Shared Knowledge

"Slingbox - Suddenly Not Controlling Tivo"

11 June 2011

Summary: Slingbox Pro setup to control Tivo Series 2 and worked fine for a year, then begin to loose capability to control Tivo via Slingplayer. Turned out to be the Slingbox IR cable was defective at the plug. Can use other IR cables but will probably need plug adapter.

Background:

Slingbox Pro connected to Ethernet, setup to control Tivo Series 2.

Using Slingplayer on Intel-based personal computers.

Loss of Tivo control:

Began to lose Slingplayer control of Tivo.

Sometimes it would work, sometimes not.

Suddenly no control of Tivo at all.

Reinstalled Slingplayer to latest version.

Reset Slingbox to factory defaults.

Setup Slingbox over and over again.

Nothing seemed to work.

Decided it had to be IR cable.

IR replacement cable:

Had several spare Tivo IR cables and thought I would try one to see if it worked before buying Slingbox specific IR cable.

BUT turns out the jack in the Slingbox Pro takes a 3/32inch mono plug and Tivo IR cables have a 1/8 inch mono plug on them.

Saw on eBay and Slingbox website that Slingbox IR cables are for sale for under $10.

Bought Radio Shack 3/32inch mono male to 1/8inch mono female adapter (<$3).

Plugged spare Tivo IR cable into adapter and then adapter into Slingbox.

Had to reset Slingbox to factory defaults and set up again but works fine now.