Seven More Days of Slingbox

Welp. It’s come to this. Slingbox servers will be shut down forever come November 9th. At which point all remaining devices will be bricked. *

As part of the original Sling Media team, initially in an advisory role followed by full-time employment, redefining media consumption was a wild and fulfilling ride. But, like the personal DVR, roll-your-own video streaming is largely transitory as we embrace our messy but largely liberated content futures.

While it’s fairly easy to replicate Slingbox functionality these days for over-the-air antenna TV (Tablo, HDHomeRun with Channels or Plex, Slingbox-descendent AirTV), for better or worse we’ve moved away from remote (IR) control of that cable box. Oh I’m sure something could be hacked together. But with such plentiful and, optionally ad-free, streaming services available it’s really not worth it. It is worth mentioning that Slingbox technology lives on in DISH Hopper – to stream that live and recorded content anywhere.

Interestingly, early Slingboxes/software did not actually require Sling Media servers as home IPs could be hardcoded. We were simply in the mix to provide a dynamic DNS service, facilitating the client-to-box connection. But, some time after we were acquired, the powers that be began dabbling in ads (ugh) and subscriptions – which do indeed require that permanent intermediary.

No post on the former Sling Media is complete without a shout-out to our fearless leader, the visionary Blake Krikorian (passed away 2016) who largely inspired our future (present). For a fun, prescient retrospective hit the play button below to hear us chit-chatting for the blog in 2005 before we’d contemplated joining forces.