slingbox

[firehawk]

has anyone used this? how has it been from them? Where is the best place to get one from the "high street"?

[Old_nick]

I've got an early version Slingbox attached to one of my Sky boxes. The quality of what you get will depend on the speed of the connection (don't forget that the Slingbox will be uploading).

You can get one from Dixons, Currys, Tesco (some stores), PC World, Maplin, John Lewis, CPW.

You may have problems if you don't have a static IP from your ISP.

[firehawk]

thats ok, ive got dyndns and to be honest, its just for inside my place so I can watch TV on my laptop if I am in bed.

[firehawk]

question:
the slingbox, does it do what I want it to do?

I want to be able to hook it up to my sky+ box, and allow me to watch my sky TV on my laptop and change channels.

is this possible?

[Undecided Adrian]

short answer yes.

Although you'll need to tailor your home network as the slingbox only comes with an ethernet connector so you'll need to get some homeplugs or a long ethernet cable to connect it up to the router.

Currently Amazon.co.uk have them for £100 but are out of stock at the moment.

[firehawk]

dont worry about the home network...im ok on that

but im just concerned if it does what I want it to do, as the guy at PC World (it explains itself doesnt it?) said "no"

I want to be able to watch TV on my laptop but also allow me to change channels from the laptop.
possible? is this what the slingbox is capable of doing?

[charmed12007]

yes it does

[Undecided Adrian]

Yes it does, the slingbox has cables with LED's on them that you position in front of your Sky box and once you have configured the software up it sends the same signal to the box as the regular Sky remote does.

And they have thousands of pre-configured remotes built in and all the Sky ones.

To be honest I am surprised the PC World is still in business given how much terrible advice they give, I went into there for a special offer monitor and the "monitor specialist" got all narky when I started looking at the connectors etc and started asking about display resolutions. He said "all monitors are the same", although I bought the monitor there I didn't get the rest of my shopping list there, Amazon got that £300.

[firehawk]

indeed. I asked what the policy is if it doesnt do what I want it to do, answer: "you cannot return it as we cannot resell it when the box is opened"

hmm... but how is one meant to know if it does the job?

guess ill have to find it some other place that is returnable

[Old_nick]

Have you looked at the Slingbox web site ? That has fairly comprehensive descriptions...... Sling Media - Home