Slingbox Not Compatible with Windows 8

[Beradon]

So this is what I get for being on the bleeding edge.

Just so everyone is aware, the official word from Sling is that the slingbox and slingplayers are not compatible with Windows 8.

If you are using them to watch TV elsewhere from a laptop you are considering updating to Win8... Dont. I found this out the hard way.

The audio and video are out of sync by at least a second in both Chrome and IE plugins as well as the Slingplayer program.

Here's the official word from Sling:
http://answers.slingbox.com/message/76456

Third post down.

And no, the Windows Update Advisor doesnt catch this when run before installing Win8.

EDIT:

Workaround: The Slingplayer App in Facebook runs clean, although I had to disable hardware acceleration in it to stop some stuttering.

[adam1991]

As a side note: I work with enterprise customers who have large amounts of network printing equipment to help with their businesses. They have many thousands of dollars (and in some cases many hundreds of thousands) invested in this. Of course, all these printers have drivers and ancillary management software that go with them.

While printing is not their primary business, all hell breaks loose when users can't print. So what do you think these enterprises do when they upgrade servers and users to completely new operating systems? Do you think they test any of it?

If your answer is "of course!" you'd be desperately wrong. They just throw the upgrade out there--and when users can't print and start screaming to IT, IT picks up the phone and tries to make it the printer manufacturer's fault that IT didn't bother to do their jobs. Then they demand that the vendor come out RIGHT NOW and fix ALL of it. For free.

I'm talking facilities with thousands of printers here. No testing whatsoever, blind seat of the pants "throw the disc in and go!".

I've seen this so many times, there's no way I'd take a functioning production Win7 system and have any expectation after moving it to Win8 that it will do everything I want it to do. At home, I'll simply buy/build a new machine and outfit it from there, right next to the functioning Win7 system, and then see if I can get away with it.

It's amazing how many people--professionals working on behalf of others, not people like us hacking about for ourselves--don't bother to inventory their requirements and test the new environment for functionality towards those requirements.

[Beradon]

As a side note: I work with enterprise customers who have large amounts of network printing equipment to help with their businesses. They have many thousands of dollars (and in some cases many hundreds of thousands) invested in this. Of course, all these printers have drivers and ancillary management software that go with them.

While printing is not their primary business, all hell breaks loose when users can't print. So what do you think these enterprises do when they upgrade servers and users to completely new operating systems? Do you think they test any of it?

If your answer is "of course!" you'd be desperately wrong. They just throw the upgrade out there--and when users can't print and start screaming to IT, IT picks up the phone and tries to make it the printer manufacturer's fault that IT didn't bother to do their jobs. Then they demand that the vendor come out RIGHT NOW and fix ALL of it. For free.

I'm talking facilities with thousands of printers here. No testing whatsoever, blind seat of the pants "throw the disc in and go!".

I've seen this so many times, there's no way I'd take a functioning production Win7 system and have any expectation after moving it to Win8 that it will do everything I want it to do. At home, I'll simply buy/build a new machine and outfit it from there, right next to the functioning Win7 system, and then see if I can get away with it.

It's amazing how many people--professionals working on behalf of others, not people like us hacking about for ourselves--don't bother to inventory their requirements and test the new environment for functionality towards those requirements.

What does this have to do with the Slingplayer not working?

[adam1991]

"As a side note...."

My point was, if you're going to upgrade, check functionality first. It's a given that two days into the release of anything, many things are incompatible. And Slingbox even told you that...

[Beradon]

"As a side note...."

My point was, if you're going to upgrade, check functionality first. It's a given that two days into the release of anything, many things are incompatible. And Slingbox even told you that...

Agreed.

And I had believed I did check my stuff, but the slingplayer slipped my mind for two reasons. First, its a web plugin and I figured it was more dependent on the browser than the OS. Second, I had the actual slingplayer application installed and it wasnt flagged by the Windows Update Advisor. I wasnt aware it was incompatible til after Windows was installed, when I had the issues and began to search google for whether other people ran into the same problem and thus stumbled across that thread. But point taken, I'll have to be more careful in the future.

[foxwood]

It's not much consolation to you, but someone has to go first.

[joeycapuccino]

How do you disable hardware acceleration?