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During that time, Slingmedia has shifted their focus and a part of their new thrust is to enable you to hook up a drive to a USB port, and view pictures and home video. #Slingplayer plugin for chrome not working updateIt has been quite some time since we’ve seen an update to the Slingbox hardware. The Slingbox talking point on HDMI and digital copy protection is that they can’t control what the set top providers do and that licensing HDMI is too expensive. The folks behind Slingbox make no secret that HDMI protection schemes are an issue. #Slingplayer plugin for chrome not working tvI also enjoyed being able to watch my home TV at work on occasion. This is a disappointment because when I had previous Slingboxes working I really enjoyed being able to place shift my TV viewing to various parts of my house, or on my porch. Personally, I’m not keen on either option open to me, so I’ll probably be returning the Slingbox 500 this weekend. I tried to check with Comcast on this to see if there was another set top box available but, as you can probably imagine, I met with some pretty stiff resistance before I got a firm “no.” In fact, the Sliingbox site says that if you have a SOC set top box, you must use Component cables only. My belief is that my Cable Box from Comcast comes with SOC preventing the Slingbox from working with both HDMI and Component connections. This would require and enable me to forgo HDMI entirely throughout the chain. The end result in my case is that I either need to disconnect my Home Theatre device from my TV, or replace it with one that has Component in and out in order to use the new Slingbox 500. Why? Because the copy protection schemes can change at any moment and cause the HDMI connection to fail.Īfter setting up the Slingbox 500 on Sunday (yeah, I picked one up the first day) I quickly discovered that there was a problem and Monday night I spent some time on the phone with Slingbox tech support. Yes, the new Slingbox 500 has HDMI connections, but as the Slingbox website and the setup instructions will tell you the Sling folks recommend that you use both component and HDMI connections simultaneously. I was wrong and this is where you need to examine your existing AV setup before deciding to make a purchase. What I had hoped would be the case with the Slingbox 500, is that I could avoid all of this with the new HDMI connections. This would happen about once every 3 months or so, and of course if Comcast is the one pushing the update, then you never know it is happening until things just change. The setup above all worked well until either Comcast or the Slingbox folks pushed an update through. I won’t comment on the rat’s nest of cables that this left me with other to say that it gives new definition to metaphor of a rat’s nest. Believe it or not, with some help from Slingbox techs, I was able to make things work. #Slingplayer plugin for chrome not working proThere were no HDMI connectors on the hardware, so I always had to do some sort of work-around to use the Slingbox PRO HD and earlier models. Previous editions of the Slingbox did not work with HDMI at all. ![]() Doing some research, I’m guessing I”m not alone here. ![]() A part of my problem with the previous (and now the new) Slingbox is that the Sony Home Theatre device does not have in and out component connections. From the Comcast box I run HDMI into a Sony Home Theatre setup for audio and then HDMI from there to the TV set. Suffice it to say that when I saw that the Slingbox 500 had HDMI connections I thought this might finally solve my ongoing problem. ![]() I’ve worked with I don’t know how many Slingbox techs to keep my system up and running, but the folks at Slingbox are somewhat at the mercy of the content providers who own the set top boxes. Content providers change these schemes as a course of business. The reason previous Slingbox models would not work for me have to do with HDMI, HDCP (High-Bandwidith Digital Copy Protection) or SOC (Selectable Output Control) protection schemes. I love it when it works and, well, I hate it when it doesn’t. I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Slingbox for some time. ![]()
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