Korean Job Discussion Forums

[huck]

Has anyone here used Slingbox to receive live tv from back home? How was it?

[the_beaver]

[sportsguy35]

great

[victorology]

This is exactly what I was thinking of doing as well. Would love to hear some experiences.

[sportsguy35]

Best decision I have ever made. Works great and when I am homesick, it really feels like being back. You get the Taco Bell commercials and your hometown restaurants, almost as good as actually eating it. I bought an extra dvr box and set it up in my parents back room so it is mine to use soley. If you are using a shared cable box, you will run into problems with people turning it in the middle of your programs. Overall, the best choice ever

[BigBuds]

This might sound like a dumb question, but what is a slingbox?

You're all talking about watching TV shows from back home and with the new cable in my new apartment complex I no longer have all my old channels and am getting rather bored with almost all Korean channels.

[crescent]

[huck]

[hogwonguy1979]

you hook it up to a cable box in the states, you then hook the box up to a computer there on a high speed connection. from that you can watch tv anywhere in the world on a pc with the software. heck you can even change channels and record stuff

i've thought about it but there are a number of us stations streamed now for fee (including the NBC station in my hometown of Austin) that i wont bother for now

[sportsguy35]

hogwon guy, you watch kxan??? I've got good 'ol time warner on my slingbox and I get all the great austin channels.

as far as watching different shows on different tvs, you can't because you are controlling the actual box, so when you turn the channel, it turns it on the box.

[basplar]

Checked out their website. That looks AWESOME. I don't watch tv much, but when I do, I watch them on a rerun via the internet, so, don't know if I could justify the cost. Still a cool idea.

[Wangta01]

Basically here is how Slingbox works:

So, depending on where you want to "sling" or stream TV FROM, you buy a slingbox and hook it up to the video source and to the internet. So, say I want to watch TV from TimeWarner in New York City. I buy a Slingbox (~$100-200 depending on the model), and hook it up to my TimeWarner cable box in a New York apartment, and hook the slingbox to the internet (cable modem, router, etc.).

Then, on your computer, you start the Slingplayer program (which you download and install from Slingmedia.com) - it plays like Windows Media player or real player. However, Slingplayer also includes a "virtual remote", which is displayed next to the media player.

So, from anywhere in the world (with internet and with a good connection), you can connect to the Slingbox in New York and watch TV as if you were sitting in your New York apartment, plus you can change stations using the "virtual remote" (the Slingbox has an infared sensor that can send signals to the cable box).

All in all, its a pretty good setup as long as you have fast connections on BOTH sides (at the slingbox as well as wherever you are watching). They suggest a 256 k/s bandwidth, but realistically, you probably want near 1 megabyte/second for a good picture.

PS. There is no subscription fee for the Slingbox. Its a one time investment for the box.

[hogwonguy1979]

[Wangta01]

What kind of connection do you guys have? DSL or cable modem or designated fast connection (1.5 mb/sec or something)?