Sling Box? Anyone else use one?

[Phil Gobie]

Have you looked at the Sling Box? This is a device that lets you view your cable or Sat. from home via the Internet. This also lets you see your local stations for news or what ever. We have one and it works pretty good depending on your Internet connection. I think I remember you got a Verison card? Another advantage is there are not any monthly charges. The boxes run a couple hundred bucks depending on the model you get. Check it out.
Phil

http://us.slingmedia.com/page/home

[apolaroid]

We used a sling box during out stay in an apartment while we did repairs to our home from Ivan damage. It was easier using one with the laptops for the kids than having TVs in a small apartment while waiting to move back to the house. I will be using it while on the road with our Airstream. Leave it set up back home, and use where there is decent internet, wifi works great with this. I also use a wifi phone from broadvoice.com.

[BoatBoy]

Interesting, how is the picture quality? What about TIVO? Can you control it? I was looking into a portable DVR with screen but this might be a good alternative.

[thecatsandi]

I seriously looked at sling box. I waited and waited. For my birthday I recieved an Apple TV. I love it!, Music, Podcasts, Tv shows, and pictures all on one box with an easy to use interface.
http:/apple.com/appletv

[apolaroid]

The picture quality was better than I expected. Keep in mind I am using the sling box with laptops here, the biggest being a 17 inch wide screen. Its not like watching a DVD, but still overall it did what it promised, for travel it works great, the software remote works with our at home cable box, you set it up for what you want. I would think you can use it with TIVO the same way. Side point I know my one son uses it with his cell phone. Thats just not worth it to me, but he got a kick out of watching "Family Guy" on his phone. Keep in mind the wifi or high spped internet plays a roll in quality too. In our case the slingbox met with our needs at the time. I recently saw our model going for like 70 bucks on woot.com, which is half of what I paid. So when they offer it again, I might add a second one to the system.

[jcanavera]

I bought a Slingbox AV unit a couple of months ago. We use it with our Macbook Pro around the house with great results. I've taken it out of the house, once at work and another at the local cafe with a Wi-Fi hotspot. Picture quality wasn't bad (although it's better locally at home coming off the wireless router).

It passed it's first real test this past 12 days during a vacation down to Destin Fl. Our first campground we overnighted in Clarksville Tn. had great wireless and we watched our Dish DVR home satellite receiver from the campground. Picture quality was as good as we've seen in our testing at the locales mentioned earlier. We used the wireless at Panera Bread down at Destin and Patty did a little editing and set up some recording schedules while using their wireless. It's really a fantastic product when you travel, provided you have decent access to the Internet.

What has surprised us is how much we use it at home with Patty watching TV from the lap top while sitting at the table in the kitchen, rather than turning on the big screen over in the family room. It also works great outside when we sit out on the deck.

Jack