Slingbox Discontinued: Here's What You Need To Know | Screen Rant

Slingbox streaming products have now been officially discontinued. These devices allowed users to watch cable TV on devices other than the one connected to a cable box, including on phones and laptops. With both paid and free content available, Slingbox offered customers a different option to streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Placeshifting products, like the Slingbox, offer users the option of watching media stored on one device on other devices. They are connected to a cable box in addition to the user's router. The first Slingbox was released in 2005, with several generations coming after it, including the Slingbox 350, the Slingbox M2, and the Slingbox 500. Sling Media also offered Slingplayer apps, which enabled customers to watch content on their phone, desktop or tablet.

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According to an FAQ page, Slingbox is being discontinued to pave the way for new products. Slingbox servers will be taken completely offline in twenty-four months, which means all Slingbox devices and apps will stop working at that point. However, the FAQ page also states that no new Slingbox products are going to be released. While some Slingplayer apps may receive cursory maintenance updates, there won’t be any new developments coming out. Furthermore, some outdated apps might just disappear from app stores altogether. There also won’t be any refunds available for paid apps, like the Slingplayer app for Android smartphones.

Sling Media is still supporting users who are currently under warranty, which is valid for one year. As long as the customer bought the Slingbox from an authorized retailer, like Walmart or Best Buy, and still has a copy of the receipt, the warranty will be valid. Although this might be disappointing for Slingbox users, it’s clear this isn’t a sudden decision from the company. Actually, it appears that it has been working on bringing something new and innovative to its customers for quite some time now.

For example, Sling Media apps have been going offline since the latter part of 2019. Both the paid and free apps for Android tablets, and the paid version of the smartphone app, went offline in December of last year. The Roku app went offline three months beforehand, in September. Some Slingplayer apps are still currently available, including both the free and paid versions of the iPad app. Customers can also still access Slingplayer apps on Amazon Fire TV devices, as well as the free version of the Android smartphone app.

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Source: Slingbox



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