HELP SUPPORT

   The program itself is fairly straightforward, however there is a great deal of support offered from Sling Media as well as the included SlingPlayer Mobile installation guide.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

    size=2>You need to be running either Windows 2000 or XP on your desktop computer, and have Active Synch 4.1 installed. Make sure you check this as even my fairly new Dell Axim x51v didn’t ship with Active Synch 4.1. Also make sure you upgrade to the latest firmware for your SlingBox and install the latest version of SlingPlayer on your computer. The upgrade is available on Sling Media’s home page. Finally, your Pocket PC needs to be running Windows Mobile 5.0 or Pocket PC 2003.

BUGS AND WISHES

   
This is a beta version, so it is not perfect. My first install caused a critical error, but this seems to have been fixed in the latest beta. One thing that bothers me is that when I pull up the controls menu it will frequently be partially blacked out and not let you use all the buttons. This is easy to get around, and usually just requires you to close the menu by tapping the video portion of the the screen, and tapping the bottom again to bring up the controls. Even with nothing running in the background, the menus within the program take forever to pop up, and occasionally will freeze up and not show, or show up partially. You also want to avoid inserting or removing your Pocket PC from the cradle while SlingPlayer is running as it tends to freeze up. Stability is definitely an issue with this beta release, and hopefully will be taken care of in subsequent releases. Currently, there is no Smartphone version available, but one will be issued within the next month of this review.

PURCHASING

   
According to the company: "SlingPlayer Mobile will be offered as a free download to all customers starting on March 23rd and the product will feature a 30+ day trial. If you are a registered Slingbox owner or if you purchase a Slingbox between March 23rd and April 26th and register it, you will receive a registration key for the final version of SlingPlayer Mobile. After April 26th SlingPlayer Mobile will be available for purchase for a one-time charge of $29.99 and of course, that does not include the cost of a Slingbox, which is a required component in order for SlingPlayer Mobile to work on a Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Pocket PC Phone." The beta can be downloaded here.

PROS

• You can watch live TV on your Pocket PC…very cool!
• Simple, easy to use
• Slideshow mode is great when your bandwidth is limited
• Picture quality varies but can be very nice
• Audio is flawless (never skipped on me)

CONS

• Even over WiFi, video can become choppy and pixilated
• A big resource hog, don’t even bother running another program concurrently
• Menus can take an inordinate amount of time to open
• No Smartphone client (yet)

Value
Ease of Use
Features
Overall

What do these ratings mean?

type="text/javascript"

src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">

OVERALL IMPRESSION

    I do like this program, however it has a ways to go before I would fully endorse it. Yes it does allow you to watch your SlingBox on your Pocket PC, but besides being the only program currently available that will do this, it does not have much to offer. The extra features are slim, the stability is fair at best, the user interface is ugly, and it slows down your Pocket PC a great deal. On the other hand, it is one of few programs of its kind that can give you reliable streaming live TV. I also liked the slide show mode, as it will permit those with a slower data connection to still view their SlingBox on their Pocket PC without a large sacrifice in quality while still allowing you to follow what is happening. Although the program has a few kinks that need to be worked out, it is fully functional and the whole concept is great!