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Slingbox Discontinued Announcement and FAQ
- thrownaway954 6y agocouldn't see that one coming /s honestly... how was this even a thing? i never got the appeal or the concept to wanting to watch my own TV from a device. i mean... do people actually miss their local programming that much when they are away?
- stinkytaco 6y agoYes? It was a fairly recent development that all sports leagues had games online, and even then it requires a fairly steep fee. Perhaps you want to watch local news or are used to seeing a program at a certain time. There's nothing wrong with the service, per se, but the fact that it leans on outside servers does set it up for this problem.
- sokoloff 6y agoIt's somewhat common for ex-pats to have one of these devices hosted in their home country (at one of their places or at a friends) to watch some of the local programming (typically sports as most everything else can be found fairly easily online).
- listenallyall 6y agoExactly, for an expat the Slingbox was perfect (well, the idea was, the actual thing was buggy, but...). You had full control of the cable box, so you could still record shows, timeshift, watch on demand, etc. Plus it only cost about $100 with no monthly fees so it was better deal than "renting" multiple TV series.
- rblatz 6y agoI have an HD Homerun and Plex. I've used this setup numerous times to stream college football games that were broadcast OTA when I was away from home for one reason or another.
- papa2034 6y agoMany people have one in their home country to watch program you can’t find locally.
- compsciphd 6y agoJust my 2 cents on this as a long time slingbox user. There was no need for it to be this way. They could make each device work without needing their servers, but they won't. Their customer service has for the longest time been antagonistic to their customers.
- jaywalk 6y agoSure, in theory they could do that. But it would probably be a lot of work for literally zero payoff.
- floatingatoll 6y agoIt seems like Slingbox doesn't have a NAT-proof solution, and has been using their servers as reflectors, which suggests there's an ongoing opex cost for the bandwidth and maintenance that isn't sustainable. If they'd charged a subscription fee they might have more incentive to run the servers. Too bad their focus was on "no monthly fees"! Dish also might have an upcoming/future motive to get Slingbox users to replace it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25038249 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25038249
- imroot 6y agoThe original slingboxes (Circa 2008/2009) ran locally, and could be exposed on your networks if you did the setup. In 2013/2014, they changed the way that it was handled. I have 4 Slingboxes -- one in Miami, one in Kentucky, one in Cincinnati, and one as a "backup," -- and am really kinda bummed by this decision.
- tinus_hn 6y agoDid I just correctly hear you describe a patented innovation by VirNetX? Careful with that, Apple just paid half a billion dollar for it.
- akersten 6y agoWhile I'm confident your reply is tongue-in-cheek, it's a sad indictment of the patent system that a half-billion-dollar "innovation" can be infringed by a few nebulous sentences on a technical forum.
- Simulacra 6y agoIt really did go on for a lot longer than it should have. Perhaps from its ashes a more reputable, better functioning service can arise.
- chrismeller 6y agoAs someone else pointed out, they’re owned by Dish, so I think “reputable” and “better functioning” are probably out the window.
- TMWNN 6y agoFrom the FAQ: >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. Certainly a refreshing combination of sarcasm and bitterness.
- reaperducer 6y agoSlingbox is owned by Sling. Sling is owned by Echostar, which is also Dish Network. Dish Network is getting into the 5G game in a big way. Since Echostar already uses the Sling technology in its set-top-boxes, I wouldn't be surprised to eventually see a 5G streaming service from Dish that is all Sling-based.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- sumtechguy 6y agoso who are they reselling? verizon, at&t or t-mobile?
- joezydeco 6y agoThey're getting the scraps from the T-Mobile/Sprint merger. http://interactive.satellitetoday.com/via/october-2019/the-dish-on-ergens-5g-masterstroke/ http://interactive.satellitetoday.com/via/october-2019/the-d...
- AdmiralAsshat 6y agoIt got a hardy chuckle out of me, so, mission accomplished I suppose.
- josephcsible 6y ago> 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. This needs to become illegal. We need a law that requires companies who want to turn off required servers for products they've sold to either offer a 100% refund to everyone who's ever bought them, or fully open-source them so the community can make them work without the server.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- RankingMember 6y agoI think the open-sourcing is probably more feasible, as some companies that discontinue services do so because they're shutting down and, thus, may not have cash to offer mass refunds.
- ProAm 6y agoopen sourcing it is anti-SaaS, you cant get that MRR if you support on prem. Slingbox is in a fight for it's existence.
- protomyth 6y agoProbably, but give the company either option. They might be bought by someone bigger who would rather refund the cash.
- robbyt 6y agoI agree, but this might be impossible for companies that license various closed-source software from other companies. For example, slingbox may have licensed various hardware drivers, and don't have the right to distribute their source code. I don't know what the right answer is, but I'm not sure "open source everything" is the right one in this case.
- akersten 6y ago
- kubatyszko 6y agoWell, that's what happens with ponzi-scheme-like devices. They rely on new sales to sustain their business and I guess the funds are running out... This and probably all the other aspects of Dish ownership etc. I know there's a similar device made by Sony, but I recall that you had to be on the same network to actually use it (this may be solvable). Maybe it's time to make an alternative device. I know there's a way to capture HDMI video on a raspberryPi, hopefully with decent frame rate.
- MrBuddyCasino 6y ago> this may be solvable Tailscale?
- DenseComet 6y agoIf you have an HDHomeRun (or another supported tuner), you can attach an antenna and connect it to a Plex server. Jellyfin also has a live TV feature and is completely open source, but I'm not sure of the state of their apps. Plex and Jellyfin support streaming from anywhere as part of their core offering, and live on your own hardware, and seem like an all around better option.
- akersten 6y ago> Q: What will happen to my data? > A: Customer data will be handled in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations. So, in other words, sold to the highest bidder in every jurisdiction where possible. What an awful non-answer.
- beervirus 6y agoIn other words, if we could exploit you even more, we would. But it's against the law. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtjTRTKHDjg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtjTRTKHDjg
- 1024core 6y agoIs there some open hardware + OSS combination that will let me do what Slingbox did?
- detaro 6y agoopen hardware probably not, but the HTPC-community has all the components for this.
- dastx 6y agoRaspberry pi not open enough for you? I guess the tv tuner likely wouldn't open but outside that it can all be open.
- edoceo 6y agoHDMI into Raspberry Pi, Wireguard, xBMC?
- gh02t 6y agoYeah, stuff like Tvheadend and MythTV have been around since forever (MythTV came about the same year as Slingbox started development). Just need a basic whitebox computer with a TV tuner/capture card to host, though last I looked into it (which was years ago to be fair) it was still a bit complicated to set up. I always wanted to set one up back in the day but never did as I don't watch much broadcast TV. I remember a friend of mine showing me his setup and thinking it was cool as heck to be able to stream all around his house or even remotely while he was on the go. Though this predated high bandwidth cellular data so "remote" meant "on a laptop over wifi."
- patrickk 6y agohttps://blog.parsecgaming.com/a-slingbox-on-steroids-streaming-your-entire-home-theater-anywhere-in-real-time-c3de6e600fa5 https://blog.parsecgaming.com/a-slingbox-on-steroids-streami...
- gnicholas 6y ago> 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. That makes it sound like they have other products that are replacing this. Is that the case, or is this a case of extreme euphemism?
- syspec 6y agoQ: 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.
- rchaud 6y agoHardware products available at retailers? No. Data products available to all and sundry? Step right this way.
- ashtonkem 6y agoAlmost beyond parody at this point.
- drewzero1 6y agoThey didn't say whose new products they were making room for. Maybe the best way to serve their customers is to have them buy from a more innovative competitor. :-)
- draw_down 6y agoIncredible. Majestic.
- varenc 6y agoSlingbox is owned by Dish Networks. So I assume they're just discontinuing the Slingbox brand and those "new innovative products" will be released by Dish.
- beerandt 6y agoCheck out what happened to replaytv (bought by directv) and sagetv (bought by google) if you want to be disheartened. Although at least sagetv was eventually open-sourced.
- technofiend 6y agoEven Microsoft bowed out by discontinuing what was arguably then the best product in that segment: Windows Media Center Edition.
- cmckn 6y agoWeird timing, I saw Slingbox ads constantly last week while streaming CNN. I never quite saw the appeal of this product, but I also haven't had a cable subscription in about 10 years.
- balozi 6y agoJust think of all those now obsolete Slingboxes in homes and warehouses. Mass-produced products such as this really should be treated similar to industrial waste.
- papa2034 6y agoI have one in Japan connected to a DVR to watch their local programming. I know many people who does this and this is a big deal for us. Is there an alternative product that does the same thing?
- uslic001 6y agoI have two Slingboxes. The original one and the last one. This bums me out as I use it to access channels that are not accessible via other means. At least I have some time to find a replacement.