Slingbox Pro

As I mentioned yesterday I received a Slingbox Pro for Christmas. The Slingbox is essentially a "black box" (it's really red) which allows you to stream video content from a cable, Standard (SD), or High Definition (HD) source to a PC, MAC or Windows Mobile device. The Slingbox Pro is the latest iteration of the Slingbox which now comes in three flavors; the Slingbox Tuner, the Slingbox AV and the Slingbox Pro. The Slingbox Pro integrates the features of the Slingbox Tuner and AV with support for up to four inputs types. I selected the Slingbox Pro since it has a component HD input for my pending HDTV upgrade project.

The Slingbox is one of the those great ideas like the DVR that is hard to explain to a non technology oriented individual, like why Finally, the DVR is getting some traction, hopefully the Slingbox will not go the way of the Turtle Beach Audiotron. The Audiotron released in 2001 was a Windows CE 3.x based streaming HiFi quality audio streamer which allowed for the playing of .wma music files from a PC and Internet radio stations through one's stereo system. You could select content via the front panel, a PC or PocketPC web browser. It was an extremely well built device, fairly easy to configure, won many awards and was ahead of its time. Unfortunately Turtle Beach never sold enough devices to continue development and the iPod came along. Just think if they had integrated a portable player with the Audiotron...

Let's hope the Slingbox fate is different, it is also a very well engineered product and setup was pretty much a breeze.

1. You plug in the video devices you want to stream, currently I attached my Tivo's SD composit video and audio out.
2. You plug in the Infrared extender so you can remote control you device.
3. You plug in an LAN cable, WIFI or PowerLine adapter. I used a LAN cable connection to a hub.
4. You plug in the AC adapter.
5. The unit is now ready to be configured. The configuration is performed by installing the Slingplayer you download from http:www.slingmedia.com/support (the installation CD will point you to this site). The installation will find the Slingbox and walk you through the simple configuration process and update the firmware if necessary. The configuration process allows you to select and test different remote controls, by manufacturer, to ensure it sends the right commands to the DVR, cable box, or remotely controllable device. The only advanced configuration feature involves accessing the Slingbox from the Internet. This requires port forwarding (port 5001) to be enabled on your router and the setting of a static IP address. It looks like the configuration wizard can automatically configure most routers but my D-Link DFL210 was not one of them. Since I had previously enabled port forwarding for another device which I documented here, I simply created two new rules for the Slingbox and port 5001. On the Internet you have two options to locate your Slingbox, the first is to use Slingmedia's locator service (this is the default) and the other is to enter your router's external IP address or DNS domain name. Using your IP or domain name probably provides slightly faster connection times. Since my Internet provider Comcast uses dynamic IP addresses, I use a DNS domain name registered with dynamic DNS services from dyndns.com.

Once you have completed the configuration, a profile is created. Every subsequent installation of Slingplayer displays the list of Slingboxes on your network by profile name. You select the Slingbox you want to connect to and like magic you are connected. If you have password enabled the Slingbox (you should), you must enter the password to connect. You can set an option the remember the password for every connection. I downloaded the 30 day trial version of the Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC Slingplayer for my T-Mobile MDA. I used the ActiveSync setup and the installation process was painless (I installed Slingplayer on my storage card). The quality of the video on my network (WIFI) goes from excellent using my Media Center PC to very good on my Lenovo X41 tablet to good on my T-Mobile MDA. The Slingplayer has options you can tweak for network and video performance but I found the default settings to work fine. I have not tested from an Internet connected PC yet, I am curious to see the video quality with Comcast's limited upload speed of 384Kbps, I have tested my T-Mobile MDA on the Edge network and it works fine, it is a little jerky but definitely viewable (dslreports speed of 90Kbps), however not perfect. I really like the landscape viewing mode. I will probably end up purchasing the Windows Mobile Slingplayer.

The only issue I have found so far is a pause that occurs every time I send a remote control command. I will keep this post updated with my findings, but so far this is a great device and I can now watch my DVR live TV and recorded content anywhere in my home and while traveling. Pretty cool...