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36 Comments
- bysubmitted, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Slingbox is to Orb/umediaserver/other
as
Tivo is to MythTV/Freevo/other
Slingbox, you just plug it in, and it works (pretty much.) And yes, it is going to cost more on the front end, but maybe that's the price you're willing to pay for simplicity. - info, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3So how does the Slingbox work? Is it a fairly open thing or is it bogged down with DRM and some sort of centralized server? The fact that you need their special client software leads me to think it's more like the latter.
Anybody know? - ZennZero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yes it requires access to their server, unfortunately. I would like to see an option to host your own small server.
- lilzaphod, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Slingbox is a hardware device you host on your own system. It's basically a clent/server streaming app for video that runs out of your house/location.
The only need for Slingbox servers is for firmware and/or client updates. - tesseract121, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Finally! Glad to see this is finally coming out for the Mac.
- dongiaconia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The servers also track the current IP address to which your sling box is associated so that when you are away from home, sling player can locate your sling box if you dont have a static IP at home.
- dongiaconia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yea, no doubt, but 3 months of closed beta testing? Everyone will have to sign an NDA? hmm, so I'm guessing that means it will take a whole 2 days after beta release for torrents to pop up...
- dpoehls, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yeah, this could be done..doesn't like it would work on a mac as of yet though, but to get you started.
the computer that is serving the data would need to run umediaserver to stream the TV feed that comes in via a TV card. I also use a IR blaster to emulate the directv remote control, (http://mytvstore.com/product_id_001.html). And to turn the channel, I log on using a VNC program, and run a remote control program that sends signals to the IR blaster. THen you can just login using the umedia server VIEWER, and just point it to your servers IP..works great. Hopefully this makes some sense. I looked for a way to do this forever, and came up with my own..maybe I'll make a wikihow page someday.. - abcohen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This was by far the best $200 I spent last year!!!!!! Works like a charm and now on my cellphone too!!!! I'm a big fan - I do wish you could have more then one computer logged in at a time or be able to bump the guest account off with the admin account but oh well... its still perfect for the single guy at the office with dual screens :)
- deadbaby, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You can stream some "free to air" channels online but nothing gives you a full selection. A TV tuner card is the best bet.
- dpoehls, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2true..you are definatley right about ease of use
- angelp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Not really.....We have the Slingbox and my husband uses it to watch all the NY sports games and news. A one-time cost of less than $200. I'm pretty sure he can't get all his baseball, football, and basketball games plus the daily news on bittorrent.
- dpoehls, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1of course, being dumb i didn't realize this was a MAC post...not sure if umediaserver is available for macs...hmm worth a look anyhow!
- jessethouin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm in the same boat. Any suggestions besides using a USB/Firewire video capture device (eyeTV, etc)?
- scards, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That sounds like an odd trade..
That would cause some issues though with "my cable company doesn't offer that channel, but yours does - let me watch it" or having one person pay for HBO to watch The Sopranos and sharing it with their entire family. In theory - that would be sort of a cool idea. Kind of like a DIGG for your TV. But there's way too many legal things that will keep that from being a reality. - dpoehls, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1yeah, not sure about a mac..but it can take a live stream in..you would need to have a tv card in your pc, but they are relatively cheap these days
- BWhaler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Agreed.
Tivo dragging their heels on Mac and Linux support is idiotic. Don't they realize that Microsoft is trying to crush them with the XBox 360?
Companies need to be smarter and realize supporting Windows-only is feeding the monster that will ultimately kill them. - jordan314, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1anyone know of any legal services to have TV piped directly to your computer? I don't have a TV and use my computer to download episodes and watch DVDs, but aside from episode-based downloads (like itunes), I'd like to know if there's an internet service that allows you to stream cable to your computer over the internet (without this extra step).
- jralcantar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Now it's Tivo's turn to announce its beta.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I love my slingbox. I can't believe something so cool is so simple to install & use. Soon to be for Mac? Sounds good to me. Perhaps a mac-mini media center machine will be feasible.
- acs12798, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I agree, it was a 200 dollars well spent. I was able to watch yankees baseball at college and other sports live. Also, it was nice when the cable at school went out a few times and I could still watch my shows. The other thing I like about them is the people they have in the slingcommunity forums who work for the company. My only gripe is that they still havent added closed captioning.
- BWhaler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If the Mac version is high quality as Mac folks demand, I'll finally buy 4 sling boxes for my homes.
If it's a cheap port, I'll continue with the wait and see. I'm not going to be using Parallels or boot camp instead of native OS X apps. And I am not alone.
But I am optimistic and looking forward to reading the reviews. - brunner, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I've been doing this for years with MythTV/MythWeb... I realize this is for Macs, but I really feel like it's worthwhile to have a cheap dedicated box for this purpose anyway...
- dongiaconia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You can't bittorrent live video, can you? You have to wait till it has been captured, tracked and shared, right?
- frem001, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1so if i bought one for my brother in the States i could mooch off his cable and then forget about american tv shows... right?
- lepton, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Here's how I do it on my Mac. I have a n inexpensive Canon camcorder that can accept analog audio and video in and transform it to DV out over FireWire (lots of camcorders can do this, you can also get standalone converters, or AV cards that accept video etc. So I plug my TV into that. Once you can get live TV into your Mac, you broadcast it out with Apple's free QuickTime Broadcaster software. I blast it to my laptop over the local Net and pick it up on my laptop out on the patio. Nice, and free. It can work across the Internet too. Can't change channels with my setup tho.
- awizzle22, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Does anyone know if Slingbox has Wireless, it would be alot more convinient then having to run a wire through your house or some gay thing that plugs into the wall.
- kzaidi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I paid only $160 @ buy.com. Best piece of hardware I ever paid for. I use it on my phone and mac(running parallels) , Can't wait for the final version to come out for Mac.
- chewbaccared, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I use a linksys wireless gaming adapter that connects to my linksys wireless router. Works great.
- robdon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yes, while i agree that this is excellent for those seeking to stream tv live, i find it better to simply wait for someone to seed a high-quality (sometimes HD if available) video of the show in question than to watch a thouroughly compressed copy. Having tried Slingbox on my PC, im very pleased with it, but if i can wait for the show to be seeded, torrented copies have always given me better results.
- chadu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1would love to see some sort of slingbox user to user sharing... say if i had one and so did a buddy i could send him my episodes of Battlestar Galactica or he could send me his skinimax flicks. ;-)
- notfred, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0actually, I have it hooked up to 3 inputs: Tivo, cable (faster for just watching) and a video camera for my back yard...
- MoeB, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1wow it took so long for the mac support. this should be on one of the apple switch commercials. tee heee
- yarzy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0How does www.umediaserver.net work? Can I have my DirecTivo downstairs and stream it to my laptop in my bedroom? How about on a Mac? Can I control the DirecTivo from upstairs? This would AMAZING if I could do this....
- dpoehls, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1There are free ways to do this..
check out www.umediaserver.net. I have DirecTV, and using this, UltraVNC, and an IR blaster, I can watch TV from anywhere..pretty slick! - robdon, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1hey, i have a better idea, BITTORRENT, take advantage of that shiny high-def screen..
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