# Does the TiVo part work for anyone?



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Ok I set up a bunch of random recordings and season passes that recorded over night and the TiVo part still doesn’t work for me. Every single show has the banner with "x recordings” but when I click on it all I get are the generic links to the other streaming services. No list of the recorded episodes with links to them.

Does it just not work the way I expect? Or does it work correctly for some people and just not me?


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## schatham (Mar 17, 2007)

I get mine today and already signed up for the Sling 7 days free trial. I'll let you know later when I can try it. I am familiar with Sling on Roku so hopefully I can figure it out.


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## Rikki_Rocket (May 6, 2020)

Dan203 said:


> Ok I set up a bunch of random recordings and season passes that recorded over night and the TiVo part still doesn't work for me. Every single show has the banner with "x recordings" but when I click on it all I get are the generic links to the other streaming services. No list of the recorded episodes with links to them.
> 
> Does it just not work the way I expect? Or does it work correctly for some people and just not me?


I tested yesterday and it does not work for me. Your expectations are correct.


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## SugarBowl (Jan 5, 2007)

I have seen it work a few times. You will see a list of all episodes, some which are recorded and others that aren't. You have to scroll until you find one that is recorded. Which will show a 'Watch' button to the right.

It is not currently working for 2 shows that I have recorded.


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## schatham (Mar 17, 2007)

My shows works for me so far. As you scroll my shows it will say recording for your recorded shows. The other stuff is on demand available to you. Look at the on demand the same as Tivo suggestions or your favorites.

Just select Sling or HBO or whatever you want to watch it on and it starts.Select the show, then the platform and it goes right to it.

Using Sling it works good. Make sure you link your Sling account.

So far if using Sling and other platforms this is so much better than the Roku. If I was not using Sling I would just use a Roku and go straight to HBO or whatever.

I don't think it beats cable TV with a Tivo.


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## Rikki_Rocket (May 6, 2020)

I wonder if the problem could be that I am trying to record shows for Channels that I don’t actually pay for on Sling Blue plan? The Guide seems to show me every possible Sling channel, not just the ones on Blue plan (I think). What do others see in the Guide?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

schatham said:


> My shows works for me so far. As you scroll my shows it will say recording for your recorded shows. The other stuff is on demand available to you. Look at the on demand the same as Tivo suggestions or your favorites.
> 
> Just select Sling or HBO or whatever you want to watch it on and it starts.Select the show, then the platform and it goes right to it.
> 
> ...


Can you put up a short video showing how it works?

Mine doesn't work. I click on a show that has recordings and I don't get any episode/recording information. Just a link to the various apps that have that show. If I click Sling it takes me to the general page for the whole show, with no way I can see to display only recordings. Just a big list of every episode that's available VOD or even as a future recording. If in the TiVo app I click Episodes I'm given a list of every episode available. If I know specifically which one I recorded and click that then it will take me to the DVR recording instead of the VOD one, but how the hell am I suppose to know the exact name/number of every episode I record?

I was expecting a list similar to a real TiVo where it just shows you the episodes you recorded and you can select them and play them directly.


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## cybergrimes (Jun 15, 2015)

I don't have Sling but added a couple shows. I can click into "Episodes" on the main show page, see descriptions of the episode and it will open right to and play the episode (for the one Disney+ title I tried). It was slow to open it but it worked. So this same episode list doesn't have links to Sling then?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

cybergrimes said:


> I don't have Sling but added a couple shows. I can click into "Episodes" on the main show page, see descriptions of the episode and it will open right to and play the episode (for the one Disney+ title I tried). It was slow to open it but it worked. So this same episode list doesn't have links to Sling then?


That works. But if you have Sling and record shows the recordings don't show even though the white text above the show that says "x episodes" will say "x episodes|x recordings" so TiVo knows you have recorded the show on Sling.


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## cybergrimes (Jun 15, 2015)

Dan203 said:


> That works. But if you have Sling and record shows the recordings don't show even though the white text above the show that says "x episodes" will say "x episodes|x recordings" so TiVo knows you have recorded the show on Sling.


Gotcha, that's a shame. I'll get a trial, or a month, and play around with it soon.


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## omelet1978 (Mar 7, 2006)

Is there the ability to set a number of recordings of a show with SlingTV? 

As in a news show, just set it to 2 or 3 recordings so it does not fill up your DVR since it comes on every day? I did that all the time with my Tivo Bolt and it was incredibly useful.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

omelet1978 said:


> Is there the ability to set a number of recordings of a show with SlingTV?
> 
> As in a news show, just set it to 2 or 3 recordings so it does not fill up your DVR since it comes on every day? I did that all the time with my Tivo Bolt and it was incredibly useful.


Not that I've seen. You can "protect" a recording to keep it from being deleted, but you'd have do manually. Doesn't seem to be an option to "protect" entire shows, just individual episodes.

Would be nice if they had a Keep At Most option like TiVo


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## schatham (Mar 17, 2007)

Dan203 said:


> Can you put up a short video showing how it works?


Say you selected better things from my shows, then you select sling. Notice 10 available, but nothing has recorded yet and it's not on demand. So you just see a blank line. Looks like one is recording now.

Now Charles Manson. It says recording 1. selecting that, then Sling goes right into the show.

You get a preview of single shows, but for multiple shows you must select the link.


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## omelet1978 (Mar 7, 2006)

Dan203 said:


> Not that I've seen. You can "protect" a recording to keep it from being deleted, but you'd have do manually. Doesn't seem to be an option to "protect" entire shows, just individual episodes.
> 
> Would be nice if they had a Keep At Most option like TiVo


Well that sucks. That was one of the best features of Tivo and with SlingTV's DVR you only get 50 hours of recordings (which means it'll fill up pretty fast).


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## schatham (Mar 17, 2007)

continue pictures, selecting Run from My Shows goes to the episodes, then select one.


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## Rikki_Rocket (May 6, 2020)

Playing a recorded show is working for me now! I received an email from Sling late last night that said “Congrats on linking your TiVo account”. I did nothing on my end, to me in Stream settings it showed my account was always linked. I’m guessing some batch process had to run on Sling end.

It’s still a few more clicks than I’d like but it works.

My Shows —> Choose the show —> click on Episodes link —> choose the episode you want to play —> then choose Sling or other app under the show to play it.


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## SugarBowl (Jan 5, 2007)

The MyShows list doesn't update in a timely way. I recorded shows last night. Start up my TivoStream this morning, and go to My Shows. The list looks the same as it did 24 hours ago. Go to the guide, then back to my shows, and the list is updated.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

omelet1978 said:


> Well that sucks. That was one of the best features of Tivo and with SlingTV's DVR you only get 50 hours of recordings (which means it'll fill up pretty fast).


You only get 50 hrs/50gb if you pay the extra $5/mo. Otherwise it is 5 hrs/5gb.


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## SugarBowl (Jan 5, 2007)

trip1eX said:


> You only get 50 hrs/50gb if you pay the extra $5/mo. Otherwise it is 5 hrs/5gb.


10 hours if you don't pay for extra DVR storage.


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## srazook (Mar 28, 2010)

trip1eX said:


> You only get 50 hrs/50gb if you pay the extra $5/mo. Otherwise it is 5 hrs/5gb.


I'm not a fan of Sling TV because of its lack of Live "Local" Streaming Channels and the extremely small amount of Cloud DVR storage. My Streaming TV provider of choice is YouTube TV. I realize, at least at this point, it will not interface with the TiVo UI and Grid. But it would be nice to have the YouTube TV app launch when you press the "Live" button on the remote. Is there anyway to program the remote? I'd love to see this feature available in future updates!


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

SugarBowl said:


> 10 hours if you don't pay for extra DVR storage.
> View attachment 48985


OK. Maybe they just upped it recently or I just was thinking 5 when it was 10 the entire time. STill a tiny amount of storage in any case. STill gotta pay $5/mo to get 50gb/50 hrs which is still a painfully low amount of storage for a dvr.


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## SugarBowl (Jan 5, 2007)

trip1eX said:


> OK. Maybe they just upped it recently or I just was thinking 5 when it was 10 the entire time. STill a tiny amount of storage in any case. STill gotta pay $5/mo to get 50gb/50 hrs which is still a painfully low amount of storage for a dvr.


I'm new to SlingTv and not sure how it all works. I recorded "Rock Legends: Guns N Roses" last night. When I go into My Shows, and select it, then get into Sling. I am greeted with a Series page for Rock Legends that has Season 11 highlighted. Guns N Roses is not listed there as an episode, but there are other episodes which I can watch.

So while i'm not sure where my recording is, and TiVo Stream isn't making it easy to find, there seems to be some kind of OnDemand aspect to SlingTv which may make the DVR storage not as necessary.

*Found it * . I have to scroll over to More Episodes, then down, and I will see Guns N Roses.  There is no indication that this is a recording vs OnDemand item.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

SugarBowl said:


> I'm new to SlingTv and not sure how it all works. I recorded "Rock Legends: Guns N Roses" last night. When I go into My Shows, and select it, then get into Sling. I am greeted with a Series page for Rock Legends that has Season 11 highlighted. Guns N Roses is not listed there as an episode, but there are other episodes which I can watch.
> 
> So while i'm not sure where my recording is, and TiVo Stream isn't making it easy to find, there seems to be some kind of OnDemand aspect to SlingTv which may make the DVR storage not as necessary.
> 
> *Found it * . I have to scroll over to More Episodes, then down, and I will see Guns N Roses. There is no indication that this is a recording vs OnDemand item.


Yeah this is pretty much what I'm seeing with all of my various recordings. I assumed that the TiVo part would give you direct links to the episodes you had recorded, not make you go fishing for them among the VOD episodes. (most of which have force commercials BTW)

In it's current state it's not useful at all. You might as well just launch the Sling app and go to the DVR section there.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I'm wondering if maybe there is some miscommunication between Sling and TiVo and that's why this isn't working? I mean they couldn't have possibly thought the way it works now is sufficient. So maybe it's suppose to work the way we were expecting and TiVo isn't getting the data they need from Sling to populate the UI with the episode links to the DVR recordings? With two different companies involved on this, and the current situation with COVID, I could see this roll out not going quite to plan.


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## Rkkeller (May 13, 2004)

My recordings are right in the "My Shows" section and when I click to watch one and choose Sling, all you do is highlight the "Watch" arrow on the right side to start it. You don't have to go thru the episodes list.


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## SugarBowl (Jan 5, 2007)

Rkkeller said:


> My recordings are right in the "My Shows" section and when I click to watch one and choose Sling, all you do is highlight the "Watch" arrow on the right side to start it. You don't have to go thru the episodes list.


I have a few episodes that work this way. But most shows do not.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

SugarBowl said:


> I have a few episodes that work this way. But most shows do not.


None of mine do. I can see all the available episodes, across every service a show is available on, but nothing indicates which ones are recordings and there is no list that just shows my recordings.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I just set up a bunch of other shows and basically filled my DVR and none of them work properly in the TiVo app. Every one shows the number of recordings in the header, but not one actually shows a direct link to those recordings anywhere.


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## schatham (Mar 17, 2007)

Dan203 said:


> None of mine do. I can see all the available episodes, across every service a show is available on, but nothing indicates which ones are recordings and there is no list that just shows my recordings.


No question it's quite confusing as to what is On Demand, a recording or a future recording not yet available.

I am surprised their is no list view. I already have a lot of shows and the big tiles are a pain. If it had list view their could be sub lists with episodes.


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## schatham (Mar 17, 2007)

Dan203 said:


> I just set up a bunch of other shows and basically filled my DVR and none of them work properly in the TiVo app. Every one shows the number of recordings in the header, but not one actually shows a direct link to those recordings anywhere.


Have you linked your Sling account?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

schatham said:


> Have you linked your Sling account?


Yeah. And when I add shows from TiVo the show up in Sling, and vice versa. (although the recording preference isn't always synced correctly) It even says "x recordings" over the tile. But when I click the show I get nothing. I'd expect there to be a list or something of the recordings and not just some giant list of all episodes that are available from every service.

At the very least they could indicate which episodes are recorded and which are VOD like they do on a regular TiVo. And they should just display the episodes as soon as you click the show, don't make me click the tiny Episodes button


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## schatham (Mar 17, 2007)

I went to the Sling app on the computer (same as Roku app) it's easier to manage. It shows recordings and future recordings in different areas. So it's easier to see whats going on. You can delete a bunch at once also. So if your DVR is full and you don't know why go their to manage it. On Demand is not in the recording list, their under my favorites. Tivo is bunching everything together.


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## SugarBowl (Jan 5, 2007)

Dan203 said:


> I just set up a bunch of other shows and basically filled my DVR and none of them work properly in the TiVo app. Every one shows the number of recordings in the header, but not one actually shows a direct link to those recordings anywhere.


Yeah you're right. Some of my shows happen to open up to a list of episodes where the first one is playable. It's not the episode that I scheduled to record though.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Seems like an awful product launch. The 2 main things TiVo was touting with this were:
1. Integration with SlingTV - broken
2. Integration of SlingTV and streaming - also mostly broken

Then there are other hardware and remote related issues so even the hardware side is buggy.

TiVo never seems to get anything right anymore.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I think I'm getting a sense of how they designed it to work and it's just a bad design. They're basically just lumping all available episodes into that Episode list, regardless of what service they're from, and expecting the customer to choose the one they want and not care about the source. Problem is that some services, like Sling, have episodes that are technically available but have forced commercials and I don't want to watch any of those. So what they need to do is offer an option to remove the VOD episodes and only show recordings. Or like I said at least differentiate them with an icon.

Also they need to show the episode list as soon as you click the show. Don't put it in a sub item that I have to click on.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

moyekj said:


> TiVo never seems to get anything right anymore.


I'm not sure TiVo has ever had a truly smooth launch. Every TiVo I've ever owned has had something that didn't work right out of the box. The closest to perfect I think was probably the Roamio and the original Series 2. All the other ones came with some sort of "coming soon" promise.


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## Rikki_Rocket (May 6, 2020)

Dan203 said:


> Yeah. And when I add shows from TiVo the show up in Sling, and vice versa. (although the recording preference isn't always synced correctly) It even says "x recordings" over the tile. But when I click the show I get nothing. I'd expect there to be a list or something of the recordings and not just some giant list of all episodes that are available from every service.
> 
> At the very least they could indicate which episodes are recorded and which are VOD like they do on a regular TiVo. And they should just display the episodes as soon as you click the show, don't make me click the tiny Episodes button


I think it gets confused when there are multiple streaming services that offer the show I am trying to record. When it's just Sling it records and displays my one episode just fine. If the show is available via Sling and Amazon prime then it just shows me all of the available seasons and episodes and expects me to go into Prime and select the VOD for it I guess.

To be clear, when you guys say it doesn't record your show are doing these steps to view it...

My Shows -> Choose the show -> click on Episodes link -> choose the episode you want to play -> then choose Sling or other app under the show to play it.


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## vurbano (Apr 20, 2004)

Dan203 said:


> I'm wondering if maybe there is some miscommunication between Sling and TiVo and that's why this isn't working? I mean they couldn't have possibly thought the way it works now is sufficient. So maybe it's suppose to work the way we were expecting and TiVo isn't getting the data they need from Sling to populate the UI with the episode links to the DVR recordings? With two different companies involved on this, and the current situation with COVID, I could see this roll out not going quite to plan.


with no fees to earn and only a 50 dollar purchase price I am highly skeptical that Tivo will make this a great product. I got mine up and running and I sure hope they improve it but Im not holding my breath.


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## vurbano (Apr 20, 2004)

why not a full size remote? a pause, play, record button? would be nice. WHy a netflix button and no prime button?


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## vurbano (Apr 20, 2004)

what is the usb port for on the stream?


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

vurbano said:


> why not a full size remote? a pause, play, record button? would be nice. WHy a netflix button and no prime button?


I believe I read once that Netflix uses its market power to require a Netflix button.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

vurbano said:


> why not a full size remote? a pause, play, record button? would be nice. WHy a netflix button and no prime button?


Netflix pays for those buttons.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

vurbano said:


> what is the usb port for on the stream?


It's a usb-c port. I ordered a couple cables/adapters to test in it.


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## cybergrimes (Jun 15, 2015)

It really should be full sized. It's the same size as a Roku remote with way more buttons.


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## schatham (Mar 17, 2007)

I do like the guide button for Sling. No matter what app your in it goes straight to the guide, unlike Roku you would have to exit your app then go to sling and and scroll to the guide. I also like the channel button because you can scroll the guide a page at a time. I don't think Roku Sling can do that.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

That's why I'm getting such a mixed feeling about the UI. It's like the remote is designed to integrate directly with stream with it's guide button and channel up/down, but then the My Shows part is just some generic aggregator that doesn't give any special priority to actual recordings at all.


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## schatham (Mar 17, 2007)

I just dropped all my Sling extras, stopping after free trial. I will continue the $30 Sling for a month to test some more as 7 days is not enough, but not for $55 which it was with the extras.

I did drop the DVR+ because the my shows is to confusing and cluttered. At least now I'll know it will be HBO or on demand from Sling. I still will have 10 hours DVR, maybe save that for repeat news or something that can be recorded over.

To bad Locast locals are not incorporated into the guide.


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## jaselzer (Sep 10, 2018)

Dan203 said:


> That works. But if you have Sling and record shows the recordings don't show even though the white text above the show that says "x episodes" will say "x episodes|x recordings" so TiVo knows you have recorded the show on Sling.


Wow, I just wrapped my head around the issue you are discussing, Dan. In MY Shows for "Killing Eve" it states that I have 3 recordings, but there is no way to see the list of what is recorded specifically. All you get is a generic list of what is available to watch one way or another. That is completely inexcusable. There absolutely must be a separate list or designation of what is available as recorded as available to just watch on demand, etc. Just wow. It took me a while to realize what you were bringing up, but it is a very good point you make.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

jaselzer said:


> Wow, I just wrapped my head around the issue you are discussing, Dan. In MY Shows for "Killing Eve" it states that I have 3 recordings, but there is no way to see the list of what is recorded specifically. All you get is a generic list of what is available to watch one way or another. That is completely inexcusable. There absolutely must be a separate list or designation of what is available as recorded as available to just watch on demand, etc. Just wow. It took me a while to realize what you were bringing up, but it is a very good point you make.


Yeah it was basically useless to me. Even if I take what I *think* TiVo's design was aiming for, which is to just offer you a list of everything available regardless of which app it's available from, it does a bad job at that by making you click that tiny little link to "Episodes" and not tracking what episode you're currently watching.


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## jaselzer (Sep 10, 2018)

Dan203 said:


> Yeah it was basically useless to me. Even if I take what I *think* TiVo's design was aiming for, which is to just offer you a list of everything available regardless of which app it's available from, it does a bad job at that by making you click that tiny little link to "Episodes" and not tracking what episode you're currently watching.


The only way, unless I am missing something, is to go to the "Episodes" link and scroll through all the episodes and you will notice that the recorded ones show it being available on Sling, which I then assume means it is a recording. The ones that do not have Sling as a link above the episode is available only as On Demand I assume. However, that is a really inefficient way to try and find your specific recording and I suspect it does not track it for you with a "resume" or anything like that


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

jaselzer said:


> The only way, unless I am missing something, is to go to the "Episodes" link and scroll through all the episodes and you will notice that the recorded ones show it being available on Sling, which I then assume means it is a recording. The ones that do not have Sling as a link above the episode is available only as On Demand I assume. However, that is a really inefficient way to try and find your specific recording and I suspect it does not track it for you with a "resume" or anything like that


Not necessarily. Sling has a lot of episodes available VOD with forced commercials.


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## jaselzer (Sep 10, 2018)

jaselzer said:


> The only way, unless I am missing something, is to go to the "Episodes" link and scroll through all the episodes and you will notice that the recorded ones show it being available on Sling, which I then assume means it is a recording. The ones that do not have Sling as a link above the episode is available only as On Demand I assume. However, that is a really inefficient way to try and find your specific recording and I suspect it does not track it for you with a "resume" or anything like that





Dan203 said:


> Not necessarily. Sling has a lot of episodes available VOD with forced commercials.


Yes, I forgot that it is a problem when Sling has the show available On Demand also. Also, I watched a few moments of a recorded show which I found by clicking on Episodes->Sling, and then went back to "My Shows"->"Killing Eve"->"Sling" and the episode that I watched for a moment started right at the beginning as opposed to having a resume setting available.


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## BillyClyde (Mar 3, 2017)

I have noticed that episodes now have a red dot  on them, seemingly indicating that it's a recorded program. Do you guys not have that?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

BillyClyde said:


> I have noticed that episodes now have a red dot  on them, seemingly indicating that it's a recorded program. Do you guys not have that?


I didn't last time I tried. I have since canceled Sling so I can no longer test.


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## BillyClyde (Mar 3, 2017)

Dan203 said:


> I didn't last time I tried. I have since canceled Sling so I can no longer test.


Don't you still get the remainder of the month you paid for?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

BillyClyde said:


> Don't you still get the remainder of the month you paid for?


I never paid. I just did the trial. I canceled before the trial was over so I wouldn't get charged.


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