I don't have cable. I don't want cable. But I have a high speed internet connection and got through the regular season using LPBB and random streams on shady sites, with my laptop connected to my TV. For the playoffs, I've been looking up services that can offer good quality TV for TNT/ESPN, and came across Sling.com in my searches and from friends. It's $20/month with a free 7-day trial. It offers TNT/ESPN/ESPN2 and a few other select channels to be streamed online. The key thing is no annual contract, so I can cancel after the playoffs are over. Does anyone have experience with this? Does it offer good quality streams?
I've used www4.ballstreams.com in the past. Has great video quality. They have a special for $29.99 that will get you all the playoff games.
I signed up with Sling TV so I could watch the NCAA tournament on TNT and TBS (and the end of the season of Walking Dead on AMC). It streamed great on my iPad for the tournament. I'm pretty excited, because it's the only way for me to watch the Blazer playoff games. Overall, seems like a really good option.
From what I've read about it, there's no DVR for it. You also can't pause, rewind, etc., live TV. I think it's even worse rules for the Disney owned properties, which include ESPN. You also can't stream to two TVs at once. You have to pay double for that. Otherwise, I'm a huge fan. For $15 more, you can get HBO and that does have on demand for their whole library. You could binge watch Game of Thrones or Boardwalk Empire or the Sopranos, etc.
Sony has a $50/month offering similar to slingtv but with more channels. http://www.playstationnetwork.com/v...ce=Google&utm_term=ps-se-1232&utm_content=Vue CBS can be streamed for a fee. I think they also have on demand so you can binge watch old episodes of their shows. http://www.cbs.com/all-access/ Apple is supposedly coming out with a $35/month service with all the networks but NBC. (There's only a WSJ story about it that everyone cites, and the WSJ article requires paid subscription to read) My concerns about these services are: 1) DVR 2) Pause/Rewind/Fast Forward ability 3) Disparate apps to watch the various content For #3, I don't like it that you'd have to launch HBO GO app to watch HBO, then quit it to run SlingTV to see 20 channels, then quit that to run something else to see some other channels. You really want a TV guide that integrates all the apps' programming together. "What's on now" and "what's recommended for you" (which might include NetFlix, HBO GO shows, etc.).
Oh yeah, I forgot. You can buy NBA LP and stream that, too. The ability to cut the cord is getting there real soon. I just bought a $20 antenna and hooked it up to my TV and I get all the local stations (plus some others not on DirectTV even) in HD just fine.
But can you watch live playoff games on NBA LP? I thought everything on national TV gets blacked out and you can just watch the archives.
No, but you don't need a cable/satellite subscription to buy and stream NBA LP for regular season games.
BTW, I made these apps for OSX: I really don't like having to watch in a browser. I want to be able to close the browser and still have the streaming going. And I can pin one of these to all desktops without having to do it to the whole browser and all its windows. I really made those apps.
Ive been using sling for the last month.... its been hit and miss for me, sometimes the quality is no good or it just wont work... since I moved into my new place its been pretty solid though... stutter sometimes... I have 105mbps internet. as of right now I have no need for it considering all the games are on KGW and I can just over the air those and I have the ESPN app on my Xbox One.
BTW Can everyone who complains about comcast and not able to get Blazers games on TV use an antenna? This could be huge for Blazers fans on this site.
My buddy has a pretty good antenna and he only gets ABC, CW, CBS, PBS, NBC, FOX, PDXtv, iON, a couple Mexican and church broadcasts and an Asian channel.
Some of the antennas I've seen claim 60 mile range. If KGW is OTA, then a good antenna should get it within 60 miles, no?
So people who want to watch the Blazers should fork out the ~$30 for an indoor HD antenna and they're good to go?
