Bigger Jim

Picked up a Slingbox Classic at a car boot sale at the weekend. It is supposed to do a number of things including watch and control your TV over the internet anywhere in the world.

At a retail cost in the UK of £64 it would seem to be a very competitive option for many who split the year between Spain and UK and have their Sky box doing nothing while they are away from the UK.

Anyone had experience using them and if so what are the good and bad points.

Jim

raddickle

This is something I've been interested in. From what I can gather it depends on how good your broadband connection is as it requires quite a fast uplink speed. I'm sure there are some teckies out there who can tell us more.

The Guy

they do require a decent upload connection....and no good if you are on a fair use / upload monthly quota policy...as it will eat that up in days......
but good if you have a boxx in the UK doing nothing...either a sky box, freesat box virgin box or freeview box

Bigger Jim

Thanks for that Guy I am on unlimited use, my problem would be at the Spain end as my download is 500kb.

From the spec here: http://www.tracyandmatt.co.uk/blogs/...classic-review
min speed is 256 kb but there would be some picture degradation at that.

Might have to move to a faster area, some hope.

Jim

onlineamiga

Hi,

Ive got one of these sat in the UK hooked into an aerial for freeview.
It works really well. The problem is, is that the upload speed of a typical UK internet connection is about 256Kbps which isnt such a great connection. But Ive found its still pretty good and gives you watchable tv, especially if youre just watching on a laptop.

If youre wanting to hook your system up to a big TV then forget it. Quality can be a bit urgh.

The thing that annoys me about it, is channel flicking can be quite slow.

if you have a windows mobile device, there is a client for that too, so you can watch UK TV on your phone

They do a slingcatcher box too. Which is a self contained box you can plug into a TV and into the internet to get your UK TV. Its a good solution if youre moving around a bit and you dont have to rely on getting a satellite connection.

bealerDSB

Your Slingbox to send "you in Spain" a decent 720p would need at least 1.5 meg upload. I have a mate in the States who I have his master password for the Slingbox Software.

I watch all my American Channels from his upload on my 2 meg download.
Live from the USA. If you have an iPHONE or Bbry in the house the software for Slingbox will also act as a full player.

IE: Watch my American shows live under the covers on the iPHONE thru WiFi.

DSB.

Madridboy

Are you worried your Mother´s going to catch you watching telly late at night?

bealerDSB

LOL !
I'm a geek, like using the key remote for your car pressed against your head shows the signal transmits more

DSB.

Bigger Jim

Hi

Thanks for all your responses doesn't seem too positive but I will clag it all together and see what response I get. One of the advantages of car boots is that a lot of techie kit gets thrown away and sold for very little money and surprisingly enough is mostly in working order. The Slingbox is in mint condition in the original packaging and cost £6 so if I can get a couple of hours of fun out of trying to get it to work I'll be happy.

If I have any joy will let you know,

Regards

Jim

michaleen oge

Hey, I tried to do that once and nearly poked my eye out. Beware.

bealerDSB

Chris does a pretty good review on the Slingbox below.
Slingbox is AWSOME ok, you just need decent internet fyi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWkd1aY6URc

Another one :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWoSP...eature=related

DSB.

veryfunny

Hi

I was wondering if you can help, I am thinking about getting one, as well as one of my friends in the UK. Do you recommend it? I really miss watching certain UK programmers and my friends likes to watch alot of the US TV shows. I am looking at getting the HD pro one, I have over 6mps download speed from my ISP.

Thanks.

The Guy

It is not so much download speeds but upload speeds that can cause issues.

As can "fair useage" policies on your monthly upload limits - if you have them.

BlueChip

I have got two Slingboxes that I can use to watch sky when I am in Spain.
My son has a slingbox HD on Sky HD and I have a regular Slingbox running on Sky+.
Both internet connections are nothing special on an Orange package free because we use their mobiles.
In Spain we have a good connection and have a wireless router. Based on my experience I would say that any UK IP would offer a good enough upload speed for slingbox to be quite watchable.
The Slingbox HD gives far better quality than the regular unit.

In Spain I also have a slingcatcher, which is a box that connects to my router and talks to my slingbox at home. It then gives HDMI or video output direct to my TV, doesnt need a computer to run.
This is by far the best solution, it comes with a remote control that acts like a sky controller and the picture quality is almost as good as watching live sky at home.
All of the slingbox systems optimise themselves over about the first 5-10 minutes viewing, so be patient and the quality gets better.

If our community didnt provide cabled TV, I wouldnt bother and would just use a sling solution.