SlingBox
 

Ok, I am finally going to purchase a slingbox, tired of sitting in NRT watching CNN.

Anyone have any good info on what type? Cost? DVR control?
Should I set it up in my office so the wife can watch TV on main TV?

Thanks

Ive been looking at switching to Dish network for the same reasons you state.

Their parent company of Dish network, Echostar also owns Slingplayer and they have an integrated DVR Sat Receiver with Slingplayer built in...

you can watch on one tuner while your wife watches on the other...

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/d...se-slingloaded

A buddy of mine does ad hock networks for big events and concerts. He is on the road more than us believe it or not, and he tells me all of the guys use sling players and are very happy...

Cheers
George

Is SlingPlayer different than SlingBox?

I have Direct TV and have a DVR set up on my main TV.

I have no real experience using a sling box but I was at Best Buy when it was slow a few weeks ago and they guy showed me how it works. Seemed pretty cool. He had one hooked up to his tv at home and pulled out his phone and we started watching tv on his phone. He said "its time to mess with the roomie" and started changing channels. He told me that when you change the channel on the app it changes the channel on the TV its connected to. So you probably want to put it on a TV the wife doesn't watch very often...unless you want to mess with her. As a poor RJ driver I don't have the extra money to be able to justify a slingbox, but it is something I hope to get in a while once I get more money or they get cheap enough... Sorry I couldn't be of much more help.

Slingplayer is the app on your laptop and Slingbox is the actual unit.

If you have an iPhone, there is a Slingbox app lets you watch on your phone and it works great!

Lots of info on their website. Slingbox.com - Slingbox shows the 2 current models. The big difference is the HD model allows you to connect extra devices and has a built-in tuner. The HD aspect is of limited value because it all depends on the speed of your internet connection.

The biggest challenge is normally getting the internet connection to the slingbox. Unless the slingbox is right next to your home router, you will need buy some type of wireless internet bridge device to connect the internet to the slingbox.

Google for "slingbox price comparisons" for best deals. The phone app is $30 but worth it when you are killing time somewhere.

Geek it up by also getting yourself a travel router. You plug the wire into it and then you can go wireless in your room. That allows me to make skype calls and watch slingbox on my iPhone without turning on the computer. Also allows me to set the computer next to the TV and feed the video from my computer to that big flat screen for better viewing.

Slingbox has a solution for this called SlingLink.

Slingbox.com - SlingLink TURBO

Or you can go geek and do what I did-- take an old $40 router and re-program it to be a wireless bridge :D

Used it all the time and loved it. I hooked it to a receiver /tv in the office by the high speed internet connection. This rarely used receiver left little room for competition to start a battle of remotes. i.e someone else watching with the same box at the same time. A little tricky to set up but their support is awesome. You wont regret having it and your 6hrs of CNN and Sumo watching are over.

The DVR/tivo receiver you select during the setup process will look just like home so you mouse over it and select live or recorded shows as normal

slingbox work with netflix at all?

I've had a Slingbox (which crashed after 18 months) and a Slingbox Pro, that Slingbox sold me for cost after the first Slingbox failure. While both of them have let me watch a lot of U.S. TV shows, football and baseball over the last 3 years, while on layovers, I can't in good conscience recommend the product.

The box freezes up and requires reseting, with my laptop computer hooked up to the home network, at least every other month. This almost invariably happens just as I start a 12 day Asia trip - very frustrating! I've also had to go through a full system reset three times in the last 18 months that required tech support - at $30 a pop. If you get one, I hope your wife is tech savy enough to be able to do a reset from home while you're on the road.

If you go to the Slingbox support page and look in the Slingbox Answers Forum you will see that I am far from the only person who has had problems keeping the dang thing working. http://answers.slingbox.com/communit...x/slingbox_pro

There are a couple of other options to Slingbox out there now. There is a competitor that I have been looking at called the Monsoon Vulkano. They have three different boxes including a $149 direct competitor with the Sling Pro, and a $315 version that has a DVR and 500 GB hard drive built in, that has all kinds of additional capabilities. They're just getting to the market and getting mixed reviews, so I may wait a while and let them get the bugs out.

Another option is what I've been using for the last few weeks. I have Comcast cable and they've just come out with Xfinity, which lets you watch most TV shows, but just not live - kinda like Hulu. But, like Hulu, you can't watch live TV and you can't log on from overseas. Unlike Hulu though, I can logon to Xfinity using my free Anchorfree Hotspot Shield VPN, that gets me on the internet from a US server.

In short, don't just focus on Slingbox - there are other options available.

I've got a Slingbox Pro and it's GREAT! Gotta echo everything FlybyKnight said and emphasize this point; you need to make sure you think through how you're going to set it up and how you're going to use it because it's not as simple as going to BestBuy, purchasing it, then taking it home and setting it up right out of the box. That might work in your case but you really need to look at where everything is in your house/technology sandbox and make sure you've got everything you need there including outlets.

I'm an Apple guy and have had very few problems with my Slingbox and having it go offline except for this past week. For some unknown reason, it went out in the 4th qtr of a game last Saturday at home and I have no one there to reboot it so I was SOL. Then 3 days later, the darn thing started working out of the blue and I've been watching football every night ever since! Go figure!?!?!?!?!

I regularly watch Slingbox on my MacBook Pro and have pretty good reception in most places. Like all things on the 'net though, your results will heavily depend upon your internet connection at your layover hotel. BTW, I also set up my own remote wireless in my hotel room.

Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions and also do indeed check out the competition.

If it's just NFL football you want, you need to check out the NFL Game Pass. That works great and you can probably get a good deal since the season is 1/2 way done.

FYI -- I carry a MacBook Pro on the road, use DISH network at home, and use Time Warner as my ISP.

Totally separate entities.

Slingbox works with your tv/dvr set-top box. You can watch your slingbox from anywhere since it is a one-to-one connection (your computer to your slingbox).

You can view Netflix movies and stuff Instantly after you log-in to the Netflix portal. Since it is an internet service, they restrict you to viewing only within the US. Applies to computer or iPhone app. You can get around the US only restriction if you have a VPN service that makes it look like you are in the states. VPN is also handy in DXB.

VPN service is becoming another must-have for international folks because it protects you and your data from prying eyes and ears, as well as letting you appear to be in the states for copyrighted/restricted services like Netflix. I'm a happy customer of WiTopia, it's the best pay-for-it deal I've found on the net that has no bandwidth restrictions.

I have had SlingBox for 6 months. Works great.
Set up was easy. The SlingBox, Cable Box and Router are all next to each other, so no need for any extra SlingLink or such. I did get an extra cable box just for the SlingBox, so no conflict with anybody at home changing my TV channel. I did not hook the extra cable box up to a TV, so no one at home can see what I am watching or even knows when I am watching.
Basic SlingBox, paid $179. I have control of my entire DVR Cable Box.
No complaints and recommend it to everyone.

Set up my Blu-Ray on an HD so netflix is available.

Well, there you go-- skin that cat a different way ;).

I have an older Pro model (just the one connection available) so I went the VPN route since it also has other security advantages. But I am hoping for a Xmas upgrade present :D

I have a had SlingPro for about 3 years and have had very few complaints. One deal is I am having trouble setting it up on 2 computers (mine and my wifes) but that is probably or the best anyway! The tech support does **** me off, they should support the product with out charge, but I have not really had to use it yet.

Edit:
You cant say the slang for urine on here? lame.

Very few complaints either. Had no problem setting up on my laptop and desktop. I think I set them both up as Admin level installs-- might want to try that. Of course you can't run them simultaneously due to copyright rules (one knocks the other off the connection).

Why? Just watch Netflix on your laptop or iPhone! (see FlybyKnight above)

Also, look into Boxee (installed on my laptop), XBMC (also on my laptop), Hulu (website), etc. Plenty of ways to watch all of your favorite shows without a Slingbox. Channelsurfing.net is great for sporting events.

FWIW, I've had a Slingbox for almost 4 yrs, but my local ISP decided to start port blocking so I can't get it outside of the home network (I live in a very rural area with only 1 real choice for anything close to high speed internet, but fiber optic via the phone company coming soon).

Yeah i thought of that, but it still did not work. I aint that smart so I did not really want to spend alot of time on it. it works for me and I am the one who is gone all the time. The wife just wanted to be able to watch Tv upstairs where we dont have a TV.

Thanks for all the input.

I went to Best Buy yesterday and bought the Sling Box solo. $179. Sling box Pro was about $280 and the only advantage I saw was the HD option. Didn't need to buy the Slingbox link, because my tv and router are next to each other, but if I was going to set it up downstairs I would have had to purchase there router.

Set up only took about 30 min and it worked great.

Do you guys recommend buying a travel router so you don't have to have your laptop connected to the lan at the desk?

Now keep my finger crossed while I am in DEL on that 48 hr layover...

Re: Netflix vs. Slingbox

These are complementary services, in my opinion. You may want both. Netflix is great, if they have what you want to watch in their streaming library. Slingbox is great for watching live or local events only available at your house, e.g. a local sporting event.

I also use Slingbox for remote control of the TiVo when I don't plan far enough ahead to use TiVo.com to schedule recordings.

One of the key infrastructure requirements for a good Slingbox connection is the *UPLOAD* speed of the internet connection at your house.

D-Link Pocket Router. $40 on Amazon. It is the size of a deck of cards. Works great and plenty of security options.

Good point! Because the box is uploading the signal for you to download. We have FIOS, so I worry more about my download speed on the other end.

Bingo. I really like it when I walk into my room overseas and my iPhone automatically connects and downloads my email. I don't have to boot the computer to make a skype call. And I'm not stuck sitting in that uncomfortable desk chair all the time. Well worth the $40-$60 investment.

Should also mention that it is also an additional layer of security for your computer. 'They' know the addresses of every wired connection in every hotel. With a [travel] router, when someone tries to probe/attack the computer on that wire they don't find a computer, they find a router wall instead. Haven't registered an inbound attack since I started using mine, YMMV.

I carry an Apple Airport Express. You can get them fairly cheap on eBay. I like it for it's small size, no cords, and it just works. I have a second one as my wireless access point at the house, too. All of my computers are PCs but those Airport Expresses work great as WAPs.

After reading this thread I pulled the trigger on the D-Link Pocket Router for my next trip. After reading the instructions I'm a little unsure of exactly what mode to use on the router and the set-up in the hotel room. Any insight is much appreciated.

Yeah, D-Link isn't real great on the 'how-to-setup' part. I have to re-teach myself whenever mine gets accidentally reset. I've used the wizard and manual setups, it just depends on your preference and comfort level. I also downloaded the user manuals to keep on my computer to refresh my memory.

Don't worry about hurting/bricking it, there is a small hole on the back side that you can reset the thing to factory settings if you don't get it right the first time.

To use on the road, you want to run the thing in the ROUTER mode. That means do the ROUTER setup. If you use the Quick Install Guide it will direct you to do use the Wizard. You may want to do the wizard and then check the settings manually.

Most important thing to do is to rename the SSID and setup an Authenication/Encryption key so that you are the only one that can use your private network.

I found two resources that may help a little bit (both manual setup): How to configure the wireless settings on D-Link DWL-G730AP? | D-Link Blog Home and http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...r_0J4Q&cad=rja . On the first one, remember Router mode. On the second one, just read the D-Link stuff the explorer thing is the equivalent of the hotel internet cable.

To test at home, take a wire from your home router and plug it into your spiffy new router look for your new network on your laptop. Connect to the your new network and put in the password you choose. Save the network settings and you should be able to surf and do all the normal things. If it works at home, it should work everywhere you plug it in.

Side-note: I frequently use hibernate on my computer, and find that I need to shut-down/restart it sometimes when moving from hotel to hotel as 'things' get confused (I blame VISTA).

Except for the encryption, none of the above is needed with a Macbook/Airport Express combo. Once you go Mac, you never go back. The stuff just works, AUTOMATICALLY.

That's what the extra $40 ($60 dlink vs $100 airport express) is for- ease of use. Just remember-- most of us are still cheap airline pilots :D and a little work never hurt anyone :p.

Thanks for the great info. I have it up and running at my house now with very little effort. Still too cheap to buy the Apple thing-a-ma-jig. It was worth the extra 3 minutes it took to set up the D-link vice spending another 70 bucks on the Apple. And in the end they both do the same thing!:D

Another Happy and Cheap Airline Pilot! :D:D:D

I thought it was also for the USB plug and the speaker plug! :cool:

I own 3-4 Airport Expresses, use them in my barn/barn apartment, to stream music from any open iTunes on the home network to powered speakers and an AV jack on a book shelf stereo plugged into an Airport Express. One I had a USB hub plugged into it with 2 printers plugged into the hub until I got my newest printer, which is wifi enabled. That Airport Express now has a ROKU plugged into it to join the home network to get some internet streaming content to my TV and a pair of speakers plugged in that I stream my iTunes to in the living room.

I've also got 3 Airport Expresses throughout the house and stream music from my computer to upstairs speakers, downstairs mancave speakers, and/or outdoor speakers by the lake. Stuff is simple and it works AUTOMATICALLY as stated earlier.

The Airport Express has a big advantage for those of us who travel--no power cord!

That can be a disadvantage depending on where the nearest plug is and how long your, or the hotel's, ethernet cable is. The fix is separating the MacBook cord from the power supply and using it on the Airport Express and putting the Airport Express plug on the MacBook power supply.

Never had a problem with that.

Don't have a Macbook, though.

I almost bought one for hubby for christmas but I think the slingbox's days may already be numbered. Verizon FiOS (our tv/internet service) has the capabilty to watch a DVR remotely. I think its a matter of time before we will be able to watch live tv that as as well.

Yeah, got FIOS and you can watch ESPN3 too, but there's nothing says "Home" halfway around the world like watching a hometown car dealer's commercial :D. Get him a Slingbox, he's worth it, right?

Good point. I may just pick one up tomorrow.

I bought the Solo model Slingbox last week and it set up fine. I am on a trip now and it worked OK on the first day and now I am getting a message that says "your current browser is not supported" any ideas?