Sling opens its video portal to the public
Sling launched its video portal website to the public today, finally putting its private beta phase to bed. The new Sling.com portal offers full length TV episodes and movies, short clips and professional, independently produced web videos. Sling has partnered with large content providers like Hulu (NBC/Fox), CBS, PBS, BBC America, Warner, Sony and MGM, as well as independent Web video sites like College Humor, G4 and The Onion. Similar to Hulu, each video has short advertisements interspersed throughout the content. The portal also incorporates some social networking features that allow users to create profiles, mark videos as favorites and share their choices with other users. What sets the Sling portal apart from its competition though, is the ability of Slingbox owners to stream content from their Slingboxes via a web browser. The ability to stream live content is only supported on Windows machines and requires a browser plug-in compatible only with Internet Explorer or Firefox browser for the time being. Mac support is not currently available but is in the works. Jump on over to Sling’s website and let us know what you think of this latest addition to the online video streaming market.
[Via Cnet]
I’ve been using the beta for a few weeks now and its great. I open it up on my personal laptop in my office every morning and use it all day. Watch a little sportscenter from my slingbox then on to some It’s Always Sunny in Phili, then when I can’t stand my job anymore I watch a little office. The only way it could be better is if the movies weren’t worse than the $1 DVD bin and Big and Small Lots.
Bummer. I had registered too, but didn’t receive any content because we’re in another country. A country that’s peaceful, strong, and advanced. Canada!
So seriously. Why do we get shut out of Hulu and SlingWeb when we’re all sharing most of the same tv shows and actors and all. It sometimes really sucks.
With sites like Hulu, Joost and now Sling. Will there be a need for traditional TV from cable or sat? I am already planning on canceling my DishTV service and just building a media PC for my HD LCD. Sure I may miss out on some shows but with BitTorrents and Newsgroups supplying some of the content what’s the point in paying if I can manage a media PC and download my content.
the problem with relying on torrents and newsgroups is that the internet is going to start getting capped. As soon as legislation says it is unlawful for comcast to slow the torrent bandwith, they will most likely impose a cap on the amount they will allow a single modem to download. Then, they can charge more for extra data usage. At this point, nobody can be sure which will be viable and which wont be. I just hope they don’t start capping the internet like they plan to, that will make my newsgroup programs very sad.
Wake me up when Sling decides to support the Nokia E71.