Recent Slingbox Devices Updated with Support for AirPlay and Apple TV

[MacRumors]

Sling Media, maker of the Slingbox set-top media streaming boxes, has announced that its Slingbox 500, Slingbox 350, Slingbox Pro-HD and Slingbox Solo devices have received firmware updates that enable support for AirPlay and the Apple TV, allowing users to stream live TV from a Slingbox to Apple's set-top box using SlingPlayer for iPhone [Direct Link] or Slingplayer for iPad [Direct Link].

And finally, Sling Media is pleased to formally announce AirPlay support for SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone and iPad. This feature gives Apple TV customers the ability to watch their home TV on a second TV inside the home (without needing an additional set top box) or on a remote TV. Slingbox 500, Slingbox 350, Slingbox PRO-HD and Slingbox SOLO customers can take advantage of this fully updated and supported feature.

The company also announced that the Slingbox 500 will be updated with enhanced "My Media" features that enable Macs to access photos and videos from USB drives attached to the Slingbox, and that the SlingPlayer web client now contains support for OS X Mavericks and Safari 7. Sling Media also stated that it plans to enable iOS devices to access "My Media" content on the Slingbox 500 in the near future.

The Slingbox 500 and Slingbox 350 were both announced in October of last year, with the former including built-in Wi-Fi functionality and integrated IR blasters, and the latter acting as a lower-cost option that also includes 1080p streaming for improved video quality. The Slingbox 500 and Slingbox 350 retail for $299.99 and $179.99 respectively, and can be both purchased through the official Slingbox website.

Article Link: Recent Slingbox Devices Updated with Support for AirPlay and Apple TV

 

[chrisl123]

Great! Was searching for something like this.

 

[Brian Y]

That's a nifty feature!

 

[evansls]

Finally!

Since Airplay is an officially supported feature, this now means when you "sling" your video to the TV, you can now close your phone and the video will still stream in the background and you can switch to another app and the video will still stream. This background functionality requires a license from Apple while the Airplay mirroring feature, which Slingbox was able to use for years prior to this announcement, would simply lack the feature described above. This will be a well received feature among the sling community.

 

[Ivan0310]

Clarity

Since Airplay is an officially supported feature, this now means when you "sling" your video to the TV, you can now close your phone and the video will still stream in the background and you can switch to another app and the video will still stream. This background functionality requires a license from Apple while the Airplay mirroring feature, which Slingbox was able to use for years prior to this announcement, would simply lack the feature described above. This will be a well received feature among the sling community.

You answered my question before I even asked it--as someone who doesn't use or own a Slingbox device, I couldn't understand what the utility of this was at all. Why would you need connectivity from one set-top box to another. This makes a lot more sense. Although I suppose you could Airplay your Slingbox to an AppleTV in another room.

 

[ManWithAPlan]

Nice!!!!

Ummm, or when you're travelling, you can now take your iPhone with the Sling Player app to you buddies house out of state, and if he has an AppleTV, you can now watch your NFL Sunday Ticket that you have at your house on his TV out of state!!! Regardless of the fact that he doesn't subscribe to it! Or maybe back at your home, a certain game is the "local game" on local stations, but it's not available at your buddies house where he lives. So when you're there, no problem, just sling that game to his AppleTV and you're done. Oh and close your phone, you wouldn't wanna hurt your battery life unncessarily! HA! Perfect. My prayers have been answered!

 

[joelshooty]

Since Airplay is an officially supported feature, this now means when you "sling" your video to the TV, you can now close your phone and the video will still stream in the background and you can switch to another app and the video will still stream. This background functionality requires a license from Apple while the Airplay mirroring feature, which Slingbox was able to use for years prior to this announcement, would simply lack the feature described above. This will be a well received feature among the sling community.

Slingplayer for iPhone (I assume iPad as well) already had "standard" Airplay (i.e. not mirroring) for quite some time. You could mirror too, but it wasn't the only way to Airplay.

But even with "standard" Airplay, background functionality was absent. I have never heard that background functionality required a license. If that's true, then I suppose an app update should be forthcoming to implement that feature.

I'd also like to see Slingbox improve Airplay video quality. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[mcwbyu82]

Sigh. A nice feature but still waiting for Sling/Dish to put an app on the Apple TV that will allow you to use the Dish Anywhere feature for those of us that have the sling adapters hooked to our receivers.

 

[urbanslaughter1997]

Well this would have been a welcome addition had I ever been able to get my sling box to work reliably. It rarely, if ever, worked properly. So you might suggest calling sling box support. LOL. Honestly, I've yet to find a company with worse customer support. I strongly recommend not investing in this product. mine sits near my TV disconnected and collecting dust, but sling box still has my money.

 

[J4B3]

Does anyone know if this firmware update will be pushed out "automagically?" I have a Sling SOLO and not seeing any update as of yet.

 

[avanpelt]

If only they would address the issues of near constant freezing and stuttering of video with the iOS apps. It's gotten to the point where I have to use the iOS apps in "SQ" (standard quality) exclusively.

I have a Slingbox at a location with a 5 Mbps upstream connection. I'm at a location with 100 Mbps downstream throughput. I can watch the Slingbox all day in the web browser on my laptop in HQ (high quality) and not get a single stutter or freeze. If I launch the SlingPlayer app in HQ on my iPhone or iPad, I'll be lucky if I make it two minutes before the video freezes or stutters. And this is while connected to the same Wi-Fi connection that my laptop is connected to.

Also, the iOS apps completely lose the connection with the Slingbox usually about once an hour. That also never happens when watching in the browser on my laptop. Since they're charging $29.99 each, they really need to do a much better job with their iPhone and iPad apps.

I've given up trying to get support from the company because they want $30 upfront to talk to a person about the iOS apps on the phone even before they've done anything to help. No thanks. It's clear that they've structured their company so that all the attention is paid to marketing and sales and there is no attention paid to service after the sale.

 

[chiefsilverback]

Seems like a nice way to get your cable content to multiple locations in the house that are ATV enabled without renting extra cable boxes each time.

 

[zhenya]

Looking forward to seeing how this improves the experience. We've been using the apps and Airplay for years to watch tv on other sets from a single cable box, but you've never been able to background the app. Hopefully this works well.

 

[tivoboy]

works great

I've been trying this out a bit and the quality if really awesome. I thought it was going to be slow, laggy or pixleated, but streaming from my house with a 10MB pipe (I have it using a solid 2MB) streaming inbound to a DSL connection (2.5mb cap) and then airplay over the same router, the quality to the TV is very very good indeed and the sound is solid too.

 

[joelshooty]

I've been trying this out a bit and the quality if really awesome. I thought it was going to be slow, laggy or pixleated, but streaming from my house with a 10MB pipe (I have it using a solid 2MB) streaming inbound to a DSL connection (2.5mb cap) and then airplay over the same router, the quality to the TV is very very good indeed and the sound is solid too.

Can you explain your setup?

Slingbox model?
ATV2 or 3?
iPhone or iPad app?

I've found that the video quality from my iPhone 4S (and my wife's iPhone 5) to ATV3 isn't that great. And that's with both the Slingbox 350 and ATV3 hardwired to my LAN.

 

[zhenya]

Can you explain your setup?

Slingbox model?
ATV2 or 3?
iPhone or iPad app?

I've found that the video quality from my iPhone 4S (and my wife's iPhone 5) to ATV3 isn't that great. And that's with both the Slingbox 350 and ATV3 hardwired to my LAN.

I've been going from a Slingbox 350 to ATV2's and 3's for a couple of years or so now via iPhones and iPads (an iPad 1 being the most common device) and the quality has been generally excellent - 8Mbps stream which is fully maxed out, mostly over wifi. It should get even better now that the Slingbox will be able to talk directly to the ATV rather than having to use the iDevice as the intermediary.

Note that before, even if your Slingbox and ATV were hard-wired, you were still involving the iDevice, so if you have wireless issues, that's probably the problem. This update should solve them for you.

 

[bozzykid]

The article is only half true. There was a firmware update to the Slingbox 500. But Sling has not updated the iOS app to change the way it does Airplay.

 

[tivoboy]

Can you explain your setup?

Slingbox model?
ATV2 or 3?
iPhone or iPad app?

I've found that the video quality from my iPhone 4S (and my wife's iPhone 5) to ATV3 isn't that great. And that's with both the Slingbox 350 and ATV3 hardwired to my LAN.

I'm using the SB 500 (the bigger one, with wifi and HDMI although I use component for the slingstream)
I have an older ATV, probably a ATV2, so not the latest 1080p version (okay, maybe it is 1080p, but I've had it a FEW years)

I have mostly done streaming from the ipad app, and I think there was just an update to that too?

That's all there is. I think the stream kbps were between 1500-1800kbs, it's streaming the HD resolution, but of course not the HD quality or bandwidth, but there was very limited macroblocking and the fps had to be close to 30 fps it not higher?

 

[BruiserB]

I don't really understand what's different here? I have a SB350 and could already airplay to my AppleTV. I still can't do it in the background. My firmware on the SlingBox seems to be the updated version. Are there app updates that just haven't hit yet? They shouldn't have released this news without the update being available....I'm just confused right now.

 

[zhenya]

Me too but that's kind of par for the course for Sling. I'd expect an app update soon.

 

[cardsdoc]

I don't really understand what's different here? I have a SB350 and could already airplay to my AppleTV. I still can't do it in the background. My firmware on the SlingBox seems to be the updated version. Are there app updates that just haven't hit yet? They shouldn't have released this news without the update being available....I'm just confused right now.

Same here. No difference in functionality on my 350. There had been an update several months ago that made airplay much better without needing to use mirroring but no background airplay. Looks like there was an app update today but nothing mentioned about airplay. I'll check it out when I get home.

 

[Harryhh]

Hi guys

I have the sling 350. Looking to get high definition picture on my smart tv.

Would the ios app offer this to Apple TV with full handover / background running?

Alternative is to go for wd live or similar which I know will deliver 1080p.


Thanks

 

[zhenya]

The iOS app does now work in the background, and the picture is technically HD but the experience will be highly dependent on your local network conditions. What are you trying to accomplish?