Slingbox anyone?

[Whoaru99]

Been toying with the idea of getting one.

Who has one and what do you think of it?

Does it generally work well outside your own network?

Do you use it as much as (maybe) you thought you would?

Have you found any limitations that you weren't aware of before you bought it?

[hoggs222]

My dad has one at his house here that he watches quite a bit at their house in AZ. The picture is good for the most part. It can get grainy sometimes due to bandwidth.

He has had the issue of the modem needing to be reset and they're 1700 miles away.

[Lusid]

I can comment. If used in your house (internal network) it will work beautifully. If used (outside network) ie, you live in MN and have a cabin in AZ, the performance will strictly be based on internet speed, so if your upstream can't handle the bandwidth, it'll look grainy and worthless.

You will want at minimum 3-5meg upload. (basic internet won't work)

Good luck.

[Whoaru99]

Appreciate the additional comments. FWIW, upload speed for my Internet package is 4Mbps.

[LMITOUT]

They work fairly well over 4G, but of course it'll eat up your data plan in a hurry if you don't have unlimited data. I've had good luck with mine but when I'm at my folks' I can only watch in SD because their internet doesn't seem to keep up to the bandwidth requirements of HD very well. They have some form of DSL I believe and live out in the country.

[Borch]

Your basically taking over your TV2 signal. All's good until you have a program recording. Then you're stuck watching the record event. Works well over 4g for us but 3g gets jerky. My son has unlimited data and we plugged his into the tv set in our camper during deer season with a HDMI convertor cable with decent picture/sound.

[LMITOUT]

Your basically taking over your TV2 signal. All's good until you have a program recording.

Depends on the capabilities of the source that is connected to the Slingbox.

I have mine connected to a Dish receiver which allows you to watch/do two different things at once. If two programs are being recorded then I would have to watch one of them, but if it's recording just one then I can watch TV like normal while it records the other program in the background. If it is recording you can always take control of the DVR and stop it too.

[Whoaru99]

Also, FWIW, this would mostly be used through WiFi connections. But, yes, on occasion it might be though 3G/4G connection of which I have 5GB/mo.

[Lusid]

5gb will last you around 2-3hrs of view time. Honestly not enough.. Then again it depends on what you are streaming to, is it a laptop or your cell phone, or a tablet etc..

[Whoaru99]

Mainly it would be to a tablet, occasionally a laptop, via a mobile hotspot when having to resort to 3G/4G.

It's a good point you bring up about the data use. Slingbox says for SQ it's 500Kbps. So, that should be roughly 22 hours worth for 5GB data plan. Still not all that much, but the 3G/4G streaming is only a contingency situation, not the main plan/goal for the streaming.

[Whoaru99]

Did end up getting a Slingbox 350. Setup was very easy with no problems encountered. So far so good, but far as I've been is to my GF's place across town.