slingbox is being discontinued, any viable alternatives?

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I take that back. Setup a new Surface Book 2 and their "new" web player has non-stop flickering. I dont have flickering on my phone or the old embedded web player. I tried older versions of the sling software for PC but it asks for a password and I think that won't work if the 350 is tied to a sling log-in. Wish they kept a functioning PC version but the old embedded web version is better than nothing.

 

I don't have newer sling stuff so might not be accurately looking at your situation.

On my older slingbox pro, the sling login is basically for the players to look up the IP address and password for a sling identifier. The box itself still has a local password. On my very old PC software that doesn't require sling login, I can just enter the IP address manually, then enter the password I had set up locally. On mobile software, I need to give it my sling login at which point it'll populate all the sling identifier nicknames, IP addresses, and optionally stored local passwords. It might be different on newer boxes than the slingbox pro. So I have both a sling login account password, and in the directory for each slingbox, it optionally stores the local password for that unit. I'm thinking you can use that local password with the PC software.

I am actually still using the 1.5 slingplayer (from way back before they had sling accounts) on windows 10 and it works ok. There is slight .5 sec audio delay, but nothing super bothersome.

 

I have found performance varies by browser. I get the best performance from mozilla firefox surprisingly. Might want to try a different browser and see if it gets better. Also, mess with the quality settings.

 

It's official. Slingbox servers have an end date.

https://www.slingbox.com/discontinued

Q: How long will my Slingbox continue to work?
A: Slingbox servers will be permanently taken offline 24 months after the discontinued announcement date (November 9, 2020), at which point ALL Slingbox devices and services will become inoperable.

Until then, most Slingbox models will continue to work normally, but the number of supported devices for viewing will steadily decrease as versions of the SlingPlayer apps become outdated and/or lose compatibility.

See SOFTWARE & APPS section below for additional details.​

 

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Very sad as I actually used my one slingbox classic hooked up to a cheap analog camera, and would use it as free real-time security monitoring (well with whatever lag is introduced due to the sling hardware encoding).

My Slingbox 500 however is still hooked up to my tivo mini. But since I subscribed to AT&T TV Now about 2 years back, I hardly use the slingbox. It was always a nice backup for when AT&T messed up a channel (like the YES network not showing the local NYC feed ...the region where I live).

 

Oh well... I was planning on doing some cost recovery and selling my Slingbox on eBay... But this announcement pretty much drops the resale value to close to nothing (not that it was much higher than that before the announcement)!

I guess I could list it and see if I get any bites from people who don't know any better, but I just don't feel right doing that to someone... Do unto others...right?

Anyway...end of a legacy... Slingbox was a great place shifting technology that just no longer has a place in today's environment... Or at least not a mainstream one...

 

Any good alternative to Slingbox? I use it with KMTTG for transfers, since every single non-air channel is flagged by Spectrum (bastards) as non-transferable.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

Does anyone know of a viable replacement that will work the same way? I use mine to watch my Tivo on my PC and, I still can use my remote to control it since i don't have to be line of sight... so i dont have to be reaching for my mouse. I also like watching programs 30% faster and Tivo does not allow that with their app currently.

 

I remember "vulkano flow" was a competitor to the slingbox a few years ago, but googling seems to reveal that Slingbox sued them out of existence?

 

the software and hardware have been pretty much unsupported the past few years. a few months ago, i was looking into the ddns option that slingboxes have, so it wouldnt matter about the slingbox servers being taken down. once in a while those servers would be down and wouldnt be able to connect to my slingbox. with a deadline set, i now i have incentive/motivation to try it. has anyone done this successfully?

https://www.slingbox.com/help/KB/KB-1000138
https://www.slingbox.com/help/KB/KB-1000328
https://www.slingbox.com/help/KB/KB-1000224

 

I switched to Slingbox because their previous competitor shut down their servers. So, for me, it is "here we go again".

Personally, I don't know why they even need servers. All the server do, is serve (a pun?) as a way to connect the App to the Box. If the App allowed us to enter our Slingbox's IP address directly, the servers would become unnecessary.

I wish they do just that. Release one last App update, and add a way to enter (in Setup) our Slingbox's IP. Yes, if our home's non-static IP address changes over time, we'll have to update the App's Setup, but that is far better than it stop working all together.

 

For me, it was Belkin's @TV. Though, Belkin kept their @TV servers running until the last possible moment (I think toward the very end, someone was running these servers from their basement).

 

Are they being intentionally funny here?

Q: Why is Slingbox being discontinued?
A: We’ve had to make room for new innovative products so that we can continue to serve our customers in the best way possible.
Q: Will Slingbox be releasing any new products?
A: No.​

 

WOW!! I forgot about Vulkano. I have one of those gathering dust in my closet along with a Slingbox. I'll need to fire up my Slingbox one day to see if it still works. I used to have a TiVo mini dedicated to it. But now if I were going to watch something remotely I would just use the built in capabilities of my Bolts or use the TiVo Steam with my ROamio TiVos. And watch using the TiVo app or a web browser.

 

That is fine if all you want to watch are OTA channels. But most cable companies today enable the protected flag on all other channels preventing you from downloading or streaming non-OTA channels off your home network. That was my reasoning for getting the Slingbox. I guess I still have 2 more years until I own another paperweight.

 

On FiOS, the vast majority of cable channels are not blocked. It's still only the previously owned Fox channels and HBO/Cinemax.

 

When I had a Slingbox pro, I skipped their servers and connected directly to my Slingbox at home. Worked fine. Not sure if the newer ones have changed where you can't do this.

Streaming and remote access to almost any service killed Slingbox. But even old, it probably worked better than TiVo's remote access.

 

I didn't see the e-mail, but it might be in my spam folder. I have both a Slingbox PRO HD and Slingbox 500. If I recall correctly, I bought both of them at fairly reasonable prices. I can't say that any of this is unexpected. There should be some people that are able to make this work without Slingboxes help.

I have other ways to view the content for the most part. The thing that I will miss the most is the ability to select Audio Only mode. That allows me to listen to certain things when I don't need to see the video. That also means less demand on the smartphone battery and data plan.

 

Yes that is my question. They are saying the servers will be shutdown and all devices will be inoperable, but if we're using the device locally only for in-home streaming I assume it would still work as long as the hardware functions?