I've read a lot of posts and don't see anything that replaces my slingbox. I am a retired international airline pilot and have used my slingbox from all over the planet for many years. I just want to access my direct TV dvr remotely. I don't care about streaming (although i do it). I want to be able to watch my shows and skip the commercials. I watch 99% of TV without them. Yes....it's wonky using the remote but I live with it. Thanks in advance.
Slingbox replacement
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Try looking on ebay...not sure you can buy a new one
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I believe the slingbox is dead or close to not being supported anymore.
Probably DirecTV Stream would be your best bet, but if I remember right It will only do locals in the area you are in.
I have used Tivo's with cable and now OTA but not sure I would invest in Tivo equipment any more. They seem to be dying a slow death also.
Tablo looks interesting but I really don't know of a product that does what slingbox did or as well as it did it.
www.tablotv.com
I currently use a OTA Tivo Bolt, Evoca TV (only in limited areas), a Roku and streaming services, Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV and Paramount + to get what I used to be able to get with one service.
evoca.tv
DirecTV and Comcast have gotten so expensive it was not worth it anymore to me. The best content now seems to be on multiple streaming services.
I guess we are dinosaurs. The younger generations want nothing to do with DVR's or OTA TV. They want everything on their phones and streaming.
Probably DirecTV Stream would be your best bet, but if I remember right It will only do locals in the area you are in.
I have used Tivo's with cable and now OTA but not sure I would invest in Tivo equipment any more. They seem to be dying a slow death also.
Tablo looks interesting but I really don't know of a product that does what slingbox did or as well as it did it.
Tablo Products
Tablo is a DVR for cord cutters who use an Over-the-Air antenna to watch free live, local TV.
I currently use a OTA Tivo Bolt, Evoca TV (only in limited areas), a Roku and streaming services, Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV and Paramount + to get what I used to be able to get with one service.
The smart, simple way to watch TV!
Evoca uses Next-Generation broadcast technology to provide high quality, reliable programming at a fraction of the cost of cable.
evoca.tv
DirecTV and Comcast have gotten so expensive it was not worth it anymore to me. The best content now seems to be on multiple streaming services.
I guess we are dinosaurs. The younger generations want nothing to do with DVR's or OTA TV. They want everything on their phones and streaming.
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24,987 Posts
TiVos and Tablos aren't really a solution to the problem as they can only record content from their tuners (none of which support satellite).
What Slingbox is shutting down is their locating service but I think there may be a way to use a Slingbox without the service.
Before Sling had the locating service, we could access the box with an IP address which could be handled with a dynamic DNS service.
What Slingbox is shutting down is their locating service but I think there may be a way to use a Slingbox without the service.
Before Sling had the locating service, we could access the box with an IP address which could be handled with a dynamic DNS service.
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36,654 Posts
I'm not sure what you're exactly looking for but I switched from D*'s satellite service to their streaming service and it's quite a step up from the satellite service. The remotes are different but easy to use, and you can do damn near everything you can do with the satellite service's remotes. Watching the streaming service is like watching Netflix; very few issues with the picture or the audio. The DVR function is so easy to use compared to a physical DVR that I can't imagine returning to an actual DVR.
The only problem I had was taking the streaming service for a test drive. They offer a free five-day trial without the box or the remote. I don't see how anyone could decide to switch without the proper equipment. There is no commitment, and I bought a box that came with the proper remote, I figured I could return them if I didn't like the service. All it took was a day to get used to it and a comparison of a baseball game viewed on both platforms. The streaming service is so much better that I canceled my satellite service and bought four more boxes. Unless something catastrophic happens, I'll never use a DVR again.
If someone had told my a year ago this would happen I would have laughed in his face. And I would have been wrong again. Try the streaming service, it's too good to pass up. I think.
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The hows and whys of the Slingbox are widely known. Given that most legitimate streaming services are geographically limited (even with VPN), they are often of very limited utility for the World traveler. The Slingbox effectively steps around geofencing which perhaps makes it a boon to those who want to use streaming services from outside their home region.
Given that this is in the general satellite discussion, it can be inferred that we're probably talking about content that is perhaps not well covered in the streaming service world.
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1 Posts
Take a look at the AMAZON TV RECAST.
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The Fire TV Recast, like the Tablo and TiVo DVRs, can only be used for content tuned by their internal tuners -- in this case, OTA DTV signals.
The only device that really came particularly close was the ReplayTV and DIRECTV flushed that down the tubes many years ago.
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The nifty thing about the Slingbox is that allowed the user to remotely interact the device that it was associated with as if you were at home. You could navigate the menus and check the recording history or even execute something like an OTA re-scan from hundreds of miles away. When streaming services start carrying ALL of the available channels (including your home OTA and possibly FTA channels) as well as content not meant to be streamed out-of-country, then you have a partial solution.
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Much of that was related to poor computer performance and/or slow uplink speeds that probably aren't the issue that they once were.
There are many places on the planet where one's streaming service option is staring at wallpaper due to geofencing. The streaming services continue to get smarter and smarter about VPNs so it seems likely that option is destined to get less optional rather than more.
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