Anyone using a SlingBox?
 

If so, what are your thoughts? Is it worth getting one so that I can watch my Tivo from on the road?

Yes, yes and yes.

Without a doubt the best product there is for people who are often stuck on the road.

Its decent. I got it a couple years back and not much has changed or improved software-wise. My connection at home has gotten a little better so the picture is decent on the road, about 400kbps, though that is the weakest factor. I am not a videophile though when it gets choppy and grainy I would rather just wait until I get home and watch Sports Center in the mean time. All-in-all it is easy to set up and there is almost no configuration involved. With that said, there was no such thing as Hulu back when I bought it and I find that it is a much crisper picture on Hulu or any of the other sites put out by the networks, though that usually forces you to have to wait a day to watch depending on where you are.

You really should install the newest software, it isn't anything like the previous generation client.

Likewise for me. Watch TV on both my AT&T 8525 and my laptop.

+ 1 .

Have had one since the spring - works well - glad I have it. When traveling, do not watch full recorded shows that often, but was nice to be able to connect back to my DirecTV for live events like the debates while traveling in Europe this summer or Sunday NFL ticket from South America the past few weeks.

OP: What Scott said in his initial post Twelve thumbs up!

Scott: The new install went well on the remote PC and is waaaaay smoother. But it consistently asks me to set up the box with an update that appears to require settings I may not have. How is that box side install? Painless and if so what info will it ask for so I can procure it? I have all the IP and port info, master password etc., but no serial numbers etc.

Thanks.

Another big approval here. Have used it a few times while travelling in Europe to catch up with my tivo shows. Watched the Oscars live while in Germany. My son uses it from work to catch the Saturday football games. I can always tell when he's on the slingbox because my channels start flipping by themselves. We've been known to have a few channel wars. I only have the basic setup and it works fine for us. Will look into software updates. Thanks.

I've had one for a few years now.

It can be quite a pain to set up depending on your home network set-up, but once it works its great.

Only real constraint is your upstream speed from where the Sling is and the downstream speed from where you're watching. Obviously the higher the better, particularly if you like to watch sports.

Also works very well in the LAN environment.

Anyone use TIVO 2 Go? I have been using it to watch shows on my laptop, PDA and media player a lot. It is free and pretty easy. It downloads as a *.tivo file and there is a program that will convert it to an .mpg file to load on whatever you want. Granted you can't do live but you can watch recorded shows in the air. Great for irrops.

The only thing missing with the Slingbox is the Blackberry client. The beta is coming out soon, but hurry up already. I used to have a Pocket PC, and I am in total withdrawal.

Ditto with the iPhone. Would settle for a Wifi only client, as we don't have unlimited data in Ireland.

I love my slingbox , I have been using it for over 3 years and IM looking to upgrade to the HD slingbox.
I have watched sporting events live from all over the wolrd , and it has gotten me through many hours of being stuck at airports.

For folks with a SlingBox, TiVo and NetFlix, life should get much more interesting in the coming months. Streaming from NetFlix to your TiVo to the SlingBox to the remote viewer. Mmmmm...bandwidth.

I agree with previous comments. Slingbox is awesome. I do encounter many hotels that seem to block access however. (I have my Sling going over port 443).

Thanks.

My SlingBox is awesome! I use it everywhere! (even at home--it's just more convenient to watch TV on my laptop than at the actual TV)

I love the fact that it works anywhere in the world....so while I'm sitting in an airport lounge in South America, I can watch my local TV channels!

So we are just considering a position in China. If I purchasee a slingbox and install it in my parents home (for example) I would be able to watch the tv we have always been used to correct?

How does this affect my parents internet usage bandwidth? Hate to have my tv viewing adversely affect the quality of their internet connection.

The SlingBox streams only when a user is connected, so it shouldn't hurt bandwidth too much overall. Also, your parents' ISP won't dial back their speed for "excessive consumption" because you won't be uploading/streaming content 24/7.

+4 meaing four slingboxes and one catcher!!

Slingboxes are great, especially when armed with a mobile device and of course lappy. the new catcher is a really nice add-on, that allows direct connection to a TV without the need for a laptop in between. Works VERY nice.

I've used any one of my slingboxes from within India, Russia, China, south america, all of Europe, Africa. On a boat in the middle of the carribean even!

With a mobile device hooked up, it is as good as getting satellite radio if you are looking to listen to thinkgs like CNBC, CNN, etc. Just stream it from home.

Per another post, sometimes there is a port blockage at some wifi or hotel locations (I often just use it with my EVDO travel connection so it doesn't matter) but a way around this is more than one slingbox, on more than one port. Granted, most users will have just one.

As for you parents. It would be REALLY beneficial to have them upgrade their UPSTREAM bandwidth to 400kps or more if they aren't already on cable or something. My DSL is now 700kps+ which works EXCELLENT even for NEAR HD streaming from the new ProHD slingbox. That is the only real bandwidth bottleneck. I stream on a windows mobile phone at 250-300kps just fine, great picture and no lag. LOVE IT!

You do realize that you can just view the netflix stream right on your computer from netflix.com? The whole point of all these partnerships (TIVO, XBOX, Playstation) is so they can enable playback on a TV screen and don't even have to ship you a DVD.

Good luck with that outside the US ;)

So I have a wireless router that does NAT and acts as a firewall. Would I need to open a port to allow inbound access to the sling box? How does it perform over an 802.11g network, or should I go hardwired? Any disadvantages to the sling?

When you install the slingbox, it does a setup that worked flawlessly for my current router. Didn't have to manually open ports or anything. Works great at my house on an 802.11 g network.

Going to have to look into this new software you speak of. I love my Slingbox and use it all the time. Never have thought of updating my software.

Wirelessly posted (Apple iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

Yes, I had to open a port on my Airport Extreme router to allow streaming, and I had to map that port manually to the internal ("private") IP address assigned to the SlingBox. But it is pretty easy to do if you are familiar with DHCP/NAT configuration.

Which TV for PC to TV
 

Trying to figure out which kind of TV is best to port my PC to when slinging from overseas. I get about 1100kbps right now, maybe a tad slower when I move next week but I think it will be pretty much the same. (initial speed test for line at current location showed 69mbps down and new place speed test 2 days ago showed 50mbps).

Do I go 17 inch, 20 inch, bigger? Do I go Analog or Digital? HDTV or no?

Thanks in advance,

Mike

Why PC to TV? Why not just get a Slingcatcher and get it over with.

A Catcher will look fine on any size TV, I've used one on a 50" plasma and it performed just fine, especially with the speeds you are getting, you'll get a lot of joy from a Slingcatcher.

This sounds like it is too good to be true. Let me ask a couple of basics and then I am likely going to whip out my credit card and make a purchase.

I am overseas, my Slingbox is stateside. My goal is to watch the signal I see on my monitor when slinging form overseas to a TV that is with me overseas. I know I can port from video card TV pout to a TV but this SlingCatcher seems a great idea too. From what I can make out online on slingmedia's site, the sling catcher gets hooked to the Slingbox. What I am interested in is porting the signal I watch with Slingplayer when overseas to a TV that is also in the house with me overseas. In such a set up is SlingCatcher a viable option?

Thank you for the suggestion and if you have time a coupe of the follow up novice questions too. :)

Mike

The sling catcher has one end that is Ethernet and goes into the wall and another that has different standard outputs that goes into your TV. It then can either hook up with a networked computer, a flash drive/hard drive or another slingbox either on the network or remotely.

The example on the Sling Media's Web site is for a college student who still wants to get the local sports teams while he is at school. He can buy a sling catcher and a tv for his dorm room and bum his parents TV from the slingbox at his house back home.

I think this is exactly what you are looking for.

Hadn't really paid attention to the Sling Catcher. Wish they had included wireless capability as it would be perfect for putting a TV in a room without easy wiring. Don't feel like messing with a wireless bridge right now, but will definitely keep my eyes peeled.

I never found wireless to be reliable enough for a steady Slingstream. Which would explain why Sling opted for Powerline instead of wireless. Even Wireless-N is not reliable enough to keep a sling signal going for hours.

I just want to add though that if you have a decent HDTV and you hook up your computer (VGA/DVI/HDMI) you will get a rather good picture assuming you correct the resolution. My guess is that you computer will be able to output in 1080p (1920x1080). The picture from the sling box will look decent assuming you get about 1.5mbps connection from the home box though you will have to be seated appropriately. ie If you have a 50 inch TV you can't sit right under it like you would your computer screen.

It would save you a lot of money probably if you only need the Sling Catcher a few times.

Here is what I am thinking, and several of the immediately preceding posts have been very helpful, thank you.

I would have to use a wireless bridge for the main TV given the config of my apartment. I could go direct to the one in my office. Scott says wireless is not ideal for a good stream over a longer period and that pretty much defines my usage. So wireless is getting a frown from me.

The Sling Community pretty well rakes the Catcher over the coals on a variety of points. Yet the posts remain positive on many issues as well. It sees that many early adopters are thinking that while it is good now it will be great in the next iteration.

As I will initially want to test the Slingbox on any TV due to my having used it solely on my monitor to date, after careful consideration a smallish flatscreen to sit astride my desk and be ported to from my PC will be a good way to get my feet wet with Slinging via to a TV remotely.

Any thought on the best size TV for a person sitting only a few feet from the TV given what the resolution may be from the Sling to the TV. Have not seen it myself so cannot judge effectively.

Thanks for all the advice gang, keep it coming.

Mike

5Ghz band
 

In that case you just need a dual band Wireless Game adapter and a dual band Wireless N router and run them in the 5Ghz band. I use the Linksys WGA600N and WRT600 and reguarly get actual throughput of 45-65 Mbps symmetrical throughput from my PC behind the switch behind the Game Adapter.

Now it helps that I have a DS3 shared by about 10 people as my internet connection, but I have never had any problem running my slingbox PRO-HD at full 1080i over Wireless N

And that is why we have VPNs ;)

I have the dream setup for Slingbox and VPN at home -- the new Slingbox Pro HD, a hardwired connection to my VPN router -- all set up in anticipation of the trip to China on which I'm presently on. It worked when I tested it from work. It worked in the airport lounge. And as soon as I got to Beijing . . .

either my VPN router or aDSL modem crashed and I can't make contact with my system, much less my Slingbox. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

The speed isn't the problem, my experience is that wireless just isn't stable enough for a continued long stream of Sling.

Surely it depends what else is going on on your network?

I use an Airport Express (new n standard) as a network extender plugged into my Slingbox and I watch it regularly for 1 or 2 hours both on LAN and remotely and have done for a while. Previously I used a cable to connect it to my router.

I honestly notice no real difference between the wireless and the cable, the real benefit from a remote perspective came when my provider increased my upstream speed.

Whilst I'm not saying it never hangs or slows, it doesn't do it enough to affect by viewing nor does it do it perceptively more than when it was cabled.

YMMV I guess.

so, I have found that with the SLINGBOX, the best thing is homeplug solutions to get to a remote router. I use the netgear HD modules, and have EASILLY enough BW on this homeplug lan to get 75mb (and streams on the ProHD come out at about 8000kps)

I have three slingboxes, and then ALL play nice to a single point of contact at the router.

For the slingcatcher, it works GREAT to access any of these local slingboxes (or remotely of course) on the LAN I get about 7MB streams from the ProHD (although, it isn't HD yet - that will be coming) the image quality is very good indeed. Remotly, I get only 700kps or so with DSL and that too is just fine. Although at that speed, I don't really like hooking up the catcher to a 50" plasma (I have that and a 58" at home and it looks fine)

Now, as for what the slingcatcher DOES and DOESN'T do relative to peoples needs/wants/expectations.

It does slingbox streaming ont the LAN and WAN quite well. the whole point of the SC it to get rid of the PC and allow a set top box to be connected to a TV for Video and Audio (I always hated to have to get audio out of the PC and to a TV in a hotel room) and the of course one had to getup to controll the PC all the time, FF etc. That was a pain.

With the SC and the included remote, you just connect IT to the TV and you're done. Of course you need internet and there are many discussions about how best to do that.

Yes, it doesn't have WIFI. and I think that reasoning is sound. Too much to build into the SW, HW costs and a multitude of configurations needed and then it still might not work like in a hotel with paid WIFI. so, let the buyer figure out what works best.

The features like Clip&sling are NOT out yet. This will be coming, and sling.com is going live in a week or so. It rocks, and there are really neat features there that all slingbox owners are going to really enjoy.

The media streaming featurs of the slingcatcher are IMHO still limited. It is GREAT for playing DVD rips and some media files, but the number of formats supported is limited.

The slingprojector software needs more work, but again this is an ADDITIONAL functionality of the SC above and beyond what I think the core feature is.

So, many people will complain about the ADDITIONAL features that are somewhat weak and still being developed, but I look at it as doing one thing quite well. Allowing me to connect IT and ONLY IT to a TV either in the HOME or REMOTE and see all my SLINGBOX content, with a remote control and that is all I really need it to do.

could it be 199$ for that, probably. give it a month :-0