[goalsgo]

Slingbox users received this message yesterday:

Dear Slingbox User,

Effective November 9, 2020, Sling Media’s Slingbox products will be discontinued.

To find a list of the Slingbox models subject to this decision and for additional details, please visit www.slingbox.com/discontinued.

Sling Media will continue to support existing users who remain under warranty.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,
Slingbox Team (Sling Media, L.L.C.)

The drop dead date is 2 years from Nov. 9 2020, We hope some other product will be developed by another company in the meantime.

 

[tvmaster]

What? Has the company gone under, or are they just refusing to support legacy products...

Edit by 57 - Unnecessary Quote Removed.

 

[goalsgo]

The Company has not gone under. It will continue supporting users who have units still under the one year warranty. What is puzzling about this is they say they are looking for products to better serve their customers but they will not be developing newer Slingbox devices.

For what it's worth, my own take on this is Slingbox was purchased by Dish Network ( US satellite TV provider) a couple of years ago. They offer a service called SlingTV (nothing to do with Slingbox) that gives a limited number of streaming channels for a monthly fee. Slingbox on the other hand is free to use. For some reason, Cable TV, Satellite or Streaming services don't like to hear the word free.

So out goes Slingbox.

Edit by 57 - Unnecessary Quotes Removed.

 

[Dr.Dave]

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but the number of supported devices for viewing will steadily decrease as versions of the SlingPlayer apps become outdated and/or lose compatibility.

Some apps have already been discontinued and removed from the app stores.

 

[17671]

I got this email too. I bought the sling box a few years ago, at least I got some good use out of it before it is going kaput. I noticed the tablet apps were removed months ago, around the time the pandemic hit, and are gone from the apps store but that meant I have to use the sling box phone app on the tablet, which its not optimized for, but meh, it worked and at the time I kind of had a feeling something was up, and yup, my feeling was right

 

[mgut]

What other products can be used as a replacement for this? I guess I could get a VeCaster but those are quite pricey and a lot more complicated to use. When not Covid I travel abroad a lot and liked using this to watch my TV from home.

 

[ExDilbert]

For some reason, Cable TV, Satellite or Streaming services don't like to hear the word free.

Slingboxes are quickly becoming obsolete in a world where almost everyone just wants a free app for their phone and streaming services are becoming global. I would guess that Sling based their business model on continued income from device sales. When device sales slow that business model fails. It's too probably too late to impose a monthly fee to maintain support.

This points out the risks of purchasing hardware that depend on proprietary software, remote servers or other types of cloud services. I've already been through that with some devices. Functionality slowly diminishes as support wanes and they turn into doorstops whenever it disappears. For all it's hype, the "cloud" is just another way of restricting traditional user rights and forcing obsolescence or rents on consumers. Only the rich benefit as consumers are forced to buy or rent services and support for anything they could previously own outright.

 

[goalsgo]

Slingboxes are quickly becoming obsolete in a world where almost everyone just wants a free app for their phone and streaming services are becoming global. I would guess that Sling based their business model on continued income from device sales. When device sales slow that business model fails. It's too probably too late to impose a monthly fee to maintain support.

This points out the risks of purchasing hardware that depend on proprietary software, remote servers or other types of cloud services. I've already been through that with some devices. Functionality slowly diminishes as support wanes and they turn into doorstops whenever it disappears. For all it's hype, the "cloud" is just another way of restricting traditional user rights and forcing obsolescence or rents on consumers. Only the rich benefit as consumers are forced to buy or rent services and support for anything they could previously own outright.

I hear what you're saying but I have yet to see another product that does what Slingbox does. So as a consumer, that does not make it obsolete for me. We travel a lot and the ability to record and watch "ALL" our channels remotely for free is just awesome. We paid $70.00 5 years ago for the device. I don't see much risk here.

Any streaming service I looked into does not come close to offering what Slingbox does. What streaming app would allow me to record and watch TSN or RDS when travelling outside the country? If someone can point me in the right direction I would gladly subscribe and pay for that service.

 

[mgut]

I don't think there is a legal app that allows me to watch my own channels from outside the country and even on my own tv. The Cableco apps don't allow you to watch outside the country so geo-restrictions apply and I've also used this as a work around for Ignite as they try to force me to purchase extra boxes in my home. Instead, I use my firestick with the sling app as replacement for an additional box for a rarely used tv but allowing it to still be used in my home.

 

[17671]

This is one of the reasons I got the sling box, to watch My TV stuff when I'm away from home, and at least 2 occasions I watched when I'm in another country on vacation, picture worked perfectly.

To the people who used sling box yes its a one of a kind there is no replacement for it. To the people who make sling box, they see it differently, cable TV subscription is decreasing, and it is probably affecting their sales, plus not too many people knew what a sling box was or what it could do. Every time I was around people and showed them what it could do they were in amazement and said "why haven't I heard of that before?" ahh well, I pray something better comes out or we can do something with the hardware in the future

 

[ExDilbert]

There are other ways to accomplish something similar but not as well or as universal as a Slingbox. I considered getting one a few years ago but the cost had risen to several hundred dollars. I just wanted it to eliminate an extra TV STB so it wasn't cost effective. I tried to use a Hauppauge HD PVR to do the same thing and it worked but not well enough to use on a daily basis. Watching TV while traveling is not something I do on a regular basis. I prefer to take in the local culture if I get the opportunity to travel.

 

[mgut]

When the time comes, this is my plan B VECASTER | HDMI Video Direct Streaming to any Smart TV & Mobile
For me, it's business travel not pleasure and when on the road for long periods of time in a country they don't speak English, I want to have a comfort of home which for me is TV. Also, I'm a big sports fan and don't like missing games especially since I already pay my cable bill to watch these games!

 

[17671]

Remember, the sling box is NOT just to stream your Cable TV signal to your mobile device or tablet anywhere in the world, the Sling box can be used with Other devices too like DVD Players, Blue Ray Players, VCR's, and heck, even a Surveillance camera signal. My sling box model had 2 inputs one being Component and the other being composite. I have a simple Video camera that has composite output, I connected it to sling box and I can switch inputs remotely and "monitor" my property while I was away at the office or out at a doctors appointment or what not, but yes I know there's other ways of doing this, but I guarantee you those other ways are NOT easy and simplified and do NOT send IR commands to a Set Top box to turn it on and change / tune channels.

Does not really matter to me as I do not subscribe to conventional TV any more, I can't afford it as the middle class is shrinking, and by the way I did not pay an arm and a leg for the sling box, I chose to NOT buy the top of the line one and instead went for the mid range one with component inputs instead of HDMI, no wireless so it used ethernet only and I purchased it when it went on sale for a good price so yes you don't always have to break the bank to get nice technology, as long as your PATIENT and don't buy it when it first comes out.

 

[ExDilbert]

When the time comes, this is my plan B VECASTER | HDMI Video Direct Streaming to any Smart TV & Mobile

Nice equipment but a little too expensive for my pocketbook. I'm planning on better support from TV providers. Bell Fibe allows international streaming of recorded programming. Some IPTV services allow live streaming for ex-pats. Maybe more options will follow.

 

[goalsgo]

When the time comes, this is my plan B VECASTER | HDMI Video Direct Streaming to any Smart TV & Mobile
For me, it's business travel not pleasure and when on the road for long periods of time in a country they don't speak English, I want to have a comfort of home which for me is TV. Also, I'm a big sports fan and don't like missing games especially since I already pay my cable bill to watch these games!

@mgut I looked at this option and it sounds very interesting. I can see where it's possible to encode the video signal but how does it get on the internet so it can be retrieved remotely when not in the same location?

 

[mgut]

I believe you can stream to VLC and connect to a site. if not that, I'm sure with some research it can be figured out. I haven't looked at it too closely

 

[North_of_Calgary]

They're pivoting to only focusing on SlingTV.

Most likely (I'm guessing - I do not have official insider information) because SlingTV is subscription which means MRR (monthly recurring revenue). With the old Slingboxes (I have two) it was a one time device sale and no MRR to them, although they did try to monetize through the iOS app. Yet there was monthly customer costs for the back-end infrastructure.

So combination of a non-MRR business model plus the evolution of other streaming services and online viewing options (including directly from cable companies) which didn't all exist when then introduced the original SlingBox.

 

[ExDilbert]

There isn't much profit in one time sales of hardware unless it's a really popular item like a top selling smartphone. The Slingbox is a niche item at best. IPTV services like SlingTV aren't much cheaper than traditional cable TV or satellite. There's lots of money there if they can get subscriptions to a decent level.

 

[mgut]

Hi All,

For about a week I haven't been able to use my Slingbox. The lights are on and when I turn the TV on it shows the slingbox logo and it's like it's frozen. I've tried resetting and turning it on and off to no avail and I'm just trying to figure out how to fix it. When I try to connect online it says no connection and it's setup for WiFi.

Any thoughts?

Edit by 57 - Moved to this thread.

 

[mgut]

Just fixed this. Had to do a factory reset. I think the interruption of a software update failed and bricked the system. After I did the factory reset I did the software updates and I'm back to working properly.