Another beta I've been running that I don't have to keep secret. :-)
-MegaZone, GizmoLovers.com
Slingbox PRO-HD w/TiVo Series3, Slingbox SOLO w/TiVo Pioneer DVR-810H, SPM Treo 680, SP WinXP
(Former Sling Media Beta Program Manager.)
SlingPlayer Mobile for PocketPC / Smartphone Updated, Supports New Phones
Categories: News, Rumors and Gossip Smartphone / PocketPC
Trying to keep up with the ever changing landscape of mobile devices, Sling Media has let loose an updated version of SlingPlayer Mobile for Pocket PC and Smartphone. This isn't the major re-write of the app that Sling Media has been hinting about in certain discussions here in the community, but instead an interim update to bring some Sling goodness to the swarm of new handsets that have recently hit the market sporting never-before-seen screen resolutions like 800x480, 640x480, 400x240, and 320x320.
So which new devices should SlingPlayer Mobile now support? The list is long, but includes:
- Sprint Treo 800w (US)
- Sony Ericsson X1 (US & UK)
- Palm Treo Pro (US & UK)
- Sprint HTC Touch Diamond (US)
- Sprint HTC Touch Pro (US)
- Verizon HTC Touch Pro (US)
- Verizon Samsung Saga (US)
- Verizon Samsung Omnia (US)
- AT&T LG Incite (US & UK)
- AT&T HTC Fuze (US & UK)
- AT&T Samsung Epix (US & UK)
- HP iPAQ 910 (US & UK)
- AT&T Pantech Duo (US)
- Sprint Samsung ACE (US)
- Verizon XV6900 (US)
Beyond support for additional devices, SlingPlayer Mobile is also getting a slew of other important enhancements:
- Provided you install SlingPlayer Mobile using the .EXE file, it will once again sync Slingbox information between SlingPlayer 2.0 and SlingPlayer Mobile.
- SlingPlayer Mobile can now perform major/minor tuning, which is often seen for those tuning digital broadcast channels (5.2, 5.3, etc.).
- The new SlingPlayer Mobile also includes a roaming notification feature, which will let you know if your phone switches to roaming mode while streaming.
- Updated channel logos.
Some important things to note:
Many new devices, particulary CDMA HTC phones like the Sprint Touch Diamond, Mogul, Verizon Samsung Saga, should use the GDI rendering mode provided in the SlingPlayer options area. These devices will default to GDI on a new install, but won't turn on if upgrading from an install where this wasn't already selected. Be sure to try both rendering modes on your phone to determine which will work better for you.
If your phone uses an accelerometer to switch between portrait and landscape, you should connect in portrait mode before switching to landscape, and once connected, use the accelerometer to switch between modes. According to Sling, these devices came out too late to target them in this version, but using the guidelines above, all should be well.
Finally, devices that use a 240x400 resolutionmay have some screens display a little strangely, but video streaming should work fine.
Download the updated SlingPlayer Mobile and take it for a spin
Discuss SlingPlayer Mobile for Pocket PC/Smartphone
Read More In: News, Rumors and Gossip Smartphone / PocketPC
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December 23, 2008 11:32 PM
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December 23, 2008 11:54 PM
It doesn't look like the f480 runs Windows Mobile, so no.
-MegaZone, GizmoLovers.com
Slingbox PRO-HD w/TiVo Series3, Slingbox SOLO w/TiVo Pioneer DVR-810H, SPM Treo 680, SP WinXP
(Former Sling Media Beta Program Manager.)
December 24, 2008 8:07 AM
Hi - any chance of an update for Nokia E71 too, not a major revam, just some support for the QVGA screen??.......
December 24, 2008 11:12 AM
Will this connect to a Sky+ box here in the UK, and the Samsung Epix in the UK is the i780 with WM 6.0 (not 6.1) is that okay too?
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December 24, 2008 3:02 PM
lucozadenrg - Sorry, no news on a Symbian S60 update yet.
Stelladel - It connects to any Slingbox so I expect that would work. And SPM supports WM5 and better.
-MegaZone, GizmoLovers.com
Slingbox PRO-HD w/TiVo Series3, Slingbox SOLO w/TiVo Pioneer DVR-810H, SPM Treo 680, SP WinXP
(Former Sling Media Beta Program Manager.)
December 25, 2008 5:23 AM
I love my Slingbox but I still hate the fact there's still no full screen option for square screen devices, whereas every other media player available has the option. A zoom to fit to screen option would fill the whole screen but keep the aspect ratios correct, only loosing some of the edge of picture information.
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December 25, 2008 8:03 PM
We've considered this but rejected it. With the square screens, like 320x320, there are two ways to fill the screen vertically - stretch the image or zoom & crop.
Stretching a 4:3 image makes it 133% as tall as it should be, and frankly it doesn't look good. 16:9 would be 178% as tall, just forget it.
Zooming and cropping a 4:3 image means losing *25%* of the picture off the sides. That's actually significant and doesn't work well for viewing. 16:9 would be 44%, just not usable.
Plus either of these means having to interpolate the entire image on the device which works the device harder and eats up CPU, which will drop the frame rate and probably image quality. The maximum native stream resolution is 320x240, and on a 320x320 screen it is displayed 'as-is' with no interpolation, which provides the best frame rates and quality possible on the device.
-MegaZone, GizmoLovers.com
Slingbox PRO-HD w/TiVo Series3, Slingbox SOLO w/TiVo Pioneer DVR-810H, SPM Treo 680, SP WinXP
(Former Sling Media Beta Program Manager.)
December 26, 2008 1:15 AM
i don't get it....i updated the software tonight on my touch pro and there is no updated resolution options whatsoever
December 26, 2008 1:49 AM
Hi Megazone,
I agree that stretching the picture isn't really an option, but surely an intelligent crop & zoom is ?. You say that cropping and zooming a 4:3 picture would loose 25% of the picture information - but that's only 12.5% each side.
I know 16:9 is a thornier issue, but think about it, people routinely crop Dvd's for watching on their mobile device and are content with the results.
I really think Slingmedia should give their customers the right to make their own mind up about a fit to screen option for square screen devices, rather than just say that we can't have it. At the moment my only option for full screen slinging on my Windows Mobile Treo is to change devices - and I don't want to !.
I would be willing to pay for Slingplayer Mobile again for such functionality.
December 26, 2008 4:41 AM
updated: December 26, 2008 4:42 AM
ok - well thanks for the s60 update anyway. whilst it is always frustrating not to have your device supported, I appreciate that there have to be priorities and there is a very good range of supported devices. At least it's really good that there is a great comunity with regular informed updates. No doubt I will change my devices another 20 times this year anyway so maybe back to MSFT again!
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December 26, 2008 5:24 AM
knives of ice - The support is for screen resolutions, the stream resolution is limited to 320x240, but the image displayed may be larger - it is scaled. We didn't officially support 640x480 before and no we do, fixing some issues with the old release.
Mikdyer - It isn't something we have any plans to do at this time. There isn't sufficient demand to warrant doing the work, and we don't think the results would be that usable. That could chance in the future, but that's where it is today. And there aren't a large number of square screen devices at this time.
-MegaZone, GizmoLovers.com
Slingbox PRO-HD w/TiVo Series3, Slingbox SOLO w/TiVo Pioneer DVR-810H, SPM Treo 680, SP WinXP
(Former Sling Media Beta Program Manager.)
December 26, 2008 5:19 PM
updated: December 26, 2008 10:09 PM
ok then...i don't see any difference with the touch pro then and the writings about the update are extremely misleading giving the impression that you now have the option of resolutions higher than before. truthfully, this is a pretty pathetic update.
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December 27, 2008 8:03 AM
If you had an older version installed it is likely better to remove it completely before installing the new version, at least on phones that weren't officially supported before. Otherwise the settings will be carried over from the old version and they may not be optimal.
-MegaZone, GizmoLovers.com
Slingbox PRO-HD w/TiVo Series3, Slingbox SOLO w/TiVo Pioneer DVR-810H, SPM Treo 680, SP WinXP
(Former Sling Media Beta Program Manager.)
December 27, 2008 11:02 PM
updated: December 27, 2008 11:23 PM
Just playing with it for the first time on the Xperia XI and the word "player" is not visible on the menu bar. It is there, it just took a moment to realise it. The font colour seems to match the background.
Perhaps it's just my choice of themes?
Thanks again for a great product.
Seasons Greetings.
PJ
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December 29, 2008 4:34 PM
Yeah, we saw that in the beta. It seems to depend on the color scheme - some times the font color is close to the background color so it makes it harder to see the text.
-MegaZone, GizmoLovers.com
Slingbox PRO-HD w/TiVo Series3, Slingbox SOLO w/TiVo Pioneer DVR-810H, SPM Treo 680, SP WinXP
(Former Sling Media Beta Program Manager.)
December 30, 2008 4:27 AM
Can the HP Ipaq 910 / 914 show full screen Slingplayer as it's native resolution is 320 x 240 landscape ?.
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December 30, 2008 5:43 AM
I think so, but I'm not 100% sure.
-MegaZone, GizmoLovers.com
Slingbox PRO-HD w/TiVo Series3, Slingbox SOLO w/TiVo Pioneer DVR-810H, SPM Treo 680, SP WinXP
(Former Sling Media Beta Program Manager.)
December 30, 2008 7:15 AM
Hi, I've solved my own issue with Slingplayer Mobile (no full screen option on square screens), by installing Nyditot Virtual Display 5.02 on my Treo 750.
By making a 'Slingplayer' profile as follows - Pocket PC 240 x 320, Orientation Portrait Left Handed, Use 5 way to pan screen, zoom 100%, and hide on screen control I have an undistorted full screen picture with good frame rates.
I have also created a slightly modified default profile to remove the on screen control when I switch back to 240 x 240 so I don't need to soft reset to get everything back to normal after watching tv.
Best wishes to all in the Sling Community for 2009.
Mikdyer.
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