Anyone have a Slingbox?

[damndave]

Was considering one of these for my girlfriend for Xmas.

According to Newegg, they say you need a minimum of 1.5mb download and upload. I believe my GFs cable line is only 512kb/s upload, so will this not work or will it just take forever to buffer the stream?

Any suggestions on this will help a lot.

[damndave]

I also heard that after 90 days, they charge you $30 a pop just to have any customer service. Even if you just have a question etc,

[damndave]

Not 1 person can chime in?

[wheels]

A buddy of mine has one he is pretty happy with - he has had it a few years. I've logged on to watch him run xbox, he uses it when he is traveling - he and the wifey watch shows together. I can't advise on tech support - not mine and my buddy is a tech weenie so he probably didn't need it.

I could probably get you in contact with him if you want to PM me an email.

[DaveFJ80]

I have one from when they first came out, maybe 5-6 years ago. Still works great but no HD on it, but perfect if I plug a coax cable into it from a live cable TV line (the device, laptop or phone, could flip through the channels). Of course, back then it was an analog signal so there weren't any problems... probably wouldn't work as well now with all digital signals on my same box. If I plugged my Slingbox into a media receiver box, it needs to use a remote AR signal which gets a little tricky to setup. Plus, whatever you're watching from say a satellite receiver, it forces those at home watching on the same box to see what you're seeing. If they change the channel, then it'll change on you (only when using the AR remotes, not the coax cable TV line plugged into the box).

Speed wise, when I was using it I had anywhere from 3mb to 6mb download speeds (all with 768kbps up) it broadcasted just fine. The main issue was the unit I was watching the video on, whether it was on my laptop or my Palm Treo (at the time, IMO it had the best interface when using a Slingbox on a mobile device.... iPhones weren't even out yet). As long as you had a good connection speed to your device, then the video would stream just fine. I could watch football games playing live on my Palm Treo on the Sprint EVDO network at the time just fine, but sometimes it may get a little blurry when looking at the small players on the screen. Watching a show like the Simpsons, with large blocks of solid colors, came in just fine and showed perfectly on my phone or laptop.

It works well, but I've since grown out of using it, mainly because I no longer have a cable TV line to plug into it and I don't feel like plugging it into my DishNetwork DVR (plus there's no HD and everything I watch & record these days are on the HD channels only). I'm sure the current Slingbox devices work much better with current HD media devices, but the novelty ran out on me awhile back so I won't be needing to pick up another one anytime soon.

[chiefcrash]

i had the original slingbox. It worked ok on my DSL line. When I moved and had the basic comcast internet, it worked great.

However, thanks to hulu and other internet video sources, I don't have cable anymore. So the slingbox goes idle...

[tacticalcity]

Orb is a free version that does not require additional hardware. It was not a perfect solution, but it worked. Gave you access to all of your media on your computer, not just the TV signal. It's been years since I ran it. Sounds like I need to try it again and see what if any improvements have been made. Have not tried slingbox yet. Having to buy additional equipment and have that equipment take up space turned me off. But if it runs seamlessly, it might be worth it.

http://new.orb.com/en/orb-caster/features.html

It looks like they offer serveral similar products now, so it can be confusing. But they have one designed to allow you to access your computer's entire media collection over the internet. You can even use your iPhone as the play back device if you wanted to.

[tacticalcity]

I installed Orb on the computer I have at home that has all my movies and tv shows on it. Works great! I would try Orb first, before buying a sling box. It is software based, free, and no additional equipment to buy.

[ldivinag]

i use mine half of the time to program my dvr from away...

had one since they came out. it's not the hd version but then again, when i'm in vegas using a crappy motel's wifi and watching my dvr, it was passable...

[damndave]

For the people who have one, what speed is your upload line?

[maurice05]

Have you looked into the 922 receiver with built in sling player from dish network

[nukechaser]

I have two; a Slingbox Pro and a Slingbox Solo and I love 'em!

I have one at my folk's place in Nevada. They have Charter cable with an uplink speed of 768kb/s and it is hooked to a TiVO. Plenty of bandwidth for decent viewing. The Sling software adjusts the compression algorithm to suit the bandwidth available.

The other is at home and is hooked to my Comcast cable tuner. My uplink is typically 3mb/s. This is a "multitude of sufficiency" for streaming, even with my VoIP reserving 150kb/s for QoS.

I watch them from my Windows Smartphone (on Sprint's EVDO), as well as my laptop and other PCs. In the three years I've owned them I've never needed tech support from Sling Media.

Also, keep in mind that the "smallest pipe" in the equation is what determines the video compression. You can have high bandwidth at home for your up-stream, but if you're mobile and only have 386kb/s download speed it will be streamed at the lowest speed to avoid dropped frames.

As an added bonus, having one in another "media market" allows you to watch sporting events that are blacked out for lack of ticket sales. I've had buddies over to my house to watch the Raiders game being "Slung" from the Reno station, since the Sacramento stations were blacked out.

The laptop/PC sling application software is free (as is the browser plug-in) but the smartphone software is $30 and is worth it to me. My son has popped my phone's bluetooth earpiece in and watched a few kids shows while on long road trips.

To answer your question, 512kb/s uplink will work just fine. The software will adjust for it on the fly.

[hcbr]

I have a slingbox HD on a timewarner cable with the turbo boost, my upload is about on avg 15mbps up (50 mbps down) using speedtest.net. I live in downtown los angeles. as long as you have a good upload (probably 3mbps and up) the sling should be ok.

The one thing i liked about my sling is that it was capable of working with all the providers including uverse.

the only caveat with slings is that purchasing the mobile clients can be pricey if you switch phones or have multiple devices (i.e. ipad, iphone, etc.)

hope that's worth a tidbit of more info on the sling.

[damndave]

I read online that it requires a 1.5 MB upload for HD. Boooo