Has anyone had any luck with Slingplayer?

by fraseyboo

I know that HD-Homerun is the way to go if I wanted to watch live TV on my shield but a second hand slingbox solo retails for around £12 ($17) and accepts component input (no TV tuner) streaming. I could also get a slingbox pro for £10 ($14) which features a TV tuner and HDMI streaming but isn't as widely supported. There are some much newer and more powerful models but they cost around the same as the HDH Connect And I'd rather go for that if I had to.

Both devices are several years old (2007 release) and have depreciated in value and support which makes me doubt how useful they'd be but for a budget build being substantially cheaper than the cheapest HD Homerun device are they worth a gamble?

Has anyone had any experience with slingboxes? do they work ok?

EDIT: Ok guys, it's ordered now & I'll set it up when I can. Thanks for all your help.

crusaderDO

My wife and I both have a slingbox at our respective parent's homes from the days before a lot of the sports services existed. Mine is too old for the Chromecast feature, but I have one of the older pay apps sideloaded and it works on the Nexus player with a USB mouse. It's not bad.

Ariakkas10

Slingbox software is universally terrible.

I would murder myself if I had to rely on it for more than the occasional game

TheSubversive

I have a pro model in one of the guest bedrooms at my moms house, so it has a set top box with a DVR connected to it that no one ever uses, except me, remotely.

The apps for the iPad and iPhone work great. You can essentially do whatever you could do if you were sitting in that room with the appropriate remotes in your hand. And the picture quality is fantastic on those screens, even on LTE (at the unit's end it's ethernet connected to the modem/router and my mom has FIOS with a steady 20mbps upload speed). The apps are designed well enough to make it easy to navigate around the set top box functions, you can program your favorite channels for quick access, there's a dedicated DVR button to get to that menu, etc...

The only problem is Sling isn't making apps for any streaming boxes. There's not one for Android and there's not one for AppleTV. The only way you can watch your sling box on your tv is to Airplay or mirror it to the tv and there is some significant quality degradation in that step for some reason. I have a Mac Mini hooked up to my TV via HDMI and I have the SlingPlayer app on that computer and still the quality gets degraded. Actually, I think it has a lot to do with screen size because again, the quality on the mobile devices is unbelievable.

bartendrplease86

I'm a big fan. I started with a Solo then upgraded and now use two 500 units. One 500 is hardwired in my parents basement so I can watch live sports and the other is hardwired in my home to a Roku so I can access content stored on my network.

In terms of the "Slingplayer" you can use most of the common devices like a Chromecast, Roku box or stick, or Android TV like Nexus Player or Shield but you're going to need the Slingplayer mobile app first. You are essentially casting the app from your tablet or phone. Right now the Android TV platform is excruciatingly slow, Chromecast is a step better, and oddly enough Roku is bulletproof. Even a $30 refurb Roku can provide a really solid experience with HDish results

spotdog14

I will say I was amazing that my FireTV had a Slingplayer app but not my new Shield. That being said I just sideloaded it from my phone. It does require a keyboard and mouse to use though, just an FYI.