Member
Joined: 12/28/2007
I would like to relay a major concern with marketing for all Slingbox products.
There is a huge misrepresentation on what exactly the Slingbox does.
Let me explain what I bought the Slingbox for. I have a DirecTV HR-20 receiver. I have another high def TV that currently can only receive a standard def signal from it because it's too far away from the receiver. My roommate and I also have fairly powerful computers with second displays. The hope was for both of us to be able to watch whatever is playing on the HR-20 on the second display, and connect a Mac Mini that I have to the second High Def TV.
First, there is no where on the web page that explains true limitations, nor is there anything in the product documentation that says only one user can connect at any one time. There is nothing that explains this on the box either.
It wasn't until I purchased a Pro model with the HD connector, got it home and set up, connected to and configured, and then tried to connect from another computer in my home. It then complained about another person being connected. When I put in my adminsitration account on the second computer, it kicked me off of the first.
Let me say, I understand why. First, I had no idea about www.slingcommunity.com until I Googled about only one person being able to connect. After I read the FAQ (which should be on the main www.slingbox.com page.. not this one), I read the part about only a single user can connect at any one time. THIS IS A HUGE SHOW STOPPER for me. Especially if I'm trying to connect from three different computers. Why is this not specified ANYWHERE on the main page or on the box?
The second thing. Why on earth did I spend $50 on a HD connector only to have it broadcast in Standard Definition? This is another problem. All over it says it supports HD. It is not very forthcoming on the webpage. There is no where you can find any tech specs on the web page or documentation.
These two reasons really make this product not work for me. I might've let the HD thing slide if I could even connect to it from two computers. I read up in a few threads. People are explaining that it doesn't have the power for more than one computer to connect. Well, let me tell you why it does:
Ever heard of multicasting? If you're concerned about power, support a way for clients to get some feed back to the slingbox and use multicasting, or just set a bitrate. One stream, multiple viewers. In my case, what's the difference of having me at my computer and my roommate at his computer, as opposed to us sitting down in front of the TV? Oh yeah.. it's more convenient. There will be one stream to process. All packets can stay encrypted (because Slingbox seems to be hellbent on that). And even better, for legal reasons, ISPs won't rebroadcast multicast packets. They would only make it very far on a private network. And if you don't want that to happen, set the TTL on the packets to 0 so as soon as they hit a router, they die. Sounds easy enough.
At any rate, because of the lack of information and making the leap of faith on having the Slingbox support what I am after, and being terribly dissappointed, I will be taking it back, even at a loss if I have to. I will be building my own streaming server. Not do anything illegal like broadcasting to other people in the world. It seems so trivial to have a product that would allow multiple connections and in high def on a local network. But thanks Sling Media, for letting me be truely dissapointed in your product and your marketing.
-Tom
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