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New Toys: Slingbox

Slingbox: An Internet Video Server for your home.(no kidding!...)

I’ve been a big fan of the Tivo since it first came out; in fact I still have one of the very first Tivos ever made. While I was then and am now a big fan, there are some places that Tivo could still be improved. The latest Tivo, The Series Two, has a feature known as “ Tivo To Go”, which allows you to download recorded media from the Tivo to your PC and watch it later. This implementation relies on the Tivo being networked to your home network so that your PC can connect to the Tivo. Unfortunately, this is where the whole process collapses. To network the Tivo, you are required to use a USB network card, either a USB Cat 5 Wired connection or a USB Wireless. It sounds easy doesn’t it? Oh but its not! First, the CAT5 connection is fine so long as you have a wired network connection next to where your TV is located, and even for a web based internet living guy like myself, that just isn’t the case. So you are left with the USB Wireless. Unfortunately, Tivo limited the make and type of Wireless cards that can be used on the Tivo, so its not like you can just go get the latest and greatest 802.11g USB Network card, plug it in and go.

What you end up with, if you do it the way Tivo would like you to do it, is an 802.11b (11mb or less) connection on which to download video. This results in a connection that can take up to 4 hours to download a 1 hour movie. So, Tivo has given a solution that allows you to download a one hour Tivo show roughly twice a day, because unlike the processed used for Movielink, you are required to download the entire show before you can watch it.

The “Tivo to Go” idea is a good one, but the implementation of the networking facility was, at best, lacking in the fundamentals. First, it was difficult to get working and when it did finally get working after a week of trying various cards, it was hardly worth the effort. I evaluated the solution this way; if I was a non technical casual user, could I have dealt with the arcane issues of drivers and network setup that was required to get just the right USB card working on the Tivo? The answer is no. Tivo was so picky about which USB card it would use that I found that certain cards would not work, even from the same vendor and type, so long as the serial number was not in a certain range. Given the technical help that exists at the average big box electronic store, there’s very little hope that the average "mom and dad" would be able to get through this issue with ease.

What Tivo could have done is to place a Wireless network card into the device at the point of manufacturing, but they didn’t. What they did is force you to go through the ridiculous and tedious process of setting up the network device on your own. In the effort to save cost of manufacturing, they in fact alienated many "power users" who up till then had been big fans of the product.

The basic problem is this, you have a Tivo, and you want to access the stored content from any PC in your home with ease and speed. In addition, you would like to be able to access the Tivo Content in real time, rather than deal with the download process before you can access the information. The leaping assumption on the part of many of us in the internet age is that anything that’s is stored on a readable media should be able to able to be accessed from any PC from anywhere in the world.

This is where a new device, called a "Slingbox" comes into play. "Slingbox" is a new device that allows you to serve Video content with ease across your network. Many people have been using analog “repeaters” for years to watch Tv in one room from a receiver in another room. I personally have never had any luck with those devices, but I know people who do use them, so I know that they do work. But the Slingbox is not simply a repeater, its is in fact a form of video web server, which you can combine with any number of video devices to serve video content across your home network. Where the Slingbox breaks away from the crowd and redefines the industry is that it also allows you to serve web content across the web so that from anywhere in the world you can access your Tivo and watch the stored content as if you were sitting at home.

I found the Slingbox a very easy product to implement and I had it up and running in less than a half hour. Slingbox has solved the problem of “I want to watch my tivo in room A, but I’m in room B” as well as solving my “ I want to watch my Tivo, but I’m in Malaysia an the Tivo is in California” problem as well. All the software worked in the first try and the written documentation is well organized and well presented. If I were at the Tivo company, I would either be buying the Slingbox company, or I would busily be adding the same capability to the Tivo. The Slingbox is a perfect addition to the Tivo world.

Slingbox works on any number of DVR’s, DVD players and it even allows access to the direct antenna, both Analog and Digital.

For a first time product, the folks at Slingbox have a hit on their hand that will likely redefine the industry. Their challenge is to stay ahead of class. If they are not careful, you will find all of this type of web based video server technology added to every DVR in the house in no time at all. To stay ahead of the game, Slingbox also needs to get on with the HD capability very quickly. In addition, Slingbox needs to implement a form of DVR to the PC to allow PC users to download for viewing later when you are not connected to a network.

In no time at all, the rest of us will be cursing Slingbox users for sucking up all the bandwidth in the internet, while the Network Television types will continue to curse the rise of the timeshifting technology that will have effectively wrecked their industry. It was said by many observers that when Tivo first came out, that the consumer effectively became their your own television station, and now with Slingbox, that is very much the case as you are now capable of broadcasting as well!

The Slingbox implementation is one of the easiest that I have worked with in some time. Connected to your Tivo, the Slingbox gives you all that you originally wanted from the "Tivo to Go" implementation,but sadly didnt get.

Note: And how did I solve my wireless problem with the Tivo, Xbox and now the Slingbox without laying down a 1000 feet of CAT5 cable?. For the Tivo I used a USB CAT5 Connection, in fact for the XBOX and the Slingbox all use CAT5, but the CAT5 connections all terminate at a local switch, which is then connected to an 802.11G Wireless Access Point which serves as a bridge to the main wireless router in the house. All the devices work just as they would on a wired connection, the 54gb connection being more that sufficient to drive all three devices at the same time. The "tivo to go" download speeds now results in a hour show downloading in about 30 minutes, which is a vast improvement over the 802.11b connection provided by Tivo.

Posted @ November 06, 2005 11:01 AM | Current Affairs

Posted by: OhBloodyHell at November 16, 2005 11:35 AM