Fixing Sling TV Streaming Issues on Xbox One

I was really excited about the prospect of Sling TV being available, it provided the opportunity for frugal people like me to stream quality programming at reasonable price without being stuck in a long term cable contract. My internet download speeds are in excess of 30 Mbps so streaming TV for the whole house is a very practical solution.

I use Sling TV on multiple devices, but our main TV watching occurs on Xbox One and Roku 3, and even though I have used these devices on the same Wi-Fi networks and in the same relative location to the wireless router, I found that the Xbox One appl buffers and stutters much more frequently than its Roku 3 counterpart. I had no way to explain this, except to say that the Xbox One implementation is simply not as stable as Roku’s.

After a discussion with Sling TV support via Twitter, and confirming that I had sufficient bandwidth, they suggested that refreshing the app on Xbox One can help fix streaming issues. I recorded the steps for future reference.

Refreshing Sling TV App on Xbox One

Please perform the following steps:

1. Sign out from Sling TV app
   - Press the menu key on the remote
   - Go into settings
   - Sign out
2. Uninstall the Sling TV app
   - Start from Home (press the Xbox button on your controller to go Home)
   - Go to My games and apps, highlight the content that you want to uninstall.
   - Press the Menu button on your controller.
   - Select Manage Game or Manage App.
   - Press the Menu button on your controller again.
   - Select Uninstall.
3. Power off the TV and the Xbox One for 2 minutes
4. Reinstall the app
   - Go to the app store on your Xbox One.
   - Search for the Sling TV app.
   - Download the app.
   - Open the app and sign in using your Sling TV username and password.
5. Go into Sling TV settings
   - Press the menu key on the remote
   - Go into settings
   - Bandwidth Limiting
   - "High Quality" (lower this to Medium or Low Quality if you are still having issues)

Quit OneGuide Live TV

If you are using Xbox OneGuide to watch TV especially with its in built DVR support, I have personally found this produces errors reminiscent of the Wi-Fi issues mentioned previously. It seems that the DVR, even in the background, can interfere with SlingTV streaming (does not affect Netflix or Hulu).  After you have corrected your Sling TV settings try the following steps:

1. Hit the Xbox button on your controller.
2. Select the OneGuide app/tile and press the Menu button on your controller.
3. Select Quit to close the OneGuide and its DVR capability.

Hope this helps you. Now, back to watching the Walking Dead!