Sling Media's $50 Discount Worthless, Might Even End Up Costing You More
When Sling Media finally released their iPhone app last week, they conveniently turned off access to older Slingbox devices in order to force customers to buy newer models. As a gesture—only a gesture, nothing more—of their gratitude toward existing customers who supported them by already buying Slingboxes, they offered a $50 credit toward the purchase of a newer model.
The only problem is, you have to use the discount on their online store, and it turns out their prices are considerably higher than retailers like Amazon.
Engadget compared both the SOLO and the PRO-HD models on the SlingMedia site with Amazon's listings. If you apply your $50 credit to the SOLO model, you'll ultimately save $10 more than if you bought it at Amazon. That's pretty weak, but it gets a lot worse: if you go for the more expensive PRO-HD model, you'll actually spend $10 more through SlingMedia ($249) than through Amazon ($239).
You might want to steer clear of Sling Media in general, considering how poorly they're treating current customers with this whole iPhone forced-upgrade scheme. Commenters and bloggers have pointed out that the iPhone app worked fine on earlier Slingbox models back during beta testing, so the only reason to lock out early adopters (and beta testers) now is to squeeze them for an extra $130 or more, when the one they already bought works just fine. Or did, up until about a week ago.
"Sling's $50 rebate on iPhone-compatible boxes rendered useless by stupid pricing" [Engadget] (Thanks to Jason!)
(Flames: Capture Queen)
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Comments:
Wow, we will never buy anything from this company.
wtf is this site? it has Consumerist posts & Perez posts WORD FOR WORD & the comments don't work & i couldn't find any contact info. (sorry, i'm not THAT websavvy to find this info out somehow) when you try to comment & it asks you "is fire hot or cold?" typing HOT any way doesn't work and neither does COLD. Not that I think this site is really jeopardizing Consumerist or Perez, but I was able to find it easily thru a google search for that Spencer Pratt bong photo (sorry to admit it, everyone. just wanted to see what the fuss was about)
I have yet to see a slingbox app in the App store? Any idea what it is called? I tried searching for "Sling," "Slingbox," and "sling media."
@kingofmars: Sling has submitted it to Apple, but it hasn't been approved yet. It should show up within a week or two.
Sounds like Sling is taking a page out of Tivo's book.
@sardonicbastard: Good luck getting a Hava POS to actually work. Hava is a scam. And don't get me started on trying to talk to their "customer service" or trying to get a refund from them.
"when the one they already bought works just fine. Or did, up until about a week ago."
My Slingbox still does everything it did when I bought it.
I don't know what anyone expects, Dish Network bought these guys and now they're not so cool.
@rdwarrior: I know a couple of people that have had a good experience with it. It's certainly not as polished as the slingbox, but that's fine with me- I'm a software developer and I can handle complicated set-up. For the average person who doesn't know what MPEG or RTSP stands for or how to punch a hole in their firewall, the sling box is definitely better.
Personally, I don't feel that the Hava is a scam... it's a little rough around the edges, but that will improve in time with more mature software.
Sling making me spend $130 and throw away a device that is 100% functional? Now that is a scam, no matter how good their software is.
Sounds like iphone owners got OWNED. Should have bought a phone that runs on Windows Mobile, instead of some trendy, proprietary piece of crap.
Sling Media wouldn't be where it is today if not for the early adopters who bought their products, then touted how great they were. I was one of those early adopters and I had been almost evangelical in my praise and recommendation of their products to friends, family, and co-workers. Now, I'm turning my back on Sling Media, because, let's be honest, they've turned their back on me.
Oh, and I also voted their products down on Amazon. I suggest other folks do the same if they feel even remotely miffed by Sling's decision.
Slingbox sucks. Build own with free software.
@turkeyspam: I was wondering when your kind was going to show up. This has nothing to do with iPhones or Apple, it has everything to do with Sling's idiocy and blatant attempts at ripping off the consumers. Take your vitriol somewhere else.
@JesseDunnuck: I don't have a Slingbox...and I definitely won't in the future. Sling definitely lost a potential customer.
No, it -is- about the iphone, because Sling specifically targeted a section of the population that has more money than brains, and the tagging device they used to ID these people was the iphone.
That's okay, I'm going to buy one just to reward them for pulling one over on the iphone community.
They're still going to get rich off this. In order to buy an iphone in the first place, many of them had to completely disconnect themselves from the fact that AT&T spied on them illegally and gave the info to the govt, and then shell big bucks over to them as a reward for their lawbreaking.
This is the same disconnect that will allow that same user to buy a program while ignoring the morally bankrupt practices of the company. They just have to have that app, don't you understand?
Very wise move by Sling. The market has shown them where it stands, so move in and exploit it.
What is a slingbox?
What does it do and why is it on a iphone
@allthoseships: It was probably thrown up with plagiarized posts to show up in google and receive advertising revenue. You can report them to Google ads, but I don't know if google will care
@allthoseships: It seems Google Ads only allows complaints of copyright infringement from the copyright holder, so Consumerist needs to make the complaint
@sardonicbastard: Forget about HAVA if you have a Mac. They have been promising a Mac SDK for months and there is NOTHING. They don't respond on the forums about the Mac SDK, and they don't respond on the email address that they set up for enquiries about it. Ridiculous. I have to boot up into XP w/ Bootcamp to use it....don't get me wrong, it works great, but I prefer OS X.
@dieselmachine: You do realize this also affects iPod Touch owners who have nothing to do with AT&T?
A slingbox is a media device that streams video over your broadband connection. This means you can watch your cable, satellite, DVR, or computer files on any net connected portable device. Pretty slick.
I wanted one until about 2 minutes ago. I don't have an iphone but I refuse to support companies that treat their customers this way.
@dieselmachine: AND Verizon ALSO actively participated in the illegal wiretapping program. Guess we should all get Palm Pres? I bet Sling will pull the same crap for the Pre app, too.
*This* is exactly why free software exists. Just use MythTV or one of the other myriad options. If you are able to use this website, you can use and install free software.
I couldn't figure out why slingboxes were popular when they started to exist, and I see even more reason why they don't make sense. When you go proprietary you'll always hit bumps in the road like this.
This has been discussed to death on some sites. The reason the older SlingBoxes do not work is because they stream in WMV. The iPhone SDK does not allow usage of codecs not officially supported on the phone. It only allows support for h.264, which is what is used on the newer SlingBoxes. The reason the beta version worked was because it was originally being run on a jailbroken phone.
@turkeyspam: i had a WinMo phone before the iphone, and it was absolutely horrible. The OS crashed constantly, the browser was passable at best, the wifi support was all but unusable, and you had to use a stylus to get anything done. It did have tethering and a slingplayer that worked with original sling boxes, so i guess it had two upsides to its thousand downsides.
I know your message was just a troll, but seriously- anyone considering a windows mobile phone, try something else too. Symbian, iphone, blackberry... Theyre ALL better.
Oh, and p.s.- i typed this reply on my iphone.
@Boberto: How exactly are they doing it. The series 1 Tivos ar PHYSICALLY INCAPABLE of networking. They ONLY have a MODEM. There is NO ETHERNET.
Try to troll better next time.
@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle): I had a first-gen lifetime subscription TiVo too - it died after a few years (hard drive), so I called TiVo and asked what they could do for me that wouldn't mean a monthly fee. For $130, I sent them my broken TiVo and they sent me a refurbished 80-hour TiVo and just continued the original lifetime subscription.
@RevolutionMaster: Actually...
For those willing to open their TiVo S1 box, 9th Tee sells ethernet (both wireless and wired) adapters. The Tivo 3.0 software has the drivers already built in. It's no harder than adding an network adapter to a desktop computer. The TiVo S1 is physically capable of connecting to a network.
...aaand this is why I do not now nor will I ever have a DVR: Slingbox, TIVO or otherwise...
Thank God for VCRs...
@dieselmachine:
That's ok, I bought an iPhone because of your douchebaggery. I had no idea how awesome the iPhone was.
@shepd:
I bought a Slingbox because it did what I needed it to do with no effort from me, it only cost $100, and it consumes a minuscule amount of electricity compared to a PC running MythTV or other HTPC software.
This makes sense, since apparently they haven't imposed the same restriction on other phones. From reading that thread, it sounds like it's actually MPEG vs WMV rather than h.264 vs WMV. I'm kind of surprised that they would have used WMV to begin with; I'm not surprised that Apple hasn't licensed WMV for the iPhone.
@Chris Zissis: This is a good theory, but it doesn't pan out. The Slingbox PRO outputs WMV, and it is supported by the iPhone. Check out the last page of the macrumors thread:
" The Pro and Solo are NOT capable of H.264 streaming. That very point should put an end to codec speculations. Period."
I love my Slingbox's but this was a total douchebag move on Slings part.
FIRE THE MARKETING TEAM! They just alienated your core fan base. Biggest "no no" in the marketing world. Never piss off your core customers who got you where you are.
Low-power (eg: VIA) PCs that are plenty powerful enough for MythTV are available. They also use less power than your Slingbox, if you are creative about their configuration (if you aren't, they'll use about the same).
Yes, it will cost a bit more. It is also futureproof. And new features will always be available at no charge.
It all depends on what you want. Some people want to invest a small amount of money on a proprietary solution that will be good for a few months, maybe even a couple of years, which they can then trash and rebuy later. Others of us want to invest in a more permanent solution.
The total initial cost for my triple tuner Myth box was under $200. It has been running for a few years now with less than $100 in upgrades and can now play 1080p video.
Please be more accurate, the iPhone app is not yet available
It is not available yet but I spoke with their customer service department last week.
They tell you that is due to technical requirements.
They said they will not be creating or modifying a version to work with the original Slingbox.
They also said they are not permitted to talk about the technical requirements (what or why) that don't allow it to work.
I'm not even seeing the app on the apple store?
I'm one of the poor suckers that has the original slingbox, and an iPhone... I'm pretty pissed. Any company that would pull this sort of forced obsolescence doesn't deserve any more of my business. I'll be switching to a Hava streamer, which is available for less than $100, supports multiple streams on the local network, and is going to have a FREE iPhone app within a month or two here.
Not only that, the Hava is built around standard protocols, and will play nicely with all kinds of different hardware and software. It might not be as mature as the Sling Box or Player, but who cares? Hava has chosen to empower their customers instead of trying to squeeze as many dollars as they can out of them. I'll be rewarding good behavior with my dollars.