Slingbox 500 / SlingTV

Deal Chatter Daily Deal
21

How do you watch its content on a Roku device? Is there a free Slingbox app on my Roku device, or do I have to buy it?

Beware, the iphone app is $15.
How many other hidden fees are there?

22

No support for coax/ota? Boo

23

There is a free Roku Channel. After reading further, it requires an app on a phone to work. Confusing.

https://www.roku.com/channels#!details/27966/slingplayer-for-roku

24

That is if you want to use the Roku to watch what is on your Slingbox. You can control a Roku with a Slingbox and “sling” whatever your Roku is watching. No additional app needed for that.

25

The Sling 500 was intially renamed SlingTV. But then they came out with Sling TV… so they are reverting to the Sling 500 name. Both entities are owned by Dish…

26

To the Sling marketing dweebs: you might sell more if you showed a GOOD football team on the tube. My Redskins are beyond repair, not even the NFL factory can recondition them.

27

My cable provider offers most channels through the web. Sling is outdated and clunky in today’s webified world.

And no bluetooth “blaster” capability? Probably not gonna work for me. YMMV

28

If I want to use my parents’ cable service (in Kansas) as my own source of cable tv (in DC), is this the device for me? And can someone confirm that I can remotely change the channel?

I’m mainly interested in being able to watch my sports teams out of market. I also don’t want to pay for cable. My parents have a cable box they barely use, so my understanding is that this device is exactly what I need.

29

When you have a product that a has a hard time standing out in a crowd of competitors You give it a weird design. Hoping the customer will not look at the specs to close. Rather they will focus on the outside package.

30

Yes this will do that. It helps if they have good upload speeds

31

Not a fan of the cabinet design. You can’t stack gear on top of that…

32

IF you do NOT use a cable box (there are still a few places that haven’t transitioned to the rental cable boxes/cable cards) but just screw the coax into the back of your TV, you can get an older Slingbox that will let you watch any available channel, not just those that are tuned and being watched on your TV. Some of the older Slingboxes have a built-in tuner for just this type of use. But not with this currently offered Slingbox 500.

33

Seriously. Can I please buy something that won’t fit normally into a cabinet, and I can’t put anything on top of?

This looks like something designed by the Poochie focus group, only more pro-active.

34

Sorry for the delayed reply. Buyer confirmed, cables are all included.

35

Thank you for checking,appreciate the follow-up!

36

Incorrect; From the Sling Media Wikipedia page:

Sling’s technology is currently embedded in the following products:

[list][]Dish Network Sling Adapter for ViP 722, ViP 722k and XiP 813 (Hopper) set top boxes. Also known as the Slingbox 700U.
[]Dish Network XiP 913 (Hopper with Sling) set top box
[]Dish Network ViP 922
[]Dish Anywhere
[*]ARRIS MS4000
[/list]
Also note: Per Wikipedia, Sling Media is owned by EchoStar, which also used to own Dish Media before it was spun off in 2008. See the following page for more details:

37

Yeah, deal breaker for me too. Tell me what this does for me that I already don’t get with my Xfinity TV and it’s apps?

38

Sometimes form doesn’t give a crud about function…apparently.

39

I used my original Sling to watch/clear stuff on my DVR when on the road. Apparently, Xfinity now lets you watch your DVR remotely, but I’d guess that most providers still don’t have that capability. I loved my Sling for that purpose, as I would often run out of space on my DVR when on long work trips.

40

I have used Slingbox Pro-HD (old version of this high-poly box) with the formerly available Slingcatcher for years. And can say the following:

  • When it works, its an awesome product
  • Proper setup and port forwarding are key, but no matter what it will occasionally lockup and need to be manually restarted (unplugged). …so if you’re away and no one is around your home setup, your rig will essentially be bricked until you return.
  • The old Slingcatcher was a rock-solid way to remotely view on a TV. I don’t get why they stopped selling a physical device to do so (now requires a streaming box & mobile app)
  • The iOS app sucks! Its $15 and not iOS universal, so that’ll be $30 if you want both iPhone & iPad capability.
  • App update cycles are slow and fixing bugs seems to be a low priority at SlingMedia…doubly confusing since the app is such a bottleneck to actually using the device.
  • Many good features, in theory, but its terribly laggy. Sometimes so much so that interaction with cablebox can be almost impossible.
  • Airplay implementation has always been buggy and they outright gave up trying to make it work on older models. In other cases, it requires a convoluted initiation sequence to prevent aspect ratio problems (Their devs seem to be ok with this ‘solution’…???).
  • Their customer service is a racket. [*]Complimentary support during the warranty period (refurb: only 90 days) , after that they charge $29.99 per support incident!
  • Maybe understandable if you’re wanting a complete installation walkthrough, but even for a simple question (e.g. why doesn’t the app work?) or a power supply failure (their achilles heel)?? Its, “eff ewe, pay me.”
  • [] All that being said, see point #1…I’m setting an 11:00pm alarm to finally decide if I will pull the trigger on this deal (and I probably will).**