Sling to launch Slingbox Tuner, AV, Pro
By Ryan Block 
posted Sep 21st 2006 3:51PM
posted Sep 21st 2006 3:51PM
It apparently slipped beneath our FCC-radar, but a posting on Sling Community shows some interesting developments according to FCC filings. Sling Media's apparently planning at least three new devices (here, here, and here), the Tuner, AV, and Pro. All are listed with confidentiality agreements, but here's what we know, between the FCC and the forums: the SB220-100 tuner will supposedly just have coax in and out; the SB240-100 A/V is the one we saw a week ago today, with S-Video and composite ins (and is apparently not equipped with a tuner); finally, the SB200-100 Pro supposedly has HDMI, a coax tuner (like the original Slingbox), composite, component, and S-Video inputs and outputs. The FCC confidentiality agreement goes up next Thursday, the 28th, so it would seem either Sling's going to have some announcements to make, or the FCC's going to have some announcements to make for them.
[Thanks, KC]
Three new slingboxes yet they still cant get mac support worked out.
Heh; product names with no details are always good for starting rumors. Personally I'd like to see a slingbox with support for digital cable and cablecards, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Note to Engadget: See how I said "details" and not "deets"? Wouldn't it be refreshing if you did the same?
Still waiting for a Palm OS version (or even a mention!)
I'm with you all the way on your 'No Deets' campaign. It's just a short step from 'deets' to w8ing.
Great... a built-in tuner... so now it can sling channels 0-99, but for those of us living in the real world, how 'bout something that can actually do all 1000+ channels my provider offers? Of course, a good MythTV solution can be a slingbox if you install a remote frontend and have good bandwidth at both ends...
Will it be out by Christmas?
Slingbox on my Axim x51v is great (though 640x480 would be nice). But certainly wish I didn't have to plug up two power jacks to get the thing to work in the first place. Wifi, please.
I saw stick to your providers box for all 1000+ channels. Comcast has an UGLY DVR interface but powerful hardware (the moto box) They've been doing dual HDTV recording for over 2 years, while Tivo screws around. Besides Tivo is so impressed with the Motorola Comcast Box (62XX?) That they have an agreement with Comcast and another company to port Tivo to both boxes by the end of the year. I'm looking forward to that.
I'll always keep my Slingbox or something (like this) iTV on a separate input or setup to just watch whatever channel the TV is on. If I'm using slingbox (normal) and not these devices I'll just have the comcast DVR change channels remotely.
Especially since the FCC just de-commissioned cable providers from having to support CableCard anymore. You won't see CableCard in any Future products after January, nor will many providers even support them. CableCard support has been bad from the beginning.
The good news is Congress/FCC mandated that all DVR/Video Recorder devices have a legal way for consumers to get their content off the box. Comcast for one has Firewire as well as USB ports on the box. Unfortunately you have to be a serious gearhead to copy your content off the boxes currently.
Hopefully in the future, with TiVo interfaces this will change. Maybe something like the "iTV" will be able to directly connect via USB to my comcast DVR, or to my Slingbox. Who knows, there are lots of possibilities. But CableCard just isn't in the future. So other ways of sharing between rich channels will have to happen.
I went to Fry's today in Naperville, IL and they have the Slingbox AV unit on the shelf. I tried to buy it but when the cashier tried to ring it up, the POS system said that it cannot be sold yet (the same mechanism that prevents the premature sales of DVDs before their official release date).
Reviews and performance analysis of the new slingboxes can be found on the Sling Community at http://www.slingcommunity.com. Anyone interested might want to check out the overview of the new line at: The Slingbox Family - Slingbox Tuner, Slingbox A/V, & Slingbox PRO and the comparison between the models called Which Slingbox is Right For Me?.
Ok, here's the deal, I was just at FRY's electronics in Santa Clara, California and I happened to see the new “SlingBox Tuner” up on display with a $179.99 price tag. I has very happy to see on the side of the box support for Max OS X (Universal Binary). I picked one up and went to pay for it at the cashiers only to find out that the product is so new that it's not even in their (Fry's) database, so they couldn't even sell it to me and pulled all of them off the display until the very new product gets entered in the cashiers DB!! Someone there at the store put them on display before checking with management. I tried my best to bring one home with me tonight but after speaking with 2 different managers, no success ?. They (the managers) took all the new slingBoxes off the shelves and took them back to the storage. I’ve been told that they’ll be available for sale in a few days.
I just ordered a PRO at Newegg for $228 with free 3 day shipping. They have them in stock.