Slingbox

[OHSportsFan9]

Any thoughts/opinions on this piece of technology?

Looks like a great concept, I'm wondering how it works in practice.

I would love to have something like this. If Slingbox isn't a good purchase, is anyone familiar with something similar in the market?

For those that don't know, this device is supposed to allow one to watch whatever signal they get from their TV (cable, digital cable, satellite, etc.) right on their computer screen...all over the world, through internet access. You can even control a remote and record/rewind/fast-forward/pause (if you have a dvr/tivo on your home TV set in which the Slingbox is connected).

Walmart and Amazon have these going for around $100 right now. I'd have to get the wireless ports since my TV and Router are in different rooms, but it appears that is only another $50-60...seems like a pretty cheap alternative to be able to watch the hundreds of channels I get (sports, movie packages) even when I'm out of town and it appears I have the capable systems to get this accomplished (digital cable set-top box, good internet connections, and a pretty good laptop).

Am I missing a catch? Too good to be true? Reliable? Any thoughts and discussion would be appreciated!

Sling Media - Home of the Slingbox

[Muck]

Originally Posted by OHSportsFan9

Any thoughts/opinions on this piece of technology?

It kicks ass.

Looks like a great concept, I'm wondering how it works in practice.

Works exactly as advertised. Just be sure to check on what your upload limit is through your provider as that can be a bottleneck.

If Slingbox isn't a good purchase, is anyone familiar with something similar in the market?

Alternatives include the Monsoon HAVA & SONY LocationFree

The SageTV DVR software has an add-on that will allow it to stream from a media machine running it. CyverLink Live is also similar.

Since I have a PC that I serves as my media server & DVR (I don't use Sage) I use ORB which also lets me stream content over the net from the PC.

Oh, and it's free.

ORB doesn't tend to have quite the quality as Slingbox but since I'm not overly critical when watching video on the laptop at work () the $0 price tag is worth the difference.

[Taosman]

Truely a great little product. I don't have one but it's highly recommended.
I'm saving my ducats for a hard drive media server.

[OHSportsFan9]

I think I'll go with the Slingbox brand, though I like that HAVA has built-in wireless and seems to have a good PVR feature (heard good and bad about it though).

Slingbox has good reviews and looks like the easiest to operate, plus it would work out to be a lot cheaper to buy the Slingbox AV + the wireless port (probably around $160), as it would to buy the HAVA version that includes wireless ($250 retail...I think $200 on Amazon).

[Muck]

Be sure to share your thoughts after you get it!

[wadc45]

We've got it here at my office...works good on everyone's individual PCs...not so well when we try and network it to our conference room flat screen.