Sling Media Announces Slingbox 350 and 500 Media Streaming Boxes

[MacRumors]

Sling Media, maker of the Slingbox set-top media streaming boxes, today announced its first new hardware products in four years, introducing the new Slingbox 350 and 500 boxes. The company has long been one of the leading vendors offering software and hardware solutions to allow users to stream live and recorded television programming from a user's television to their computers and smartphones.

Slingbox 500

The new Slingbox 500, which carries a retail price of $299.99, includes built-in Wi-Fi connectivity as well as integrated IR blasters for controlling a set-top box. The box also includes the new SlingProjector feature, which allows users to wirelessly transmit photos and other content from their phones onto their television sets.

The Slingbox 500 is the foundation of a growing set of features for Slingbox customers. The hardware platform not only has the ability to placeshift content, making a live content stream available anywhere, but can also receive content and display it on the TV. The first example of this is SlingProjector. SlingProjector makes it easy for anyone to wirelessly display their personal media, such as photos, from their smartphone onto the big screen.

Slingbox 350

The Slingbox 350, priced at $179.99, is a lower-cost option that forgoes the integrated Wi-Fi and SlingProjector functionalities but still offers 1080p streaming for improved video quality.

Sling Media has also released updated version of its apps for iPhone and iPad, with each app currently priced at $14.99, 50% of the standard prices.

The new Slingbox 350 and 500 boxes will go on sale in the United States beginning this Sunday, October 14, with Canadian availability scheduled for next month.

Article Link: Sling Media Announces Slingbox 350 and 500 Media Streaming Boxes

[besweeet2]

Awesome updates! Can't wait to get my hands on the 500. Despite what a lot of people are saying, I think it looks excellent, and is a welcomed design change.

I just hope that the video and audio quality in their mobile apps doesn't suck... The low bitrates were unbearable sometimes.

[thelonelylimo]

they certainly thought "out of the box".

[auero]

They had me at HDMI.

[besweeet2]

Originally Posted by auero

They had me at HDMI.

Keep in mind that HDCP will most likely be a problem for most people.

[avanpelt]

Their apps for iPhone and iPad aren't showing as updated in the App Store yet. Hope they show up soon. The apps lost the ability to stream in high quality after you update to iOS 6.

Sling Media has been, in my experience, an awful company in terms of customer service. They nickel and dime their customers to death. In addition to releasing new hardware, I think they need to clean house at the company and get some people working there who appreciate their customers who spend hundreds on the hardware and $29 each for both the iPhone and iPad apps.

[besweeet2]

Originally Posted by avanpelt

Their apps for iPhone and iPad aren't showing as updated in the App Store yet. Hope they show up soon. The apps lost the ability to stream in high quality after you update to iOS 6.

Sling Media has been, in my experience, an awful company in terms of customer service. They nickel and dime their customers to death. In addition to releasing new hardware, I think they need to clean house at the company and get some people working there who appreciate their customers who spend hundreds on the hardware and $29 each for both the iPhone and iPad apps.

The changelogs have been updated, but nothing else has.

I do agree that they should be working on their CS side of things. And perhaps their marketing...

[benhollberg]

Originally Posted by avanpelt

Their apps for iPhone and iPad aren't showing as updated in the App Store yet. Hope they show up soon. The apps lost the ability to stream in high quality after you update to iOS 6.

Oh my, is that why I haven't been able to do high quality? Been noticing that lately and never knew why. Can't wait for an update then.

[mikeyrko]

I just recently sold my old slingbox and purchased a vulkano lava I'm much happier with it, I can now record shows and watch them on my iPhone offline.

[WhoDaKat]

Who in the hell designed these ugly things? Good lord, I'm almost scared of them.

[SteveLV702]

please tell me these ones have HDMI connectivity.

[ProwlingTiger]

These look like ****. I'd be embarrassed to have one sitting in my living room.
Keelhaul the designers.

[Carlanga]

Edgy designs gone awry.

[dazed]

Damn, tell the designers to put down the crack pipe those are fugly.

The second one looks like a strippers handbag.

[auero]

Originally Posted by besweeet2

Keep in mind that HDCP will most likely be a problem for most people.

Yep, I heard conflicting reports. The review of the two already killed it for me.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/09/s...0--500-review/

[nsfw]

Originally Posted by dazed

Damn, tell the designers to put down the crack pipe those are fugly.

The second one looks like a strippers handbag.

<-- that. I was thinking some women's related apparel. The crazy thing is the 350 and 500 look like they were designed by two different companies. Have they not heard of continuity?
Whats the purpose of these things anyways? Give to friend in your hometown sports market to watch games for free? Send to your parents in your home country to watch foreign TV? Yer a traveling business person?
I hope you guys aren't buying these because you have so much TV to watch you need to watch tv at work?

[MacPod]

Looks like they got rid of the ATSC over the air tuner, which is a shame, because it's definitely nice to be able to cut the cable TV service, and not only are there quite a few extra channels now on digital OTA TV, but the HD video quality is better than cable, since it's generally less compressed!

Please, someone tell me I've just missed something here...

[smithrh]

I had a Slingbox, and I honestly got really tired of Slingmedia charging exorbitant/extortionary fees for the viewing apps.

I've gone to Vulkano, pretty happy with that. It's not perfect, but it's good enough.

Guessing HDMI will be useless as others have noted.

[Cartaphilus]

I really love my Slingbox and watch my own television programming, both live and DVR'd, wherever I am in the world. It's great on the iPad outside on the deck while barbecuing, or anywhere in the house while doing anything. I've even watched a game on it while strapped into a wifi-equipped airplane at 35 kilofeet. And now with LTE speeds faster than my home network, it'll be great anywhere.

Customer service is terrific with setting up the box, and they'll just take over your Mac and do all the set-up programming for you.

On the other hand, these new boxes really don't seem to be much of an improvement. It's nice that they have wifi built in, but it's still better to have the box hard-wired to your router. The HDMI/HDCP issues are annoying, not Sling's fault, but still, it's not really any advance for 90%+ of current users. And the pricing on the app is aggravating, especially since without an app the box is only useful if you want to lug a computer around. And I still have to figure out why I'd want yet another clicker on the coffee table to do pretty much nothing particularly helpful.

To me the biggest flaw is the lag time with the control blaster. It's pretty nearly impossible to fast-forward through commercials and not actuate the PLAY command too soon or too late the first try. There has to be a way to program one-minute or thirty-second skips into the app.

If they get that done, and make HDMI work, I won't care how artsy their enclosure designs get.

This company does some very hard things extremely well, but this is one outfit that is in desperate need of someone who really understands what users want and need and who has the organizational power to marshal the company's resources to deliver it. Otherwise, these guys are going to end up being the RealNetworks of video.

[saturnino3]

I like the design of the 350. It's cool. The design of the 500 it too much.

[bushido]

aw this box will look neat next to my lava lamp and my pot plantation. oh wait its not the 60s anymore

jeeze and that price, yep ill stick to my ecosystem integrated apple tv

[topmike]

OK - I have read the reviews, and looked at the photos and Sling Media clearly wanted their box to sit on top of all other products. While that is a neat idea, clearly they never consulted their user base.

From the Engadget review: "In contrast, the Slingbox 500 is not a box, but rather, some amorphous shape we're pretty sure we never covered in high school geometry. Other than the fact you can't stack anything on top of it, we sort of like the way it looks, even though the plastic is very prone to gathering fingerprints." -http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/09/slingbox-350--500-review/

They should have tested this in the real world!

[everything-i]

These things are so bizarre, looks like the designers have been tripping when they came up with these. And a bad trip at that.

[CyberBob859]

Originally Posted by MacPod

Looks like they got rid of the ATSC over the air tuner, which is a shame, because it's definitely nice to be able to cut the cable TV service, and not only are there quite a few extra channels now on digital OTA TV, but the HD video quality is better than cable, since it's generally less compressed!

Please, someone tell me I've just missed something here...

Nope. You haven't missed something. I noticed that too. The lack of a tuner is a deal breaker for me. I have a Pro-HD and use the tuner all the time. Unfortunately, I'm having disconnection problems, and was thinking of upgrading but without that tuner, it's a no-go.

Bad case designs, poor customer service, questionable quality control, and now no tuner is pushing me away from Sling.

[ibnsina]

This is what happens when you have no more new ideas. You spend your time designing the outside instead of improving the inside.