# Sling TV - missing episodes from favorites; follow not work...



## grunes

I love Sling TV. But it has some minor teething issues.

1. I already mentioned that you can mis-interpret the slingtv.com web page in terms of what channels are included in the basic blue (or for that matter, orange) package.

See my thread: "Sling TV advertises many channels that are missing!"

Oh well.

You would also have to pay $5/month extra for Sling's Cloud DVR - but I don't. Most of what I want to watch is already available on demand through Sling, so I don't need Cloud DVR.

2. To tell you the truth, I don't watch enough programs to justify even Sling TV blue - it would be cheaper to buy the programs I like through Vudu and Google Play. But Sling TV is quite convenient. I'm happy with it for now. I'll figure out what to do eventually a little down the road. We may use it to replace both Hulu and Netflix.

3. I reported to Sling TV a problem in the "My TV" page, when using the Windows app (I use Windows 7, BTW): If you click on one of the programs you have marked as a "Favorite", recent episodes are missing. (E.g., try "Dark Matter" and "Killjoys".) HOWEVER, if you go to the Guide page, select the SyFy channel, then click on the show, all the recent episodes appear.

So far, from a report a few days ago, they sent me a generic form letter asking for a variety of information, like what type of computer I have, what ISP and the speed of the internet connection, etc.

But for those of you who use SlingTV on a PC, it is good to know that you can find the missing episodes (does this apply to other programs? I haven't checked.) if you go through the Guide page instead of the My TV/Favorites page.

4. I just reported to them another issue: The Roku version of the app does not have a favorites (too bad), but it does have a relatively new "Follow" feature that is supposed to work in a similar manner. Except, that if you follow a program, the followed list does not appear anywhere I can find it. Obviously, the feature needs work.

 I rather hope the issues discussed above will be resolved more quickly because of this public forum post. 

5. Sling TV should sort the channels by name, not put them in some random order. (And Roku should sort apps and channels by name too, or organize them by category - a completely different issue.)

6. If you want to buy a movie through Sling TV (in the Rentals page), it goes to places like Amazon, one of the most expensive services. It would be nice if they added more competitively priced services, like Vudu and Google Play. (I have a similar issue with the Roku box. Vudu and Google Play have apps - but if you don't go through them, the Roku box also finds stuff from more expensive places.)

7. Sling TV lacks things that Hulu and Netflix do well:

A. There is no way to mark favorites differently for different users. In effect, there is only one user, though you can use several streams simultaneously. For shared homes, this could be a major issue.

B. It can't suggest other programs based on what you already watch. That can be pretty simple: If there is a high correlation between watching program A and program B, and you watch program A, it should suggest you try program B. For new programs, a human being can guess what old programs were similar.

8. There is no quick way to skip forward, or to fast forward. If you think you watched part of the program elsewhere, that would be nice. (Roku is worse. There is no way to pop back a few seconds, and skipping forward or back is very problematical. As for Kodi - a lot of the time skipping forward or back drops you out of the program altogether, maybe crashes Kodi and the operating system too, and captions get many minutes of of alignment with voice and video. Kodi is the mess you expect from thousands of people contributing without pay - and if you want to be legit, which you should, because big brother probably IS watching you (I don't believe VPNs can hide cheaters), you still have to pay for many program sources.)

9. Despite the issues mentioned above, I love Sling TV. It streams well, live or on demand, even on my low end Roku Express (which came free with a 2 month Sling TV prepay, which also offered a 2 month Hulu free trial), as well as my somewhat old middle-of-the-road PC. (Both feeding a 1080p x 1920 60Hz signal to an HDTV through HDMI - video quality is great.) Granted, I share a pretty high bandwidth Internet connection. Sling TV is a pretty good low end no-long-term-contract compromise for people who can't afford the escalating prices on cable or satellite once their intro deals are over - especially now that Satellite TV's prices (Dish and DirectTV) have exploded, trapping some people who are stuck in a two year contract. (Oddly, Sling TV comes from Dish, just like Hulu comes from Comcast/NBC/Universal. But Internet TV streaming services are, for the moment, more competitive, and therefore more competitively priced, than cable or satellite.) Add in an antenna and some type of DVR for local broadcast channels, and a good list of free internet channels - or get a cheap Roku box - and cord cutting becomes very practical.

Of course, no way can Sling TV match what Comcast cable has to offer, in terms of convenience or number of channels, a really nice on-demand program page, and a clean user interface that works extremely well - but, you pay through the nose for Comcast, often more than you expect.


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