New Products - SlingBox from Sling Media

[StatusWeb]

Hey there,

It's actually my first post, I was hoping I might be able to feedback on a new product that I've stumbled across. It had nothing to do with computers (and it does at the same time) so I simply assumed that it would best to ask the Off Topic area.

Sling Media, a not so new company with a new product, is offering something that I think will be very popular, at least I hope. It's called a SlingBox. Now I've only seen CNET's report and they are calling it the "next big thing in TV accessories."

Click here for CNET report.

I also saw the report on a television show, not sure what, but it was a very positive report and I hope others saw it as well. Supposedly, you hook this baby up to a cable box in your house and you can remotely login to it from any computer and watch whatever the cable box is watching. Cool thing is, you have a control panel, or "TV remote" on your computer that lets you change the channel and use your cable box just like your sitting at home. I think its great, what do you think?

I haven't bought it yet, and I'm not sure if I'm going to purchase it at all. I'm not concerned with that. My question to the gurus is this: I hear Sling Media might go public in a bit, so how popular is this Sling Box going to get? Do you think it would be right to invest in a company like this? Do you think this Sling Box really is the next big thing? Big enough to bank off of their shares? Discuss!


Thanks for the replies in advance,
DLee

 

[StatusWeb]

Bump,

Sorry, I never bump in forums but this one was 2 and a half pages down the line before it got to 9 views.

I would love a response to this, please respond if you can.

Thanks so much,
DLee

 

[ViRGE]

This is nothing new, packages like BeyondTV +BTV Link have allowed just this before, plus the ability to watch more than live TV since the DVR and broadcast tools are integrated. Granted, that's a PC app, so you need a spender HTPC to use it, but there are numerous HTPC users, so it's not like no one has done this before. The biggest problem is bandwidth though; residential internet connections do not offer enough umph to upload live TV with TV-quality and resolution, so on the road you're fairly limited. So this product in general is not that impressive.

 

[akiraxtc]

I tried it and i don't like it.... quality is not as good as they hyped it to be. Well actually my expectations are set quite high after i see their presentations. No wonder they don't have any units on demo at compusa.
What it is basically is a standalone windows media encoder server in a small box. You connect to it via a proprietary application that you had to install on whatever computer you wish to connect to it. You can use it via lan or internet. I found the quality to be mediocre at best, 700kbps video on a wireless-g network, hovering at the same number on wired 100mbps lan. Howver, once you go outside and access it from, let's say your office... streaming quality at 200kbps ain't too bad at all. if you want to replace your TV and watch it from your computer.... DON'T - this will NOT replace your TV at all.
Arb (http://www.orb.com) does pretty much the same thing - more features, even for Free!
So, back to compusa it went

 

[StatusWeb]

Before I respond, thanks for the replies.

Now, as for the product itself, it's a bust and there have been other items similar to this before. But as for it's marketability...

Do you think it will sell? If they market the item well, do you think this particular item will take off? Do you think there will be enough hype about this item that it will bring in a few dollars?

 

[Harvey]

Sorry, but the most important control on my TV is the OFF switch. There aren't that many things on TV worth that much effort, let alone the expense.

I saw another report on this in a technical mag (don't recall which), and my first reaction was a huge yawn followed by a major rush of so what? Even if you were totally addicted to your local TV, you'd need unlimited high speed access while on the road to be worth anything.

I think I recall a different configuration of the product that allowed a similar connection to test equipment. That may be more useful.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: StatusWeb
Before I respond, thanks for the replies.

Now, as for the product itself, it's a bust and there have been other items similar to this before. But as for it's marketability...

Do you think it will sell? If they market the item well, do you think this particular item will take off? Do you think there will be enough hype about this item that it will bring in a few dollars?

If you're asking for stock advice, I'm not sure you're going to get it here, but as far as technical advice goes, these guys are well ahead of their time in some ways, and not advanced enough in other ways. This kind of remote broadcasting won't really take off until it's fully integrated with PVR functionality(the current method they use is a kludge), and if we're talking about seriously doing this over the internet, the time is simply not yet here. If/when this does take off, it's going to be PC app providers and PVR providers that will be driving it, not this company, and the money they are going to make is going to be selling it as an additional feature(ala Tivo-to-go). I doubt consumers will pay too much for it though, there aren't many places that people want to access this kind of stuff outside of their home, and devices like Microsoft's portable media center already cover some of this.

 

[Nevada]

i picked up one of these today and hooked it up. i wasn't really that impressed with the whole thing after using it for like 2-3 hours. back it goes to best buy.