Pros: Cheap way to stream video to your PCs anywhere in the LAN or WAN
Cons: Limited video quality
The Bottom Line: Highly recommended for TV junkies who also spend a lot of time in front of their PCs whether they be at home, at work, or on the road.
jaymend's Full Review: Sling Media Slingbox (SB100-100) TV Input
Overview:
The main reason I got a Slingbox was to be able to stream video from my Scientific Atlanta STB cable box, located in my family/media room, to any of the PCs I have at home. I am a news and sports junkie but I also spend a lot of time in front of my PC. With the Slingbox, I could now be on my PC and watch the news or monitor my favorite sports at the same time.
The Slingbox will not replace your TV much less your HDTV for primary viewing but for monitoring shows in a window on your PC, or if you travel a lot and want to watch your favorite shows streamed from your TV at home, then this gadget might be for you.
Setting up the Slingbox:
1. Installing the software / Upgrading the firmware (optional). I suggest installing the software from the CD at first. On installation, you will be prompted that a new software is available for download. Download this then use it to install the latest SlingPlayer software (as of this writing 1.3.0.176). HOWEVER, the latest firmware that comes with version 1.3.0.176 encrypts the video stream. Some users, including myself, do not want my stream encrypted since doing so prevents 3rd party software such as those from Applian (At Large Recorder) from recording the Slingbox's video stream.
If you want to install the latest software (this enables streaming up to 2000 plus Kbps, supports a skinnable interface, etc.) but not the latest firmware then all you have to do is refuse the question where it asks you to install the latest firmware. After you opt out of installing the latest firmware, go to the directory where SlingPlayer was installed (by default C:\Program Files\Sling Media\SlingPlayer) and remove those files that end with ".bin". This will prevent you from being prompted/nagged to upgrade the firmware everytime you launch the SlingPlayer. In my case, I copied the old firmware (1.0.61) to this directory. In summary, I am now running the latest version of SlingPlayer as of this writing (1.3.0.175) with an older firmware (1.0.61), a combination which allows me to bypass the video encryption of the latest firmware.
2. Connecting to the LAN. The Slingbox can be directly connected to a router directly via an ethernet cable. In my case however, the cable box is located in the family room upstairs and my router is in the ground floor of my home. In this scenario, I could use ethernet powerline adaptors such as the SlingLink (also from SlingMedia), or connect the Slingbox wirelessly via a wireless bridge. Since I already have a 802.11g wireless setup at home, I decided to connect the Slingbox wirelessly.
The wireless bridge I used is actually another Linksys WRT54GL router but flashed with the open source firmware DD-WRT. This firmware enables the WRT54GL to function as a wireless bridge. I could have used a dedicated bridge such as Linksys own WET54G and I actually have 2 of these connecting 2 other PCs wirelessly to my internet router. After some digging however, I belatedly realized that a WRT54GL can be used as a bridge and is cheaper than a WET54G. It also has the advantage of having a built in switch. I could connect not only a Slingbox to it from my family/media room but also a Squeezebox, and an XBOX 360, all simultaneously via the WRT54GL's multiple ports.
One caveat to watch out for when connecting the Slingbox wirelessly using a WRT54GL in client-bridge mode is that you could not use WPA2 encryption. WPA works fine however and I am using this coupled with PSK-TKIP encryption algorithm to secure my wireless LAN. Note that flashing the router with the DD-WRT firmware carries risks which could render the router useless (commonly referred to as "bricking") if one is not careful.
3. Connecting the Slingbox to the video source. This is pretty straightforward especially if you follow the quick quide fold out. In my case, I decided to use the S-video connector to connect the Slingbox to my Scientific Atlanta 3250HD High Definition Cable Box (STB). When using the S-video cable for video, the only thing to watch out for is to ensure that the Composite video plug in the 3 plug audio video connector is not plugged in.
After this, it is just a matter of connecting the Infrared Emitters to your cable box. Again, this is pretty straight forward... I did have to use a flashlight to make sure that the Slingbox's IR emitter is perfectly aligned to that of my Cable box. I only used one emitter even though the quick guide suggests using two. The reason for this is that I am using the other emitter to control a Samsung DVD Player... I am not going into the details of this however to keep this discussion simple.
4. Setting up for remote viewing (over the Internet). The most straighforward approach to doing this is to use Slingbox's Finder service. All you have to do is follow the setup wizard which will guide you step by step to enabling your Slingbox to be found by Slingbox's Finder service. This service locates your Slingbox via a unique code that is assigned to your Slingbox. You may have to do some fiddling with your router settings to make sure that this works... such as making sure that universal plug and play (UPnP) is enabled on your router or forwarding port 5001 which the Slingbox uses by default to communicate to SlingMedia servers.
In my case however, Slingbox's Finder service did not work at the office where I tested remote viewing. The reason is the office firewall restricts ports that are opened. To get SlingPlayer in the office to connect to my Slingbox at home, I had to set up Slingbox to use port 443 (SSL or Secure communications port). In the SlingPlayer software, I then had to disable the use of the Finder service and choose to connect directly to my Slingbox via my Internet IP Address and port 443.
Here is a tip, there is no need to install SlingPlayer software in the office. If you have a USB drive, all you have to do (assuming you already completed setting up/enabling remote viewing on your SlingPlayer) is to copy the SlingMedia directory from C:\Program Files (where SlingPlayer was installed) to your USB drive. When you get to your remote PC, open the directory Sling Media\SlingPlayer in your USB drive and double click on Slingplayer.exe to launch SlingPlayer.
Using the Slingbox:
What more can I say except that I am very pleased with this device. Everybody at home now use it to stream video from the cable box to their respective PCs. The only problem of course is that the Slingbox only allows streaming to one PC at a time. One solution would be to get additional Slingboxes but for me, having one suffices right now.
Video quality is actually decent enough on the LAN even if I have the window sized bigger than the 320 x 240 native resolution that the Slingbox uses. The video quality actually depends not only on the Slingbox's stream rate (slightly more than 2000 Kbps with the latest SlingPlayer software) but also on your PC hardware. In a PC with a 3 Ghz P4 processor and ATI850XT video card supporting Direct X 9 drivers, the picture quality is noticably better and smoother than on another PC using an 800 mhz P3 and using a video card supporting only Direct X 8 despite having the same stream rates.
On the WAN, the video quality will most likely depend on your upload speed. My internet is capped at around 380 kbps upload speed but I find the quality still pretty decent when I watch my Slingbox from work.
Alternatives to Slingbox:
As of this writing, the closest competitor to the Slingbox is the just released HAVA by Snappy multimedia. It basically does what Slingbox does but it can stream video at more than 3 times the resolution (~ 6000+ Kbps) and its native video resolution is 640 by 480 which is twice that of SlingBox's 320 by 240. It also has built in wireless connectivity. However, forums on the internet have indicated that HAVA's software is not yet as polished compared to SlingPlayer. Be aware that getting a HAVA now might be synonymous to being a beta tester for their software. Other users including myself also prefer to have the wireless not built in to the device since my experience is that it is usually easier to setup wireless connectivity/security using wireless specific bridges/routers than setting up those built into devices such as HAVA, Squeezebox, etc. Note that currently HAVA's wireless only supports WEP encryption, with WPA being promised via a firmware upgrade in the future. Using WEP is no longer acceptable to me as WEP could now be cracked in a matter of minutes by script kiddies using free tools that can easily be found on the web. I do have to point out that HAVA does have an ethernet port which you could use to bypass the built in wireless connectivity.
Update: Using Slingbox with Applian At-Large Recorder
It has now become apparent that the encryption is being implemented by the latest SlingPlayer software (ver 1.3.0.176 as of this writing) and not the firmware. To still continue using the At-Large recorder, your best bet is to use the software in the CD that came with your Slingbox for recording with At-Large recorder assuming that the version is earlier than 1.3.0.176. As outlined above, you could install and then copy this "older version" to a USB drive or to a different directory on your hard drive and only use it when recording. You could still use the latest SlingPlayer for regular playback.
The Slingbox is a compact and elegantly designed, state-of-the-art electronic device that connects to the back of your TV. It redirects, or placeshift...More at eBay
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