Hello,

Like many others on this forum, I have been having consistent problems with my picture freezing.  I live in Switzerland, and my Slingbox is located in Seattle, and for the past 1 - 2 months, my stream would suddenly drop to 70 kbps, where it would stall for a couple of minutes, before bouncing back.  Notably, when this started happening, the peak speeds also dropped (from around 900 kbps, to around 350 kbps).

This forum was a huge help, and helped me realize the problem was likely my recent firware update (1.0.39).  However, when I contacted Sling, they told me this was a rare problem, and the solution would be to first try updating the firmware of my comcast modem (?!), and if this didn't solve the problem, they would send me a new slingbox.  They did not provide any solution whereby I could downgrade the firmware of my SlingBox.

I followed the advice of this forum, and tried to look for an earlier firmware revision.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find earlier firmware revisions on my computer, or using Google.  Although there were a couple of "how-to" guides on this forum, I still had to fumble around a little, and wanted to let people know how I solved my problem.

After not being able to find an earlier firmware, I instead downloaded (after easily finding) an older version of SlingPlayer.  I easily found version 1.4, using a Google search.  After downloading this, I uninstalled my (newer) slingplayer, and installed the older version.  In the directory that SlingPlayer 1.4 got installed, there existed several earlier versions of SlingBox firmware (including the old version 1.0.11 of the "pro" firmware, which was identifiable by having "pro" in the title).

I then downloaded the free windows hex editor XVI32 (as very helpfully advised on this forum), and opened the older firmware.   However, it took me a little fumbling before I figured out what to do next.  Basically, when you open the 'bin' file in XVI32, you will see a "split screen".  On the right, at the very top, there are numbers located within "boxes", and I found several boxes that had contained a sequence that obviously corresponded to the firmware revison (it was something like: 1 0 1 1).  I changed the last two "1's" so that the sequence was something like:  1 0 4 0).  (The reason I chose 40 was, as suggested in an earlier forum post, it seems necessary to fool the SlingBox into thinking that you are installing a newer firmware revision, and my SlingBox had 1.0.39 already installed, so I was effectively fooling my slingbox to think that it was being upgraded).  

The next step was that on the right side of the screen, below the changes I had must made, there were several additional "boxes" containing a sequence that obviously corresponded to the date that the firmware was created.  I simply replaced those values with values that corresponded to today's date.  I then saved the file using "save as", and changed the name of the file (using the existing naming convention), so that the file name represented the newer firmware of 1.0.40.

At that point, I was almost done.  I opened SlingPlayer (using the older version of the player that I had just installed), and it immediately recognized that there was a "newer" firmware.  I then followed the steps indicated on the screen, and updated the firmware (or "downgraded the firmware").  I proceeded to upgrade the firmware remotely (from my location in Switzerland), which is probably suboptimal (as any  problem with my internet connection could have "bricked" my SlingBox), but everything worked fine.  The upgrade took about 20 minutes, after which the SlingBox rebooted.  I then was able to get back on without any problem.

I IMMEDIATELY noticed an INCREDIBLE difference in the performance of my SlingPlayer.  The pauses completely stopped, and have not occured since.  But perhaps as importantly, the streaming rate has also increased dramatically:  from an average of around 350 - 500 kbps, to an average of around 800 - 900 kbps.

I have been a huge fan of my Slingbox - like many, this has really increased the quality of my family's life (as we are currently undertaking an international "work assignment").  

For Sling to not offer a simple solution for so many people affected is inexplicable.

Sling:  Why?

To close:  the above is not my solution, and I take no credit for it.  I just wanted to more fully "flesh out" the explanations given on this board, so people less familiar with the steps or software required could also have success.

Good luck everyone, 

Mko.