The Sling Media Sling Player Mobile app review

SlingMedia finally got the approval process passed, after much delay, and is now able to sell its SlingMedia Mobile application for the iPhone and the iPod Touch platform right from the Apple iTunes App Store. We have been awaiting this application for quite some time and we had high hopes that it would not disappoint. An apparent agreement was met between SlingMedia and Apple. Because of concerns of over saturation of the cellular network, unfortunately, SlingMedia Player Mobile comes sans 3G and 2G support so you are limited to WIFI access. We believe this is not a limitation from SlingMedia but a requirement to achieve AppStore approval.

Installation is a breeze with all iPhone/iPod Touch apps, and with the small size of just under 3.5Mb, it does not take up too much storage space on your device to install. The price of $29.99 is quite steep considering the Windows and Apple client software are both free and have more features. $30 is a lot for an application that does have restrictions on how it is used, as mentioned before the limitation of only having WIFI support and no cellular coverage.

After the initial licence screen has appeared, you are presented with a very clean, simple login credentials interface. You must activate your SlingBox via the SlingMedia website, and then use those credentials to log in to your Sling Box. Here is the link for those who have not signed up and linked their SlingBox hardware. Slingbox Account Signup.

Connection to your SlingBox device could not be simpler, unless of course you are out of reach from your WiFi connection or HotSpot. If SlingPlayer does not detect an internet connection, the application will time out after about 30 seconds with a warning that no Internet could be located. It's important to note that, at the time of this review, the friendly login method is hosted at betasecure.sling.com, and I have had connection issues. However, you can easily bypass this and enter your SlingBox rather large ID connection string and bypass the betasecure.sling.com site. This ID can be located from the Windows and Mac client applications.

The only instructions that you will be presented with before live video starts streaming into your device will be the swipe up and down to change the channel by +/- digit, and swiping left and right will scroll through your pre set favorites. A single tap to the screen brings up the very elegant menu system, that is very simple, concise and to the point. The smart menu navigation sits transparently on top of your live video and, with each button press, the stream pauses, acts upon the action and unfreezes. This method works very well, and usually each remote press takes about 1 second to carry out. Users of Slingbox systems will be prepared for concise and accurate remote imputs. A slight issue I personally have is the wording in the navigation menu. Exit sends the exit command to the SlingBox, and as I first presumed does not exit the navigation remote, that is achieved by hitting the Close button.

For those of us that have DVR systems, SlingMedia player has incorporated a navigation menu that can access the remote control functionality of Pause, Fast Forward and Rewind, and you also have the ability to access your DVR library, and navigate as though you were sitting in front of your system. We really felt that finally, Internet TV had finally become mobile Tv and working as advertised allowing you to almost watch TV anywhere.

A great feature of all SlingMedia products is the ability to store Favorites. Because most Satellite and Cable systems have hundreds of channels, surfing in the conventional terms is no longer really feasible, and with the steps to find new channels, its easier just to add all your favorites in one sitting, then you can use them to ask Sling to send the keystrokes to the SlingBox. Sling have supplied a very nice Icon lookup for most channels that will automatically launch when you first start the favorites menu and your favorite list will be populated with pretty channel icons. I did however notice a few common channel logos were missing but I am sure this list will grow as time goes on.

The SlingPlayer Mobile has only a couple of configuration options, and that is very acceptable as the application does not need many settings to work. You can change the aspect ration, and also the quality of the feed.

There is a noticeable difference between normal and high quality and I had no issues with performance when switching to the higher quality, although your mileage may vary depending on your internet connection. An interesting feature is the audio only. This is as it sounds, sound only, no video. This is an interesting feature for those times where internet connectivity is at a lower bitrate and video is a stuttering mess.