If you’re a regular visitor to 40Tech, you may remember that we’re fans of the Slingbox. SlingPlayer for the iPhone works surprisingly well, allowing you to watch content from your home TV wherever you have a 3G or WiFi connection on your iPhone. You can also watch via the web, and there are apps for many other mobile clients. Unfortunately, the only option on the iPad was to run the iPhone app in compatible mode, so you didn’t get the benefit of the iPad’s higher resolution. That’s about to change.
Last week, Sling Media announced that the iPad app is about to launch. The app will cost $30, like the other mobile Slingbox apps. The important fact to note (and one that was actually announced in October), is that the app will only work with the Slingox PRO-HD and the Slingbox Solo. According to Sling, legacy Slingboxes don’t have the hardware capability to stream at the iPad’s higher resolution.
Are you like me, and pretty psyched about this news?
iPad Slingbox Player “Almost Here” [Zatz Not Funny!]
kenneth samson says:
do you know if the slingbox app will support closed captions for the deaf? the web is woefully lacking in any sort of captioned content for deaf people. even the netflix app failed to utilize the built-in closed captioning that the ipad has. total fail.I’d love to see one company FINALLY get it right.
November 15, 2010 — 11:54 pm
Kosmo @ The Soap Boxers says:
Geez, that’s pretty bad that Netflix doesn’t have CC. I could see someone getting through a game without CC (I know some people that mute the audio and just watch games), but I imagine that it’s quite important when you’re watching a movie – where the dialogue is actually important.
November 16, 2010 — 10:35 am
Evan Kline says:
Hi Kenneth. I have to confess, I don’t know too much about closed captioning. Since the sling apps just captures the output going to your TV, and displays whatever your TV would display, would that be enough? Or is there more to it than that?
November 17, 2010 — 1:37 pm
kenneth samson says:
evan – good question, i have no idea. i don’t want to spend what it costs for a slingbox and the app just to find out it doesn’t work. i’ve done that too many times to count only to be disappointed yet again.
kosmo – i’m profoundly deaf, meaning i hear almost nothing short of a bomb going off next to my head. …well, at least i assume i’d hear that, for the split second before i’m dead. ;-)
it’s maddening trying to find something that is captioned. hulu, on their website, has captions on some shows, which is great, i love that – but if i try to use the ipad instead of the desktop computer or laptop, it jams the signal and forces users to sign up for their hulu PLUS service. which would be okay, i would not mind paying for that – BUT for the fact hulu decided to eliminate captions from the PLUS. sigh.
netflix does not offer captions through their ipad app, either.
the technology IS THERE, but companies just refuse to use it. look at the videos at TEDtalks. ALL of them are captioned. i love it, i learn lots from those talks. but sometimes i just want to watch plain old tv like everyone else.
November 17, 2010 — 2:06 pm
Kosmo @ The Soap Boxers says:
I don’t suppose ADA extends to closed captioning? Honestly, it seems like a pretty reasonable request to me, especially since we’re talking about pretty large companies here. Seems like they might even come out ahead financially be attracting more customers.
I use CC quite a bit if I happen to be rocking the baby to sleep (or if I simply can’t hear because of this kids). There is some really lousy captioning on some shows – and sometimes it’s out of sync by several seconds – must be quite annoying for you.
November 17, 2010 — 8:43 pm
G Spencer says:
I just tried it. I was excited. Windows Slingbox software does captioning. Apple Mac version does not. The iPad app does not! This sucks!
January 9, 2011 — 8:36 pm
Evan Kline says:
That stinks, but thanks for reporting back with your findings.
January 12, 2011 — 4:09 pm