unfunnyryan Posted April 11, 2015 Report Share Posted April 11, 2015 How do you like it? I figured instead of paying an assload for cable, for $3 more a month for another box at parents house and stream it to my TV. Any models to avoid? What's bandwidth use look like (have 5mbps up from parents) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShowHBK Posted April 13, 2015 Report Share Posted April 13, 2015 I don't own a Slingbox, but I do have the Sony version called a LocationFree Player. (info on product here) The base station I own is still kicking and working today, even after Sony shut down NETAV which was their online streaming server that allowed you to stream TV outside your network. This means that you can watch TV wireless on any Windows XP-7 machine at home, but you will not be able to stream over the internet outside your home anymore. you can usually find an LF-PK1 (first generation device) on eBay for about $40-80 if you are only interested in internal home use. To answer your original question, I mainly used mine for watching NHL games on the go and the occasional movie here and there. I have always found them to be convenient if both the connection you are using outside your home and the connection in your home can handle the streaming. I could not speak directly for Slingbox, but my LocationFree player never effected the bandwidth in my home because the box acted as an access point by itself so our internet speeds were never used when watched internally, however when watching outside our home the upstream speeds did take a hit when watching anything at a high resolution. I would without a doubt check your upload/download speed before making any purchase if you plan on watching your TV outside your home to avoid headaches. This is copied directly from Slingbox's website for their requirements with a PRO-HD: HD Streaming: Network connectivity of 1.5 Mbps or higher SD Streaming: Network connectivity of 384 Kbps or higher Mobile Streaming: 150 Kbps or higher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRed05 Posted April 13, 2015 Report Share Posted April 13, 2015 We had one, it worked really well. I would watch TV on my phone without any problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unfunnyryan Posted April 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2015 I don't own a Slingbox, but I do have the Sony version called a LocationFree Player. (info on product here) The base station I own is still kicking and working today, even after Sony shut down NETAV which was their online streaming server that allowed you to stream TV outside your network. This means that you can watch TV wireless on any Windows XP-7 machine at home, but you will not be able to stream over the internet outside your home anymore. you can usually find an LF-PK1 (first generation device) on eBay for about $40-80 if you are only interested in internal home use. To answer your original question, I mainly used mine for watching NHL games on the go and the occasional movie here and there. I have always found them to be convenient if both the connection you are using outside your home and the connection in your home can handle the streaming. I could not speak directly for Slingbox, but my LocationFree player never effected the bandwidth in my home because the box acted as an access point by itself so our internet speeds were never used when watched internally, however when watching outside our home the upstream speeds did take a hit when watching anything at a high resolution. I would without a doubt check your upload/download speed before making any purchase if you plan on watching your TV outside your home to avoid headaches. This is copied directly from Slingbox's website for their requirements with a PRO-HD: HD Streaming: Network connectivity of 1.5 Mbps or higher SD Streaming: Network connectivity of 384 Kbps or higher Mobile Streaming: 150 Kbps or higher Never heard of that device, interesting. Ever test it over a VPN? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShowHBK Posted April 14, 2015 Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Never heard of that device, interesting. Ever test it over a VPN? Not surprising in the slightest. The LocationFree player (at the time) was way to expensive at $350 and many people never saw the need for it in 2004. The newest model is the LF-V30 which I have never owned so I would know little about its physical features and capability. You can pick one up on Amazon right now with Prime for $35 here . At that price It is hard to beat but keep in mind that NETAV was shut down a long time ago which allows this thing to stream TV and DVD/BLU-RAY players outside your home. I have never used a VPN with one of these, but they do have an internal settings menu that you can access via an IP address similar to any other modem in your house. the settings can be fully customized as well like static IP, AP name, and VPN should be in there. I will check mine when I get home to confirm but I can't see any reason why this thing would not work internally with a VPN. My only other word of caution is that Sony has not only discontinued this product, but they are also no longer supporting it anywhere. If you want the newest tech then the Slingbox is the way to go for sure. Just want you to get whats right for you =D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bucd Posted April 14, 2015 Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Depends on what you watch, have you looked into setting up something with Kodi? http://kodi.tv/about/ I'm currently running this on an Amazon Fire Stick TV. I've since canceled my cable. Works great for what i need. You can run it on just about anything, computer, smartphone, tablets, etc... -D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unfunnyryan Posted April 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Depends on what you watch, have you looked into setting up something with Kodi? http://kodi.tv/about/ I'm currently running this on an Amazon Fire Stick TV. I've since canceled my cable. Works great for what i need. You can run it on just about anything, computer, smartphone, tablets, etc... -D I already run Subsonic and Plex which are nice, but there is some live tv that I either don't want to download, or rather would watch live. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bucd Posted April 14, 2015 Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 I already run Subsonic and Plex which are nice, but there is some live tv that I either don't want to download, or rather would watch live. You can get live tv with this as well. I've not done too much with that part, but i was able to watch some sports live on it when i needed to. There's alot of stuff here if you get bored and want to read. http://forums.tvaddons.ag/forums/35-LIVE-STREAMING-ON-KODI -D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShowHBK Posted April 14, 2015 Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 (edited) I already run Subsonic and Plex which are nice, but there is some live tv that I either don't want to download, or rather would watch live. One option I ran for a long time was a USB-TV tuner stick in my laptop with Windows Media Center on Windows 7. Basically turns your desktop or laptop into a DVR that you can save and transfer to any Windows based system. I know this is a little off topic but I felt like I would just throw it out there as an option. I used this ATI stick all the time to record and watch live TV on my laptop. setup was easy and it worked great when I told it to record when I was out. Edited April 14, 2015 by ShowHBK words are hard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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