Good news for Slingbox owners contemplating a move to Windows Phone 7, as Sling has announced their intentions to bring placeshifting support to the new mobile platform.
The first SlingPlayer Mobile client was built on Windows Mobile and Sling has largely relied on Microsoft’s Windows Media Video (WMV) technology over the years, so a Windows Phone 7 client shouldn’t come as a surprise. However, one very interesting nugget from the video above is reaffirmation that the current 320×240 max streaming resolution for mobile clients is about to be superseded. Given the processors and screen resolutions found on todays handsets, Sling can surely do better. And I’ve confirmed with the company that the Windows Phone 7 client will natively stream up to 640×480. Although, no details on timing or pricing were revealed.
Now about that iPad app…
From the Sling Forum
ANNOUNCEMENT: News about SlingPlayer Mobile for iPad Hide Details
We have been hard at work on an iPad version of SlingPlayer Mobile. When it becomes available it will be priced at 29.99, the same as all of our SlingPlayer Mobile applications. The new app will take full advantage of the iPad’s beautiful display.
Note that the new SlingPlayer Mobile for iPad will only work with the Slingbox PRO-HD and Slingbox Solo. Legacy Slingboxes, like the Classic, Tuner, AV and Pro, do not have the hardware capability to stream at the iPad’s higher resolution. This means that customers who own a legacy Slingbox should NOT purchase the iPad app.
If you have already purchased SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone, it will continue to work in “Compatibility Mode” on the iPad at no extra charge. The iPhone version of the app will stream from all Slingboxes, but not at the higher quality resolutions of the iPad app.
So obviously, and as expected, they’ll be moving to H.264 for the iPad app (given the PRO-HD and SOLO requirement, without making it a universal) to get that higher resolution efficiently. What was the date on that post? Wondering how far out we might be… Thanks!
Never mind, I found the announcement from 10/5. So we should be pretty close…
How about some new hardware? We haven’t seen any new consumer hardware for more than two years now. It seems like they are keeping what they have without coming up with any new ideas.
They’ve been working on a lot of hardware. Unfortunately it’s been for service providers, like DISH Network, to offer. I do agree that we’re overdue for new retail hardware. Assuming they’re still interesting in retail. At the very least, a slimmed down PRO-HD would be nice. But I have zero expectation we’ll ever see a SlingCatcher 2. Maybe they’ll re-purpose that 15″ SlingTV for retail – then again, with the upcoming iPad app, Apple’s tablet might be a better path for most of us.
The sling extenders (f/n/a catcher) and sling adapter are still “coming soon” on dish website. I thought that the reason beyond buying sling was not just giving more of the same to their customers but actually moving to a global (or at least national) iptv, before apple does it, and re-routing to the Internet subscribers. It is a shame that sling.com’ never became what it was suppose to be.