Opinions on Slingmedia?

Posted by: ithoughti

Opinions on Slingmedia? - 26/09/2005 14:40

Hi all,

Just wondering what all you kids thought about Slingmedia and the Sling Box?

http://www.slingmedia.com/

I was thinking that perhaps it relied a bit too much on the upload bandwidth to be a very effective product at the moment. But all you guys are way smarter than me so I want to know what you all think!

Posted by: andym

Re: Opinions on Slingmedia? - 26/09/2005 14:54

Quote:
I was thinking that perhaps it relied a bit too much on the upload bandwidth to be a very effective product at the moment.


My thoughts exactly, with my crappy ADSL upload rate the picture quality would be decidedly dire.
Posted by: tonyc

Re: Opinions on Slingmedia? - 26/09/2005 15:45

My cable provider gives me ~800 kbps upload, so I can currently stream mediocre-quality video to work, and do so on occasion. I just use VLC to take my capture card input (which comes from my ReplayTV) and stream at around 700k bitrate. The slingbox solution is probably a little more elegant (changing channels on my ReplayTV requires a hackish Perl script I wrote) but I don't use it often enough to spend any extra money.
Posted by: russmeister

Re: Opinions on Slingmedia? - 26/09/2005 17:26

I can see this being a big problem for employers when a lot of people are using this technology.

Production at work will greatly reduce.

I'm not necessarily opposed to the idea. I'm just throwing out my $0.02 worth.
Posted by: tonyc

Re: Opinions on Slingmedia? - 26/09/2005 19:08

Quote:
I can see this being a big problem for employers when a lot of people are using this technology.

Production at work will greatly reduce.

I'm not necessarily opposed to the idea. I'm just throwing out my $0.02 worth.


Can't the same be said about people bringing in books for pleasure reading, talking on the phone, or surfing the Internet? TV doesn't in-and-of-itself distract someone more than other forms of media. While your statement that there is potential for abuse is correct, I don't see it being an worse than existing distractions.
Posted by: andym

Re: Opinions on Slingmedia? - 26/09/2005 19:40

All I could see is companies internet connections slowing down as dozens of people start streaming TV from home at lunchtime.
Posted by: robricc

Re: Opinions on Slingmedia? - 30/09/2005 21:33

I just set up my Slingbox. It's dope. Ask questions if you want...

I'm only on my LAN right now, but I will be testing over the internet on Sunday probably.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Opinions on Slingmedia? - 26/06/2006 02:35

Rob, would you like to give my friend Marty your opinions on the slingbox? It looks like he might be interested in getting one.
Posted by: altman

Re: Opinions on Slingmedia? - 26/06/2006 08:14

I just got a UK one so I will be able to stream my UK tivo over to California when we move over. I have 500kbit upstream rate, at that speed the video is acceptable for me. Using the remote is a bit laggy (lots of clicks required to navigate the tivo, and it's slow even with remote mode on) but I can live with that.

Hugo
Posted by: robricc

Re: Opinions on Slingmedia? - 26/06/2006 11:17

Quote:
Rob, would you like to give my friend Marty your opinions on the slingbox? It looks like he might be interested in getting one.


I'm less than enthused about signing up to livejournal.com just to leave a comment, so I will leave it here.

The slingbox just keeps getting better and better. Besides everything I have said in this thread, they have recently released the Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone client. If I have a strong enough EDGE signal, I can get reasonably acceptable television on my phone. Currently on a strong EDGE connection, you can expect between 1 and 5 FPS. My phone also has WiFi, and when I'm on that, I get a solid 15 FPS (which I think is the max at this point in the beta). I've used the phone client to schedule tivo recordings a few times when I was away from home.

That's the only really new thing. The Slingbox itself still works great on the PC. I mostly use it while sitting at airports and when I'm at the office after hours.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Opinions on Slingmedia? - 27/06/2006 13:48

Sounds cool. He's hoping to find someone he can get a demo from, i.e., pointing his phone and his computer at someone's box and seeing how it looks. Dunno if you're up for that or not. Anyway, I've pointed him at this thread, so between you not wanting to sign up for livejournal, and him not wanting to sign up for this BBS, perhaps somehow you can get in touch with each other. :-)
Posted by: jarredduq

Re: Opinions on Slingmedia? - 05/08/2006 03:05

I liked it so much I installed it into my car!
Posted by: jarredduq

Re: Opinions on Slingmedia? - 05/08/2006 03:06

EVDO router in the trunk (boot).
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Opinions on Slingmedia? - 05/08/2006 05:04

Oh yeah, I forgot to follow up and say my friend Marty was grateful for the demo, got one, and loves it.