Greatest invention ever...

[oaklanbash]

well greatest invention ever for an American living in a foreign country at least.... Slingbox. My father just bought one a week ago and I downloaded the software today. It was pretty damn sweet watching the Yankees getting their asses kicked by Detroit tonight. The picture is not the greatest, because I am only getting 500 KBps here in China. But it is still nice just watching US shows again. I watched Price is Right last night, damn Bob Barker is getting old...

There are a couple downsides of course, the delay when using the remote is a little slow. So it is best to download a TV guide instead of using the cable menu. Also you can only watch what is being watched by the family back in the US. Of course for me this is not an issue at all really. I am 12 hours ahead of my folks back in Maine. And when I want to watch the Redsox, Patriots, or Celtics my Dad will be watching it anyways. The only thing I really see me watching for the most part will be ESPN. Because movies and good shows I just download on BitTorrent 2 hours after they air in the US.

[Zeste]

I've thought about getting one of these. Does it just stream whatever is on your TV to your browser? I have DishDVR, it'd be nice to watch TV at work or wherever, but I wasn't sure if it only worked with certain things or what.

[oaklanbash]

Originally Posted by Zeste

I've thought about getting one of these. Does it just stream whatever is on your TV to your browser? I have DishDVR, it'd be nice to watch TV at work or wherever, but I wasn't sure if it only worked with certain things or what.

Having not seen the hardware, I guess it is just a small router type device that sits between your cable box and the TV. You then hook that router up to your existing home network. Then remotely with the slingbox hardware you can turn on the cable box even without turning on the TV and watch whatever you like over slingbox proprietary software. No you cannot watch it in a browser, I think that would leave it too open to attack. You just put in the 30 digit or so product key and the password and you are good to go. You can only have one instance of slingbox open at any time for the router though, so you can't have multiple people watching at different parts of the world.

[Twobit Whore]

Can you change channels remotely or can you only watch what the cable box is set to?

[oaklanbash]

Originally Posted by Twobit Whore

Can you change channels remotely or can you only watch what the cable box is set to?

Yes you can change channels, but if someone is watching at home they might get pissed haha. But my Father's cable has like 300 or more channels, so I will have to download TV guide, the menu system sucks and there is a delay with each channel change as it rebuffers the image. So you want to know what you are changing to.

[Zeste]

does it work with the native controls of the Satellite box? like, will slingbox be able to browse my recorded DVR items, select one, and then play/pause/rewind it?

[oaklanbash]

Originally Posted by Zeste

does it work with the native controls of the Satellite box? like, will slingbox be able to browse my recorded DVR items, select one, and then play/pause/rewind it?

I can't be 100% certain about this but I think 99.9% yes. Because you have to download software for your cable box and remote control. Then you have the exact same remote like you do at home with the same buttons. So I am able to get to menu so stands to reason that I can order PPV and what not. But with the delay rewind might be a bit slow.

[Jenison]

I love the title of this thread.

I got my Slingbox about a month ago. About 2 weeks after having it and using it, Slingbox called me asking what I thought about the slingbox. My exact words were 'Best invention ever'

I have two DVR's and I hooked up both to the slingbox and its the shit.

Hats off the coders, because a retarded monkey who has no idea what a slingbox even is could install it. It literally does everything for you. It figures out everything. Even down to detecting and configuring your router should you want it too. I tried it out...and it worked. Was amazed.

My only complaint...only one HDMI input...but thats not too bad cause you can also use S-Video as well.

[Jenison]

Originally Posted by Zeste

does it work with the native controls of the Satellite box? like, will slingbox be able to browse my recorded DVR items, select one, and then play/pause/rewind it?

Yup...even has a nice gui to match my remote

[roosta]

i think you need the 250 dollar version of the slingbox to be able to use DVR and other peripherals but sony has a similar item that also streams tv to a PSP, use the DVR and change the changes for like 130 bucks. think its called sony location free. i am thinking of getting one for football season so i can watch my beloved broncos at work on the weekends.

[oaklanbash]

Originally Posted by Jenison

I love the title of this thread.

I got my Slingbox about a month ago. About 2 weeks after having it and using it, Slingbox called me asking what I thought about the slingbox. My exact words were 'Best invention ever'

I have two DVR's and I hooked up both to the slingbox and its the shit.

Hats off the coders, because a retarded monkey who has no idea what a slingbox even is could install it. It literally does everything for you. It figures out everything. Even down to detecting and configuring your router should you want it too. I tried it out...and it worked. Was amazed.

My only complaint...only one HDMI input...but thats not too bad cause you can also use S-Video as well.

Hmm I guess I don't understand the HDMI input part. Why would it really matter if you have HDMI input. I thought you just took the feed from your cable box so wouldn't need more than 1 input. Can it also play other devices? And it could never approach HDMI video output over the internet, so seems like a useless feature to me having HDMI. But like I said, I don't really know so much about the technology, just know my father bought it and I can use it in China

[oaklanbash]

Oh I get it now, because the native remote can only use a DVR from your cable box if it has it. So you need slingbox to also hook up to the stand alone DVR players so you can watch it away from home. Sorry for sounding like an idiot last post.

[Grave]

Is it sad that my years of reading FoH has conditioned me to expect a thread titled such as this to be about the Fleshlight or RealDoll?

[oaklanbash]

Originally Posted by Grave

Is it sad that my years of reading FoH has conditioned me to expect a thread titled such as this to be about the Fleshlight or RealDoll?

OK I think I coughed up half a lung there laughing haha

[Zeste]

I just saw you could buy this at bestbuy, so I did it. I got the AV model, which is the one for DVR's and such that aren't HD.

I am hooking it up now, I'll report in a few hours and let y'all know what I think.

I am hoping it's totally Mac Compliant....