SlingPlayer Mobile Coming Soon

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060103/tc_nm/television_slingbox_dc' target='_blank'>http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060103...ion_slingbox_dc</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Sling Media is expected to announce Thursday that consumers can use a wide range of mobile devices to watch their home television from anywhere in the world. The company is set to unveil new software that adds this capability to its Slingbox hardware product this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Sling Media co-founder and head of business development Jason Krikorian said support for mobile devices always has been part of the company's vision but that the initial focus was on the PC because of the broadband connection. "There are solutions for live and recorded TV on mobile phones, but now for the first time you can have full access to every single channel you've got at your house," he said. "It's not just a TV experience on your phone, it's your TV experience, like you have at home when you're on your couch." The new mobile client, as the software is known, works with any device that uses Microsoft's Windows Mobile Platform versions 4.0 or 5.0. A visual version of a remote control pops up on the screen, making it a fairly straightforward process to choose whether to watch television live from their home cable set-top box or satellite receiver or something recorded on their digital video recorder."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20060106-Slingbox.jpg" /><br /><br />The Sling Media team <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,44843:dont_paginate,1">first demonstrated SlingPlayer Mobile</a> at Mobius last month. Then they demonstrated it again at CES. TV on-the-go sounds awesome and I'm really looking forward to its release, which is apparently this quarter. No word yet on pricing though. And on a related note, we can probably expect the PAL version of the Slingbox to debut shortly, so those in Europe and the Asia-Pacific will soon be able to grab a piece of the action.

[encece]

Did you happen to read/see anywhere if Smartphone support was mentioned as well?

[Darius Wey]

Did you happen to read/see anywhere if Smartphone support was mentioned as well?

Yes, it supports both Pocket PCs and Smartphones running Windows Mobile 2003/2003SE and 5.0.

Unfortunately, at the time I queued up the original post, Sling Media had not put out a press release. Now they have, so here's a link: http://www.slingmedia.com/press/pressreleases-01.05.06b.php

[Craig Horlacher]

This sounds very similar to LocationFree hardware from Sony. I think the LocationFree hardware from Sony that I would need to broadcast my living room anywhere over the internet and watch it on my psp is $300. I hope this would be less.

Has anyone used LocationFree?

[encece]

Well the slingbox is definitely less in price.
I'm surprised they are going to charge for the Mobile App. But it will be worth it if it works well. Hopefully it's not subscription based or anything like that.

[Don't Panic!]

Microsoft's Windows Mobile Platform versions 4.0? :huh: I must have missed that memo.

Anyway you'll still need a bradband connection in your house right?

[Darius Wey]

Microsoft's Windows Mobile Platform versions 4.0? :huh: I must have missed that memo.

I guess their PR folk are still working in CE mode. ;)

Anyway you'll still need a bradband connection in your house right?

Correct.

[alese]

Does'n ORB offer the same service allready for free?

I haven't tried it yet myself, no WiFi or fast internet at home, but as far as I know you can stream TV or any video for that matter and the service is free...

[wirelessbeachbum]

Yes ORB works with certain video capture cards...and you can tweak "beyond TV"to work very well for streaming your tv and recorded shows as well.

And of course you have providers like smartvideo.com and wireless carriers themselves working for that space.

The big question is mainstream USA ready for this?

[disconnected]

I thought I'd read somewhere that some cable companies were disallowing this sort of use because they say that it uses too much bandwidth to upload streaming media.

[bradray]

I use orb.com on my PPC6700 over EVDO and wifi when available. It works great to provide the same thing. I'm using Cox communications here in the Phoenix area and haven't had any problems whatsoever.

Best part about it is that it's free!

[wirelessbeachbum]

I also use, orb, and with the recent upgrade they now support my software based encoding video capture card...I thought I was finally going to have to make the move to the newer hardware based cards, but I get to hold onto that money for other gadgets.

I understand slings business plan by selling the player for the portable devices...I still have not figured out orbs business plan...I just hope they don't one day decide to start charging for their service again.

I use orb with an XV6600, on Verizon's 1X (NationalACCESS) network, most of the time, I have zero problems. Of course when I travel and hit an EVDO network the picture quality is much better.

[iamwarpath]

I don't use ORB all the time because I turn my computer off every so often(ORB=great). I have the Sprint PPC 6700 with EVDO and I can't wait until the release some software so I can watch TV on it with my Locationfree. I'm not happy that it costs more than the Slingbox but it was kind of justifed. The locationfree is the only thing that allows for TV viewing on the PSP and has a built in WiFi card so my PSP and computer can watch TV at a better quality because it is a local connection instead of through the router or the internet(the more hops, the choppier it gets). I can also get internet access for the PSP through the locationfree(piggybacking off of the router). Now, if Sony can update their virtual remote controls as quickly as Sling does, I'd be pro Locationfree 100%.