Sling TV and PlayLater

[wayner]

There are lots of folks here using PlayOn and PlayLater. Does anyone know if they work together with the new Sling TV service offered by Dish?

[will]

I use PlayOn/PlayLater and I haven't seen any updates to enable PlayOn to use Sling TV as a source.

Also, I doubt PlayOn will update it. PlayOn is more for getting on-demand content and I think Sling TV is just live TV over the internet. PlayOn/Later doesn't offer any DVR recording service and doesn't keep any guide data.

[pjpjpjpj]

I'm confused about how they would work together. Sling is basically cable TV (except different gadgets involved), and PlayLater is an app that allows you to find archived online content and save it to your hard drive.

If you have Sling, wouldn't you just attach the STB to a Colossus or HDPVR, just as if you had cable or satellite, and use Sage as the DVR like always? I suspect you could just fake your service provider (Dish in your area?) and manually reconfigure channel numbers to get EPG data.

[will]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

I'm confused about how they would work together.

Well if PlayLater added in DVR favorite capabilities and then added in Sling as a source it could work...in theory. You would set your favorite on PlayLater and then it would tune into Sling to record the content.

I doubt PlayLater will ever support Sling. I'd be happy if they would just add in favorites - though PlayLater isn't that reliable as a recorder.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

I'm confused about how they would work together. Sling is basically cable TV (except different gadgets involved), and PlayLater is an app that allows you to find archived online content and save it to your hard drive.

If you have Sling, wouldn't you just attach the STB to a Colossus or HDPVR, just as if you had cable or satellite, and use Sage as the DVR like always? I suspect you could just fake your service provider (Dish in your area?) and manually reconfigure channel numbers to get EPG data.

Sling doesn't have an STB, it streams to a PC or a mobile device. It looks like it may be a good option for a cord cutter who wants access to some "cable" content, like ESPN and doesn't want to pay up for a cable subscription. But there is no DVR option so that it what I was trying to do with PlayLater works like a DVR For streaming services like Netflix.

[jchiso]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

I'm confused about how they would work together ...

This is the day we knew would come: where people would confuse Dish's Sling TV service with The Slingbox family of products. It's perfectly understandable ...

[sacrament055]

You might be able to add the sling channels to PlayMark and then access them via PlayOn.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by jchiso

This is the day we knew would come: where people would confuse Dish's Sling TV service with The Slingbox family of products. It's perfectly understandable ...

No, I was thinking of the Sling TV one (which is what this is about), but I thought SlingTV was going to have STBs. I missed that it was all on mobile devices and other TV streamers (Roku and the like). My mistake there.

Though I do agree, I can't believe they used the same name as an already-existing technology in the A/V world...

[bclenney]

Originally Posted by sacrament055

You might be able to add the sling channels to PlayMark and then access them via PlayOn.

Dont think this would work. You can't watch the shows in the browser, it has its own app.

[sacrament055]

Didn't realize that. I was able to successfully add Xfinity TV channels into playmark and use Playon for that but it appears to expire (not sure) and I have to re-add them periodically.

[richard88]

what's the diff between playon and sling tv ? I thought both have network like NBC and Fox ? Thanks !

[bclenney]

Playon streams videos from the providers websites like NBC.com, HULU.com, etc. SlingTV actually legally streams live streams for shows currently on the air. (for ESPN, ESPN2, Food Network, HGTV, A+E Network, AMC, CNN, TNT and TBS, plus about 10 or 11 other channels)

[richard88]

Originally Posted by bclenney

Playon streams videos from the providers websites like NBC.com, HULU.com, etc. SlingTV actually legally streams live streams for shows currently on the air. (for ESPN, ESPN2, Food Network, HGTV, A+E Network, AMC, CNN, TNT and TBS, plus about 10 or 11 other channels)

Seems like Playon has the ESPN live, Food Network, CNN etc too.
Nbc.com website has a "live" button, and probably both Play on & Sling TV just play that ?

Thanks !

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by richard88

Seems like Playon has the ESPN live, Food Network, CNN etc too.
Nbc.com website has a "live" button, and probably both Play on & Sling TV just play that ?

Thanks !

Most of PlayOn's content from sites like Food Network, CNN, NBC, etc, are archived shows. They do offer channels for the live streams of some of these (which are usually listed as a separate "channel" or "plugin" in the PlayOn menu), but those all require you to log in through your cable/satellite provider. You aren't getting access to those pay channel streams for free.

SlingTV is like having cable TV and you are paying for those channels, so you naturally would get the live streams. Does SlingTV also offer archived shows? I haven't looked into it.

[bclenney]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Most of PlayOn's content from sites like Food Network, CNN, NBC, etc, are archived shows. They do offer channels for the live streams of some of these (which are usually listed as a separate "channel" or "plugin" in the PlayOn menu), but those all require you to log in through your cable/satellite provider. You aren't getting access to those pay channel streams for free.

SlingTV is like having cable TV and you are paying for those channels, so you naturally would get the live streams. Does SlingTV also offer archived shows? I haven't looked into it.

For some of the channels you can go back 3 days, but for many you cannot pause or go back at all.

I find it to be buggy. For instance, If I pause a show like GoT and then hit play, let's say 10 minutes later, when I start it again, sometimes it continues where I paused it, but other times it jumps forward. Even if it continues where I paused it, the TIME jumps forward. So what happens in that case is the show will quit playing 10 minutes early. :/

They also do not have rights to every show on every channel. So you find yourself paying for a channel that is essentially blacked out during certain shows. The only reason I currently have it is I'm a cord cutter that wants HBO for GoT. I might drop it after the season ends this weekend.

I loved having it during College basketball season though, since the main package ($20) comes with ESPN and ESPN2 (College basketball is the only sport I really follow).

So basically it's pretty cheap. It works OK, but not great. If they get rid of the bugs, I'd recommend it. OH, I watch it with an Amazon FireTV. Someone with a Roku might have a different story.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by bclenney

I loved having it during College basketball season though, since the main package ($20) comes with ESPN and ESPN2 (College basketball is the only sport I really follow).

Find a friend or relative** with cable who doesn't have any interest or tech-knowledge to use the online/streaming stuff offered. Have them set up their online account (or do it for them, with their permission). WatchESPN is pretty much available on every device (including through the PlayOn plugin in Sage) and offers everything on ESPN and ESPN2 plus more.

**Think parent, grandparent, or elderly aunt.
(My parents have Time Warner cable and still get their bill in the mail and pay with a mailed check, so they never had an online account set up at all. Since I know their address and such, all I needed was their account number from their last bill, and I set up the account with a generic password for us. I use that to log in to all of these streaming channels through PlayOn.)

[Fuzzy]

If you're trying to record a live stream, you need to use SageTV for that, not PlayLater. PlayLater is not in any way designed for capturing streams 'live', and has no scheduling capability. Waht you want, if you are trying to record from Sling TV channels, is a way to get those channels into sagetv, so they can be 'tuned' by sage, and they would be integrated into the guide. If there is a way to capture the stream to a file on the HDD, than a network encoder could be written to issue the 'tuning', and start and stop the recording. I have no experience with sling, so I'm not aware if this is a possibility.

[dinki]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

If you're trying to record a live stream, you need to use SageTV for that, not PlayLater. PlayLater is not in any way designed for capturing streams 'live', and has no scheduling capability. Waht you want, if you are trying to record from Sling TV channels, is a way to get those channels into sagetv, so they can be 'tuned' by sage, and they would be integrated into the guide. If there is a way to capture the stream to a file on the HDD, than a network encoder could be written to issue the 'tuning', and start and stop the recording. I have no experience with sling, so I'm not aware if this is a possibility.

I've been thinking of getting Sling TV, but the inability to pause/record is a no-go for me. I know I've read somewhere that someone had a Roku set up and shared through Sage as a direct signal to a capture device, so that's a possible solution but I'm unsure how easy it would be to issue channel changes. I've only seen screenshots of Sling in action, but it doesn't appear to have traditional channel numbers. I guess you'd have to launch the app, then send a series of key presses to get the right channel stream playing. Can this be done over a network connection?

[will]

Originally Posted by dinki

I've been thinking of getting Sling TV, but the inability to pause/record is a no-go for me. I know I've read somewhere that someone had a Roku set up and shared through Sage as a direct signal to a capture device, so that's a possible solution but I'm unsure how easy it would be to issue channel changes. I've only seen screenshots of Sling in action, but it doesn't appear to have traditional channel numbers. I guess you'd have to launch the app, then send a series of key presses to get the right channel stream playing. Can this be done over a network connection?

I know this isn't a solution but I would recommend waiting out the entire Sling TV thing. It is very early still with its release and it has bugs and other issues, like channel blackouts and capacity issues.

Also, I'm not sure if the work/reward ratio makes economic sense. For example, let's say you are a competent developer and it will take about 80 hours of work to get Sling TV working with SageTV. Also, let's assume your cable bill is $120 so Sling TV would save you $100/month ($120/month - the cost of Sling TV/month). A competent developer could easily sell their time on the side as a freelancer for $75/hr (probably more but let's go with the low side). So $75/hr * 80 hours to get Sling TV to work is $6,000. Which is enough to to cover five years worth of cable bill savings.

Maybe when SageTV goes open source you will see some interest in the community of developers that forms around the project but open source projects that aren't back by companies tend to move slow; that 80hr project could take six months to be completed.

As the "it's like cable/satellite, but not" market matures in the next five years I think you will start to see some better options than Sling TV. My only fear then is that all those cable alternatives will be mobile only.

[dinki]

I can't say that I subscribe to the theory of "It's not _worth_ my time" for just about every project I work on. I know a lot of people do follow this line of thinking but I don't. I'm sitting on the couch at home right now but that's probably not worth my time as I could be making $100 hour working on something instead of relaxing. The only problem is that I don't have anyone beating down my door with that offer. The same can be said for the time I spend with Sage, my home automation software, and a multitude of other hobbies.

I currently have extended basic cable with Cox. This is just analog cable with a few locals on clear QAM. The discussion of Cox going all digital has spurred my interest in finding an alternative. Also, the tv portion of my bill seems to keep going up despite the quality being poor. While Sling TV does not offer as many channels I'm getting now, it does offer many of the channels we watch. We do mostly watch network channels that I can get OTA but the kids really enjoy Disney so Sling could fit that 'requirement'.

I am not a programmer but I am a decent hacker. I know that it is easy to pipe the output of a device to a capture card. I'm by far not picky when it comes to quality so to start I could easily use an old Roku that I have access to and the video input on one of my capture cards. That's easy enough.

The magic is in the channel changing and EPG. I would guess that these channels mostly follow what's being broadcast by Dish with the exception of blackouts. So each channel could be the corresponding channel's guide data to cover the EPG.

I've done a little research and I've read that some/all Roku's have a telnet port that you can connect to an issue key presses. Something similar can be done with CURL as well. Sling TV website states that you can set up hot keys to go to certain channels. If this is true, it would be a matter of writing a script that when passed a variable (Sage passes it's virtual channel number or something), will tune the correct channel using a predefined sequence of key presses based on that particular channel. While this may take some experimenting, I doubt it would take that much time to write if a remote connection can be made to the Roku over the network from the Sage server.

It will be a while before Cox imposes this all digital for my area so I've got plenty of time to work on this and also wait on other possible providers, but I'm thinking that this could work for the pause/record limitations I'd like to overcome with Sling TV.