To celebrate promote the launch of Sling TV on Chromecast, the companies have quite the promotion running. Existing hardware owners are entitled to two free months of the normally $20/month over-the-top television service. Tho Sling TV has occasional streaming issues and a somewhat uncomfortable interface (that’s being improved), nearly a year later, no one else has managed to launch an equivalent nationwide Internet TV service. So why not check it out… for free?
Try the Best of Live TV for two months free, with Chromecast. See 20+ channels live including ESPN, AMC, HGTV, and more. No annual contract.
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I signed up for this promotion about a week ago, and I all I can say is I'm glad it's free. I had to uninstall the app from my completely stock Nexus 5 because it actually crashed my phone multiple times. The app would continually restart itself in a black screen of death that required rebooting the phone. Even when the app wasn't crashing my phone, it rarely worked with my Chromecast. I tried watching a couple different games on ESPN, and I never got more than a few minutes of watchable video before it downscaled to 240p, or completely froze. I have a 50mbps connection and regularly stream 1080p from other services so I know bandwidth was not the issue.
TL;DR The Sling app is buggy, and the stream quality is generally terrible.
I've used it several times on Roku and Roku TV, also for free "borrowing" a friend's press account. When they aren't being crushed by usage during big events, it's been pretty decent. ESPN is usually the network to experience issues, when they occur. If Sling could clean up that interface, it'd be a pretty reasonable option for my mom who generally just watches things like Food, HGTV, or CNN in the background.
This is not going to get me to open the closet door that's four feet away and look for my ChromeCast. Sling got me through two months of living in a TV-less spare bedroom at my in-laws after we sold our house but waited to close on our new one. But just barely. Just not impressed with the single stream, poor interface, sluggish to start streaming, hit-or-miss on demand content, small selection of channels, etc.
Same way I ultimately wasn't impressed with the needs a remote like Roku managed to bundle with their dirt cheap stick Chromecast that works great unless you have your phone on the other side of the room charging and don't feel like using a tablet to change "channels".
I'm reasonably happy with the Fire TV stick I travel with because it can logon to Hotel WiFi. I'll probably invest in the new one because it's faster I believe. And I'm in love with the new Apple TV. Everything else is making me yawn these days.