I have recently purchaced and have been testing the Slingmedia Slingbox
It is a smart little brick shaped device that plugs into a TV source, SKY box, DVD, Freeview STB and your router to allow you to stream live and recorded TV over the interweb. My main use of this so far has been to watch world cup football from work.
The Slingbox will stream internally over your home network or externally over the interweb.
Setup is simplicity itself for anyone with the smallest amount of computer savvy. You just make the connection to your source device (sVIDEO,Composite,Composite via supplied scart passthrough adapter or RF). Then downlod the software client and run the setup wizard. For routers that support uPNP the process is fully automatic if not port forwarding is required for external access.
I have mine connected to a SKY+ box. The Slingbox allows access to the EPG and full PVR functions. The latest Beta version of the client even gives you a realistic looking Sky+ on screen remoted control. The UK version of the Slingbox also includes it's own internal Anologue/Digital TV tuner.
Over my LAN the Slingbox gives maximum transfer rates of 2000kbps giving a video streaming quality that is very good. It is just short or the quality required to watch the stream full screen but is certainly more than acceptable in a 3/4 window.
Over the interweb video quality is dependent on the upload bandwith of your broadband connection. Acceptable results can be acheived with an upload rate of anything over about 300kbps.
The one limitation I have found with the Slingbox is that it will only allow one client to connect at any one time. This is a deliberate "feature" implemented by Slingmedia to avoid legal issues regarding the sharing of copyrighted material.
The device is available either online or exclusively from a high street competitor.
Cost is just short of £180.
Overall I am very impressed with the Slingbox and can confirm that it does exactly what it says on the tin.
Other options for Place Shifting TV.
ORB
Sony Location Free
It is a smart little brick shaped device that plugs into a TV source, SKY box, DVD, Freeview STB and your router to allow you to stream live and recorded TV over the interweb. My main use of this so far has been to watch world cup football from work.
The Slingbox will stream internally over your home network or externally over the interweb.
Setup is simplicity itself for anyone with the smallest amount of computer savvy. You just make the connection to your source device (sVIDEO,Composite,Composite via supplied scart passthrough adapter or RF). Then downlod the software client and run the setup wizard. For routers that support uPNP the process is fully automatic if not port forwarding is required for external access.
I have mine connected to a SKY+ box. The Slingbox allows access to the EPG and full PVR functions. The latest Beta version of the client even gives you a realistic looking Sky+ on screen remoted control. The UK version of the Slingbox also includes it's own internal Anologue/Digital TV tuner.
Over my LAN the Slingbox gives maximum transfer rates of 2000kbps giving a video streaming quality that is very good. It is just short or the quality required to watch the stream full screen but is certainly more than acceptable in a 3/4 window.
Over the interweb video quality is dependent on the upload bandwith of your broadband connection. Acceptable results can be acheived with an upload rate of anything over about 300kbps.
The one limitation I have found with the Slingbox is that it will only allow one client to connect at any one time. This is a deliberate "feature" implemented by Slingmedia to avoid legal issues regarding the sharing of copyrighted material.
The device is available either online or exclusively from a high street competitor.
Cost is just short of £180.
Overall I am very impressed with the Slingbox and can confirm that it does exactly what it says on the tin.
Other options for Place Shifting TV.
ORB
Sony Location Free
