'SlingPlayer Mobile for iPad' Now Available in App Store

[Chupa Chupa]

I travel A LOT and I haven't found a city that I can't catch whatever American sporting event I want.

Yes, but you don't want to/can't always run down to the local sports bar. Baseball is 162 games/season. Basketball and hockey 82. Football 16.

But the bottom line here for all the neg posters is that just b/c Sling isn't useful to you doesn't mean its not useful. $30 extra is annoying, selling apps per each device is pretty much the way Sling is advertised so it's not like Sling is misleading anyone. And $30 amortized over the course of the time you'll actually use the app its not really all that expensive, especially when you consider the cost, for example, of a single season MLB or Sunday Ticket sub.

 

[jbellanca]

For people planning on watching it at hotels, just know that most hotels wifi speeds are pretty bad. I've used wifi at about 6-7 hotels and the best D/L speeds I ever got were 1.5MBit with the average being about .6-.7 MBit. I always get better 3G d/l speeds than hotel wifi.

Just an FYI before you purchase.

Agreed, love my Slingbox but hotel internet usually is way to slow in the US. My 3G service usually works significantly better, usually enough for HD even.

 

[wovel]

Wifi only is a neat concept, but the issue here is many hotels block the ports for Sling. This leaves 3G only. Very frustrating. Plus the speed of many hotel networks makes watching Sling (if ports aren't blocked) impossible.

Anyhow, I will never cancel my unlimited data plan for this very reason.

I have two sling boxes and have never had a problem with a hotel locking the ports, of course neither of mine are on the default port and if they did block them I would just watch through ssh or vpn tunnel to house. Biggest problems with hotel Internet today is many (most? maybe all...) hotels have unusable Internet service from 5:00pm to Midnight, I assume this is because of the popularity of streaming porn sites.

Agreed, love my Slingbox but hotel internet usually is way to slow in the US. My 3G service usually works significantly better, usually enough for HD even.

It is not so much a "speed" problem with the hotel as it is a the connection dropping constantly. .6/.7 mbps is way more than enough for a great slingbox picture. All the youporn viewers are overloading their connection and you are completely losing it once every few minutes, that is making it bad.

What about NetFlix for people not using a US-based IP address?

Worked great through my Works and Personal VPNs over the weekend. If you are not actually from the US, Netflix does not offer service to you atm. If you are using a slingbox from a US source, you obviously know someone who could about as easily run a VPN for you (on a WRTG-54) as they can a slingbox..

 

[uspeed]

I owned a Slingbox SOLO but $30 for just a player is TOO expensive and it is not a universal application. Already bought the hardware but still need to pay such high price for it. Need to spend $60 for both iPhone and iPad version are not worth at all. I think more people will buy if selling cheaper.....

 

[dmk1974]

Well that sucks! I have the older Slingbox AV which works fine with my iPhone4 and $30 app that I already bought. But if I want to stream to my iPad, I need to buy ANOTHER $30 app AND a new Slingplayer? What he hell???

What's the cheapest place to buy a SOLO or HD slingplayer? Amazon?

 

[acidfast7]

Worked great through my Works and Personal VPNs over the weekend. If you are not actually from the US, Netflix does not offer service to you atm. If you are using a slingbox from a US source, you obviously know someone who could about as easily run a VPN for you (on a WRTG-54) as they can a slingbox..

I live abroad but keep a US credit card just for these reasons. Also, the songs / rentals are cheaper on the US version of the store (when compared to Sweden and Germany).

 

[DELLsFan]

They really need to make a "lite" version of this app available. The video quality on the iPhone version is so sub-par, that I never would have paid $30 for the app in the first place had I known. No way I'm paying yet another $30. Hell, I already gave them $300 for the hardware in the first place. Bah!

Yeah ... I was looking at the hardware requirements and pricing! ... I think I can live without this convenience ...

 

[dfielder]

Has anyone tried on an unsupported Slingbox?

it clearly says on their site that it wont work on older models - but - did the f/w update on my slingbox HD and it works like a charm.

So you have a Slingbox-HD but not a Slingbox Pro-HD. Is that right? I don't remember the HD.

I've got a red Slingbox Pro and don't feel like throwing $250 down the toilet if the Pro could possibly work. Has anyone tried it?

If I do have to upgrade from the Pro to the Pro-HD, will I see any improvements in picture quality on the iPhone version? I read that the Pro-HD handles encoding differently than previous versions. Could that result in better quality? Right now, the iPhone version is absolutely horrible even on my in-home wi-fi network.

Thanks!

 

[MacPioneer]

So you have a Slingbox-HD but not a Slingbox Pro-HD. Is that right? I don't remember the HD.

I've got a red Slingbox Pro and don't feel like throwing $250 down the toilet if the Pro could possibly work. Has anyone tried it?

If I do have to upgrade from the Pro to the Pro-HD, will I see any improvements in picture quality on the iPhone version? I read that the Pro-HD handles encoding differently than previous versions. Could that result in better quality? Right now, the iPhone version is absolutely horrible even on my in-home wi-fi network.

Thanks!

I just tried it - it shows both of my SlingBoxes, but when I try to connect to the older one (Pro HD, I think - it's red) it pops up an alert saying it's not compatible. Works great on the newer one, though.

 

[3goldens]

It appears that the folks at Sling don't like negative comments about their pricing for the iPad program as threads seem to disappear very quickly according to reports I have received.

That's kinda what I would expect from a business like that anyway!

 

[skeep5]

need larger data plan!

 

[frankly]

I just did the same thing. My brother asked for a Slingbox for his birthday this week. After looking at all the prices I would have to pay just for the mobile apps for our different devices I saw the Monsoon Vulkano and decided that was the best route for him. $30 per mobile app becomes ridiculous esp when you have several devices in the house. I would be paying more for the apps than the device itself.

NY Times review of the Vulkano by David Pogue. That alone would make me avoid it like the plague.

I started a thread this morning over on the boards at Sling Media complaining about the fact that there is no upgrade for those of us that shelled out $30 for the iPhone version to use on our iPads. (Not to mention the $30 I shelled out for the Android version, or the $300 I shelled out for the box). A ton of people posted, all in agreement. The thread was subsequently shut down and hidden by Sling. I guess they think if they ignore the complaints, they'll go away. Great way to make happy customers...not!

How would you upgrade through the iTunes App store? Apple does not provide a means to do this.

I owned a Slingbox SOLO but $30 for just a player is TOO expensive and it is not a universal application. Already bought the hardware but still need to pay such high price for it. Need to spend $60 for both iPhone and iPad version are not worth at all. I think more people will buy if selling cheaper.....

So don't buy both.

 

[NogbadTheBad]

NY Times review of the Vulkano by David Pogue. That alone would make me avoid it like the plague.

That review is dated Sept 15th, there have been firmware & software updates since then.

Some of the issues he reports are valid, like the port forwarding, but upnp is supported, you still have to port forward the Slingbox.

The Vulkano has WiFi, the Slingbox doesn't

EPG is US only at the moment.

 

[frankly]

That review is dated Sept 15th, there have been firmware & software updates since then.

Some of the issues he reports are valid, like the port forwarding, but upnp is supported, you still have to port forward the Slingbox.

The Vulkano has WiFi, the Slingbox doesn't

EPG is US only at the moment.

Yes, and the main point of the review is that this company was begging him to review it even though it was far from ready for prime time. Doesn't speak to a reliable company that you can count on to deliver a quality product.

 

[sinsin07]

Yes, and the main point of the review is that this company was begging him to review it even though it was far from ready for prime time. Doesn't speak to a reliable company that you can count on to deliver a quality product.

Thanks for posting the review. Forgot to do my due diligence, was about to drop the bomb on this, but not now. To the other poster, good luck with your vulkano, hope it does not errupt.

 

[psxndc]

Also, do you even know what Hauppauge solution im referring to or are you just making things up trying to look smart?
....
All you ended up doing in your post was proving my original point: Slingboxes are targeted at complete morons.

My cable company does not broadcast its signals using clear QAM, so Hauppauge's tuners are useless to me. And cablecard tuners are about $400. So please tell me how I am supposed to build a non-slingbox solution for less than a slingbox price.

 

[Sigma4Life]

Ah, he works at the Department of State; this explains the finely-honed diplomatic skills.

Also explains why he can't afford a slingbox.

 

[PittAir]

*facepalm*. The next time you try to be a smartass, make sure you actually know what the word irony means. You clearly have no idea.





You obviously have absolutely no idea what your talking about.

I've worked for the Department of State for the past 20 years. I travel more in one month than you have in your entire life.

Orb Live has never, ever skipped a beat for me. Oh yeah, did I mention I have satellite? Capture Card + included IR blaster = all the functionality of Sling with a fraction of the cost. Oh yeah, I can also stream music, videos and photos. Can your Slingbox do that?


It's not difficult at all to hook up. I almost died laughing at your post, "rewire"? The wires are color coded. The software comes with great documentation.

Also, do you even know what Hauppauge solution im referring to or are you just making things up trying to look smart? What's the name of their Live TV streaming software? When I had cable, it worked great.


All you ended up doing in your post was proving my original point: Slingboxes are targeted at complete morons.

Exactly what do you for State? 20 years, huh? That would put you in as a Bush appointee (or a hire by a Bush appointee), if I'm not mistaken. So you stayed on once Clinton took over in 92? Your diplomatic skills, calling everyone who buys Sling a "moron" either (1) expose you as a liar (most likely), or (2) confirms most people's intuition of the type of person our State Department is filled with. I prefer the first, since I tend to be an optimist about our government, despite lots of evidence to the contrary.

macsrcool1234 seems to be a great handle for someone with so much experience in life and in work.

Please. My guess is that you are no older than 16-17 (maybe 18 if we push it). So you hate Sling. OK. I don't really care, and shouldn't be feeding idiot trolls.

By the way, like you said in the above post, your capture card needs to be hooked up to a computer for orb to work (as it does for Hauppauge as well). This means that your satellite box needs to be close to the capture card, correct? So how exactly do you wire your box to the card if they reside in different rooms of your home?

I'm done feeding trolls. Go back to Mommy's basement now.

 

[3goldens]

Exactly what do you for State? 20 years, huh? That would put you in as a Bush appointee (or a hire by a Bush appointee), if I'm not mistaken. So you stayed on once Clinton took over in 92? Your diplomatic skills, calling everyone who buys Sling a "moron" either (1) expose you as a liar (most likely), or (2) confirms most people's intuition of the type of person our State Department is filled with. I prefer the first, since I tend to be an optimist about our government, despite lots of evidence to the contrary.

macsrcool1234 seems to be a great handle for someone with so much experience in life and in work.

Please. My guess is that you are no older than 16-17 (maybe 18 if we push it). So you hate Sling. OK. I don't really care, and shouldn't be feeding idiot trolls.

By the way, like you said in the above post, your capture card needs to be hooked up to a computer for orb to work (as it does for Hauppauge as well). This means that your satellite box needs to be close to the capture card, correct? So how exactly do you wire your box to the card if they reside in different rooms of your home?

I'm done feeding trolls. Go back to Mommy's basement now.

Not sure how any of this is relevant to the discussion or what the point of the response is?

 

[PittAir]

Not sure how any of this is relevant to the discussion or what the point of the response is?

Being called a moron not once, but twice, by the respondent. However, I will not feed trolls again.

 

[BC2009]

What would you like to connect that there are not enough inputs for?

I'd like to connect my Dish Network receiver, my Apple TV and my DVD Jukebox to it via a Component or HDMI input. However, Slingbox Pro HD only offers a single component input, a single composite input, and an antenna input -- and NO HDMI input.

So with the Slingbox Pro HD -- I can get one good input, one degraded input (my DVD player does not output widescreen to composite inputs unless I put it in letterbox mode -- which is not what I use for my television), and then I get an OTA antenna input which I can hook my OTA coaxial cable to.

So if I want quality inputs with no fuss on all 3 of my devices, I would need 3 Slingbox Pro HD's. For $300, Slingbox Pro HD should have 3 HDMI input and one OTA coaxial input.

At the very least I would need two of these $300 units -- and for that price, its a non-starter.