Slingbox (1 Viewer)

[MrJinks]

After a recent mention on this forum I noticed a Slingbox in PC World today.

Seems an amazing piece of kit. It supposedly connects to your TV satellite system at home and transmits through the internet to your laptop anywhere in the world :coolthumb:. You can control what channel is broadcasting and will transfer any channel that you subscribe to at home. Can even control Sky+ .....if you have one.

Now here's the rub. Has anyone first hand experience of this kit? Does it do what it says on the tin? ...I guess you need to have a stong enough wifi signal at the site you are staying at or wouldn't be any good if you have limit on wifi or dongle download.

We are not great TV watchers but did find that during our winter away in Spain a little bit of decent TV would have been welcome sometimes during long dark evenings. Very little choice on normal satellite dish.

I may look at this for next year so does anyone have one ? :thanks:

 

[Scotties]

Hi, works a treat. The system optimises the picture quality according to the strength of wifi signal. Have used it for several weeks travelling across the USA watching my UK based Sky box FREE. Only missed one night where the wifi was encrypted. The states are a lot more savy about offering free internet access.

Europe is a bit of a pain as they expect you to PAY although some sites are now offering wifi included. Not ideal for phone tethering or dongle use ine Europe unless you have local sim with a data package. Streaming video plus sound hammers your data usage somewhat

The pro version has freeview built in and you can also remotely control other units eg multiple DVD player TiVO etc

Will work on your laptop, iphone ipad etc etc.

Having said that there are now ways of streaming iplayer etc although I've not managed to watch SkyPlayer abroad. I'm sure someone will come on and tell us how.

But overall, a useful bit of kit.:thumb:

Regards Richard

 

[Satandpcguy]

One of the issues some people have found with slingboxes is that it is not a good idea if you are on a "fair useage" broadband contract at your "sling home", as the sling eats up your monthly quota when sending. And if someone else is using the connection at either end then the speeds will decrease...so using a sites WiFi may not produce a high enough decent sigal speed...

Remember that for the last few years it is possible to get ITV1, C4 and Five on a smll dish with a sky card in most aress of Spain.

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[MrJinks]

One of the issues some people have found with slingboxes is that it is not a good idea if you are on a "fair useage" broadband contract at your "sling home", as the sling eats up your monthly quota when sending. And if someone else is using the connection at either end then the speeds will decrease...so using a sites WiFi may not produce a high enough decent sigal speed...Remember that for the last few years it is possible to get ITV1, C4 and Five on a smll dish with a sky card in most aress of Spain.

That was the one thing that I feared may be a problem. Thanks

 

[Scotties]

Hi Mr Saltandpcguy is right, if you have a dish or UK tv on the site, use these.

It comes into its own if these are not available or you want to catch up with the news or the odd recording, rather than being your main source. We don't watch much TV but we can watch what we want, when we want.

Never use your own data allowance, allways use the sites. It's realy no different to checking your emails or skyping back home while parked outside McDonald's.

The only dissadvantage is that your wifi and skybox back home need to be left on.

As far as there not being enough speed, the pictures simply get much more 'blury', its rarely been unwatchable.:Cool:

 

[Jaws]

No problem for me .. It was Scotty who introduced me to them .. bought one and not had a single issue..
I am with AOL and although not everyones cup of tea I have never once had any sort of issue with them in 20 years ( apart from some stupid advert thingy a while back ! )

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