The black boxgrew shabbier each year: bynowit was no longercompletelyblackbut splinteredbadlyalong one side to show theoriginalwood color, and insomeplacesfaded or stained.
The only trouble we initially ran into was that our original no-frills Freeview box wasn't listed on SlingPlayer's IR code database, and since the SlingBox couldn't be trained using our own remote control, we had to procure a compatible Freeview box.