Any Slingbox users here?

[rhubarb]

So, how do these things work when your missus is sat watching the corrie omnibus of an evening and you (or your mate in Qatar ) decide to switch over to "big boobs - uncovered" via your/their internet connection.


What I am asking (in a very juvenile way, admittedly) is, do you have to be watching the same channel at both ends? or can slingbox do more than this?

Ta

Good point!

Yes, whatever channel he chooses on the freeview box is what we would end up watching our end too.

However, we don't use that freeview box, I bought it solely to connect to the Slingbox and we watch Sky, or use the built-in decoder on the tv should we want to watch terestrial tv due to a storm taking out sky or something.

[Fred Bloggs]

You connect the Slingbox to a Sky box/Freeview PVR etc... that you're not using. That's what I'll be doing anyway.

[Pondlife]

So, how do these things work when your missus is sat watching the corrie omnibus of an evening and you (or your mate in Qatar ) decide to switch over to "big boobs - uncovered" via your/their internet connection.


What I am asking (in a very juvenile way, admittedly) is, do you have to be watching the same channel at both ends? or can slingbox do more than this?

Ta

[rhubarb]

Have a slingbox solo connected to a freeview box for a mate of mine currently living in Qatar.

Had a spot of bother setting up the remote control part, had to manually configure each button of the remote to get it to work online, but he says it works like a charm from over there.

[Fred Bloggs]

Thanks for the feedback. I have ordered a Slingbox Solo this morning and a pair of Slinglink power socket Ethernet adapters (if that's a correct term for them). I went for the Ethernet adapters hoping that hardwire connection would be more stable and easier to set up that a WiFi adapter. I was surpised that a Slingbox doesn't come with on board WiFi but perhaps there is a reason for that. Young Ms Bloggs will be using it from the US later on in the year but for now we'll be accessing it from elsewhere in the UK. We are gong to connect the Slingbox to either a Sky+ box or a Humax Freeview PVR.

[Fishface]

I have original version of slingbox released in the uk, its still going strong. Its connected to virgin box via scart to svideo use the cable supplied, all scarts are not the same i discovered. Its on a cable internet connection and very stable, when it was adsl i had to power cycle it alot maybe their new firmware and hardware has fixed that error.
I use the iphone version on an ipad 6000 miles away from the box and cannot complain except the lag on the IR is slow but no big deal. Bit fiddly to set up, router an'all but their wizards are pretty good now.

[Fred Bloggs]

Are you sure that's not your download speed? It's the speed at which the slingbox send data out from wherever it's sitting that counts, so with a regular ADSL2 connection that's usually around 1mbit/s.

Or do you have that new fangled FTTC?

Yep, have FTTC, ~30mbps download. Thanks.

[doodab]

Thanks, that's great. I have a solid 8 to 10mbps upload speed at Bloggs Towers, so it should be fine. Thanks again.

Are you sure that's not your download speed? It's the speed at which the slingbox send data out from wherever it's sitting that counts, so with a regular ADSL2 connection that's usually around 1mbit/s.

Or do you have that new fangled FTTC?

[Fred Bloggs]

Thanks, that's great. I have a solid 8 to 10mbps upload speed at Bloggs Towers, so it should be fine. Thanks again.

[doodab]

The IR remote uses an IR LED the same as would be found in a remote control. The wire comes out of the slingbox and the head with the diode in sits over the IR sensor on your sky box and emits IR pulses.

I don't have one but I was very impressed with my colleague's, had I not decided to return to the UK I would have bought one. Your upstream bandwidth is the main limiting factor on quality. It looked pretty good over a 1 Mbit/s uplink, not quite broadcast quality but much better than e.g. ITV4 european football coverage.

You really need to talk to Chef, he has about four of them.

[Fred Bloggs]

I'm looking at getting a basic Slingbox to stream my Sky box to my laptop or for daughter when she's at Uni. I can understand how it works but I can't work out how the IR remote on the Slingbox actually controls the IR input to control the Sky box, is it fibre optic or something? Thanks.

Also interested in general comments about using a Slingbox. Ta.