I normally don't post about new technology that doesn't in some way relate to education, but in this case I am making an exception. I just connected my Slingbox, and it is impressive. If you haven't heard about Slingbox, one of Time magazine's most amazing inventions of 2005 (among many other awards), you soon will. This amazing piece of technology allows you to watch your television anywhere in the world you have an internet connection.
According to the Sling Media website the Slingbox:
The Slingbox redirects, or "placeshifts", a single live TV stream from a cable box, satellite receiver, or DVR to the viewer's PC located anywhere in the home. If the Slingbox is coupled with a broadband Internet connection, the viewer's live TV stream can be "placeshifted" via the Internet to a PC located anywhere in the world.
And if you have a DVR or TiVo, you can even watch programs you have recorded.
See the cNet review below for a full description of this cutting-edge technology.
Sling Media Slingbox
http://reviews.cnet.com/4505-6463_7-31423815.htmlAt a glance
- Release date: July 1, 2005
- Editors' rating: 7.8 Very good
- Editor's take: The Slingbox lets you watch your live local TV programs from any broadband-connected PC in the world.
- The good: Simple, straightforward setup; no host PC required; decent video quality; easy-to-use viewing software.
- The bad: No built-in wireless support; monopolizes the attached device; may not have necessary IR codes to fully operate your cable box; works with only Windows XP and Windows 2000 PCs (so far).
- What's it for: Accessing live or recorded TV programming when you're away from the house.
- Who's it for: TV and sports junkies; frequent fliers.
- Essential extras: A broadband router; wireless bridge or power-line Ethernet adapter; Windows PC with broadband Internet access.
- The bottom line: If you can't live without your favorite shows, the Sling Media Slingbox will beam them to any broadband-connected PC in the world.
CNET editor's review
Reviewed by ; John P. Falcone
Edited by ; David Katzmaier
Reviewed June 30, 2005 (updated November 9, 2005)
Back in the 1970s, the first VCRs introduced a radical notion to the home marketplace: the ability to record your favorite TV shows--even when you weren't at home--and view them at a more convenient time. It took another quarter-century before ReplayTV and TiVo refined the VCR concept, subbing a hard drive for videotapes. It's now easier than ever before to watch your favorite TV shows when you want--but watching them where you want is a bit more challenging.
Sling Media aims to change that. The start-up's Slingbox Personal Broadcaster ($249 list) is a small, silver box that digitizes the programming from your cable or satellite box and streams it--in real time--to a remote PC. The receiving computer needs to be a Windows XP or Windows 2000 PC with access to a broadband Internet connection and be running Sling's SlingPlayer viewing software. But as long as you can find a Wi-Fi hot spot, you can watch your home TV channels live from anywhere in the world, be it Beijing or your bedroom.
The Slingbox itself is a modest-size, tapered silver brick, 1.75 inches high by 10.75 wide by 3.75 deep. It actually looks a bit goofy, due mainly to the pointillist marketing inscriptions on the top (My Cable, My DVD, My Music Anywhere, and so forth). Fortunately, once you connect the Slingbox to your home A/V system, you never have to see it again; the always-on device can be tucked away in the depths of your TV stand where it will toil away indefinitely. The physical setup is quick and logical--simply hook the video source (cable box, satellite box, DVR, and the like) to the Slingbox's composite, S-Video, or RF cable inputs; place the IR blaster; and connect the device to your home network's router with an Ethernet cable, and you're good to go. While you can connect as many as three devices to each 'box, you can control only two. A firmware upgrade allows the Slingbox to switch easily between different inputs. The Slingbox also has pass-through S-Video and composite-A/V outputs--and provides the necessary cable interconnects--so it integrates seamlessly into your system without the need for any major rewiring.
Once you have the Slingbox base station wired up and ready to go, you'll need to install the viewing software on a PC (the initial setup must be done within your home's local network). The software follows a bulletproof, wizard-style install path; if you have a plug-and-play (UPnP) router, the whole process should take just a few minutes. Once it's up and running, the SlingPlayer software gives you a video window--not unlike the QuickTime or Windows Media Players--with channel-changing controls. If you've connected the Slingbox to a video recorder (TiVo, ReplayTV, a cable or satellite box with a built-in DVR, or even a DVD recorder), you'll also get video transport controls: pause, rewind, fast-forward, and so on.
Right off the bat, the Slingbox's basic functions worked as advertised. We were watching our living room TV on the bedroom PC, able to flip channels at will. The SlingPlayer software automatically optimizes viewing quality, but keep in mind that this is Web video, and, when broadcasting to the outside world, it's also limited by the upstream bandwidth of your home's broadband connection, which is often significantly less than your downstream speed. Thanks to the indicator on the bottom right of the screen, we were able to track the bit rate of the stream in different situations. At home via a D-Link DI-624 router, we maxed out at around 1,400Kbps for wired streaming and close to 900Kbps with the D-Link's wireless B connection. At work and even from a hotel room halfway across the country, streaming remotely from our home cable Internet connection, we achieved speeds of as much as 365Kbps, which comes close to our connection's maximum upload speed of 384Kbps.
While the blocky video quality was nothing to write home about--especially when expanded from the small 320x240 window to full screen--it maintained an impressively smooth frame rate. Naturally, quality improved immensely at higher bit rates, but even from remote locations at 350Kbps, the video was perfectly watchable. We could easily make out CNN's news crawl, for example, but the fine print in a home loan ad was unreadable. Audio quality seemed to remain constantly decent and was uninterrupted, regardless of bit rate. We did experience interruptions to the video when we opened programs or began downloads while watching TV, but they were brief and not really bothersome. The video remained smoothest when we were passively watching. When we tried channel surfing, the video hiccuped and stuttered before reoptimizing, although the actual lag between channel flips was minimal. Overall, the Slingbox's video quality was better than just about any streaming video we've ever seen, even when we installed the software on remote locations like our PC at work. It was only 5 miles away, but there's no reason it couldn't have been 500.
As slickly as the Slingbox performed, however, we did encounter some issues. In addition to the far-from-DVD video quality, the Slingbox is still missing a few remote-control codes and, more importantly, any means of inputting custom codes on your own. For example, we hooked up a Dish DVR 942 and immediately missed the key that changes aspect ratios. We applaud Sling for upgrading codes for a few devices, most notably the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD cable DVR, which now includes codes for the A, B, and C buttons, but those keys in particular are still difficult to access--you have to track them down in a menu, as opposed to pressing them on the virtual remote. There's also a few too many menu selections for that particular device; we eventually discovered that Settings is the command that activates the list of DVR'd shows. Sling Media has already made one significant upgrade to address some of these issues, but we'd love if the Slingbox software could learn codes or allow modification of its virtual remote template, much as a PC-programmable remote. There's no reason Sling couldn't enable such functionality in a future upgrade of the client software and/or device firmware--which is downloadable for free from the company's Web site--but there's no guarantee that every specific keystroke on your device's remote's will be duplicated.
No, the Slingbox isn't designed for mass IPTV broadcasting, either; it feeds video to only one software client at a time. But since the player software is freely available, there's no reason you couldn't, say, let your buddy in California watch the prime-time lineup three hours earlier from your East Coast home. Or, more tantalizingly, share a ball game or even a pay-per-view fight that's otherwise blacked out in another region. Just keep in mind that the viewers on the Slingbox and the home set-top box are locked into the same program; if you pause or change the channel at home, the remote viewer will get those changes live. And the reverse is true; if the remote viewer gets bored with the game and flips to HBO, you'll be watching Deadwood right along with your virtual guest. If you have analog cable or an antenna hookup, however, you can just split the line and use the Slingbox's built-in NTSC tuner to watch those sources while your buddy enjoys the main feed.
How does the Slingbox compare to the competition? While the "placeshifting" market is fairly tiny, there is a growing number of options for copying/syncing video media from your PC to a handheld--everything from TiVo To Go to dedicated portable media players, smart phones, Palm-style PDAs, and the Sony PSP. But that's just transferring previously recorded media to an iPod-like playback device. If you want live, real-time video, your options are limited. Those with newer mobile phones can opt for live 3G streaming subscriptions such as MobiTV and V Cast but will be restricted to the few channels offered by each provider. Besides the Slingbox, there's Sony's Location-free TV and the Orb software package. The Sony costs at least $350 and enables live video transmission to the PSP, while Orb is free but requires a host PC with a TV tuner card to stream television programs.
Slingbox offers the advantages of an affordable price ($249), a seamless install, a high degree of compatibility, and no need for a source PC. We'd love to see improved video quality at larger screen sizes and software clients available for non-PC devices--Sling Media is pledging to add the ability to view the Slingbox from a handheld or a cell phone soon. In the meantime, the Slingbox remains a credible solution for viewing real-time video from your home no matter where you are.
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