However, before you get too excited, according to AVC Product Manager Allan Hsieh, the TV will not support placeshifting from Sling Media’s standalone Slingboxes. Rather, it is designed to work with DISH Network’s placeshifting products. I expect that means the ViP922 SlingLoaded DVR, and the USB SlingAdapter used with the ViP722 and the new Hopper DVR. I don’t understand why companies do this kind of thing, what is the logic behind limiting the usefulness of the embedded SlingPlayer? I really don’t see this pushing people to sign up for DISH and their products. Placeshiting is already a niche, there’s no reason to artificially limit the product.

That aside the set is respectable. It uses a 55″ LG Display flat pattern retarder panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, and it will be packaged with four pairs of 3D glasses. It has 4 HDMI and 2 USB inputs, and 4GB of internal storage with 2GB of DDR3 RAM to run the built-in apps on a dual-core Mediatek processor. No pricing has been released as of yet.

The video also clearly states the requirements for streaming in high quality (HQ) mode. SlingPlayer for iPad and SlingPlayer for Android tablets require 800kbps over 3G or 4G networks, and 1200kbps over WiFi. SlingPlayer for iPhone/iPod Touch, SlingPlayer for Android phones, and SlingPlayer for Windows Phone requires 500kbps over 3G or 4G networks and 800kbps over WiFi. Note those are the minimum speeds required for streaming HQ, higher speeds will provide better quality. If you can’t get those speeds you should stream in standard quality (SQ) mode. If you leave SlingPlayer it ‘auto’ it should figure it out and set the mode correctly.

This is a pretty good deal as the MSRP is $298.00, and Amazon sells these new for $233.46. The lower-end Slingbox SOLO model has a $178.00 MSRP and sells new for $142.76, and while it can handle HD input it does not stream in HD. It also only officially supports one input, while the PRO-HD supports two sets of A/V input – one HD and one SD, as well as having an internal ATSC/Clear-QAM tuner.

With the change, the company said in a statement provided to Multichannel News, it will shift resources to support “EchoStar’s unique intellectual property and advanced content-delivery technologies.” The company owns Sling Media, developer of the Slingbox device, and acquired the adaptive bit-rate technology of Move Technologies last year for $45 million.

However, EchoStar said it “remains firmly committed to supplying advanced hardware, software, and system solutions to its global cable, satellite, and telecom customers outside of the U.S. cable set top box market.”

“EchoStar recognizes that the highly demanding and competitive nature of the U.S. set-top market is very cost-competitive,” the company said. “After considerable review of the market and EchoStar’s sales/product development efforts, EchoStar has concluded the U.S. cable market offers insufficient revenue return opportunities to the company and our investors.”

That’s good news for TiVo, as Aria had the potential to be a serious competitor, especially with small-to-medium MSOs, if EchoStar was able to execute. EchoStar certainly knows how to make DVRs; something like a CableCARD version of DISH Network’s Hopper could’ve been quite a strong whole-home product. The death of Aria removes a potential competitor from the field, and really effectively leaves only ARRIS’s Moxi lineup to compete with TiVo for the small-to-medium market. The larger MSO market is dominated by traditional players like Motorola and Cisco, though TiVo has made inroads there with the likes of Charter.

They have a short video which walks through the different generations of their designs for Sling Media and highlights some of the key design points:

They also have one on the Sling Touch Control 100, which they designed of course:

This was announced at CES 2010, but I don’t believe it ever shipped.

New Deal Design has worked on a number of other well known projects as well – such as the Lytro, Sifteo Cubes, the Fitbit Wellness Tracker, and, reaching way back, the Palm Zire. They’re the design wizards behind the curtain.

As for other streaming boxes – Popbox, Western Digital, etc. – no idea. None of the other devices really have much of a user base so it may not be worth the effort.

Well, according to a post today on Tech of the Hub, I was dead wrong. SlingPlayer for Connected Devices is coming to the Western Digital WD TV Live family. They posted a message from a tipster, apparently from the Sling Media Beta site:

If you have a WD TV Live or WD TV Live Hub, now would be a good time to list it in your TV & AV Equipment Test Platform. We may have a beta opportunity coming up real soon and we usually recruit testers based on their beta profile information.

Today SlingPlayer for Connected Devices is available for Boxee and the Logitech Revue Google TV – though it also works on Sony’s Google TV products. And now it looks like it is coming to the WD TV Live Hub 1TB Media Center (MSRP $229.99, Amazon $169.00) and WD TV Live Streaming Media Player (MSRP $129.99, Amazon $92.95), at least from that note. It isn’t clear if it will be coming to older models like the WD TV Live Plus (Amazon $149.84).

Did you see it? Answer after the cut…

The Slingbox the aliens give to Blake is the Slingbox PRO, one of the second generation boxes. They should’ve used the original Slingbox Classic!

This is actually a very nice system, and one of the few things I’m envious of as a TiVo user. I use an external Slingbox with my TiVo, but that’s really a but if a kludge with analog A/V connections and IR blasters. The DISH Sling Adapter connects with a simple USB cable, and that’s all. TiVo’s forthcoming transcoder box will provide a similarly elegant solution via a single network connection, even moreso as it can support multiple DVRs with one box. However, initially at least, it will only stream within the home. I really hope TiVo comes around and adds true place shifting for streaming outside of the home as well. Then I’d gladly replace my Slingbox.

Three tuners, but it can record up to six HD channels at once? What kind of dark voodoo is this? Well, note the asterisk: “*DURING PRIMETIME HOURS”. And now note this from the quote above “ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC”. How it manages this trick is actually pretty simple, but requires a little explanation.

I’ll oversimplify a bit, but for analog broadcast TV you have one channel per frequency. A tuner did just that – it tuned a given frequency and therefore a program. But with digital content frequencies and channels have a more nebulous relationship. A single frequency block may contain several digital channels all multiplexed, or MUXed, together. And this is precisely how satellite works. They can’t use a dedicated transponder and frequency for each channel, rather channels are MUXed together. So ‘tuning’ a single channel is actually a multi-step process.

First the tuner tunes the desired frequency and this allows the unit to receive the data stream that is the MUX. Normally the next step is that the signal is de-MUXed and the desired channel is extracted, with the other data being discarded. This one channel is then saved to the drive as a recording. Can you see where I’m going?

Since DISH controls everything end to end, what they’ve done is place ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC in one MUX. And instead of de-MUXing the data as it is received they’re saving the entire MUX to the drive, all four channels. Then it is de-MUXed at playback time, not record time. That’s how it can record up to six channels with three tuners. You have one tuner recording the MUX, for four channels, and two tuners each recording a single channel.

But this is limited. As the page states, they do this during prime time hours only. And recording four channels takes up four times the space, even if you’re never going to watch all four channels. The Hopper has a 2TB drive, but only half is available for user recordings – up to 250 hours. The other half is used to store these PrimeTime Anytime MUX recordings, as well as pre-cached OnDemand content pushed the the box. And you can’t record up to six programs you select, you can only record up to three individual programs. Or two programs while the third tuner is occupied recording this MUX.

So you can record any three channels or the four-channel prime time MUX of the major networks and any two other channels – which is how they get six total. And it only does this during prime time, 8-11pm Eastern, so you won’t be doing this for day time programming, etc.

In addition to this PrimeTime AnyTime feature, the Hopper also supports TV Anywhere place shifting with the Sling Adapter add-on.

Last week DISH launched a new YouTube channel and they’ve gone on a tear uploading videos – most of which have to do with the Hopper. They do provide some useful product info:

They even have a couple of TV spots for it, though I’m not really sure if I should be amused or offended seeing as I currently live in central MA and my wife is from South Boston. And no, she does not have this accent:

They’ve even uploaded videos from the launch at CES:

Anyway, they’ve now launched an actual Embedded SlingPlayer, which you see here:

Actually, that’s one of two options, called the Launch Pad. That pops open the player in a new window, and it is designed for embedding within blogs and such with limited width – like this one – as it is 500×200. The other option is the Full Player, which is just what it sounds like, and is 768×800. You can get the code to include it in your own page from their page.

It is Flash-based, and should work in any Flash-enabled browser on any platform, including Linux – and likely on any set top boxes, gaming consoles, etc., which will run Flash. Go head, give it a try and leave a comment.

They also have a PDF copy of Sling Media’s presentation available for download.

That is, until today. EngadgetHD’s Richard Lawler called my attention to this video,“Introduction to the Verizon Slingbox Subscription Plan”, posted yesterday by Sling Support:

According to the video the Verizon Slingbox Subscription Plan is available now, for a $49.99 deposit and $9.99/month – plus taxes and shipping. You get a Slingbox 120, Slingbox player software for your Verizon mobile device (which is not the same as the generally available SlingPlayer app), and ‘accessories’. I found this FAQ on Sling’s website, which indicates the ‘accessories’ amount to a pair of SlingLink TURBO powerline network adapters – also seen in the video. The deposit is refundable if you cancel the subscription and return the hardware.

The video states that the subscription is available if your have a 4G LTE device, but the app doesn’t seem to be available on my Verizon Galaxy Nexus nor my wife’s Verizon Droid RAZR. The FAQ indicates the supported phones are the HTC Thunderbolt, Samsung Droid Charge, and LG Revolution, while the video explicitly mentions the Thunderbolt, Charge, and the Motorola Droid Bionic – but not the Revolution.

Since the phones mentioned are all last year’s models, and this hit out of the blue, I left the following comment on the video:

This was announced last year, and the FAQ on Sling’s site? (support.slingbox.com/get/KB-2­000434.html) seems out of date – the phone models listed are all last year’s models. Is this actually launching now? Which phones are/will be supported? I don’t see the app on my Verizon Wireless Galaxy Nexus, which is 4G LTE.

Somewhat surprisingly, Sling Support responded quickly thusly:

Good point, but that FAQ is actually accurate. We have a limited roll out right now and are evaluating other VZW models as they come to market.? Thanks!

If the flagship 4G LTE phones aren’t supported it does seem to be ‘limited’, but hopefully they’ll expand this to newer models rapidly. It certainly seems to have been a very quiet launch. Not only did we miss any sign of it, but I can’t find any mention of this service anywhere on the Verizon Wireless website. And even the Sling Media website is pretty much limited to the old 2011 press release and the FAQ. It doesn’t seem like either party is doing much to publicize this option.

What about you? If you have a Verizon 4G LTE phone, especially a model not listed above, is this available to you? Would you take this over just buying a Slingbox outright? A Slingbox SOLO is currently $162.02 at Amazon, and SlingPlayer for Phones is $29.99, so you’d be looking at just over $192. That’s about 19 months worth of subscription fees (I won’t count the deposit since that’d refundable). Personally I think buying a Slingbox at retail is a better deal in the long run.

Android phones:

Android tablets:

Kindle Fire:

iPhone:

iPad:

Windows Phone 7:

Web:

The Hopper is only a three tuner DVR, which seems kind of meager given AT&T U-Verse, Verizon FiOS, and TiVo all have four tuner units, the DirecTV HR34 has five tuners, and Arris has a six tuner Moxi DVR available for cable MSOs. Especially as the Joey boxes rely on the tuners in the Hopper for live TV. However, the Hopper does have one unique trick up its sleeve – PrimeTime Anytime:

The Hopper’s exclusive feature, PrimeTime Anytime, gives you instant On Demand access to your favorite shows on ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC in HD. Over three hours per night of HD primetime programming are available to you On Demand anytime for up to eight days from the initial air date.

How does it manage this trick? Well, you may notice the product page states:

The Hopper is a three–tuner Whole–Home HD DVR that lets you record up to six HD channels at once* and play them back from any room in your home.

Three tuners, but it can record up to six HD channels at once? What kind of dark voodoo is this? Well, note the asterisk:“*DURING PRIMETIME HOURS”. And now note this from the quote above“ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC”. How it manages this trick is actually pretty simple, but requires a little explanation.

I’ll oversimplify a bit, but for analog broadcast TV you have one channel per frequency. A tuner did just that – it tuned a given frequency and therefore a program. But with digital content frequencies and channels have a more nebulous relationship. A single frequency block may contain several digital channels all multiplexed, or MUXed, together. And this is precisely how satellite works. They can’t use a dedicated transponder and frequency for each channel, rather channels are MUXed together. So ‘tuning’ a single channel is actually a multi-step process.

First the tuner tunes the desired frequency and this allows the unit to receive the data stream that is the MUX. Normally the next step is that the signal is de-MUXed and the desired channel is extracted, with the other data being discarded. This one channel is then saved to the drive as a recording. Can you see where I’m going?

Since DISH controls everything end to end, what they’ve done is place ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC in one MUX. And instead of de-MUXing the data as it is received they’re saving the entire MUX to the drive, all four channels. Then it is de-MUXed at playback time, not record time. That’s how it can record up to six channels with three tuners. You have one tuner recording the MUX, for four channels, and two tuners each recording a single channel.

But this is limited. As the page states, they do this during prime time hours only. And recording four channels takes up four times the space, even if you’re never going to watch all four channels. The Hopper has a 2TB drive, but only half is available for user recordings – up to 250 hours. The other half is used to store these PrimeTime Anytime MUX recordings, as well as pre-cached OnDemand content pushed the the box. And you can’t record up to six programs you select, you can only record up to three individual programs. Or two programs while the third tuner is occupied recording this MUX. It isn’t clear what happens if you want to record three programs not on these four networks during prime time. Does it only allow you to schedule two recordings? Or does it not record the mux and thus not offer the PrimeTime Anytime content for that night? I suspect the former.

It is a clever trick, but it clearly has some limitations. I’d rather have more tuners at my disposal.

The Hopper does offer Blockbuster OnDemand via broadband, not surprising since DISH purchased Blockbuster. It also has SiriusXM Radio, which is a nice feature for those who subscribe. And while the Hopper is not SlingLoaded, like the ViP922, it is compatible with the USB Sling Adapter, like the ViP722. So you can add the Sling Adapter to enable place shifting. That is a nice feature.

What about MoCA? Well, that’s how the Hopper and Joey units work together to provide the whole-home DVR. MoCA is the new industry standard for whole-home DVRs. It is being widely adopted by cable MSOs, CE vendors such as TiVo, and satellite. DirecTV is also using MoCA for their whole-home streaming. (And before you leave a comment and ‘correct’ me by saying they use DECA, read this post.) I suspect DISH is using Mid-RF MoCA, just like DirecTV.

Overall the Hopper & Joey look like the best DISH Network has to offer, and worthy of being flagship products. However, I think they would’ve been better off bringing a DVR with more tuners to market rather than playing games with the MUX recording for prime time content. There’s no reason they couldn’t do both.

The Broadcom press release specifically mentions the BCM7425. That’s a MoCA 2.0 enabled chip that can simultaneously decode two HD video streams and transcode them for streaming, generally to portable devices. such a chip could be embedded in a set top box, or it could take the form of a standalone network-based transcoder that takes in the default HD streams, which are generally MPEG-2, and transcodes them to H.264 for streaming.

The ViXS press release speaks in more general terms about the XCode chip family. The Sling Media software has been integrated with the ViXS Xtensiv software stack for the XCode chips. The XCode family has varying features; the high-end 5100 can transcode six HD streams simultaneously while the 4200 can transcode dual streams. All of them have Ethernet support, so they could be embedded in an STB or used in a network-based transcoder. They don’t appear to have MoCA support, but a separate MoCA transceiver chip could handle that, as in the TiVo Premiere Elite.

Support for Sling’s streaming technology in these chips opens the door to the potential for SlingLoaded devices from vendors other than EchoStar. I think that would be very interesting. While EchoStar’s own efforts to market SlingLoaded devices haven’t met with much success, to date they’ve been limited to the Dish Network ViP922 DVR in the US and the EchoStar HDS-600RS Freesat+ DVR in the UK, licensing the tech to other vendors could be a more successful approach.

MVPDs have been showing an increasing interest in place shifting technology as a value add to attract customers. Dish, of course, already has the ViP922 and the Sling Adapter for the ViP722. DirecTV has the Nomad ‘store and forward’ network transcoding box. Various MSOs have trialed or tested place shifting hardware. Building it into their STBs, or offering a network-based add-on box to enable streaming, could be a way for MSOs to leverage the market leading Sling technology.

TiVo was showing of a technology demo of just such a box at CES, though there is no indication that Sling Media’s tech was involved. Still, now that EchoStar and TiVo aren’t involved in a blood feud, perhaps they can finally combine their respective best in breed technologies. TiVo’s demo box has a single Ethernet connection and power, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was using one of the ViXS chips. I doubt it is using the Broadcom chip as that’s slated for availability in 3Q12, though if TiVo brings such a unit to market I would very much expect the production version to have MoCA to ease integration with the Premiere Elite and to make it more appealing to their cable MSO partners. I’m hoping to have more to say about what TiVo was showing as CES soon.

Right now Amazon is selling a refurbished Logitech Revue for $79.99. So for $80 you can have a roll-your-own SlingCatcher with all of the features of Google TV. That’s a pretty solid deal.

There is one potential hitch. In a recent email newsletter Sling stated:“During this introductory period SlingPlayer for Logitech Revue is free! So, give it a try — you’re going to love it.” and“SlingPlayer for connected devices is free of charge in North America during this introductory period.” This seems to imply that after the introductory period is over, SlingPlayer for Logitech Revue will no longer be free. That’s not too surprising, they charge for all of their mobile clients too. Though it is getting a little ridiculous for us Android users as they now have three different versions, one for phones, one for tablets, and now one for Google TV, and they cost $30 each. It is perfectly feasible under the Android APIs to develop one client that works well on all three platforms. It is starting to feel like they’re milking the Android users for extra revenue.

Dave Zatz over on Zatz Not Funny noticed this as well. Dave thinks they may introduce monthly, or annual, subscription fees for these clients. I’m more inclined to think they’ll be priced as one-time purchases, just like the mobile clients. One-time purchases are more in-tune with the market on these devices and they’re easier for customers to swallow. Ongoing costs add up, and they’re harder to justify. I’d probably pay $30 for SlingPlayer on my Revue; even if I would resent it a bit since I’ve already purchased it for my phone, and will likely be purchasing it for my Transformer Prime when it arrives as well. But I’m not going to subscribe to it as a service. I just wouldn’t use it enough to justify that cost.

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Enjoy the specials!

Things really seemed to slow down with Sling a couple of years ago. There hasn’t been a new Slingbox since the PRO-HD launched in late 2008. There was a flurry of mobile client development in 2008 and early 2009, but after the iPhone & iPad SlingPlayer released in May 2009 things really slowed down. All of the service provider products introduced at CES 2012 seem to have fallen flat. SlingPlayer Mobile for Android finally launched in June 2010 and versions for Windows Phone and an iPad optimized version shipped in November of that year. The Windows Phone version snuck out pretty much unnoticed, though that probably has something to do with the market share of Windows Phone being negligible, to put it kindly. There’s been some activity with Sling in India, and EchoStar launched a SlingLoaded Freesat DVR in the UK, but neither seems to have attracted much attention.

But now we have a flurry of new activity, and I hope it is a sign of what’s to come and not just another blip on the radar. The latest is SlingPlayer for Connected Devices, which is something of a redemption for the disastrous SlingCatcher. It can turn your Slingbox PRO-HD or SOLO (sorry, other models need not apply) into a ‘whole home’ solution by allowing you to access content from the living room on a TV in the bedroom. Or maybe the kids away at school can access the family DVR at home. It is what the SlingCatcher was supposed to provide, and much more since it is now part of a STB which offers other services.

Right now ‘Connected Devices’ means the D-Link Boxee Box and… that’s it. However, as Sling says:“More connected devices will be added soon. Watch this space for updates in the upcoming weeks.” We already know that Google TV is a planned platform for SlingPlayer, hopefully soon. Coming on top of the Google TV 2.0 update (still pending for the Revue, admittedly), it might be another reason to pick up a Logitech Revue Google TV box or bundle. The Boxee Box is $174.95 at Amazon while the Revue is only $99.99. Right now those are the only two ‘Connected Devices’ Sling has discussed for SlingPlayer.

Of course, the question a lot of people are asking is – Will this come to Roku? Roku is the 800 pound gorilla in the streaming STB market, and the new Roku 2 units are certainly more capable app platforms. They also clearly have the highest market penetration, and some of the lowest prices. I really have to think Sling would want to get SlingPlayer for Connected Devices on Roku, but we haven’t heard anything about it to date so don’t get your hopes up.

I wouldn’t bet on seeing it on AppleTV either, not unless/until Apple opens it up for 3rd party apps. Everyone expected them to do that after updating it to be based on iOS, but it still hasn’t happened. Maybe Sling can work with Apple to get the client on the box, like Netflix, but I’m not holding my breath. As for other streaming boxes – Popbox, Western Digital, etc. – no idea. None of the other devices really have much of a user base so it may not be worth the effort.

Sling’s released a video showing off SlingPlayer for Connected Devices on the Boxee Box:

I have to say I’m gratified to see this, and maybe even a bit vindicated. Back in 2008 when I worked at Sling Media the SlingCatcher was two years late and still unreleased. I argued that we should kill it and just not release it. While the design was leading edge when it was announced, the market had changed a great deal in the interim. The SlingCatcher’s inability to handle HD H.264 and limited WMV/VC-1 support, and general reliance on MPEG-2 for HD, was a major issue. Also, the PC software’s requirement that content be playing on the desktop to stream, while innovative when announced, had been surpassed by software like PlayOn and the ability to stream content directly from disk. I just felt that it was basically a two year old product at launch, and two year old consumer electronics products are no longer market leaders.

Instead I argued that Sling should take a different route. Roku was already hot and I suggested making deals with Roku and other companies to embed SlingPlayer in existing products. Put it on Roku, Media Center Extenders (which were more popular at the time), etc. Write a version in Blu-ray Java and distribute it on disc. That would turn any BD-Live Blu-ray deck into a SlingCatcher (I still think that’s a viable idea), and get it embedded into players when the vendor is willing. Netflix later used the exact same approach – using disc-based player software for platforms like the PS3 until they could get an official client embedded in the firmware. Speaking of the PS3, game consoles were another platform I argued Sling should pursue – and I still believe they should.

Of course, in the end I lost the argument, the SlingCatcher shipped and bombed, and I got fired for something else. It is three years later, but it is still good to see SlingPlayer finally hitting other platforms. I think place shifting companies like Sling Media and Monsoon Multimedia need to take a different approach. Stop charging, or at least charging so much, for client software, and get the clients on as many platforms as possible. Ideally, publish the APIs so 3rd parties can build in client support to their platforms, developers can create unique clients for niche platforms, etc. My idea is to get the clients out there, as much as possible.

You want ubiquity. Because once the clients are everywhere, people have a reason to buy your hardware to feed those clients. And that’s where you make your money. If the consumer already has devices with SlingPlayer functionality, it gives them more reason to buy a Slingbox. Create a demand – the player – that only you can supply – with the box – and then sell the supply side.

Maybe this is the start.

Like all recent SlingPlayer Mobile clients SlingPlayer for Android Tablets only works with the Slingbox SOLO and PRO-HD, older Slingboxes need not apply. If you have a SlingLoaded Dish Network ViP922 DVR or a Sling Adapter with your ViP722 you do not want to use this, you want the free Dish Remote Access app.

SlingPlayer for Tablets is designed for Android tablets running Android 3.0 Honeycomb or later. It is not to be confused with SlingPlayer for Phones, which is meant for devices running Android 1.6 or later. Yes, Sling has produced two different clients and not one unified client that works well on both platforms. (While you can run the phone client on a tablet it isn’t optimized for the larger screens.) That means two $29.99 purchases for those with both types of devices.

I’m not sure which client is best for phones running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, like the Galaxy Nexus. On the one hand some phones now have higher resolution displays – qHD or 720p – equal to many tablets, just physically smaller. And the OS has the features to support the tablet player. I suppose you can try the tablet player out and use the 15 minute return window for a refund if it doesn’t work well. Leave a comment and let us know how it works if you try it.

Back before the release Sling posted this video preview:

• TiVo Wireless G USB Network Adapter – Brad Chasenore
• D-Link DSM-330 DivX Connected HD Media Player – Richard Wicentowski
• Slingbox PRO & HD Connect – Michael Campanella

Sorry for those who didn’t win this time around, but there is more to come – stay tuned. I’ll get the stuff out to the winners soon.

Other platforms aside, SlingPlayer for Facebook seems to work well. I was able to connect to my Slingbox SOLO without any problems. Unfortunately my Slingbox PRO-HD recently died (won’t boot, power LED just flashes) and I haven’t replaced it yet, so I can’t test HD streaming. Note that these are the only two models that will work with this new player, just as with recent releases for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, etc. So if you have a Slingbox Classic, AV, TUNER, or PRO – sorry, you’re out of luck. The SOLO and PRO-HD are the only two models that stream in H.264, and that’s what the recent players are using due to platform requirements. Flash natively supports H.264, but not WMV, which is what the older Slingboxes used. Same for mobile devices – pretty much every mobile device has hardware H.264 decoding, but few support WMV.

It should also work with the handful of SlingLoaded devices out there, like the Dish Network ViP 922 and EchoStar HDS-600RS, and the Dish Network Sling Adapter.

In addition to releasing SlingPlayer for Facebook, they’ve also added Chrome to the supported browsers on watch.slingbox.com. This one is an extension for Chrome, not a Flash-based player. Officially, watch.slingbox.com works with the PRO-HD, SOLO, and PRO. It may work with the Classic, TUNER, and AV, but Sling recommends using the old desktop clients with those.

Here’s Sling Media’s Vicky Shum demonstrating SlingPlayer for Facebook:

Now, for the geeks, I poked into the markup, and this is the URL that will load the bare Flash SlingPlayer: http://download.slingmedia.com/player/embedded/v14/austinapp.swf I’d love to hear reports from people trying it on different platforms – game consoles, portable devices, etc. Leave a comment.

I wonder if I could even embed the player right here? Let’s find out!

EDIT: Well, the answer is yes. But the embed code included some kind of token so everyone who used it was accessing my Slingbox. Unfortunately, looking at the markup on Facebook, the login form is external to the Flash player so it looks like you can’t login or logout within the player. I’d thought it was just because I’d logged in on Facebook and it cookie’d me, but I guess not. So I’m just going to pull that out of the post.

There are three giveaways running:

• TiVo Wireless G USB Network Adapter
• D-Link DSM-330 DivX Connected HD Media Player
• Slingbox PRO & HD Connect

Don’t worry, I have some other, new, stuff to giveaway as well. That’s coming.

Speaking of the product, this is a SlingPlayer implemented as a Facebook App and it takes advantage of that by integrating social features. You can comment on the video you’re watching and post those comments to your Wall. Note, this is not Clip+Sling Part Deux, you can’t actually post video to your Wall. Though Vicky does say “In future releases we’ll be adding more social and sharing features” during the video. Maybe they will find a way to share video clips, but since Clip+Sling seemingly died mainly due to rights issues I’m not holding my breath.

Back when Clip+Sling was in development they did develop several ways for SlingPlayer to tell what the content was by analyzing the stream. Of course it would be trivial to do on a SlingLoaded device as it knows what the content is already. Perhaps they could resurrect that tech and use it to identify the content, and then link to existing, legitimate copies online – network websites, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, iTunes, etc. That could make business sense too – use referral links to services and Sling could take a cut of the action.

It looks like Vicky was using Safari on a Mac for the demo. The existing web-based SlingPlayer only supports Safari and Firefox on Mac and IE and Firefox on Windows, and requires a proprietary plug-in. This new player, like the iOS, Android, and Windows Phone mobile clients, only works with the Slingbox SOLO and PRO-HD, as they’re the only models to encode to H.264. That’s encouraging, as H.264 support is common and Facebook is already full of such video. So I’m thinking this is a lighter weight app, perhaps Flash, and it will have broader browser support – like Chrome. That alone would be a major advancement. If so I hope they update the standalone web-based player as well – they can keep the old plug-in version around for those who need compatibility with older model Slingboxes.

If you search on ‘SlingPlayer’ on Facebook right now you’ll get a link to SlingPlayer for Facebook on apps.facebook.com, but the page errors when I try to go there. I suspect access is locked down to only beta testers and that’s what happens if your account is not authorized to access it. But it is something to keep an eye on.

While it is nice to see this is in the works, I really hope they get some of their other SlingPlayer products out first. They showed off SlingPlayer for Google TV back in January at CES, and it entered beta in June, yet we still haven’t seen it. They have SlingPlayer for Android phones and tablets already. The version shown at CES was a Flash-based web page, maybe the delay is because they decided to do it as an app for Google TV 2.0. That might be for the best since Adobe just decided to drop the Flash plugin for TV devices – like Google TV. Either way, let’s have it already!

And then in June they showed off a similar SlingPlayer for Boxee. But that hasn’t released yet either. I think it is really cool that they’re doing these SlingPlayer clients – as I’ve said before, I argued for this approach instead of doing the SlingCatcher when I worked there. But it is just a tease if they don’t release. I’d hope they do other versions as well – Roku, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Blu-ray Java, etc. Get SlingPlayer on as many devices as you can and it’ll create demand for the Slingboxes, which is where they make their money.

So bring out SlingPlayer for Facebook – but let’s get those two versions first, we’ve been waiting. Please!

Dave Zatz of Zatz Not Funny pulled the video from Facebook and posted it to YouTube. Sling Media has posted an official version to YouTube: