SlingPlayer for Mac Public Beta Review (Page 2 of 9)

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by NA9D October 30, 2006 10:25 PM

Categories: Mac

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Installation

As with any beta software one downloads from Sling Media, you must have registered your Slingbox prior to downloading. A registered e-mail address is required, and you have to agree to the terms of the beta. Once done, the program downloads as a zip file. After being unzipped, a disk image file is mounted to your desktop and the standard Mac installer runs.

Two files end up in your root Applications folder: SlingPlayer and the Slingbox Setup Assistant. One may wonder if the installer should have put both the assistant and the player in a folder inside the Applications folder. If a user ends up doing this, the uninstaller will not work, and there may be some other functionality that breaks. I’m not particularly fond of having the main application and the setup assistant in the Application folder, but I’m not 100% certain where or how the file structure should be arranged. Feedback to Sling Media on this by the public beta users would certainly be valuable.

Any time you want to change configuration of your Slingbox, the Setup Assitant will run. The Setup Assistant can be launched directly from the Finder or from within the SlingPlayer. Not having to run the SlingPlayer to configure your Slingbox is a nice "Mac-only" feature.

The Slingbox Setup Assistant works much like the Windows Setup Wizard, except it has a Mac feel and look to it. Starting the Assistant from the Finder takes you through the configuration process from the very beginning. Launching it from within SlingPlayer takes you to the appropriate point within the assistant that you want to re-configure.

After the welcome screen, the very first screen you are presented with is the option of checking for updated software (firmware and client). The download for the client contains the latest firmware for all Slingboxes, and firmware can be updated using the assistant, but (at present) only when launched from within SlingPlayer.

I’m not going to delve into any more detail on the setup assistant, as it’s functionality and controls are similar to those in the Windows setup wizard.