First impressions of the Sling and Sky+ (with pictures)

Any recommednations for connecting to a wireless router? i.e. type and make of access point? Physical connection to the Slingbox?
 
It says it supports wireless but I've actually got my plugged in wired so haven't been able to check. Other physical connections are s-video (in and out) AV (yellow, red white) and a standard Ariel - you can connect this to up to 3 devices ...

I left my brother yesterday connected across the WAN watching my sky+ recordings and by the looks of things setting some recordings up as well :D

Also installed the mobile client on my XDA - probably not good enuff to watch over 3G but over wireless it rocked !
 
does this work just over a netwoek...rather than thru the internet?

could be ideal to stream sky to my bedroom!

also is PQ decent?
 
andyr300 said:
does this work just over a netwoek...rather than thru the internet?

could be ideal to stream sky to my bedroom!

also is PQ decent?

thats exactly what it does, both net and lan, lan being better quality.
 
Would you be able to use wireless game adapter to connect to the slingbox ?
 
I saw this on Breakfast TV yesterday and thought it looked very interesting. What's the quality of the viewing like on the computer ? Is the quality like watching it on a TV or does it suffer like all internet based viewing seems to be ?
I'd be interested in sending my TV content around my home network, so any information about connecting to a Sky+ box would be gratefully received :)
 
The quality on a home network is excellent - it runs at 2000kbps (using the latest firmware) and it very watchable, even in full screen.

Watching remotely depends on the upstream speed of your internet connect. I have a 400-ish kbps upstream and the quality is watchable. I used my laptop in a hotel room recently to watch something that I'd recorded on my TiVo.

Connection is very simple. The devices accepts either S-Video or Composite inputs and it comes with the cables/scart adaptors. The slingbox also comes with an IR wand so you can send IR commands to your devices from a remote location.

If you want to view the remote quality, PM me and if you you install the software on your machine I'll give you the required address/password needed to view, for a temporary period.

Cheers

Phil
 
Really interested in these, except they're all out of stock :(

Can you switch between multiple sources remotely?
 
The multiple sources bit is a bit difficult. There is an S-Video and a Composite input, but only one set of audio inputs. Therefore it I don't think the system would be useable with two external devices. The slingbox does have a built-in freeview receiver, however, which can be selected remotely (so, you can switch between S-Video/Composite and Freeeview from a remote location).

Surprised they are out of stock. The PC World in Rotherham had 5 on the shelf yesterday. I've had mine a month and although I love it as a gadget, I rarely use it. When I get back off holiday in a couple of weeks I might get rid and put the money towards something else.

Cheers

Phil
 
The PC World site lists none in stock in this region (if you do the collect from store thing it gives you the stock list for every store around you).

By typing random names into the thing I've found one about an hours drive away... decisions...
 
Just to give you an alternative to think about I bought a Sony Locationfree last week - its around £30 more than the Slingbox but if you have a PSP then its worth it as you can stream your TV feed to it - as an example I was at Newcastle Airport last week and logged onto the T-Mobile network via the PSP wifi and watched tv from my SKY HD box at home - quality is excellent and its a really nice looking box - PC software is similiar to the Sling so if your having trouble getting hold of Sling boxes then I highly recommend Locationfree as a good alternative! Only difference I can see is the Sling has 3 inputs whilst the sony has only 2 - from my point of view I only need 1 so not a problem for me!
 
Hi

Does it run over port 80 or another port? Just wondering how much I'll have to tweak with my router and firewalls to open it up and also to a certain extent how safe it is from people scanning and then trying to change my Sky+ etc. :)

Si
 
Been looking at this recently and am quite interested.

Two questions...

1. The IR emitter/wand seems to have two heads. Can i set it up to control two devices (Sky+ and Pan HDD/DVD recorder) which are adjacent to each other?
Not sure one head would reach both devices.

Never used these IR wands before, can I add others and split the connection?
Will my old 'red eye' work as a normal IR wand?

2. How much does the quality differ between s-video and composite at the remote end?
i.e. what resolutions can I expect from the two from the player software?

Cheers
 
Finally got one yesterday from PC World, although it took teh Sales assistant about 20 mins to find one from the back :rolleyes:

Very easy to set up and works a treat on a home LAN, VERY watchable pic (using S-video).

BUT, two 'problems'

1. Apart from the built in tuner, you can only control one other device (both video & audio). I was aware of this before I bought and have managed to 'half solve' this problem.

One of the things I want to do is control both my Sky+ and Pan HDD/DVD recorder as I often copy stuff from Sky+ to the recorder.
(I have set the IR emitters to control each device and use the s-video and audio out from the Pan recorder to the Sling box inputs. That way I can watch either the Sky passthru signal (via RGB scart) or the Pan recorder's output.

This way I kill two birds. I can watch and control Sky+ and do some copying and clean ups on my Pan recorder...well that's the idea in theory, but in practice it's not so straight forward...

The sling player only allows you to control one device on the s-video inputs (obviously) so to 'toggle' between the two you have to keep running the set up wizard to control sky+ or the recorder, which is a real pain!

At the moment I'm looking ways of running the sling player from two different drives or from two different PCs in my office. They would have to be independant as you can only login from one remote source.
Not very practical, but can't think of any other way.

But, there's a further problem (1b) which I'm also currently looking into. There are currently nNOremote configs for any Panasonic DVD recorder 'record functions', all you can do is control it as a player which is no good at all, you can't access any of your recordings let alone record, which is what I want to do.
Again there may be a work around using this 'JP1' method mentioned on the Sling Forums.

2. If like me you're on NTL 1mb BB, then FORGET IT, the upload speed i'm getting is useless (about 80k!) and the PQ is totally unwatchable and stuttery, it makes the current news clips on BBC and Sky's news web pages look like High def!
If it weren't for the fact that i'm registered for Sky's 8mb BB (400K upload) 'soon' (i've been told it's available in my area) then I would consider taking the Sling box back to PCW.
I haven't used it quite in anger yet, but the PQ at the mo may be ok for general 'house keeping' on the two devices but definatley not for any serious viewing.

You have been warned!
 
Kevo said:
At the moment I'm looking ways of running the sling player from two different drives or from two different PCs in my office. They would have to be independant as you can only login from one remote source.
Not very practical, but can't think of any other way.

I don't know if that will work - I think all the settings are saved in the slingbox, not on the PC - therefore a 2nd PC wouldn't really fix the issue.
 
pob said:
I don't know if that will work - I think all the settings are saved in the slingbox, not on the PC - therefore a 2nd PC wouldn't really fix the issue.

That makes sense as when I installed it on my PC at work it already had the Sky+ configured:suicide:

Thanks

It's obvious they want you to purchase additional sling boxes to control additional devices :rolleyes:
 

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