from Google Play/YouTube Movies. For $5, you can get it from all of the services.

Suppose though, that you don't have iTunes. Suppose you're an Android user, and never had a reason to have an iTunes account. Or, suppose you're all in on Apple. You don't have a Google account, or a Microsoft account. Or, suppose you don't have a Vudu account. What then?

It doesn't matter. You can get one of those account. For instance, I was an iPhone user. I didn't have any reason to have an account with the Google Play Store. It didn't matter. I signed up for an account. When Google put a movie on sale, I got it for the sale price, and it was added to my iTunes library.

The only services that you can't really use are the TV subscribers -- Xfinity, Verizon Fios, DirecTV -- if you don't have their service. For example, I don't have DirecTV, so I can't buy movies from DirecTV.

There's one other catch. Not every movie is eligible. Many are. The studios participating in Movies Anywhere are listed on the Movies Anywhere Website:

Movies Anywhere features a wide range of films from 

• Sony Pictures Entertainment
• Universal Pictures (including DreamWorks and Illumination Entertainment)
• The Walt Disney Studios (including Disney, Pixar, Twentieth Century Studios, Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm)
• Warner Bros. Entertainment

At this time, movies from non-participating studios such as 

• Paramount
• Lionsgate
• MGM

are not eligible and will not migrate to your movie collection. As Movies Anywhere evolves, we will continue to add more content partners.

That translates to over half -- around 57% -- of my purchased streaming movies are eligible. I was able to buy most of my movies on sale.

This savings is the best reason to have Movies Anywhere. When the service first launched, they promoted it as "buy it on one service and watch it on any service." And that's great. But the better thing is "buy it cheaper from one service and get it on a more expensive service."

How do you find out which movies are on sale? From the Movies Anywhere Website. The movies where at least one service has a title on sale is marked. They're easy to find. Just look for the sale tag, click the movie, and it will show you how much each service charges for it. Buy it from the cheapest, and you own it on all. It's really easy.

Saving money is what I'm after, and Movies Anywhere is a way to do that. That's why Movies Anywhere is part of my Streaming Life, and should be part of yours.

Maybe it's not the saving money...

When I cut the cord in early 2011, it was after looking over two years of data. I looked at my viewing habits form 2009 and calculated if I could have saved money by streaming content instead. That mean watching current season TV shows on-demand from Hulu (free at the time), Hulu Plus (the paid version that had a different content library), TV antenna (live and recorded), and purchasing content from Amazon, iTunes, or other sources.

My numbers showed I would not have saved money in 2009, but when I ran the numbers again covering 2010, I would have saved money. So, I cut the cord and began relying on streaming TV.

But now that I've been streaming for over a decade, what would I miss the most? The money? Sure, that would be something I'd miss. But that would only be on the days I paid the bill.

What I'd miss the most, that is, on most days, is the control over my TV viewing. That would be every day I watched TV, no just on the days I paid the bill.

I began controlling my TV when I got a TiVo in 2006. It allowed me to watch TV when I wanted. I rarely watched anything live. And, during 2010, apart from sports programming, I didn't watch anything live. Well, some news shows, but that was it.

The live news shows were lost when I cut the cord, but the truth is I didn't really miss them. Sports, particularly college football, was another matter, so after live streaming services began, I started doing them in the fall.

Apart from that, I don't watch live TV. I watch stuff on demand, because I prefer it to fit my schedule. TiVo allowed that, and I've enjoyed it greatly since then. So, if I stopped streaming, I'd miss the ability to watch what I wanted when I wanted. I'd miss on-demand. I'd miss the control.

I suppose that's a flaw of mine, liking control. But I don't need to control others' lives. Just my life. And that includes my Streaming Life. And I would miss that, if I couldn't stream. I'd miss the money too.