Full disclosure, I will be posting this same review over at the Xoom forums (http://xoomforums.com) site as well under the username JustDroid.
My set up at home is as follows: Time Warner Cable with a Cisco (formerly Scientific Atlanta) Explorer 8640 HDC DVR and a Slingbox SOLO. I have to 30/5 internet package.
The Good
Video quality is excellent. I have watched HD shows both on my home wi-fi and at work accessing across the internet and the picture and sound quality is astounding.
The Bad
I was not able to get an on screen remote other than the default remote. I tried several different settings via the online set up at http://setup.slingbox.xom. I tried the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300 HD, the Time Warner Explorer 8300, the Time Warner Universal Remote, and the Cisco Explorer 8640. The TWC Univeral and the Cisco Explorer 8640 remotes even show the default generic remote control on the website in addition to on the Xoom. With this generic remote, I have no way to access the recorded shows list on my DVR.
There is an 8 to 10 second delay in the function of the remote on screen and something actually happening on the DVR. This makes fast-forwarding through the commercials next to impossible. This wouldn't be a problem if you were watching a commercial free movie but for network TV this is a major pain in the a$$.
The Ugly
I purchased the Android tablet SlingPlayer app last Tuesday. After messing with it for a day, I gave up and called Sling support. The gentleman I spoke with did an OK job overall but was not able to help me. I gave him my Sling account username and password and he logged in to my account via the web interface and went through the same steps I did. This gentleman put me on hold for a couple of minutes while he looked for a tablet he could test on, but came back and said he didn't have one available. He had me test on the Xoom a couple of times, but there was no change to the on screen remote.
Friday afternoon, I still had not heard anything from Sling support so I called back. The gentleman I spoke with explained that this case was escalated and said he would transfer me to the team it had been sent to. After several minutes of me being on hold, the same gentleman came back on the line and explained that the second level team told him there was no resolution at this time. So I got the big brush-off. As of this morning I still have not heard anything from Sling support, however I did get a customer satisfaction email this morning, asking for my feedback on my recent support call. I explained that there has been no contact nor resolution in this case and left my contact information in the online form.
I have been in the customer support field for 15+ years, and I would never let my customers go 6 days with no contact after I had escalated an issue. And I would have followed up had I been the one the issue had been escalated to, even if there was no resolution, at least I would let the customer know we were still looking in to the issue.
My Impressions
This tablet version of SlingPlayer mobile was a beta product at best, and should not yet have been released to general availablility. It should have been tested on more tablet devices, it's not like the Xoom isn't a popular device.
I have always been pleased with Sling hardware and the phone version of the SlingPlayer software, both Windows Mobile and Android. This is the third Sling device I have owned, and I upgraded to better versions as I got HD cable at home. This experience has left me bitter and angry. I am not sure I could recommend Sling products in the future.
Thanks for listening to my rant and feel free to comment or if you have a suggestion to resolve this, I would be glad to hear it.
UPDATE - Your case has been escalated
My original case was escalated to the second level team the night I originally called it in. I have called several times since, and never actually get to speak with anyone in second level support. I hear the same thing that 'they are working on it and will call you when they have a resolution'!
I do technical support for a living and I would have been fired if I had a case open for 15 days and not notified my client of my progress.
Looks like I now have to call Google and ask for a refund.
were you able to get your refund? im waiting for this to come out for "trial"
Related
I'm having a problem viewing graphics on web pages. If I set the view to "fit to screen", the images are resized as you would expect. But if I set view to "desktop", all I get is a blown up version of the small image -- NOT the full resolution image that I would expect and have previously seen.
Anyone with an idea of what I did to make this happen, and how to fix it?
This is an AT&T Tilt with original ROM. I have used Kaiser Tweak.
BIG thanks for your ideas --
Jim
Bump -- surely SOMEONE has experienced this issue!
Try refreshing the page. I'm on T-mobile and the first time i download a page i only get low resolution images, something to with T-mobile servers and they send low quality images to save on data charges. If you 'refresh' then you get the normal pictures sent to you (at least with T-mobile anyway!)
Tried that -- no joy.
Solved!!
I have been trying to find a solution to this problem for almost a month. Finally got to someone at HTC who understood the issue.
I have to document this -- it's just too good of a story.
I did the usual Google searches looking for any reference to Pocket Internet Explorer graphics (as you will see, I didn't search for the correct terms -- I was in the didn't know what I didn't know mode!). Nothing.
I posted messages here and on my local user group forum. Nothing.
I was getting ready to do a hard reset, in case it was something I did while tweaking the Tilt. Really wasn't looking forward to that! Then I had a chance to drop in at the AT&T store (silly idea, right?). I showed the display to one of the sales reps, and he didn't seem to know what he was looking at. I couldn't figure out if he didn't understand, didn't care, or was trying to hide a known issue.
His lack of concern (suggested I call tech support!) was rather annoying and I wasn't in the mood to take no for an answer. I had him fire up the display Tilt, another WM-based phone, and the iPhone. Both WM devices had the same issue as my Tilt. That was good news for me -- the problem wasn't just my Tilt! When the iPhone displayed the images perfectly, his comment was that the iPhone had a "real" browser! Now I was pi$$ed!
It was obvious that I wasn't going to get anywhere in the AT&T store, and I left with a card on which they wrote the tech support number.
I sat in my car and called the number -- it's been disconnected! Now, I was really getting unhappy! There's a competitor's store next door to the AT&T store. I decided to pay them a visit. While they don't offer a Tilt-equivalent, they do have other WM-based phones made by HTC. The graphics displayed just fine!
So -- it's not my phone, not Pocket Internet Explorer, and not my website! Back to the AT&T store to tell them the phone number they gave me is bad. I'm sure they were happy to see me again!
They agreed to call customer support from their store and have them transfer to tech support. Nice people on the phone -- but not real helpful -- they wanted me to try a soft reboot (duh - like I hadn't already done that!) and then suggested a hard reset (logic lesson applied -- did they also want me to hard reset all the phones in the store?). OK -- moving up the line in tech support. The next rep didn't waste much time with useless suggestions, but immediately called HTC tech support!
The nice lady at HTC asked a few questions about what we had tried and when I said that the competitor's version of the HTC worked fine, she immediately went after a fix. Within two minutes she had the answer.
Are you ready for this? AT&T has routed the traffic through a proxy server that is causing the problem! She guided me through disabling the proxy server and bingo - good graphics!
So -- here's the fix. Go to Start...Programs...Tools...Proxy Manager...Disable Proxy. That's it! Restore the proxy if you want to access AT&T's media services. Unbelievable!
Thanks for the post. I just bought my tilt this week on Monday and I have been having this same exact issue. I would have never thought of looking at the proxy side.
Anyone else use this navigation software ?
I used it on my Hero without any major problems. It took them an age to get a Froyo version sorted out. Put it on my Nexus One. Its now an excellent example of how to write totally non functional code! I am unable to download maps via the built in map downloader. A definite step backwards by ALK Technologies.
As for any kind of support, that's as useless as their software!
So, unless someone here call prove to me otherwise, stay well clear of this software. Take heed of the comments on the Market about it too.
Hmm works fine for me. You just need to turn on wifi before downloading maps through the app.
What exactly is the problem when you try?
My wifi is on permanently if i am at home or at the office. The maps never download. There is no indication they are downloading either, no progress bar at all. What phone are you running it on ? A Nexus One ?
Yeah a nexus one...
Once you pass all the setup screens and get into co-pilot (with no map), go menu get maps, or updates. Its one of those options. Then you'll see the progress bar.
For some reason or another the download is probably being interupted. Maybe you let your phone sleep and wifi turns off?
Ok will try it yet again. Thanks for the help.
CoPilot 8 .. utterly useless!!
Ok so today I tried to reinstall CoPilot 8 on my Nexus One.
This software is awful! Firstly I was unable to install the voice I wanted, just said File Error. Sorted that out by choosing a different voice. Then tried to download UK maps. Failed every time. Made sure Wifi did not go to sleep just to make sure.
Figured it was time to send emails of complaint to Head Office in the USA. Interestingly enough every single published contact email address for that company bounces... odd eh ? Have given up on CoPilot and doubt I will ever get my money back.
To every one else, think long and hard before you waste your money.
When you bought it through market you should have got a license/activation email from '[email protected]'
Send them an email and it'll automatically create a trouble ticket which they'll respond to.
I have lost count of the number of times I have "raised a ticket" with ALK. Interestingly the moment they reply (in any way, useful or not) they close the ticket. Pointless if the problem has not been resolved. They are very difficult to get in touch with (in a sensible way), perhaps this is deliberate? Given the very poor comments on the Market about this application I can understand their desire not to communicate with the many angry people who purchased this application and are unable to use it. I guess the next step is to send them a letter and if they still choose to do nothing I will pursue my refund through the UK small claims court system. Perhaps that will make them respond ? Its a shame because on my Hero the software worked reasonably well :-(
I've given up on that cr*p software
Works fine for me. My installation and setup process went very smooth.
Its great when it works properly. I had an issue with license keys after I had a N1 replaced and they sorted it out pretty quickly. If you reply to the email the ticket is re-opened.
Having said that i've seen many complaints on the net about them. If you bought it on a credit card just threaten to charge it back. That'll kick them into gear.
The pattern i've found is that anything 'easy' to fix they handle well, anything obscure or that might take some diagnosis or thought and they keep fobbing you off hoping you'll give up.
Luckily google market has a 24 hour refund period.. if you have problems in setup just hit the refund button. A bit late for you now tho i guess.
christiankk said:
I've given up on that cr*p software
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am sorry you are having problems but it is not bad software. I was one of the REALLY early users and had to jump through substantial hoops to get maps installed. Once everything was running correctly though it has proven reliable and I have not had a problem since not related to me upgrading to an unsupported ROM.
Navigation is nice if you are in a well covered area for data but copilot has advantages in spottier areas. I use both depending on my mood and neither is crap.
Are there 2010 maps out for Copilot yet? I've run the latest auto update but I'm still getting 2009 ones .
It told me to turn into a wall yesterday
Could not disagree with you more, I have had a few problems with downloads and activations (I am a frequent rom swapper), and each time theyre customer support was prompt and courteous. Performing account resets or offering advice about side loading maps downloaded using the copilot desktop software (which downloads MUCH faster FYI).
But the real kicker is go off cell grid some time (like camping which i do alot). Google maps will fail on you as it requires constant connection to reload a map if you leave the map screen at any time, Copilot stores maps on the SD card allowing me to find that odd rural route to the highway and re-enable Google maps with all my layers. Its a real life saver off the grid.
I never had any issues with moving to Co-Pilot on the Nexus One (had it installed previously on my Hero). The only gripe I have with the software is that it doesn't disable the onboard speaker when routing audio to bluetooth end up with a echo, raised a ticket.. who knows if it will be fixed.
I've been using a modified 800x600 version of MotoNav that actually works very very well. I think it was yanked out of *gasp* a motorola.
The reg uses one of those 876x600 or something resolutions which will run but will cut off the bottom.
Well I was very excited this Sunday as i received my HDMI cable and was looking forward to watching the NFL red zone as I'm a verzion customer and the NFL network is free part of my plan. So Sunday came and i plugged Mr. Bionic into my SAMSUNG 52" LCD TV and setup for MINOR mode all of the ICONS came up and low and behold when i went to the NFL Network and selected RED zone or play a VIDEO on the NFL network a nasty little message came up with unable to open or display video. When i unplugged it from the HDMI everything would work fine. Anyone come across this and have a fix for this? Is there a setting on the phone to change? I looked under setting and came across nothing that would help.
If your rooted and have the webtop without dock mod applied, you may be able to do it through webtop mode. IDK if it works, but it's worth a shot. if not, you at least have webtop mode enabled now.
It's part of the drm protection, they purposely disable this feature
T_Dog said:
Well I was very excited this Sunday as i received my HDMI cable and was looking forward to watching the NFL red zone as I'm a verzion customer and the NFL network is free part of my plan. So Sunday came and i plugged Mr. Bionic into my SAMSUNG 52" LCD TV and setup for MINOR mode all of the ICONS came up and low and behold when i went to the NFL Network and selected RED zone or play a VIDEO on the NFL network a nasty little message came up with unable to open or display video. When i unplugged it from the HDMI everything would work fine. Anyone come across this and have a fix for this? Is there a setting on the phone to change? I looked under setting and came across nothing that would help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is an app on the market called xternal display. click on the app first and then nfl moble and it will work
I say to you, search the forums before posting here. There have already been 2 threads previously full of pissed off and upset Bionic owners myself included who bought the hdmi cables thinking they could watch red zone on their tv's. This is dreadfully not the case and when Verizon took away the red zone for bionic users for a day I almost lost my **** with them.
As far as I know the xternal display application only worked on the Droid X and not for the Bionic. If we can get a report from a Bionic user who has actually done this successfully than that would be a different story.
Wapples said:
I say to you, search the forums before posting here. There have already been 2 threads previously full of pissed off and upset Bionic owners myself included who bought the hdmi cables thinking they could watch red zone on their tv's. This is dreadfully not the case and when Verizon took away the red zone for bionic users for a day I almost lost my **** with them.
As far as I know the xternal display application only worked on the Droid X and not for the Bionic. If we can get a report from a Bionic user who has actually done this successfully than that would be a different story.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i would not of posted that it worked if i did not use it myself. it works, click on the xternal app first the nfl mobil/watch live it will give an error message. exit the nfl app, enter nfl mobil/ watch live and it will work.
below is a picture it took just 5 mins ago.
I will be trying this out again asap, thank you for confirming!
Yes it works, the picture quality is not very good, but it works
So, I bought a lapdock today at a local Verizon Wireless store because they are on sale for $50.
I got home, used it for about 3-4 hours, and cannot see myself ever using it for anything more than a charging station. You cannot run your own apps, except though a virtual 'mobile mode', where things run visually glitchy and the overall resolution is blurry since it is scaling it the image by a few pixels.
I am hoping that someone who uses this accessory can tell me that this has some other use other than browsing on Firefox. I am an IT professional, and multiple times during the week I have to go to client sites, and thought having this would be useful. If it just gives me Firefox (web browsing ability), then I can do that on one of the local computers
Thanks.
Also being in IT, I work a lot with terminal server environments via RDP. The sole reason I bought the lapdock was to access my company's and client's terminal servers from anywhere. I applied the webuntu mod to my device and installed rdesktop and tsclient. This gives me full access to administrate and maintain all of our servers from anywhere I happen to be.
opnsrcaddict;[URL="tel:27245580" said:
27245580[/URL]]Also being in IT, I work a lot with terminal server environments via RDP. The sole reason I bought the lapdock was to access my company's and client's terminal servers from anywhere. I applied the webuntu mod to my device and installed rdesktop and tsclient. This gives me full access to administrate and maintain all of our servers from anywhere I happen to be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It might be better if you setup a custom port in the client's firewall then just change the RDP port on the TS in the registry to that port. At any rate, we use a professional monitoring agent that handles remote connectivity for support, among other things (hardware alerts, update monitoring, etc.)
Sidenote, I am finding this very hard to type on. The keys must be pressed down hard, especially the spacebar and there is no delete key. I am typing this post on the lapdock right now, and it has taken over 5 minutes. I could have posted it in the same time using the XDA app.
I use my lapdock for a larger screen on the netflix app. Also, the dock works as a mobile hdmi monitor, so my brother uses it to play on his xbox in whatever room he wants.
Wow I never knew you could plug another HDMI source into it, that's awesome. Anyway, I use mine just for surfing the web and watching Netflix, but hopefully the ICS webtop brings some cool new features.
fn-backspace is your delete key.
In its current state, the webdock is only marginally useful. The firefox browser is glitchy and slow, and it seems to lock up and reboot pretty often. For $50 though, it is nice to have a full keyboard (using it now).
I guess I would say I bought it on somewhat of a gamble after seeing some of the previews of webdock 3.0 when Moto pushes ICS out to the Bionic. If it's slow and buggy, then I'm out $50 and still have a marginally decent keyboard and display. But, if it's decent, then it'll be $50 well spent.
But I really can't believe they sold these for $300 when they first came out. If you paid even half of that, then I truly feel sorry for you. The user experience is just downright frustrating.
+1 on the previous posts. I bought it because of the sale, but never would have at even $90. I'm trying to set up webtop to fart around with Ubuntu, and using the dock as an easier twitter keyboard at conferences until I get another tablet. After that, I'll prolly give it to my kid, who was unfortunate enough to have me buy him a Bionic as well.
<rant>
Last effing Moto phone, ever!
</rant>
Sorry for the CAPS but I am PO'd
Got my 2015 Lemon Chromecast (maybe google should take a lesson from CHEVY NOVA and rename) and have set it up on 3 different makes and vintage HDMI 1080p TVs and the factory charger. Each time I could see the setup page in the TV display formatted correctly. Each time after displaying video for maybe 10 minutes the TV display goes black and I am unable to get it to display anything? One time I was able to actually watch a few minutes of HBOgo before the display froze and the only way to clear was to reboot Chromecast.
Currently I can connect via Chromecast Android app and make changes to 2015 Lemon Chromecast using "devices" tab. I can reboot remotely using devices tab. I can reset to factory as well. CSR had me do this until it would no longer display anything even after reboot.
It appears I am connected but my 2015 Lemon is not displaying video.
I started a 20 minute chat on Monday with google that only resulted in calling an 800 number. So I called and wasted another 40 minutes rebooting and resetting over and over again without result. After 40 minutes I needed to go to a meeting.
Yesterday I received an email from the supervisor of the Customer Service Rep I wasted 40 minutes with on Monday wanting more info with pictures, documented sales info, etc?
COME ON GOOGLE, I bought this LEMON online from your store you have the info. I have invested $35 and more than 1 hour with NO RESULTS.
I have purchased 6 old style Chromecasts and believe I am quite knowledgeable in Casting even setting up Internet Sharing on WIndows 8.1 to make private network in hotel when necessary.
CHROMECAST CUSTOMER SERVICE IS REALLY WEAK!!!!! THERE IS NO MANUAL AVAILABLE? NO DOCUMENTATION TO SHOW WHAT THE BUTTON IS FOR?
I know these are so cheap they may be disposable but they should at least work.
GOOGLE! HOW DO I GET THIS EXCHANGED WITHOUT IT COSTING ME MORE TIME AND MONEY. THE HOUR I HAVE WASTED WITH THIS LEMON HAS EXCEEDED THE VALUE OF YOUR PRODUCT! SHAME ON YOU!!!!!!!
Anyone else with this problem? Solutions?
Welcome to the world of technology. Lemons happen. Also you may want to post in the 2015 sub forum. http://forum.xda-developers.com/hardware-hacking/chromecast-2015