Alright guys, found the answer we've been looking for.  I was experiencing the same problem but the issue was with the router settings.  Please do the following steps to correct the problem with your slingbox.

1-First download the latest version of the firmware, the link provided below is for the US version under windows XP:  http://download.slingmedia.com/firmware/SlingboxFirmwareUpdate.exe

2-Once you have installed the latest version, please go to: start/programs/Sling Media/Slingbox Setup Wizard to go into the settings.  There you will see the wizard, click on next and go through the settings to ensure all settings are correct. 

 3-Once you complete this step you will need to go into your router's settings.  In order to identify your router's ip address please do the following, for many users this will be 192.168.1.1 however if you have a different system please go to start/run, please type in the open field: cmd and press enter, this will bring up a black screen, please type in ipconfig and press enter.  Your ip address will be identified in this step, please use the number identified as the ip address on the list and enter it into your web browser.  This will allow you to access your router's settings, it will ask for a user name and password which you should be familiar with. 

 4-Once you are in the router's settings you will want to look for a sub tab called: Port Range Forwarding under Applications and Gaming.  Please enter under application: Sling Media, Port range start and end enter 5001 for both, protocol will stay as both, enter 237 at the end of the ip address listed and click on the box to enable the connection.  Remember to save your settings so that the changes can be updated in your router.

 5-You're all set, last part is to launch you sling player and click on the watch button, once connected you will click on Player, Slingplayer Options and under the  Video, Encoding, Connection and Preferences tabs you will want to press the Original settings button on each of these.

 6-You're all set, congratulations you should not see the screen freeze or the sound disappear.  Good luck and hope this is helpful! 

Jesus E Colon said: Alright guys, found the answer we've been looking for.  I was experiencing the same problem but the issue was with the router settings.  Please do the following steps to correct the problem with your slingbox. 1-First download the latest version of the firmware, the link provided below is for the US version under windows XP:  http://download.slingmedia.com/firmware/SlingboxFirmwareUpdate.exe 2-Once you have installed the latest version, please go to: start/programs/Sling Media/Slingbox Setup Wizard to go into the settings.  There you will see the wizard, click on next and go through the settings to ensure all settings are correct.   3-Once you complete this step you will need to go into your router's settings.  In order to identify your router's ip address please do the following, for many users this will be 192.168.1.1 however if you have a different system please go to start/run, please type in the open field: cmd and press enter, this will bring up a black screen, please type in ipconfig and press enter.  Your ip address will be identified in this step, please use the number identified as the ip address on the list and enter it into your web browser.  This will allow you to access your router's settings, it will ask for a user name and password which you should be familiar with.   4-Once you are in the router's settings you will want to look for a sub tab called: Port Range Forwarding under Applications and Gaming.  Please enter under application: Sling Media, Port range start and end enter 5001 for both, protocol will stay as both, enter 237 at the end of the ip address listed and click on the box to enable the connection.  Remember to save your settings so that the changes can be updated in your router.  5-You're all set, last part is to launch you sling player and click on the watch button, once connected you will click on Player, Slingplayer Options and under the  Video, Encoding, Connection and Preferences tabs you will want to press the Original settings button on each of these.  6-You're all set, congratulations you should not see the screen freeze or the sound disappear.  Good luck and hope this is helpful!   

I recently upgraded to SlingPlayer 1.5.0 Build 322 on a WinXP box.  At the same time I upgrade the firmware in my Slingbox Pro to the latest - about 3 weeks ago.   Tonight while testing some reconfiguration of inputs, I noticed for the first time the player locking up - with video and sound freezing.  This was only after about 10-20 seconds of streaming.  The easiest way to recover is to press the stop button and restart.  However, it would lock-up again.

I implemented the port forwarding fix as you recommended above, and got the same results, so it must be something else causing the problem - at least on my machine.  My Slingbox is on a gigabyte wired LAN and worked fine last Spring before I upgraded to 1.5 and the box firmware.  What else can I try?  I did notice the streaming speeds are slow to get up to over 1 or 2 megabits, but even after it reaches those speeds it still freezes.  I do have another giga-switch in line with my router supporting three more devices; (1) my HD-DVD player, (2) the Slingbox and (3) my HTPC.  Both my router and switch are D-Link models DIR-655 and DGS-2205 respectively.  Would the secondary switch cause this problem?

Thoughts?

redjr... 

Jesus E Colon said: Hey guys,       Sorry for my late response to my previous posting.  The fact is when I wrote the solution before with the step by step process, I also ended up calling Sling Support and the cause of the problem was the actual power supply.  See, the charger that came with the slingbox was overheating and when I called in they replaced it free of charge and this fixed the problem.      Don't look futher for a solution, you will need to replace the power jack with another one or have Sling Support exchange it for you, this will take approximately 1 week for delivery since it comes from California and I am located in New Jersey.      Call them at 877.GO.SLING (877.467.5464). They have team members available for phone support Monday through Friday, 7 am to 7 pm and Saturday 8 am to 5 pm Pacific time.

Jesus,

Are you sure this is the final solution to the freezing?  Is this straight from SM technical support?  What if your AC adapter is not over heating?  Still a problem?  There are other threads regarding this freezing problem with most being anecdotal solutions - but no known 'real' technical reason.  My money is on the firmware upgrade and v1.5 of Slingplayer.  My Pro worked flawlessly before then.  The AC adapter solution sounds a little dubious to me.

Has the new AC adapter worked for you and stopped the freezing since you replaced it?  I guess I would like some confirmation from SM that since the firmware upgrade you need a new AC adapter, and that they are offering a free one to all. 

Jesus E Colon said: I can definitely assure you the problem lies in your adapter.  After speaking with technical support, I could not see how my adapter would be the problem, however they went through all the troubleshooting with me and sent out an adapter free of charge and my Sling box has worked ever since.I myself thought the problem was with the software or perhaps not having the latest firmware but I can assure you the adapter is the problem.  Perhaps look around your home or ask a friend to lend you one so that you can isolate the problem by doing so.  Don't hesitate to contact Sling Media, they told me that this was a known issue but it had not been publicized yet, so they were offering a free adapter even though your product may be older than one year, which was the case with me and my Sling box was outside of their warranty guidelines.Hope this information is helpful, I know that once you change the adapter you will see what I mean, I could not believe it myself, as I am a computer techie too.

I don't mean to drag this topic on... but I'm still not convinced.  I'll contact SM and request a new adapter, but today I found a suitable adapter in my spare box and after about 2 minutes my Pro still froze - video and sound.  And this was with streaming at around 2300Kbps.  Same overall symptoms.  So, I'm not sure how the adpater plays into the symptoms.  You've had absolutely no video and sound lockups/freezes since you replaced the adapter?  And you're using the AV Pro, correct?

Does anyone know how to down-grade the firmware should I decide to go that route to get back to a stable Sling experience?  Where would I get the .bin file?

redjr...

Jesus E Colon said: I can see your frustration with the Sling Box, your best bet is to contact Sling Technical Support so that they can better assist you.  Since I replaced the adapter I have not had a screen freeze on my Sling Box AV Pro.  Perhaps the adapter you have may not have the required voltage to be used with the box, unless it is the exact same adapter that came with your equipment.  I have an extra copy of the bin file for the previous firmware versions, however I'm quite certain it will not downgrade your firmware once you've installed the latest one. I know that when I was experiencing the same trouble you are having, I tried just about anything and it wouldn't work.  So what I decided to do was to contact technical support directly since there were no blogs or discussion boards that had experienced this trouble before.  The solution for my trouble was the adapter.  Perhaps there are other things Tech Support will have you try.  I'm quite curious to see what the outcome is.  Please contact them for support, I think you'll be better off waiting until tomorrow (Monday) so that you can contact them for help. Don't forget to post your solution here so that it can benefit all of the Sling Player Community.  I have tried to respond to each of your postings as I know I felt extremely upset when I could not get an answer on this, so I am hoping your experience is more positive than mine.  Best of luck and let me know how it turned out!  Jesus E. Colon, New Jersey.

 Thanks for all your help.  It is frustrating since everything worked fine before the upgrade, so it's only logical to conclude....  I'll contact SM, but won't be able to until next Friday when I'm home at my box, unless they would posssibly send me an adapter without actually running thru any tests with me.

redjr... 

Hello Redjr,

      Hope that you've found a solution to your screen freeze by now.  Did you get a chance to call technical support?  What was the outcome?

 Jesus

I have same kind of problems with my Slingbox A/V in Europe. My Slingbox is located in Finland and I'm trying to watch the Finnish TV channels in Portugal. When using the Slingplayer it plays for about 1-3 minutes then freezes and I can not get the video again until I press Start and Stop button.

The physical distance between Portugal and Finland is over 3000 km and don't know how many networks and routers/gateways are between the Slingbox in Finland and my home in Portugal.

Now during Christmas vacation I have watched the Slingbox using my parent's ADSL connection in Finland. The physical distance is now just 150 km between the Slingbox and watching location, and most probably just few networks between these places.

The watching experience has been much better. The Slingplayer has not freezed so often anymore. I think I have been able to keep streaming on at least 30 min or longer without any freezing.

My conclusion is that there is a software bug or bad design in the Slingbox firmware or/and Slingplayer sw. It seems to work quite ok, when for example networks (Internet) latency is not big or/are there are no huge amounts packet drops. The Slingbox or/and Slingplayer sw is not able to recovery from the normal Internet delays or packet drops. When certain limit of network packet drops or high latency has reached, the software just crashes and stops working, which you can see as freezed picture.

It would be interesting to hear, have you experienced the similar behaviour with freezing?

-Hezzu

ebatt732 said: Thank You Jesus, Your original post regarding port forwarding worked for me!  My SlingBox Pro on my Verizon Fios netowork was freezing after about ten minutes whenever I used it remotely... but not since I followed your steps.  I've just been watching for about a half hour and the picture quality has improved as well. I just lost control the remote control, but I think that's an unrelated issue.  I'll have to look into that one... lol. Anyway, thanks again! -Erick

Erick,

      Thank you for the response.  I'm glad my instructions were clear and were able to assist you with your sling problem.  As far as the remote disappearing, I would suggest to download the latest firmware directly from the slingbox website.  In order to isolate any additional problems I would definitely install the newest version available.  Try this out and let me know if your problem persists, I might be able to offer other suggestions.  Best of luck!

 Jesus

Hi everybody -

 I just bought a SlingBox Pro, and installed it in Michigan. (I needed help from tech support via chat because my modem/router wasn't on their list. Their assistance was excellent, taking remote control of my pc as necessary to make all the setting changes, and get me up and running.  I'm a career computer guy [a dinosaur now since I started in 1967  ] and I will say the Sling Media folks are doing a terrific job supporting a complex product used in various locations worldwide on any internet connection.  A variety of factors must be considered for any user problem, and as evidenced from this thread, usually there is not a single solution to a problem since there are so many variables involved.  This is a very difficult support challenge.  Keep up the good work Sling Media).

Anyway, I also experienced freeze ups after a few minutes of operation when accessing remotely from Canada. After reading this thread I decided to call tech support to determine what their latest suggested solution(s) were.  No definitive solution yet, but we may have more information soon.  Because while they were testing my box (from California) after 15 minutes of smooth SlingPlayer operation, their player at the tech support office froze!  Their team is now investigating, given a perfect failure scenario and failure state.

 I am hopeful they will gain some new insight into this pervasive problem.  I'll post whatever feedback I receive from them.

My conclusion is that there is a software bug or bad design in the Slingbox firmware or/and Slingplayer sw. It seems to work quite ok, when for example networks (Internet) latency is not big or/are there are no huge amounts packet drops. The Slingbox or/and Slingplayer sw is not able to recovery from the normal Internet delays or packet drops. When certain limit of network packet drops or high latency has reached, the software just crashes and stops working, which you can see as freezed picture. It would be interesting to hear, have you experienced the similar behaviour with freezing? -Hezzu

   My conclusion is similar to yours Hezzu, but I add the possibility of a hardware factor.  I strongly believe there is a software design deficiency in SlingPlayer, but also that certain hardware conditions such as overheating of the box itself or the power supply can also cause a SlingBox malfunction resulting in a freeze.  My software point is supported by the fact that for me in repeated tests SlingPlayer will freeze, but "At Large Recorder" (in "record and play" mode) will not freeze in exactly the same streaming and hardware environments.  Other than the stream-processing software, everything else is identical:  network streaming characteristics, hardware, heat, drivers, etc.  

In the design and programming of SlingPlayer. all possible input streaming characteristics must be defined and accommodated.  Stream and other timing issues are critical (and horrendous -  must include operating system interrupts, video driver interrupts and more).  In this sense, the current design is very likely deficient and, in my opinion needs further development to include more, if not all, definable conditions.  To develop a highly-reliable SlingPlayer application on all hardware and for all networks is a huge but fascinating design challenge.  Wish I was on the team.