I have a Slingbox, and for ages I didn't upgrade the firmware in it because they added encryption to the stream (there were slingbox video ripping products around until then). I figured some media companies probably leaned on them about it because as a company they were quite liberal about everything for a while.
In the end I had to upgrade and lost the ability to record TV.
Not only that but they charge more for a Windows Mobile version, about £30 which is a bit of a rip off given that they give away the Windows player.
Tom- this is a similar situ as the BBCs iPlayer screw up, slingmedia are tied into Windows Media technologies with some kind of DRM, thats what the box encodes to and so its unlikely we'll ever see a Linux/OS-X player (but maybe a separate slingbox for all platforms???). It also goes some way towards explaining why they charge for the mobile version.
Heres hoping some years down the line they release the slingbox firmware source code after it dies out - I'm looking forward to there being some open source alternative encoders coming along. vive-la-revolution.
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@tom
I agree.
I have a Slingbox, and for ages I didn't upgrade the firmware in it because they added encryption to the stream (there were slingbox video ripping products around until then). I figured some media companies probably leaned on them about it because as a company they were quite liberal about everything for a while.
In the end I had to upgrade and lost the ability to record TV.
Not only that but they charge more for a Windows Mobile version, about £30 which is a bit of a rip off given that they give away the Windows player.
Tom- this is a similar situ as the BBCs iPlayer screw up, slingmedia are tied into Windows Media technologies with some kind of DRM, thats what the box encodes to and so its unlikely we'll ever see a Linux/OS-X player (but maybe a separate slingbox for all platforms???). It also goes some way towards explaining why they charge for the mobile version.
Heres hoping some years down the line they release the slingbox firmware source code after it dies out - I'm looking forward to there being some open source alternative encoders coming along. vive-la-revolution.