My Weekend Adventure

Keeping Up With The Times

 

               I am aware of the influence that marketing has on our lives and that not every product or idea that comes across my television is a good one. However, I also know that marketing is a very powerful tool for getting out the word on things that do work well and can add value to your life. For a while now I have been seeing advertisements for Google Chromecast and Sling TV and became more curious with each occurrence.  Normally, when I become curious about something I do a little research online and then move on without changing the status quo, which in this case would be Comcast.  

Now that I am back in school and have three young boys who are becoming more and more active with traveling sports I don’ t watch as much television as I use to, which is obviously a good thing. But, I was paying over $150 for cable from Comcast for television that I am no longer watching which seemed like an obvious problem that needed to be fixed. So, in the spirt of taking full advantage of the weekend adventure challenge I went out and bought Google Chromecast, which is a onetime purchase, and then signed up for the free one week trial of Sling TV. Sling TV is a monthly subscription which starts at $20/month and is streamed through to television using the Google Chromecast device. You can also have the Sling TV app on your mobile devices as well. Ultimately, making this change has saved me about 40% of what I was paying previously through Comcast.

The Google Chromecast works great and has many additional functions that are helpful, such as being to cast my Spotify over to my television, or YouTube Red.  It also works in conjunction with Google Home, which we plan on getting at some point in the near future.  The Sling TV on the other hand has been a bit of a disappointment so far, mainly because of the buffering. I figured that there would be some buffering from time-to-time, but some of the channels, like Fox Sports North, a very popular sports channel, are almost always blurry/fuzzy, or buffering. Now, before you say, “ it’s your internet connection” note that I have 100 mbps service and a tricked out Netgear modem, so that is not the problem.  Moreover, I have substantial digital library on VUDU and there are no issues streaming from their site.  At this point, a part of me wants to just cancel Sling TV and move on, but the other part of me wants to support the changing television marketplace. I like the idea of not being locked in to just the giant telecommunication companies of the world, such as the Comcasts and the Century Links. I feel that streaming service with more of a la carte style of television such as what Sling TV offers is the way future. The challenge at this point is hanging in there while the technology evolves.

My big take away from my adventure is that you can’t always be a skeptic, sometimes you just have to jump in and try it for yourself, regardless of the outcome. You never know, you may find yourself supporting a cause that could change the world for the better.