Hi everyone, it's been awhile since I've posted.

Late last year, I purchased a new Samsung TV set. It has smart TV apps with it, and I added a Roku 4 media player to it. I just recently resurrected our older TV and added both an Amazon Fire stick and Roku 3 to this set.
So, now I am amazed at all the "free" media I can get via Internet streaming.

I was thinking of gettng rid of our costly Dish subscription, and replacing it with either Playstation Vue or Sling.com. Both vendors offer plenty of channels at less than half of what I am paying per month for Dish. Does anyone have experience with either of these two services? Either service requires a robust wireless signal and I recently replaced our WiFi router with a new Netgear Nighthawk X6 router that seems to do an excellent job throughout the house.

 

I have no experience with either of those services, nor do I have any clue what you are talking about.

However, I'm sure that you will thoroughly research the subject and make a good decision.

(Oh...another thing to consider...how easy are they to use for technologically-challenged people?)

 

^^^Same here, wireless signal here is too weak to even consider it.
Levi

 

A strong Wi-Fi signal is essential for these streaming services to work.

Even if you don't plan to stream, increasingly home appliances are making use of WiFi features. For example, our Samsung front load washer has WiFi (it will alert you to when the washer is finished, and allows for remote start), and even our new AC/furnace thermostat makes use of WiFi.

In the near future, most home will have at least half-dozen appliances hooked up via WiFi. So, you need a strong signal.

New routers are not expensive, and are much easier to program now.

 

Just a clarification...

Signal strength is generally referred to as the ability to connect and maintain a connection to your WiFi router. Service Speed is the ability to transfer data to/from the Internet to your Router.

They are mutually exclusive. You can have a 1GB large business class internet service to your mansion, but no WiFi access in rooms far away from the router. You can also have a small house where strength and access are everywhere, but a relatively slow service speed of 25 MB. (Can't believe I'm saying that - starting many years ago with a 300 baud modem - 25 MB, relatively slow! haha) Those manifest as different problems.

So, you only need a strong signal if your devices are located around the house, or your WiFi router can't send it's signal far enough. If you've got a WiFi phone or tablet, you'll see this as the signal meter on the device changes as you walk around.

You need a better service if you're going to (really) stream from multiple devices at one time. And to be clear- your washing machine texting you, the fridge figuring out you have no milk and even ordering it, your appliances doing anything, surfing S2KI, ESPN and CNN at the same time, and even your Internet based phone service is NOTHING. I'd say at today's Internet speeds, even streaming is become nothing. HD via Netflix requires 5MB. 4K HD requires 25 MB.

 

^^^Maybe someday I'll be able to get those speeds
Levi

 

I have a friend that uses Sling, and likes it. He uses it at a "shore" house, so it's not a full time residence. He also is using an OTA antenna for network programming.

 

just be aware of how much data you use ... before you get a nasty surprise.

 

Absolutely agreed, it appears that Comcast's model is to start charging for bandwidth to slow the idea of streaming.

 

My ISP is WOW, and I am using their 110 mbps service. I do get those download speeds when connected via Ethernet, and a little less when connected via WIFi. As far as I can tell, there is no cap on the amount of data downloaded to my computers.

I thought data caps and throttling apply mostly to cellular data?

I haven't tried Netflix yet, but may do so.