Anybody Using Slingbox?

I'm looking at buying a Slingbox. Anybody with good or bad experience with this electronic device that permits you to access your home television via internet broadband connection remotely?

Limited time with mine. It works great over the local network in the house. So far I've had zero luck with travel viewing over the Internet. I know it's a firewall/access issue but so far haven't correctly opened things up for the service to flow. I'm nervous about removing too much protection and exposing my home network to attacks so I'm oving slowly on it. Mixed results so far.

I have seen a few others with theirs functional and it is very watchable.

Lots of users on FlyerTalk in the Travel Technology forum.

-David

Checking Things Out

Thanks, John, Dave. I'll check Flytertalk and see the hubbub over there.

Will Wait

Amazon's got a sale going on for the Slingbox with free shipping. Going for about $160 or so.

But after studying the information on Flyertalk I've decided to hold off on the Slingbox.

We run a hardware router that uses it's own hardware firewall. Then we have a software firewall.

We use VPN to access outside servers so we have to tunnel through the DMZ of the router to get outside connections. I don't want to screw around with my system to install the Slingbox and possibly jeapardize the installations.

My IPTVAnywhere

So, I say to myself, "Why did I get suckered into buying a first generation hardware/software package AGAIN?" as I now re-package MY IPTV Anwhere for it's return to Fry's.

As this original thread inquired about a product called Slingbox I thought I had found an alternative solution. Slingbox is a device that takes your home cable signal going into your pc (other configurations with other products are available) and rebroadcasts it to your second pc wherever you're at, as long as there is broadband internet connection between the two computers.

I was walking through our local Fry's Electronics store last night and happened upon this software/hardware alternative solution: My IPTV Anywhere. It's a USB connectable device to a main pc which serves as a server to broadcast television images to wherever you want to retrieve it through a remote pc connected by broadband internet. It's sale priced at $80 after rebate, which is about $60 cheaper than Slingbox (now we know why Slingbox has dropped prices so dramatically over the last few months -- competition coming over the horizon in the form of thie IPTV product, and probably a bunch others I don't know about).

Well after installing, reinstalling the software on four pcs and one laptop, wiring, rewiring, etc., etc., I'm about to go back and return the product to Fry's. Oh, yes, I forgot I've been on the phone with their technical support for the last half hour. Very helpful people who answered all my questions. Do I feel like being an unpaid beta tester? Well, not really.

Not only that, the technology for the rebroadcasting of television signals is not there. The pioneers are the ones with the arrows in their backs, right? Well, as a personal computer pioneer, I'm the one with the TRS-80 hardware and software in my storage bins.

Laters.

... always greener on the other side

... but I'm really looking at the new NAS (Network Access Storage) devices. I can hook up an external hard drive to my RJ45 port of my router and use that hard drive as back up storage for my networked pcs for next to nothing. I can store a terrabyte of data for less than $600, all in.

Currently my individual pcs have their own hard drives for backups (yes, fellow TUGgers, back up your pc ... pc user mantra: backup, backup, backup) and run automatically to back everything, and I mean everything: programs, operating system, files, every night at 2 am. Now with this el cheapo solution I can use one external drive, mirrored of course, to back up all the pcs.


(Separately, the new world order Bush mentioned, is already upon us. Countries outside of the US will never be able to catch up. Fed Chairman Bernanhke understands this well; see his last speech at the end of August, 2006, about the continued productivity growth in the US for years to come.)

NAS isn't new it's just become more poplular in the last few years and there are some new entrants that are providing rock solid platforms such as Ready NAS. Also, with HDD costs dropping the cost has become decidedly affordable and a NAS with Raid 5 protection is becoming more commonplace.

If you really want to get excited about something try ripping all your CD's to the NAS and then hook in some Slimdevice Squeezeboxes for whole house audio very cheap. Unfortunately the video side is lagging a bit until the HD piece gets worked out but there's some really affordable solutions on the horizon ie. $500 for a HD video server and rip and serve your DVD's from the NAS. The next couple of years are going to be pretty exciting times as some of this technology matures.

If you want to feed that first gen addiction you've got then you absolutely need to read the forums over at AVS Forums. Of course you're going to need a couple extra hours a day to absorb everything over there.

timeos2 said:

So far I've had zero luck with travel viewing over the Internet. I know it's a firewall/access issue but so far haven't correctly opened things up for the service to flow.

Click to expand...

On your home side, all you have to do is modify your router configuration to foward port 5001 to the slingbox. I would use a fixed IP address for the slingbox on your home network so the IP address of the slingbox doesn't change.

When you use one of the torrent clients you don't mind opening up incoming ports for it, do you? (the incoming connection will only be seen by the torrent client.)

If you're concerned about security and don't want to leave the port open all the time, you could use port triggering (via ssh or anything for that matter) to open the port remotely when you want to use it. (Connect to something securely on your home computer that runs something that will do the port triggering via another port.)

I don't have one of these. I'm not sure if you can tunnel the slingplayer protocol over ssh or not.

-David

New Slingboxes spotted out in the wild

3 new slingboxes. One for normal video, one for dvr/cable box/sat users and an HD pro version.

Additionally the Slingbox PRO can utilise the new Slingbox HD Connect cable (at a rather hefty $49.99 addition) which allows a component-sourced high definition signal, in 16:9 aspect ratio and resolutions of 720p or 1080i, to be passed through for transmission by the PRO box.

Click to expand...

I wonder how much bandwidth you need to transmit HD content?
The HD Connect cable uses component video input.

Do any of you have any more to say about Slingbox. i'm considering it but would like to read more updates from current users.

Brian

pwrshift said:

Do any of you have any more to say about Slingbox. i'm considering it but would like to read more updates from current users.

Brian

Click to expand...

I have been using the original slingbox for 9 months or so, I think its fantastic and have no issues with connecting. I use it with my HD Direct TV Tivo and its fantastic!! Your remote that is displayed on your laptop is exactly like the remote at home... makes it easy to use and setup recordings remotely (even create shortcuts for 30 sec skip etc).

I also connect with my PDA from time to time when I have a wireless connection avail... and also connect (my main usage) with my Sprint Treo Phone... I use it on my commute into work and back to listen to the news and market updates.... (not really for the video even though it works fine)

Now when March Madness hits.... I will have it on "discretely" at work, can stand missing those first round day games!!

You will enjoy a slingbox if you have reason to use one (I currently live between 2 cities...)

Got mine last December and have all 3 of my DirecTivo's connected to it. It worked great from a hotel over their Wi-Fi during our week in Utah between Christmas and New Years - I was able to watch a few Lakers games in the evening that way. I've also used it successfully from work and on my T-Mobile MDA phone although it really needs Wi-Fi to work well - it's just not acceptable over GPRS/Edge.



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RichM said:

Got mine last December and have all 3 of my DirecTivo's connected to it. It worked great from a hotel over their Wi-Fi during our week in Utah between Christmas and New Years - I was able to watch a few Lakers games in the evening that way. I've also used it successfully from work and on my T-Mobile MDA phone although it really needs Wi-Fi to work well - it's just not acceptable over GPRS/Edge.



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I guess those Sprint commercials with the GunSlinger are accurate

Using my Sprint phone I typically get a great connection to my Slingbox.

Had it for 1.5 years

Had mine for 1.5 years- works great- I can even use it my car now with broadband cellular if in major city.:whoopie:

Works very well.

bdodson said:

Had mine for 1.5 years- works great- I can even use it my car now with broadband cellular if in major city.:whoopie:

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As an update I long ago solved the Internet access issue and we also enjoyed tv from home while driving on Route 95 down the east coast to Orlando before Christmas (not the driver of course). It is amazing to see it work. Of course I had to have a power inverter to power the laptop and cell phone - cost $24 for a two pack at Sam's Club. The inverter powers the laptop and the Treo phone charges while it works using the USB cable This week we are in CA and watch the news at home to see whats going on and how much snow we're missing. Next I hear they plan a Palm based Treo client for the Sling box. I can't wait! I tried the paid TV service for the phone - which actually worked very well - but that didn't have the chancels I wanted. With the Slingbox it will be no additional charge and the same channels I get from my cable/satellite services.

mesamirage said:

I guess those Sprint commercials with the GunSlinger are accurate

Using my Sprint phone I typically get a great connection to my Slingbox.

Click to expand...

T-Mobile's supposed to have 3G service in 2-4 months, so then it should be fine.


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timeos2 said:

...This week we are in CA and watch the news at home to see whats going on and how much snow we're missing. .

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That's exactly one of the reasons I'm looking into Slingbox ... I'm in FL for a month and Canada doesn't seem to exist on USA news!

I think I might pick up a Slingbox Pro at Circuit City for $229, or might I be better off with just the 'digital' one for $149:

http://www.circuitcity.com/rpsm/oid/162054/rpem/ccd/jsp/pdt/pricePopup.jsp

Some of the negatives I've read is that you need an HDMI cable which doesn't come with it and an extra HD attachment also not included, which adds another $100 or more to the price ... do you also need a SlingLink Powerline Ethernet Adapter???

Brian

pwrshift said:

That's exactly one of the reasons I'm looking into Slingbox ... I'm in FL for a month and Canada doesn't seem to exist on USA news!

I think I might pick up a Slingbox Pro at Circuit City for $229, or might I be better off with just the 'digital' one for $149:

http://www.circuitcity.com/rpsm/oid/162054/rpem/ccd/jsp/pdt/pricePopup.jsp

Some of the negatives I've read is that you need an HDMI cable which doesn't come with it and an extra HD attachment also not included, which adds another $100 or more to the price ... do you also need a SlingLink Powerline Ethernet Adapter???

Brian

Click to expand...

Brian,

Just my 2 cents.. I personally would purchase the lowest cost Sling you can find... since what you get on the viewing side prob isn't much different based on how you get your signal up to the web. Just my opinion.....

the basic works fine

pwrshift said:

That's exactly one of the reasons I'm looking into Slingbox ... I'm in FL for a month and Canada doesn't seem to exist on USA news!

I think I might pick up a Slingbox Pro at Circuit City for $229, or might I be better off with just the 'digital' one for $149:

http://www.circuitcity.com/rpsm/oid/162054/rpem/ccd/jsp/pdt/pricePopup.jsp

Some of the negatives I've read is that you need an HDMI cable which doesn't come with it and an extra HD attachment also not included, which adds another $100 or more to the price ... do you also need a SlingLink Powerline Ethernet Adapter???

Brian

Click to expand...

I don't know that HD would add anything. The data stream is pretty high already - more pixels would slow it down or cause dropouts.

The higher end one also allows more input sources. I have the Pro and I'm using all 3 inputs. This is useful if you have multiple PVRs, but if you have just a single cable box, then the lower end one is probably fine.

The Slingbox Powerline Adapter simply allows you to utilize your in-home wiring as an ethernet transport medium in case you don't have an ethernet connection within reach of your video source/Slingbox location.



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Thanks so much. I have a digital cable box in my home office right next to my wireless modem, etc. so I think it best to go as suggested with the cheaper 'digital' model as there are more channels on it, including HBO, than there are just on the analog cable. I assume the connection is through the Slingbox 'after' the digital cable box?

This won't give me access to the HD PVR content (in another room and not convenient to ethernet) but that probably won't matter much other than remembering the time difference when I want to get the news broadcast from home while in Europe.

I have a HD PVR from the cable company ... if I decide I want to hook the Slingbox up to the HD PVR, would I need the PRO Slingbox or would the regular Slingbox still work? I can see the advantage of recording the newscast remotely and watching it on my time wherever I might be.

Finally...if someone at home is watching TV via the HD PVR would that conflict with my use of the Slingbox feature when I'm somewhere else in the world?

Brian

Yes, the connection is AFTER the cable box. The cable box still does the tuning/descrambling and the output goes to the Slingbox and the TV so make sure there are multiple outputs on the cable box otherwise you'll have to split the output somehow.

The website says that only the Pro supports HD content. I'm not familiar with HD as much or with your specific HD PVR to know if it would have some sort of non-HD output that your Slingbox could handle in order to stream the content in a non-HD manner.

Your last question is a bit confusing. If you've connected your Slingbox to the digital cable box, that would not affect anyone watching the HD PVR in the other room. However if your HD PVR is the device you decided to connect to your Slingbox, then whatever the HD PVR is outputting is what both the Slingbox (and remote Slingbox viewer) and the TV (and in-room TV viewer) would see.

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Thanks Rich and other contributors....I've ordered the AV 'digital' slingbox for $150 at Best Buy - picking it up tomorrow.

One of the things that really bothered me about Europe travel is that CNN and BBC are about the only English TV channels outside of the UK and none of them have much Canadian news, if any. Same in the US. So now, if I account for the time difference I'll get the local news just like at home. Cool.

Brian

Well, I've made my first trip since getting Slingbox...to NH at Wentworth at the Sea Marriott for a week. Loved the resort and the free internet connection (not wifi) so I could get the nightly news from home. Loved it. Worked very well, although I found in full screen mode the picture wasn't as good as I had hoped for at some points of the day. It was great not having to pay for in-room movies - just tuned into my movie channels. For the money, Slingbox is a great invention!

Brian

PS. I should mention I took my laptop to the office to show some staffers and they were fascinated by Slingbox ... maybe I've found this year's Xmas present for them? Guess I should say not to install it on their office computer!