Arne Hess

Editor in Chief

Website

For some weeks now, I'm using a Sling Media Slingbox which arrived right in time during the FIFA World Cup last month. So what's the Slingbox about? It's a small silver/red chocolate-bar looking type of set-top box, which is on one side connected to a TV source and on the other side connected to a LAN or WAN.
Basically, it lets you watch your TV and recordings, wherever you have access to that LAN or WAN. It received a TV signal from a certain source, converts and compresses this signal into a IPTV-kind of signal and transfers this TV signal to any compatible devices (PCs, Smartphones or PDAs) where the stream is received in a dedicated player and play-backed. Everything happens on the fly and works within your home LAN as well as from anywhere else in the world where you have Internet access and that's where the name "place shift TV" comes from.In this article, I'm reviewing the UK version of Sling Media's Slingbox, which was introduced over a month ago into the British market, after Sling Media successfully released it into the US market last year already and soon to launch it in Japan as well.

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Michael Pang

I'm too lazy to register

I would like to know when there is no one connecting to the SlingBox, will the slingBlox is still compressing the video, since I am quite concern about the power consumption  of the SlingBox.

Arne Hess

Editor in Chief

Website

Michael Pang wrote:

I would like to know when there is no one connecting to the SlingBox, will the slingBlox is still compressing the video, since I am quite concern about the power consumption  of the SlingBox.

No, as far as I've figured out, it's in a kind of idle mode and just listening for players, if no player is connected to the box. This might also explain, why the initial connection takes longer than switching between channels later, where the box is in operation mode.
Also, a user at the Slingbox Community posted this interesting findings earlier this year:

Measured power consumption under streaming
7W worst case ~$6.00/yr

I wish all our cable boxes performed this well......

VolkerP

I'm too lazy to register

Great review, thanks a lot. Arne, just to confirm: You are using a UK Sling Box in Germany, right? And you haven't found any problems in using it here, right? If so, the Sling Box is mine also!
Now I either have to wait for my next biz trip to London, to find a cheap airline ticket to go there or a shop which ships it to Germany as well.
a) takes around two more months , b) haven't searched yet , c) haven't found anyone yet .

Arne Hess

Editor in Chief

Website

Volker! Yes, I have it working in Germany (Munich) and therefore I can confirm it's doing fine here too,even if it is the UK box. I also tried regular cable now and that's also not a problem at all.
The only promlem is where to get it in Germany/how to get it ordered from the UK.

AlesE

New Member

How does slingbox compare to ORB? You get essentially same service, just that with ORB you can also stream music...

Michael Pang

I'm too lazy to register

Measured power consumption under streaming
7W worst case ~$6.00/yr

I wish all our cable boxes performed this well......

Is it talking about GBP?

Arne Hess

Editor in Chief

Website

AlesE wrote:

How does slingbox compare to ORB? You get essentially same service, just that with ORB you can also stream music...

With Orb you can do even more, viewing photos, getting remote access to your PC (file transfer, etc.), using it as your answering machine for Skype and can even remotely record TV shows.
But to use Orb, you need a compliant PC, which has to run 24/7, either needs a TV card or a connectivity to a set-top box, etc. However, not everybody has a PC at home he/she wants to have running 24/7, many people I know even don't have PCs anymore but Laptops only (which you might want to use for remotely watching TV), etc.
Also Orb requires some deeper setup knowledge, which the Slingbox doesn't needs since it is basically plug and play.
So it's a great alternative for pure place shift TV and neither Orb nor Sling Media see each other as competition since they are addressing different customer segments and needs.

Arne Hess

Editor in Chief

Website

Michael Pang wrote:

Is it talking about GBP?

No, I think he is talking about USD.

Darren

I'm too lazy to register

Do I need to watch the same channel as the person at home watching the tv, or can we both change to different channels? Is that the same for DVB-T and cable?
Also, can I use a wireless adaptor to connect the slingbox to the internet?