slingplayer

monsterman · Post by **monsterman** » Tue Feb 13, 2018 8:41 am

how do i make slingplayer work in WINE ?????

Mute Ant · Post by **Mute Ant** » Tue Feb 13, 2018 10:21 am

"How do i make SlingPlayer [version?] work in Wine [version?] under Mint [version?]. It might never work with the particular versions that you are using...
https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager. ... &iId=14848
...the 'Show all tests' button on that page suggests it has been occasionally-nearly-working through several versions of Ubuntu and Wine. Not a Gold combination anywhere.

monsterman · Post by **monsterman** » Tue Feb 13, 2018 11:29 am

thanks Ant I will keep trying

phd21 · Post by **phd21** » Tue Feb 13, 2018 12:32 pm

Hi monsterman,

Although the Linux Wine system is very innovative and works very well for some things, it does represent a security risk. I try to avoid using Wine.

I am not familiar with this player, is this for Sling TV or something else?

Can't you view the programming through a browser?
Slingbox.com - Slingplayer Apps
http://www.slingbox.com/Products/SlingplayerApps.aspx

Tip: some websites may require using a browser "user agent switcher" because of their antiquated design (or worse purposely), does not recognize Linux and certain browsers. These "user agent switcher" browser extension add-ons basically tell a website that you are using a different computer operating system and browser than the one you are actually using. For example, you can be using Linux Mint with Firefox and tell the user agent to inform websites that you are using MS Windows OS and Internet Explorer or Edge browsers, or Android and some browser, etc... Google Chrome and other Chromium based browsers seem to work better for streaming TV.

Using a hardware device like a smart TV or Blu-Ray player, TV stick or Box, even some game consoles will work well for this; check for this particular application though. And, depending upon the smartphone or other device (computer and its OS) you can mirror or cast whatever is playing to your smart devices.

Hope this helps ...

ralplpcr · Post by **ralplpcr** » Tue Feb 13, 2018 6:11 pm

By "Slingplayer", are you talking about the box that re-broadcasts your cable &/or media over the internet so that you can watch it elsewhere, or are you referring to the newer SlingTV, where you get a streaming TV connection of several channels over the internet?

If you're talking about the first, the best way I've found to make it work is as follows:

1. Open a text editor (KATE, Gedit, Xed, Leafpad, etc)
2. Inside the editor, paste the following exactly as shown:

Code: Select all

<html>
<body>
<iframe width='768' height='800' src='http://slingplayer.slingbox.com/embedded/slingplayer.php' frameborder='0'></iframe>
</body>
</html>

3. Save the file as "Slingplayer.html", and place it somewhere convenient for you.

When you double-click or open this file in your browser, you'll be connected to Sling's web interface. From there, you can log into your SlingBox & watch your cable &/or media to your heart's content. You can even bring up your remote - - assuming your SlingBox is set up properly for the service you have. [note: you will need Flash for this to work properly]

If you're talking about the second (SlingTV), I'm afraid I've got no clue. I don't have the service, so can't really be sure how you can use it in Mint.

monsterman · Post by **monsterman** » Fri Feb 16, 2018 2:58 pm

hi thanks for the replies

I have a slingbox in UK which i connect to when oevrseas ,, the browser plugins for firefox , chrome etc are no longer operated by slingplayer ,, you have to use their desk top portal software which is a shame
i will try the suggestions mentioned other wis e i will have to get a win 7 partition just for tv when travelling

ralplpcr · Post by **ralplpcr** » Fri Feb 16, 2018 3:22 pm

monsterman wrote: ⤴Fri Feb 16, 2018 2:58 pm hi thanks for the replies

I have a slingbox in UK which i connect to when oevrseas ,, the browser plugins for firefox , chrome etc are no longer operated by slingplayer ,, you have to use their desk top portal software which is a shame
i will try the suggestions mentioned other wis e i will have to get a win 7 partition just for tv when travelling

I can verify that the method I mentioned above will work. You will need to get Adobe Flash (if you don't already have it) to make it function. You'll also need to - - at least temporarily - - unblock "dangerous" content when you launch the Slingplayer.html file. (You can turn it back on as soon as you've logged in, though)

1. Goto https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions
2. Choose Linux as your operating system - either 32 or 64 bit, depending on what you have installed
3. Choose the "apt" version for Ubuntu. Install it.
4. Create the Slingplayer.html file as I indicated above
5. Open your Firefox "plugins" and locate the "Shockwave Flash" entry. Select Preferences
6. There is a checkbox that says "Block dangerous and intrusive Flash content". You'll have to temporarily UN-check it in order to connect to your SlingBox.
7. Launch the Slingplayer.html file. It'll probably ask you whether you want to activate Flash for this page - - do so.
8. Login to your SlingBox
9. You can now re-check that "dangerous & intrusive" box in your plugins settings.

Just verified it works on Sylvia 18.3 XFCE.

Hope it works as well for you!

activate.jpg

slingplayer.jpg

EDIT: If you have Google Chrome installed and use it instead, you won't have to deal with the "Block Dangerous Content" checkbox - - it works without changing that setting.

kwarren43562 · Post by **kwarren43562** » Sat Aug 24, 2019 1:27 pm

The above solution only works for *some* slingbox models. About half of them do not support html streaming (to flash).
I happen to have one that doesn't, i believe the m2. I've had no success making it work with wine. There is an android version, but it crashes *often* when run through emulators / vms. I've also tried all the remote desktop and/or vm solutions I could think to try, they all end up being major memory hogs and extremely poor performers - laggy video and audio. Where I live out cable company includes a streaming service, but it is also flash based, and often doesn't work, especially on linux. I'd carefully choose a slingbox model that supports the web streaming, or try to build your own. There are quite a few hdmi capture devices for cheap, I guess you would also have to pair it with an rfid blaster though. you may possibly end up with $100 worth of weird components that don't do exactly what you want.

I would on about a yearly basis post to the sling support forum asking them to make a linux version of the player. They did not, and they also shut down the forum - made it read only, and eliminated many of the sections. They are probably more interested in getting people to sign up for their sling tv subscriptions.

I kind of can't believe no one has reverse engineered the player, it can't possibly be that complicated. There may not be that many people interested in this.

kwarren43562 · Post by **kwarren43562** » Mon Jan 20, 2020 3:08 pm

I just converted my last win7 system to linux. now have no way to watch singplay on tv. what a sham. they have mac and android versions. I have a feeling creating a linux version from their existing code bases would be a matter of selecting a different build target from a drop down menu.

ralplpcr · Post by **ralplpcr** » Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:57 pm

kwarren43562 wrote: ⤴Mon Jan 20, 2020 3:08 pm I just converted my last win7 system to linux. now have no way to watch singplay on tv. what a sham. they have mac and android versions. I have a feeling creating a linux version from their existing code bases would be a matter of selecting a different build target from a drop down menu.

My understanding is that since Sling Media (the folks behind the SlingBox) were purchased by DISH network, they've discontinued manufacture of any new SlingBox equipment. Instead, they're now focusing their resources on SlingTV and on improving the services for DISH. The existing stuff will continue to work, but it's not going to get updated or have any new equipment/software released.

The solution I posted above will continue to work (on my SlingBox 350 at least) as long as Flash Player is accessible. However, with Flash support being withdrawn and removed from most mainstream browsers by December 2020, I will also need to find another solution.

For now, the best option seems to be running a Windows 7 system inside of a virtual machine. I don't like it, but if there's no Flash support, there doesn't seem to be any other functioning alternative just yet. I did find a way to "trick" SlingBox.com into letting me load their online web player by adding a new field into the "about:config" in Firefox:

Code: Select all

general.useragent.override	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/66.0.3359.139 Safari/537.36

I was also able to download & install the SlingWebPlayer successfully in Wine. However, I have not been able to figure out how to get the Firefox Browser to actually *launch* the SlingWebPlayer. Without that last step, a VM appears to be my last hope.

If I can figure out how to get the SlingWebPlayer running correctly, I'll post back with instructions.

Matt832 · Post by **Matt832** » Thu Mar 12, 2020 8:30 pm

Thanks!

After many years of dual booting into 10 to use my Sling box when I travel this solved the problem! Actually looks better and audio syncs up better than the desktop version in Windows.

ralplpcr · Post by **ralplpcr** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 3:21 pm

I've been experimenting with another notion - - that of using a different "dedicated" & somewhat outdated browser to operate my SlingBox.

While there is still some risk that the browser could be updated & it would no longer work, as long as I make a point to NOT use it for any other web browsing, it should remain relatively safe from any attacks. Running it in a sandbox (like firejail) would be even better... but for now I'm just trying to make it all work.

I've chosen Konqueror as my guinea pig browser. It looks like the version in our repositories hasn't been updated since 2016... but the main reason I chose it is because it also has a non-Adobe flash alternative: gnash.

To start, I ran the following on a test box running Cinnamon 19.1:

Code: Select all

sudo apt install konqueror
sudo apt install konqueror-plugin-gnash

Once that finished installing, I launched the Slingbox.html file I mentioned a few posts up. To my surprise, it actually came right up! There are a few quirks that need to be worked out, however:

1. When bringing up the remote control in the player, it did not bring up my "real" remote. Rather, it displayed a generic with some partially-functioning buttons. This resolved itself after logging out & then back in to my SlingBox.
2. To date, I have not been able to get the "Fullscreen" function to work. I can click the icon, but it seems to do nothing.
3. The other icons seem to work some of the time. Other times, they would cause the stream to freeze.
4. Konqueror doesn't seem to like being closed. If I close it (due to freezing, or just because I'm done with it), I frequently need to kill the process before I can re-launch it.

I'm not sure if this is due to Konqueror being outdated, Gnash being outdated, or perhaps both?

There are other options to try - both other browsers and other flash alternatives. I realize using an older/unsupported browser does bring some risk, which is why for now I'm only trying this on a test box that I can fully format without any concern.

Anybody know of any other more recent &/or supported Flash alternatives? It appears that Shumway isn't quite able to install properly in the newer Firefox versions, Lightspark is still quite buggy, and Pepperflashplugin appears to have been discontinued. Gnash is the only one that seems to partially work at present, although it's been years since it's been updated.

I may try sudo apt install browser-plugin-gnash next to see how/if it works in Firefox. If it does, at least I'll have an up-to-date browser with an option to continue using my SlingBox?

regmar · Post by **regmar** » Wed Apr 22, 2020 10:18 am

I was so excited when I read your message, I immediately installed konqueror+gnash. Bummer, I have a Slingbox M2 and I got the message "incompatible device". I have to go back to my Amazon Fire stick where Slingplayer still works but for how long?

ralplpcr · Post by **ralplpcr** » Wed Apr 22, 2020 6:48 pm

regmar wrote: ⤴Wed Apr 22, 2020 10:18 am I was so excited when I read your message, I immediately installed konqueror+gnash. Bummer, I have a Slingbox M2 and I got the message "incompatible device". I have to go back to my Amazon Fire stick where Slingplayer still works but for how long?

I've got a Slingbox 350. I've heard that the .html file solution doesn't seem to work with some of the newer models - - I guess the M2 is one of them?
The ideal, of course, would be to find a way to make the Windows, Mac, or Android version work in Linux... but so far I've had no luck with that either. Other possible idea would be a functioning plug-in for Kodi or Plex... or maybe incorporating into MythTV somehow. There's got to be a solution out there somewhere?

ralplpcr · Post by **ralplpcr** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 11:32 am

While it's not quite the solution I'd hoped for, I've found a way to continue using my SlingBox after Flash is retired!

Obviously, we're still dependent on Sling Media continuing to operate their servers, but as long as they do this should allow all versions of SlingBox to be viewed on Linux.

The solution is to use the Android Phone SlingPlayer app on our Mint system. It's unfortunately a bit convoluted to get it working... but I'll try to simplify it as best I can.

[I got this working on a 5 year old Lenovo X1 Carbon having an i7-6600U processor, integrated Intel graphics, and 8GB of RAM. I'm not sure the minimum specs needed, but if you have something newer/more powerful, it should handle it with no problem.]

Step 1: Download & install VirtualBox on your system. It *must* be VirtualBox - not VMWare or another emulator.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install virtualbox

Step 2: Download & install Genymotion Android emulator. You will need to register for a personal account, but it is free for personal use.

Download from https://www.genymotion.com/fun-zone/ (this will be a .BIN file)
Right-click, choose Permissions tab, set as executable
Install using bash: sudo bash '/home/ralplpcr/Downloads/genymotion-3.1.0-linux_x64.bin' (or whatever your path may be)

Step 3:Fire up Genymotion, and log in
Step 4:Click the pinkish " + " button to create a virtual phone. It's important to note that not all versions of Android will work with the SlingPlayer app. You will also need an APK translator to enable the ARM code to work in an X86 environment.
I selected the Google Pixel phone with the Android 8 API, since it has the right resolution for my screen, and uses "Oreo" - which I know is still supported with SlingPlayer.

Click the Android API dropdown & select the API you wish to use
(I'll recommend sticking with either Android 6 or Android 8 API - I've tested both, and they do seem to work - YMMV)
Select the phone you wish to emulate, and click NEXT
Accept the defaults on the next screen and click INSTALL
Genymotion will download & install your virtual phone
Feel free to fire it up by double-clicking the virtual phone in the Genymotion main window

Step 5:Download the ARM translation code and install it on your phone. **IMPORTANT** - You must match the ARM translation code to the Android API that you used when creating your virtual phone!
Since I used Android 8 API:

Go to https://github.com/m9rco/Genymotion_ARM_Translation
Select the Android version used on your virtual phone
Download
Once it's downloaded, drag the whole ZIP directly onto the virtual phone
The phone should ask if you wish to install - - allow it to do so
Once the installation is complete, restart the phone. (I just powered it off and then restarted it)

Step 6:Download the SlingPlayer APK for Phones. I'm sure there are several sources, but you *won't* be able to use the Google Play store. A quick Google search found multiple places quite easily.

**Note: Make sure you get the APK for PHONES. The Tablet app has been officially discontinued, and may no longer work - YMMV.
I was able to find/download the APK easily from https://apkhubs.com/en/slingplayer-for-phones-tablet-apk

Step 7:Install the SlingPlayer APK onto your virtual phone
As long as you've properly installed the ARM translation from Step 5 correctly, this should be quite easy.
Simply drag & drop the whole APK file right into your "phone's" screen.

If you get an error about not running due to ARM code, that means your installation of the ARM translator did not work. You'll need to repeat step 5 again, and make certain to fully reboot the virtual phone before attempting the SlingPlayer APK install again.

Step 8:Nearly done! If all has worked as expected, you should now have the SlingPlayer license agreement up on your screen. It will be vertical, however - - click the rotate screen button in the Genymotion interface to set it horizontal.

: button.jpg (1.16 KiB) Viewed 2985 times

Then go ahead & complete the setup of the SlingPlayer app in your virtual phone.

Step 9:Once you've logged in, you should be able to now see & control your SlingBox using the virtual phone. The interface isn't quite as nice as the on-screen remote, but it does the trick. You can maximize the virtual window, or leave it as-is while watching. The virtual phone's controls will remain on-screen, but they're pretty unobtrusive - - I can deal with it, anyway!

Step 10 (optional):If you don't feel like opening the phone's apps to locate & launch SlingPlayer every time, you can place the launcher on your virtual phone's home screen. Simply open the apps in your phone by clicking the " ^ " above the circle icon and locate SlingPlayer. Click & hold the mouse for a few seconds, and then start dragging the icon upward. You should see a transparent overlay of your home screen - - just drop the launcher wherever you'd like on your home screen.

Watching your SlingBox is then as easy as opening your virtual phone in Genymotion, clicking the rotate button, and launching the app!

I can't guarantee this will work for everyone & all versions of SlingBox, but as far as I'm concerned, it's solved for me?

regmar · Post by **regmar** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 2:31 pm

Wow, it works quite well, thanks for sharing. Image quality is actually better than VirtualBox/Windows 10/SlingPlayer route. However, the sound is slightly offset to the image for both devices I installed with Genymotion, Google Nexus 7 (6.0 - API 23) and Google Pixel (8.0 API 26). In order to see the remote control, I had to select 1200x1920 size.

It would be interesting to know weather SlingPlayer apk for the Fire Stick could be used with Linux Mint.

ralplpcr · Post by **ralplpcr** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 2:57 pm

regmar wrote: ⤴Fri Apr 24, 2020 2:31 pm It would be interesting to know weather SlingPlayer apk for the Fire Stick could be used with Linux Mint.

In theory, it should be possible? Firestick uses "Fire OS", which is itself a branch of Android?

There is a Amazon Fire HD10 Tablet listed as one of the available virtual devices (1920x1200 screen) in Genymotion. I'm not sure whether the existing SlingPlayer APK would work with it, however - - - not to mention the ARM translation. It uses Android 9, which doesn't have an ARM translator on the site I mentioned. There is also an Amazon Fire HD8 tablet which uses Android 7.1 - - that *does* have an ARM translator, but the screen resolution is only 1280x800.

Worth a shot? I may give it a shot later... If you get it working, post back & let us know!

UPDATE: I tried the Fire HD10 tablet, but didn't get it working. I tried installing the ARM 8 translation, and it did install...as did the SlingPlayer APK...but when I attempted to launch it, it crashed consistently. I suspect the ARM 8 translator is just not fully compatible with Android 9. Google Pixel 2 XL (1440x2880 resolution) works quite nicely for me, though?

ralplpcr · Post by **ralplpcr** » Fri May 01, 2020 8:48 am

Just for record-keeping, and to put it out there for any future readers who come across this problem:

I've found 2 other solutions that seem to work pretty well. While neither is perfect and both require some work to set up, these will both also work to get SlingBox playing in a Linux Mint environment.

Method 1: VIEW SLINGBOX IN WINE:
(SlingPlayers compatible with Flash only - will not work with M1/M2 versions)

For my SlingBox 350, I can get a beautifully synched picture & audio using Flash player - either under Chrome or Firefox. As you probably know, Flash is going away at the end of 2020. But, as long as I use an isolated task-specific browser only for SlingPlayer and don't update it, I'm good to go.

What I did was to install "wine-install" and "PlayOnLinux" via the software manager.
I also did a sudo apt install xterm, since PlayOnLinux seems to want it.
I then installed a virtual drive with Internet Explorer 8. [This is mostly just to get the Windows libraries needed.]
I set the Wine version to "system", and rebooted the VM.
I then went into the Wine configuration & set the "Graphics" tab to emulate a virtual desktop - for me, I used 1920x1080.

I then installed Flash Player (via PlayOnLinux), and set it to never check for updates.
Next, I installed an old Firefox version 45.1 from http://www.oldversion.com on the drive.
It took some poking around at the settings and several attempts to get it going, but once I did, I set Firefox to never check for updates.
I set the FF homepage to http://slingplayer.slingbox.com/embedded/slingplayer.php, and then closed it down.

Finally, I scanned the drive to create a shortcut to Firefox within that virtual drive. (I called it FFSlingBox)
Now, whenever I click on my "FFSlingBox" shortcut, I get a working version of Firefox that automatically loads up the Flash player connection to my SlingBox.

This relies on SlingMedia continuing to run their servers with the Flash interface. At present, it works quite nicely, however?
The window is not resizable, so whatever you set in the Wine configuration Graphics tab is what you get. But it does have the full virtual remote, and syncs the audio & video perfectly. Playback is smooth and clear - - at least as much as your bandwidth permits.

Method 2: USE A PERL SCRIPT TO DIRECTLY ACCESS THE SLINGPLAYER

This method is much more complex, and will require a good bit of terminal use - both to setup & install, as well as to operate. However, this method *does not* require the SlingMedia server, as it connects directly to the SlingBox itself. It should continue working as long as my SlingBox does, as far as I know?

This really appeals to me, since we simply don't know how long SlingMedia will continue to operate their servers. It uses only free & open-source methods to directly control your device, and the picture/audio is fantastic.

Steps:

1. Download & install Crypt-Tea_JS-2.23. I was able to obtain this from https://github.com/gitpan/Crypt-Tea_JS
After extracting, it required installing the following dependencies first:
Code: Select all
```
sudo apt-get install build-essential flex libelf-dev libc6-dev-amd64 binutils-dev libdwarf-dev
```
I was then able to follow the instructions in the README:
Code: Select all
```
perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install
```
2. If you have a Windows system, copy/paste https://newwatchsecure.slingbox.com/watch/slingAccounts/account_boxes_js into a web browser - preferably Firefox. What you're looking for is a text array to appear. In it, you should see "adminPassword" - you'll want to copy down that Admin password.

If you instead get a login country selector screen, login, then close the browser & try again - or maybe with a different browser.
You *might* get this to work from Linux, but it's temperamental.
3. Now you need to get the actual IP address of your SlingBox. I used arp -a, but you can also check your router, if you're so inclined.
4. Download the rec350.pl file from https://github.com/jasonparekh/slingdvr
After it downloads, set the executable bit.
5. Edit the rec350.pl file and make the following modifications:
- Add the correct IP from step 3 into the $ip variable
- Change the $port variable to '5201' [older SlingBoxes - like the Pro - use port 5001 instead]
- Set the $pass variable to the admin password found in step 2
6. Time to launch! Type the following into a terminal:
Code: Select all
```
perl rec350.pl -stdout | vlc -
```

That should connect to your SlingBox, and display whatever channel is currently playing through your cable box, streamed directly into VLC.

If you wish to change the channel:

Code: Select all

perl rec350.pl -chan 137 -stdout | vlc -

That should connect to your SlingBox, and change the channel to 137 before streaming into VLC.

NOTE: if you get a "connection refused" error, try switching the $port variable to a different value. You can view the correct port using a Windows desktop SlingPlayer app, or you can hope to get lucky. The range (at least for my SlingBox 350) is between 5200-5225.

If all worked, you now have a crystal-clear stream from your SlingBox directly into VLC. It's fully resizable, and you can easily control the volume directly through your standard Linux controls. The only issue is how to change channels &/or manage your DVR or other settings?

For this, you could use one of the other methods documented here to set your SlingBox (or cable box) to the desired channel, and then re-launch the Perl script.

You could also close VLC, and then re-launch the perl script again with the channel number you desire.

One other option I haven't tried yet is to purchase & set up something like this IP enabled IR Blaster. This should enable me to set up & have direct control of the cable box/DVR right through my phone. I could then use the perl method to launch VLC as a viewer only, and control what appears in there from my phone.

I'm still poking around to see if I can modify the perl script to allow a 2nd connection into the SlingBox to enable me to change channels without interrupting the stream to VLC. The Genymotion or Wine+Firefox methods work much better for this currently... but if I can figure out a means of safely controlling the IR emitter, this would be my preferred solution.

Many thanks to regmar for the suggestion with the perl script!

[edit] - One other item: I have found that I *can* set my ip address to that of my router. As long as I have the port correct, and have the port forwarded to my SlingBox, I am able to use the perl script to directly access my SlingBox remotely. YMMV.

ralplpcr · Post by **ralplpcr** » Tue Jun 23, 2020 11:27 am

ralplpcr wrote: ⤴Fri May 01, 2020 8:48 am .....One other option I haven't tried yet is to purchase & set up something like this IP enabled IR Blaster. This should enable me to set up & have direct control of the cable box/DVR right through my phone. I could then use the perl method to launch VLC as a viewer only, and control what appears in there from my phone.

I'm still poking around to see if I can modify the perl script to allow a 2nd connection into the SlingBox to enable me to change channels without interrupting the stream to VLC. The Genymotion or Wine+Firefox methods work much better for this currently... but if I can figure out a means of safely controlling the IR emitter, this would be my preferred solution.

Just to close out this experiment - - -

I did end up getting one of those IP enabled IR Blaster devices. It took forever to arrive... but once it did, I was able to quickly get it set up. I verified that it did in fact work on my cable box, and then set out to try & duplicate these results in Linux Mint!

I intentionally chose a rather old/weak laptop from 2014 to run this test. I wanted to verify whether it'd work with older hardware first. That way, I know it should work even better on newer/faster hardware.
My chosen specs:

Code: Select all

Lenovo Flex-3 laptop - 1366x768 display, Intel i915 graphics
Mint Cinnamon 19.1
Intel Pentium 3825U
4GB RAM

The first thing I did was to verify that the perl script from above would actually work on this laptop, and that VLC would be able to stream.

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/perl /home/ralplpcr/Desktop/slingbFiles/regmar/rec350.pl -stdout | vlc - &

This did work, so I went ahead & got Genymotion installed.
I chose a rather low-powered generic Android 7.1 image with a 768x1280 screen & 2GB of RAM as my target.
Once it was all set up, I located & installed the Hombli APK, and got it logged into the account I created on my "real" phone. Once I verified that it did show the same virtual remote, I tested it out on the laptop while watching my physical TV.
It did the job, so I then set my virtual phone to automatically launch the Hombli app & log in upon bootup.

Next, I created a launcher for Genymotion, pointing to that particular virtual phone as the target:

Code: Select all

/opt/genymobile/genymotion/player --vm-name {9cc461d8-1919-47ca-9e42-93e9dc0f7575} | "HombliRemote"

I verified that this would successfully launch my virtual phone, and then set about combining the two efforts.

I started by creating a ridiculously convoluted desktop launcher that combined both of the above launch scripts. It took a little bit to get the syntax right, but I was able to finally get it right:

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/perl /home/ralplpcr/Desktop/slingbFiles/regmar/rec350.pl -stdout | vlc - & /opt/genymobile/genymotion/player --vm-name {9cc461d8-1919-47ca-9e42-93e9dc0f7575} | "HombliRemote" &

This gave me a single desktop launcher that I could double-click to launch SlingBox in VLC *and* open the Hombli Remote app on a virtual phone.

As you can see in this video, it worked surprisingly well!
I was able to verify:

Code: Select all

* Connection into my SlingBox
* I could turn on/off the Cable Box
* I could use the app to manually select a channel
* I could use the cable box's guide to choose a channel
* I could use the cable box's favorites to choose a channel
* I could access/schedule/play shows from my DVR
* I could toggle between full screen & windowed mode effortlessly

Volume was controlled through my laptop's volume control, and the picture was excellent quality. No lagging/stuttering (except when manually re-sizing VLC), and everything worked as expected.

There is a small delay between pressing a button on the virtual remove & having the IR Blaster respond. This was present on my physical phone as well, so I don't think it's an issue with my virtual phone. It's a little annoying, but it's really no worse than the delay I had when using SlingBox's built-in IR blaster... and this is much more reliable. It's also an adjustment not having all the "buttons" on a single screen.... but once you learn how to operate the interface, it's not so bad?

While it did end up costing me $15, I think it was well worth it. All attempts to programmatically access the built-in IR blaster on the SlingBox while it was playing ended up terminating the stream. And I never did figure out how to access the DVR or guide programmatically.... I'll leave that up to some future experimenter to resolve. The $15 spent was well worth avoiding all that hassle & got me a fully-functional solution.

I can now have complete control over my cable box & watch remotely from anywhere I have internet.

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SlingPlayer - Solved? :)

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