Sling Media Slingbox Review - October 31, 2005

 

Listen to the show 

 

Try to think of what the next big revolution in TV viewing will be ... what did you come up with?  If it involves watching TV on you computer, anywhere in your home, or anywhere on the planet, Sling Media agrees with you.  They have recently launched a new product called the Slingbox that allows you to do just that, watch TV on virtually any Internet connected PC anywhere in the world.  The Slingbox can stream out, over the Internet, any TV signal you receive at home, it can even stream out what's playing on your DVD player, or if you still have one, your VCR.  If you don't have a VCR, you may have a DVR, and the Slingbox will work with it as well.

 

Setup is pretty straight forward.  You have 2 audio/video inputs and an antenna input.  The A/V inputs allow for composite or S-Video and stereo (i.e. red and white) audio.  The Antenna input is for the Slingbox's built-in NTSC tuner.  A total of four connections need to be made: you plug the Slingbox into your media device, plug it into a power outlet, connect it to an ethernet network, and hook up the included IR transmitters.  The IR transmitters aren't needed if you opt to use the built-in tuner, but are needed to control external source equipment such as a cable/satellite box, DVR or DVD player. The Slingbox even works with your HTPC.

 

Once all the physical connections have been made, you install the SlingPlayer software on any Windows 2000 or XP PC to setup and configure the Slingbox.  As of right now the software only runs on a PC, but there are talks of a Mac version becomming available early next year (2006).  There will also be a Windows Mobile client for both WiFi handhelds and smartphones that run the Microsoft Windows Mobile platform that should be available prior to the New Year. After installing the software, you walk through a short interactive setup wizard to get the Slingbox ready for prime time.  The software setup process takes about 15-20 minutes.  Setting up the IR control is very similar to programming a Harmony remote.  You tell the SlingPlayer what type of device your controlling, the manufacturer and model, and it already knows what IR codes to send.

 

The Slingbox really is a great device.  Using the internal NTSC tuner allows you to watch TV anywhere you want without disturning those watching TV at home.  You can be halfway around the world and tune in to see local news, watch your local sports team play, or see a show that may not air where you are.  When there's a big news story breaking, you don't need to wait for a web page to update with new information, you can simply tune into CNN or Fox News and watch live coverage.  Not to mention the possibilites for when you get bored at the office ... solitaire is a thing of the past.

 

As with any streaming technology the key to a good experience is bandwidth.  Not just the speed at your viewing location, but yout upstream bandwidth at home.  You may have high speed internet at your hotel in the middle of nowhere, but if the Slingbox is connected to the Internet via 56K dialup, don't expect to see much of anything.  Connecting on a local 100 baseT network the Slingbox puts up a great picture, over the Internet, we were able to get between 1.2 and 1.4 Mbps data rate and the picture looked great.  It seemed to do best with analog (SDTV, 480i) content that was already a little blurry, the higher quality content, especially down-converted HDTV looked very pixelated and jagged.

 

 

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