Friday Takeaway: SlingPlayer Is Coming

Slingbox, this week, demoed a working version of its upcoming (release date TBA) SlingPlayer Mobile app for iPad. An iPhone app is already available for $29.99; the iPad app, sadly, will not be universal, so you'll have to fork over another $30 to get it. Still, catch the video after the break to see it in action and find out what this means for Apple TV users.

If you purchase the Slingbox Pro-HD, which is currently on sale at Amazon, it will be easy to connect your Dish, DirecTV, Tivo, or whatever other DVR or TV service you're currently using. As can be seen in the video, there is noticeable lag in switching between channels and in the menus, but once the video starts rolling, it's silky smooth.

While we're very excited about the app, we do have some reservations due to the new Apple TV hardware. The Slingbox website consistently mentions that Apple TV is supported, but based on their current Singbox units, it's clear they mean the old Apple TV. Why? Because the Slingbox do not support HDMI. The new Apple TV, as you may well know, only supports HDMI.

Now, you can bypass this problem by getting an HDMI-to-component cable, although this guarantees an extra expense. However, an additional worry is that the Slingbox Pro-HD only allows one HD source. It does supports coax for over-the-air HD, but if you're a Dish user with an Apple TV--like myself--you can't run both at the same time, at least not both in HD.

What this means is that if you want live TV (and recorded content on your DVR), as well as content accessed through your Apple TV, you're going to need a secondary solution (something like Air Video). Air Video works just fine, mind you, but its layout is not nearly as pleasing as Apple TV's.

So, excitement is justified, but Slingbox really should have opted to support more devices at once and adopted HDMI long before now. It's disappointing that the phenomenal app will be somewhat limited by its existing top-of-the-line hardware.