Another Slingbox Question

cohowap · #1 (**permalink**) 05-31-2007, 04:11 PM

Hello all,
Im debating on getting a sling box, and wanted to reach out to someone who actually uses it with a few questions.

1) I noticed that they were selling the software to play it on thier website for $30... does this mean if I wanted to use it, I need to get the hardware for $200+ and the software for Pocket PC and Smartphone at $30 each?

2) Ive seen a few questions around this but no definent answer, can my wife and I both connect to the slingbox at the same time? or will we need 2 box's.

3) Does it support full digital cable (assuming yes as the site says)? On-Demand?

4) Any good comments about it?

Ill keep reading the mess of other posts until someone replys.
Thanks

**Perasite** · #2 (**permalink**) 05-31-2007, 04:24 PM

1) PC software is included free. Mobile software must be purchased for a one-time fee.
2) Only one connection at a time
3) Anything you can currently watch, you can Sling (including On Demand), so long as you have the Slingbox AV or Pro. Slingbox Tuner won't support a cable box.
4) Frickin' awesome!

Brought my laptop to a friend's place once, connected to his wireless, and Sling'd UFC PPV to his TV via the S-video out. He was too cheap to pay for the fight.

chnzshyguy · #3 (**permalink**) 05-31-2007, 04:26 PM

1) I noticed that they were selling the software to play it on thier website for $30... does this mean if I wanted to use it, I need to get the hardware for $200+ and the software for Pocket PC and Smartphone at $30 each?

You do need to buy the hardware and THEN buy the software

2) Ive seen a few questions around this but no definent answer, can my wife and I both connect to the slingbox at the same time? or will we need 2 box's.

You can only have one connection to a Slingbox at a time. I don't know how 2 slingboxes would work on the same network, but I'm sure it's possible.

3) Does it support full digital cable (assuming yes as the site says)? On-Demand?

I have the slingbox AV and it only supports composite inputs. There is a slingbox HD, but I don't have experience with that. For On-Demand, you just need to make sure slingbox has a IR code for your receiver. The IR code maps the slinbox to the remote you have at home.

4) Any good comments about it?

The picture quality on the PDA is not as good as the quality on a computer attached to a landline. This is mostly because of bandwidth though. The slingplayer's functionality on the PDA is more than sufficient.[/b]

tek2tirado · #4 (**permalink**) 05-31-2007, 07:44 PM

im hurd people have gotten up 2 5 connections?
so this isnt tru ?

allanak · #5 (**permalink**) 05-31-2007, 10:45 PM

You can't have more than one connection to one device at a time. Where did you hear this?

Keep in mind you'd be limited by your bandwidth at home. Unless you had FiOS, the picture quality would suffer the more streams you pushed. I manage to use my whole 512k upstream when watching from here at the office.

coreyoli · #6 (**permalink**) 06-01-2007, 07:40 AM

Hello all,
Im debating on getting a sling box, and wanted to reach out to someone who actually uses it with a few questions.

1) I noticed that they were selling the software to play it on thier website for $30... does this mean if I wanted to use it, I need to get the hardware for $200+ and the software for Pocket PC and Smartphone at $30 each?

Yup, you buy the device then the software for PPC

2) Ive seen a few questions around this but no definent answer, can my wife and I both connect to the slingbox at the same time? or will we need 2 box's.

One connection at a time

3) Does it support full digital cable (assuming yes as the site says)? On-Demand?

If you get the Pro (I think that's the one I had) the onscreen remote control thing lets you do everything you could do from your couch

4) Any good comments about it?

I took it back.. Do a google search on slingbox port scans, and you'll see why... The device was actually scanning my network almost non stop...

Ill keep reading the mess of other posts until someone replys.
Thanks

**Perasite** · #7 (**permalink**) 06-01-2007, 10:06 AM

I've heard of 5 connections, but that's not direct to the slingbox. They ran the sling software on one PC and then ran a streaming video server on that PC to push the stream out to additional connections. Not a great solution, though, as only the one running the slingbox software can change channels, etc. Also, bandwidth requirements greatly reduce picture quality.

TambourineMan · #8 (**permalink**) 06-01-2007, 10:45 AM

They have had at least two deals over the past year in which the Pocket PC software was included when buying the hardware. Who knows if they will repest that.

TambourineMan · #9 (**permalink**) 06-01-2007, 10:52 AM

Two other things - it works well over wifi or EVDO, but is not very good in a poor signal area where you only get over a 1xRT .

If you are on Verizon and use this a lot - watch out - this uses a lot of data. your account could be terminated if you exceed the 5 GB per month rule of thumb. So far Sprint seems to be OK with it.

Your local ISP could have a problem with the amount of data upload also.

letsgoflyers81 · #10 (**permalink**) 07-17-2007, 07:13 PM

Can someone tell me if it's possible to have multiple viewers watching a Slingbox stream? I understand it can only stream one channel at a time, but it'd be great if more than one user could watch. From what I can tell they don't support concurrent connections, but I haven't been able to find out if there's a way around that or not.