Who knows if this is an extra special promotion, merely a pricing mistake, or the end of the line for the Slingbox 500. Irrespective of reason, Sears is offering up the device once known as Sling TV for more than half off at $140. New, not refurb, and shipped free. At $300, the Slingbox 500 makes no sense. But with this fire sale pricing, you benefit from the same wireless connectivity found in the lower-end Slingbox M1 along with (sometimes frustrating) HDMI pass-thru and a few TV-based perks your Roku or Fire TV probably does much better. Despite the now ad-compromised experience, Slingbox remains the most versatile solution to stream your video within or beyond the home. Should this deal appeal, you better act fast… as I suspect it’ll be gone as quickly as that $300 TiVo OTA with Lifetime Service.
It looks like they still have them for sale, but when you put one in your cart and try to check out, you get a messages saying “Oh no… The quantity you had selected was the amount we have in stock. We should have more available soon.”
I make this contribution knowing of the Ad controversy thread, but i think it is relevant here as it relates to those who may seriously consider Sling 500 at this really great price:
I use Firefox and run No Script (with the new Sling browser player), and I do not experience any ads. Also, I understand that the ads are appearing on the browser and/or browser TAB, but—do the ads also appear using the Sling Pop-Up-Player? The PUP option is at the top right portion of the Sling browser player with a rectangle as an icon, and it is essentially a separate WINDOW with minimal clutter that can be re-sized over any part of your PC screen. I use PUP exclusively because it is clutter free and the resize allows me to use a third party program that can pin the PUP window to always stay on top. I hope the ads don’t appear using the Sling Pop-up-Player.
Can’t imagine the ad blocker will get the video ads within the player, versus the banner ads on the periphery…? Also, using the stand alone player is out of the question — that’s where most of the folks with the M1 got hit. Regardless, for the first time since 2005, I’ve got no Slingbox – the market has changed, I’ve changed, and Sling has changed.
Honestly, I mostly use the SlingBox in the L/R now as a remote to do things when the wife can’t figure it out, or I can’t be bothered to go into the other room–so to kickoff a transfer from pyTiVo to the L/R TiVo for example, something you can’t do from a Mini. Its been quite some time since I watched anything via SlingPlayer honestly. Still have the box, still use it periodically but wouldn’t put new money into the experience.
Didn’t Sears also have the M1(or was it the Slingbox 350?) for only around $70 recently?