Hi-tech-tv.com: Television technology news & answers

Question: I’m sick of not having Slingbox mobile so I want to switch to get a device that is compatible. Right now, I have the blackberry 50something something, the one that came out before the curve and its great. Any suggestions on what I should get that is similar to my blackberry and slingbox mobile compatible? My service provider is AT& T
Thanks

Answer 1: Get the blackjack. I have it and it works well, as long as you are in a 3g area. I have ATT also.

Answer 2: They say Slingbox will be available on blackberry by end of the year but I wouldn’t count on it. Sling announced back in January that it would be available for Blackberry by the end of the year but there’s been no update whatsoever since then. Their silence says a lot.

Answer 3: Slingbox Mobile works on any windows media phone or palm. Blackberry has been “coming soon” for more than a year. The Treo 800 just came out and slingbox is adapting to that winmo 6.1 device.

Answer 4: It’s not blackberry – It’s Slingmedia. They are the ones that need to come out with the software that can run on blackberry. And no, it doesn’t work on the iphone either. Unlike with blackberry, Slingmedia hasn’t announced any plans to come out with an application for the iphone, which is unfortunate because it would be amazing to be able to watch on that phone.

Question: Can anyone explain how Slingbox works? I believe I understand the basic concept. You plug this doohickey into your TV at “home,” and from there, you can somehow access it from a remote location through your Internet-connected PC, and in doing so, can watch your local TV channels on your PC.

So here’s my situation – I live in L.A., and am stuck with Charger, 49er, Raider, Bronco, and the occasional Cardinal game. However, my sister and her family lives in NY, where the Giants games are always local. Could I purchase the Slingbox, have it installed at her house, and use it from my apartment in L.A.? I guess the real question is, does it have any effect on what she and her family can watch, while I’m using it to watch the Giants game? Once it’s installed, can she pretty much forget that it’s there?

Answer 1: ust get Sunday Ticket.

Answer 2: It’s basically an over-the-Internet transmitter of television. To get into specifics, check the website below which has every answer you could want: http://www.slingcommunity.com

Answer 3: I have Slingbox. You have to watch whatever your sister is watching. If she has more than one TV, you can use the other one.

Answer 4: You could use the Slingbox but whatever cable box you hook up the interface to cannot watch a different program. If you add a cable box of your own at her place that would be fine. Having said that Direct TV is the way to go.

Answer 5: You hook it up to the cable coming into your sisters house. Then you connect the cat5 cable to your internet router. When the 2 lights on the box are on you are in business. Your sister will have to load the software on one of her PCs and get the routing info for you. Once you have that you are good to go. You do not have to listen to what they are listening to. Depending on the box you get TUNER (basic cable only) the AV and PRO give you cable box functionality. You control the station from your PC once you connect. The info you will need is what she calls the box and the finder ID which is like a MAC ID and lastly what password she is using. Only setback is only 1 access is available. If you are on nobody else can access unless you have a 2nd slingbox installed.

Is Slingbox worth purchasing? No not Slingblade… I was wondering if any of you have the Slingbox that enables you to watch your television anywhere you have an internet connection. This would be great for watching programs when you are out of town. I am thinking of purchasing one, but wanted to see if anyone here had one, and what they thought of it.

Answer #1: I do not have one, but I have heard alot of positive info on it. I believe it can also control your TiVo too (I know it can control replayTV) so you can also stream recorded shows to yourself. I was thinking of splitting the cost with my brother for one, for when I was away on business & so he could watch the New York Giants (he lives in Oregon and doesn’t get Giants games there).

Answer #2: I have one. And I have to tell you that I was absolutely shocked at how well it works when I first got it. I was thinking along the same lines as you – if you happen to be out of town and need to catch a game. I will tell you this – there is some confusion in the reviews/media about it regarding the issue of changing the channel over the broadband connection. Let me tell you that this is NOT an issue and you can easily change channels with the sling media player.

I honestly don’t own stock in the company or anything but it’s an amazing product- the quality is amazing and I have NEVER experienced any skipping, etc. even on a medium range broadband/dsl connection.

Answer #3: It also controls the TIVO/Replay TV. Get one, and the slingbox can do whatever you need to do tomorrow night.

Answer #4: Think of it like this – your TV pops up in a broadband window on your cpu – when you change the channel, the info comes up – it is exactly like sitting in front of your TV except you control the channels with your mouse instead of a remote control. It doesn’t filter out any information, etc. For example if you wanted to you could order a pay per view and then watch it on your computer. One FYI is that there is about a 2-3 second delay between the actual television and the broadband viewer but that is to be expected. It is completely streamed – no hiccups, no skipping, no audio problems- honestly it was probably the best Christmas present I ever got.

Answer #5: That is it would work with HBO if your television has HBO – it just transmits YOUR television data- so if you left in the morning and were watching ESPN, ESPN would be on when you turned on the box. If someone in your house changed the channel, then the channel would be changed on your computer.

Answer #6: For people who have a pocket PC the people at Slingbox are in betatesting a mobile sling player, amazing I was sitting in class the other day watching the Yankees spring training game on mute…. I thank the Lord for this device every day.

Answer #7: If you have regular old cable, put a spliter on the line. Then the person at the TV can watch one thing while the person at the computer watches another. If you have a cable box you both can watch the same channel togethter but can’t be on 2 differnet channels.

If you really want to get fancy, you can use your bluetooth connection from your pocket pc to connect to your cell phone and use your slingbox in the middle of church - you need a bluetooth enabled phone.