Slingbox

Does anybody have a Slingbox (watch home TV from any PC). Is it any good ?

My brother (in the USA) has one - connected to his cable service and I can say it's very good - being able to watch US TV from here, he used it to watch the world cup when in work over there.

The viewing software lets you configure quality of picture and you can change the channel at will (it uses it's own built in tuner I think).

Bare in mind it's TV resolution so on a monitor/screen only fills a portion of the screen, though you can expand the image it gets a touch blocky (he has his configured for lower bandwidth usage over best quality).

It only lets 1 person connect at a time though.

Not sure how well it works with Irish Cable/Satellite channel systems.

I have one and it works well, you will need 512K uplink on your broadband to get a useable picture. At lower uplink it will be blocky, low refresh rate etc..

I have mine connected to the sky box with a scart lead, it can also be connected to NTL Chorus via a coax lead and tuned in like a TV.

Very good also if you want to use it to connect a camera to the web for security purposes. You can also get software to watch TV on a pda. This is very good.

I use Smart with their 6MB package. Also watch out if there are CAPs as you are using a lot of bandwidth when watching.

Hi, Im a complete newbie to this, so my question is very basic.
If I want to use the slingbox from Ireland to watch tv in France, does the tv in Ireland have to be turned on, or can I turn it on? Or does it take the signal directly from the sky/ntl box?
what are the pre-requisites for this to work properly?
thanks!

The TV does not have to be on, but the VCR, UPC or Sky box that's giving you the picture needs to be on.

also worth looking at the slingcatcher, to use with a slingbox, just out. You can then watch your remote tv on another tv, instead of just on a pc.

I've used a slingbox on 512k UL on wireless broadband and found it fine btw

Wexfordman

I have ordered a slingbox classic, that I am waiting to be delivered. Can anyone tell me if I need to order anything else, like cables etc to get it working? I intend to use it with my NTL cable to watch tv from Ireland in France.
Thanks for any advice.

Can I connect via slin box to watch Irish NTL cabled TV in Qatar. How does this work

As far as I know ..

.. you need a VCR/DVD player that can take your NTL cable as input (RF IN) and also has a SCART OUT socket. A SCART connection to the Slingbox could then support the relay of whatever channel is set of the VCR/DVD player.

Implicit in the above is that your VCR/DVD player can record off an NTL cable, i.e. has a TV tuner.