Sling Media Slingbox - A/V over internet.

[Martinh]

Sometimes a product comes along that works and is genuinely useful. Here's one that stands out IMHO.

Slingbox allows you to watch YOUR tv anywhere in the world. It sends A/V from your home system across the internet.

It's a product that I've been using with great success for the last 3 or 4 years, mainly when travelling to my in-laws in France, but also at work, in the bath etc.

The best thing is that the setup cost is next to nothing ( I bought my slingbox for £50 online). There are no subscription fees, you just need an internet connection at both ends.

The slingbox base unit connects to your home internet network and then plugs into your TV set top box or other source. It has a infrared eye that's used to control your STB (change channels, control the hard drive etc.)

Here's the slingbox base unit:

http://www.chelsea-bathrooms.co.uk/slingbox_pro_hd.jpg

My version has 3 inputs for STB (virgin V+), DVB (digital arial on roof), and and extra s-video input (could be used for a security camera?) You can also connect to CD, DVD, PCs etc, as you wish.

The Slingbox encodes the signal and transmits it on demand via the internet.

You can watch via many devices including PCs, laptops, tablets, smartphones etc

Here's a screenshot of me watching BBC news on my laptop:

http://www.chelsea-bathrooms.co.uk/screenshot.jpg

Note that the remote control shown on the right is exactly the same as my virgin remote at home :)

The picture quality depends upon the speed of your internet connection (mainly the upstream connection at home) but even with a 700 kb/s upstream link it's not bad. I have 1500 k upstream and it's good.

Another unexpected benefit has been the ability to log on remotely, when I've forgotten to set the Virgin box to record something :doh:

The best thing is that it's been 100% reliable - not once have I logged onto it and had a problem. How many devices can you say that about?

Here's the Sling media website http://http://uk.slingbox.com/go/home (http://uk.slingbox.com/go/home)

Cheers,

p.s. and no, I'm not employed by sling media :)

[Reid Malenfant]

The potential of using this as just a security device has got to be damn near worth the money :)

As it is I now have upload speeds of over 8.5MBPS, though I don't go anywhere & I don't watch TV :lol:

Nice, handy bit of kit though, I can see how it could be very attractive to someone who travels & does watch TV :cool:

[slate]

I have the Solo variant and I am also a happy camper. I bought it in 2007 as I did a bit of travelling in my old job; and it would also allow my sister (in Spain) to log in and Watch a bit of news etc from the old country.

At the time I only had 768 kbit/s upstream but the quality was ok when viewing in a window on a laptop; helped my survive 3 months in Athlone in 2009.

Now I have 3mbit/s upstream and that does improve the quality a lot when viewing on a 42" tv.

A couple of my mates also bought Solo or the HD variant and for all of us the Little wallwart PSU have failed. Failed in a way so that it seemed that the box was working (lights on). It delivered the voltage but no amps.
Called sling in the UK and they sent a new PSU; no problem even when my box was out of warranty... I guess that they bought them to cheap

[Martinh]

Its a very underrated product/technology but i suppose its quite niche.

Mine did sterling service during the olympics when i was at the in laws in france. Great for catching up with the results at the end of the day.

I also use a vpn service to allow me to connect to bbc iplayer, but the slingbox is still the best.

Cheers,

[Ali Tait]

Will this work with a sky box?

[Martinh]

Will this work with a sky box?

Yes is the simple answer.

If you google slingbox sky box, you'll get lots of answers from people who have that system.

The only real issue is that none of the available slingbox models cater for HDMI connections. I think this is due to copyright protection (you are effectively streaming copyright material).

I have mine connected to my virgin box via the SCART output and the TV connected via the HDMI. With the virgin box that I have, you can get output on SD HDMI and SCART simultaneously, so I don't have to manually switch over the output to use it. Other boxes are either/or, so it can be a problem for some.

With the Classic model that I have, it's got a DVB-T tuner built in, so you can watch tv from the aerial too.

All good stuff,

[Ali Tait]

So you set this up at home and when you are away you can watch Sky on your laptop or similar? Assuming the family is at home watching, do you have to watch what they are watching at home?

[Martinh]

So you set this up at home and when you are away you can watch Sky on your laptop or similar? Assuming the family is at home watching, do you have to watch what they are watching at home?

Yes, you are watching the output that your family is watching.

You can have fun with this, by changing channels and pausing it from anywhere in the world! The first time I did it, my wife thought the vigin box was haunted. Needles to say, the novelty wore off quite quickly :)

In the case where the family is watching at home, you can switch over to the DVB input and watch from the aerial. Or watch what they are watching.

Before I got my iPad, we also sometimes used this system to watch tv on the laptop around the house and in the garden, via wifi.

[Ali Tait]

Ok, cheers.

[Martinh]

Ok, cheers.

Doesn't Sky now have a similar streaming service out now?

[Ali Tait]

Yes, but channels are limited. It would be good to access them all when I'm away- I work away and am only home at weekends.

[Martinh]

The ideal setup would be to have a second sky box that it dedicated to the slingbox.

Otherwise, If you are in the uk, you have several other options:

Iplayer
4OD
Demand 5

Plus TVcatchup on your smartphone, tablet or laptop - its my favourite and free. :)

For watching overseas, you have problems because they all block streaming outside of the UK. You can use a free VPN service to get around this, except for tv catchup, who block VPN too.

However, when Im away, I still prefer my slingbox, as I can acces the content on the HDD and set recordings too.

Sounds like I'm always watching tv, doesn't it? Not really, but I do go to France a lot and have you ever watched French tv? ;)

[Ali Tait]

I already use sky player, Netflix and 4od. Not seen tvcatchup, I'll look it up. Thanks.

[nat8808]

Could you use this with a VHS player? Just down to the remote control templates installed or something?

I've no reason for it... just thinking outloud. imagine though if you were trying to log/categorise some old tapes and you wanted to do it from your local cafe instead.