April 17, 2009 12:05 PM

marcee said:

./martin said:
It's not like Sling Media have removed anything. When they sold Slingbox Classic, nobody talked about Slingplayer for iPhone.

Um yeah it is like that. Slingplayer for iPhone talk started the moment the iPhone came out. Slingbox Classic was still being sold (and supported) and I bought one in the hopes I would be able to watch it on my new iPhone. And like the previous poster said, the betas of SlingPlayer worked on the Classic - so the 'hard part' of the programming has already been done. I'm extremely disappointed and possibly extremely immature because I wouldn't be the least bit upset if apple rejects the app.

How do you know the betas ever supported it? You don't know that.

And so what if there was talk about the player when the iPhone first came out. Who cares? That's just talk.

The reality is what the reality is. Get used to it.

Slinging w/ Catcher, ProHD, Pro, Solo, AV, and a Classic. Two TivoHDs, Roku Photobridge and a Roku Soundbridge, AppleTV, and Vudu.www.na9d.net Follow me on Twitter

April 17, 2009 12:17 PM

./martin said:


The App Store opened July 10, 2008. It was announced in the beginning af 2008. If I remember correct, the Slingbox Classic was discontinued back in 2007.

I think the Classic was discontinued in the US long before that. I purchased my Classic three years ago now if I remember correctly. A few months after that, the Pro, AV and Tuner models came out. I think the Classic was discontinued in the US at that point - so that was 2006. I then bought the Pro on advance order before it even came out...

Slinging w/ Catcher, ProHD, Pro, Solo, AV, and a Classic. Two TivoHDs, Roku Photobridge and a Roku Soundbridge, AppleTV, and Vudu.www.na9d.net Follow me on Twitter

April 17, 2009 1:46 PM updated: April 17, 2009 1:58 PM

NA9D said:

marcee said:

./martin said:
It's not like Sling Media have removed anything. When they sold Slingbox Classic, nobody talked about Slingplayer for iPhone.

Um yeah it is like that. Slingplayer for iPhone talk started the moment the iPhone came out. Slingbox Classic was still being sold (and supported) and I bought one in the hopes I would be able to watch it on my new iPhone. And like the previous poster said, the betas of SlingPlayer worked on the Classic - so the 'hard part' of the programming has already been done. I'm extremely disappointed and possibly extremely immature because I wouldn't be the least bit upset if apple rejects the app.

How do you know the betas ever supported it? You don't know that

And so what if there was talk about the player when the iPhone first came out. Who cares? That's just talk.

The reality is what the reality is. Get used to it.

---------------------------
The beta testers didn't have requirements where boxes were concerned as late as March 09.

That's all you need to know.

April 17, 2009 2:37 PM

NA9D said:

xultar said:

---------------------------
The beta testers didn't have requirements where boxes were concerned as late as March 09.

That's all you need to know.

And how do you know that? If you are in the beta program you just broke your NDA. If you aren't, then you have no clue or someone in the program told you and violated their NDA.

Actually if you sign up to be a beta tester here
https://beta.slingmedia.com/login.html
you will see the beta program for iphone info.
Before you have to sign an nda they give some information.
Sign up to see what it says, you will be surprised to see all boxes work.

Components To Sling and being Slinged
ProHD, AV, AppleTV, DirecTV HR20, OSX, FiOS 20/20

April 17, 2009 2:45 PM

Slinger said:
Wow...they may have broke the NDA, but the TRUTH SHALL SET THEM, SLINGMEDIA and NA9D FREE!  We just want the truth and a explanation...is..it...that...hard?

I have given you one based on logic but no one wants to accept it:

It is called costs. The facts are that the Pro is supported and is capable of WMV only. So this rubbish about codec support is just that - rubbish. Therefore since the Pro is supported, we can infer with pretty strong certainty that the iPhone software works using WMV.

Second, we know that the AV and Tuner are built around the same hardware platform as the Pro. That's a pretty well established fact.

So there is no technical reason why the older boxes should not be supported. None. The facts are that SlingMedia has decided to end support for them. The best conclusion as to why this would be is that the cost of supporting older boxes with newer firmware all the time is just not worth it. So the line had to be drawn somewhere and while they stupidly drew it with the iPhone software, that's where they drew it. Period.

That's the truth. Why can't you just accept it? I agree - it sucks. I think they did a bad thing and I think it was handled poorly. But the obvious conclusion is that this was a financial decision and that alone. That has to be the reason as the only legitimate reasons for ending support of a certain product is either techincal or financial. We've eliminated the technical issue so financial is all that's left.

The truth will set you free.

Slinging w/ Catcher, ProHD, Pro, Solo, AV, and a Classic. Two TivoHDs, Roku Photobridge and a Roku Soundbridge, AppleTV, and Vudu.www.na9d.net Follow me on Twitter

April 17, 2009 4:01 PM

NA9D said:

Slinger said:
Wow...they may have broke the NDA, but the TRUTH SHALL SET THEM, SLINGMEDIA and NA9D FREE!  We just want the truth and a explanation...is..it...that...hard?

I have given you one based on logic but no one wants to accept it:

It is called costs. The facts are that the Pro is supported and is capable of WMV only. So this rubbish about codec support is just that - rubbish. Therefore since the Pro is supported, we can infer with pretty strong certainty that the iPhone software works using WMV.

Second, we know that the AV and Tuner are built around the same hardware platform as the Pro. That's a pretty well established fact.

So there is no technical reason why the older boxes should not be supported.

None. The facts are that SlingMedia has decided to end support for them.
The best conclusion as to why this would be is that the cost of supporting
older boxes with newer firmware all the time is just not worth it. So the line had to be drawn somewhere and while they stupidly drew it with the iPhone software, that's where they drew it. Period.

That's the truth. Why can't you just accept it? I agree - it sucks. I think they did a bad thing and I think it was handled poorly. But the obvious conclusion is that this was a financial decision and that alone. That has to be the reason as the only legitimate reasons for ending support of a certain product is either techincal or financial. We've eliminated the technical issue so financial is all that's left.

The truth will set you free.

I am free, and it looks like the majority polled will also tell Slingmedia financially NO....

It is a complete BLUNDER on their part, you cannot tell me the support and R&D costs are near what they have and will lose with this soon to be text book MBA school example what not to do in management. I sold tons of these units by word of mouth. Now I guess I can help Hava, Sony and Orb. I miss Mr. K and J. Toeman, back when the company did right by the customer. Without us, they have nothing...Dish will drop them like a worn out DVR.

April 17, 2009 4:11 PM

Well, you say that Mr. K did right by the customer. Keep in mind it was during Mr. K's reign as CEO and before Echostar was ever involved that they decided to encrypt the stream. That was not doing right by the customer. It was a long time ago that Sling moved from being customer orientated to business orientated. It's not to say that you can't do both at times, but doing what is best in the terms of business is not always best for customers unfortunately,

The facts of the matter are that it is likely that the vast majority of the user base have a Pro, Solo or ProHD. Some of those owners may have older boxes, but the majority of their customer base does not have just one of those boxes. They probably have sales numbers to back that up.

The Classic as the oldest box that didn't even support 640 x 480 had to go. It was way past its time. The Tuner was probably never a good seller and is pretty much obsolete today given the fact that NTSC OTA TV will be a thing of the past in about 2 months time. The AV was next on the list but it was eclipsed by the Solo. Nothing has really replaced the Pro. The ProHD doesn't even do all it does.

But I would venture that probably 75% to 80% of the userbase has a Pro or newer box. It's based on nothing but a guess and gut feel. Of that remaining 20 to 25% some percentage of them will upgrade. Most wont', but most are probably not iPhone users anyhow or even if they are, don't care to stream mobile. The number of users affected is probably statistically small. Now, it was a bad business move IMHO to not support all boxes for the most anticipated mobile platform. They could have then said that any future updates or releases would not be supported. And since Apple is coming out with the 3.0 OS this summer, they could have stated that starting with the 3.0 OS, the iPhone client would not support the older boxes. They could have done it a thousand different ways than the way they did it. But the fact still remains that the amount of engineering and technical support needed to support all the old boxes was huge. I've discussed how many boxes and firmware flavors they need to have elsewhere - it's staggering and when you look at it that way, you can see why they had to drop support. They just did it in the wrong place and the wrong time.

Slinging w/ Catcher, ProHD, Pro, Solo, AV, and a Classic. Two TivoHDs, Roku Photobridge and a Roku Soundbridge, AppleTV, and Vudu.www.na9d.net Follow me on Twitter

April 17, 2009 4:17 PM

NA9D said:

xultar said: It wasn't like the fact that the app worked on older boxes was a freakin secret.  Yet you are challenging people here who say it.  What the heck is up with that? Hell they even let people tap in to their own classic boxes  @ the trade shows earlier this year. I hope someone here is rethinking your role as a moderator.   Maybe you need to take a break or something.  You appear to be losing it.

I'm challenging the fact that someone like you says specific information about the older boxes working in the month of March in the beta program. That's pretty specific info and the only way you would have known that is that you are either in the beta program and have broken your NDA by saying that or someone in the beta program has told you that. I am bashing the people who have broken their NDA because they think they are doing everyone a service but they do more harm than good.

But, they've already demonstrated that the boxes worked.  So,  not a a secret. 

And if anyone from Echostar/Sling wants to PM me so we can talk.  Please do. 

X

April 17, 2009 4:47 PM

The "feeling" that most people have Pros or HDs is just that, a feeling. If that was the case, the poll on the "will you upgrade thread" would have significantly more people in the "no need" column. Instead only 23% are "no need". Granted, neither of us know if that poll is any kind of reliable sample -- but's probably a good sample of this board's members and more than half of us in sling community have an original and will not upgrade.

April 17, 2009 5:06 PM

marcee said: The "feeling" that most people have Pros or HDs is just that, a feeling. If that was the case, the poll on the "will you upgrade thread" would have significantly more people in the "no need" column. Instead only 23% are "no need". Granted, neither of us know if that poll is any kind of reliable sample -- but's probably a good sample of this board's members and more than half of us in sling community have an original and will not upgrade.

 

 

Exactly.  All the customers I steered to Sling got the AV, because that is what I got @ the time.  I've circled back with them and they are not upgrading.  They put their sling on older setups in their offices and guest bedrooms and have no desire to upgrade because they don't need to. 

They were all really excited for the iPhone app but have rethought the need to watch TV on their iPhone.  When we talked about it and really looked at how many used their WM devices to sling we realized that even though we had to fly for work EVERY WEEK we RARELY watched TV on our phones and most often went for the laptop for longer viewing.  So, the need to upgrade just for iPhone is not there.  I personally rarely used my SPM on my WM device.  Usually when I did it was to show someone how cool it was.

The iPhone battery life is pittiful, so the need to be juiced for calls will more than out weigh the need to watch TV.

Those of you who are going to sling on the iPhone consider getting that new Mophie Juice pack coming out on 4/21. You'll need it.