Horrible news. I use Slingbox regularly, and especially when DA is being unreliable. Its proprietary encoding makes for the best PQ of any competing device, even in slow bandwidth situations, and it is still the best at what it does. This shutdown of production has nothing to do about Dish fees vs. a stand alone Slingbox. In fact, Scott uploaded a great video where the DA App works on FireTV with NO EXTRA MONTHLY CHARGE. The problem for Slingbox is that so much has changed in the last few years that, to many, Slingbox might seem redundant. Here were the market challenges for Slingbox:
1. Made money only on the initial sale of the box: This is the same problem with TiVo (and its Lifetime now renamed All-in--and BTW, TiVo's supported Stream--built in or stand alone--is a sad joke of content not allowed to be streamed or just far more buggy and unreliable than DA: it's a mess). How does one make money on the one-time sale a device and app with continued support costs that, even after all these years, still has a very limited appeal? True, one had to PAY for the mobile App--for EACH device--but that's a one time ka-ching, as well. It's not like a gaming console that demands one up-grade to the next gen if one wants to play the ever more processor demanding games. There are costs to maintaining support and continued app development for new devices and OS's. From what funds are such costs paid well after the initial sale of the device and app? Nowhere! While TiVo did get some revenue from monthly fees it wasn't enough compared to the number of now costly Lifetime units to support. The only reason TiVo did not sell to another company years ago was because it was living on settlements from patent infringement payments, but that only delayed things until just last year when Rovi purchased TiVo, and Rovi aint a goin for the TiVo as we know it: The new product is a box with "cloud" services. Let's face it, some of us like our "Free Lunches" and get upset when we lose them.
2. Advertising Fiasco: An attempt to monetize Slingbox after initial sale was horribly implemented with no official word or explanation, and this may have been the death blow as many were angered and posted negative and more negative reviews on Amazon. The idea was to make the App FREE to the consumer, but pay for it with ads like the experience on YouTube. The irony was that one could easily skip the ads on SlingPlayers using the Pop-up window, but that changed very recently. The real problem here was LACK OF COMMUNICATION. People were USED to not having ads pop-up at the beginning--which could easily be skipped by selecting the SKIP AD button--but far too many were offended. Also, the ads in the partial view never appeared on the Full Screen mode. Full Screen mode was ad free and I was still easily able to reduce my window size to keep viewing my content. Ads were at startup and never inserted during streaming. It was about as non-obnoxious as ad placement could get (some forums have far more obtrusive and glaring ads), but some people just FREAKED. Frankly, I rarely had to deal with ads because I knew how to operate the SlingPlayers, but too many people could not figure it out or quickly get to Full Screen mode or just hated the idea of the ads altogether. Most of the negative reviews because of ads were nearly all form users who did not know how to use the Sling app or Sling Player to begin with. Their ignorance was profound. Honestly, the ads never bothered me nor were a problem and easily killed, and I did see it as a way that Slingbox could survive. In fact, the introduction of ads had me worried because it meant that if the Slingbox with ads was not a success, then I fully expected Slingbox to begin is Swan Song, and, in fact, it now is confirmed. I had even suggested some form of say annual payment of $12 or so to keep the Slingboxes coming and supported indefinitely, but that won't be the case, either. Slingbox was still the same quality product it was providing the same thing people wanted---but they did not want it with ads. So, now we will have NOTHING--as in no boxes in production, ever (an Sling-like competing products aren't even close to being as decent as a Slingbox), and is it really too long from now when Slingbox announces that it will be ceasing support, which means with the new Android OS (including future FireTV's) or iOS to come, your Slingbox will be useless. "Drat, I should've kept that Marsh-mellow phone and old Roku or old FireTV." That would be the best case scenario; I don't want to even think of the worst case scenario.
3. Not so much a need for a Slingbox when there are other options baked into a pay service: Let's face it, the vast majority of people now access their content remotely using built-in streaming tech from cable and sat companies that give them access to the content they've paid for, and EVEN MORE CONTENT than a Slingbox offer because those cable and sat apps provided access to VOD (not all cable or sat boxes access VOD, and certainly not retail TiVo's). It makes no sense to Joe Blow to get a Slingbox when he has his MVPD app. Further, services like SlingTV, DirecTVNow, Sony PS, are already streaming services that can be accessed anywhere there is internet with all the subscriber's content available, anywhere, anytime on almost any device. That's how those services were designed. A Slingbox for OTT's MVPD's is both pointless and, most likely, not even possible to work. What's the point of trying to control a Roku or Amazon FireTV using a Slingbox when you can just have one of those devices in cabin to begin with, even if Slingbox could control them, which I don't think they can.
It's too bad Slingbox did not offer a paid annual subscription of a dollar two a month. But, I think Echostar felt there was a declining need for Slingbox, and the ad fiasco just proved too many people were willing to walk away from it, so why bother offering a low subscription price. For, me it would have been worth it because I do use Slingbox often and have used it many times in some very interesting situations (it even works as a replacement to paying $7 or more to cable or sat to watch in full HD in the other room.
Well, people weren't careful and they got what they asked for, now Slingbox will cease to be made. Boy, we sure showed them didn't we. And you had better hope enough people pay for the Ring cloud recording storage service or say goodbye to Ring, as well, or to Ooma if not enough people subscribe to the Premiere level. I never was offended by Ring video doorbell's model of, for a very modest price, monetizing the saved video in the cloud, because continued support costs MONEY and such devices need a revenue stream after initial purchase of the original product, but quite a lot of people do whine about it. Well, even forums have to come hat-in-hand for money (ads alone may be enough) or it will not exist. Guess what? It's the same for every other private venture with continued costs of support: sufficient money has to be continually generated from a product of very limited appeal or it will cease to exist. If we want Slingbox, Ring video doorbell or YouTube or forums or whatever "Free" thing we like to continue to exist, we have to pay in one form or the other: ads or montly/annual fees.
And this is a new way of thinking, especially to some of us who are a little "older?" For we come from a world of HARD PRODUCTS like paper books, and other physical products that require no support costs from the company who sold it to us. Today, it is truly a cyber world, and in the never ending changes in API OS's, etc., it seems almost every PHYSICAL product is saddled with "support costs" or it will cease to function (like some of those first fancy internet connected refrigerators : they are USELESS in that respect as we speak because no one continued support because IT COSTS MONEY!). For our stuff to work today, it relies on a network or other infrastructure of some sort like the internet or OS's and ever changing API's or even, in some cases, just the servers--SOMEONE has to PAY for all this support of change or it is dead. But it aint easy for people to change. We can't expect something for nothing.
I hope my Slingbox continue to function for as long as possible, but I guess I can't get the "O" (Oreo?) candy, sweet named Android OS for my phone or tablet. I'll have to keep old stuff to keep using Slingbox.
