Sling Box Tivo American Tv

[bikerlou47]

I have just returned from USA after hooking up a 129 USD Slingbox to my TIVO what a great cheap easy to use device.

With the NFL ticket it is too good to be true!

Life in Thailand just got a while lot better and cheaper!

Edited December 20, 2007 by bikerlou47

[Retired2]

That sounds great, but what kind of bandwidth speed to you need over HERE to make it work??

[corkscrew]

I have just returned from USA after hooking up a 129 USD Slingbox to my TIVO what a great cheap easy to use device.

With the NFL ticket it is too good to be true!

Life in Thailand just got a while lot better and cheaper!

How do you operate a Tivo here?

[bikerlou47]

That sounds great, but what kind of bandwidth speed to you need over HERE to make it work??

I pay for 512 I get about 300k.

[Jingthing]

You operate with software from here. In my experience you need a human being at the tivo box host site to reset the machine sometimes.

[bikerlou47]

I have just returned from USA after hooking up a 129 USD Slingbox to my TIVO what a great cheap easy to use device.

With the NFL ticket it is too good to be true!

Life in Thailand just got a while lot better and cheaper!

How do you operate a Tivo here?

The TIVO is in the states and you operate it from here.

[Crossy]

Up until recently I was using an old PC with a TV capture card (which also did FreeView digital [in the UK]) and a hookey copy of PowerVCR.

Remote control PowerVCR via VNC. Once the progs are captured as DivX or Xvid download with FTP and watch.

Took a bit of setting up (which is where the Slingbox scores) but its major advantage is that it will work fine with a slow/crappy/unreliable connection, just takes longer to download (overnight whilst sleeping or whilst in the office).

Just my humble opinion of course

Unfortunately the PC died when my parents moved house and I'm not there to fix it, time to revert to P2P.

[corkscrew]

I have just returned from USA after hooking up a 129 USD Slingbox to my TIVO what a great cheap easy to use device.

With the NFL ticket it is too good to be true!

Life in Thailand just got a while lot better and cheaper!

How do you operate a Tivo here?

The TIVO is in the states and you operate it from here.

I wish we could use a Tivo here in Bangkok to record programs.

[Rice_King]

Similarly, I am using Orb (free) with pretty good results.

It requires a TV tuner capture card and the Orb application running on the host computer. (My "host computer" is at my brother's place in the US.)

I login to the Orb website on any PC with an internet connection, and watch / record shows from his cable TV provider in the US. (No software required for the receiving PC.)

Locally here in Thailand, I subscribe to True 1,000 / 512 connection. My brother's broadband in the US is faster.

[Langsuan Man]

You operate with software from here. In my experience you need a human being at the tivo box host site to reset the machine sometimes.

I disagree, I have been using my Slingbox with a Cable company provided DVR for the last two months without a glitch. I just hooked everything (Cable modem, DVR, Router, and Slingbox) to a UPS and everything works fine. I have TT&T Maxnet here in Pattaya (1536 / 512) and it works fine for me. You operate the DVR or TiVo functions using your router and Slingbox that sends commands to the infrared sensors that are attached to the DVR or TiVo.

LSM

attach my setup in the US.

[lomatopo]

Do you all watch programs live, via the Slingbox? Or record them on the TiVo and stream them back, 'live-ish'? Or download and watch locally? Or a combination?

I admire the resourcefulness of some of these solutions. I just wait two days, for the current weeks' shows or games.

[Langsuan Man]

I must admit that I have never had the patience to try and watch a TV show live (or sporting event for that matter) Main reason is the time difference. I mean, who wants to watch US soap operas during the early evening Thai time. I also feel that the Slingbox adjusts itself to the stream to compensate for the bandwith. Of course this is not an empirical observation but is a result of the stream while I am going through the long process of programing the DVR (one of the main advantages of a TiVo is it's excellent program guide). There is a lag between when I push the button on the virtual remote and when the action takes place on the DVR half way around the world. So it takes a while to go from 8 AM to 8 PM (US Prime time) to pick out a show to record as an example. Also I have noticed that when a recorded show is played back it sometimes starts out choppy but smooths out after a few minutes of playing.

This weekend I may try and watch the Patriots versus the NY Giants live and then I will know if live streaming will also adjust itself to bandwith fluctuations.

LSM

[lomatopo]

This weekend I may try and watch the Patriots versus the NY Giants live and then I will know if live streaming will also adjust itself to bandwith fluctuations.

LSM

FYI, this game will be televised live locally, Sunday 30 Dec. at 08:00 on TrueSport 4. A late addition to the schedule. Also available in the U.S.A. on NFL Network, NBC and CBS, thanks to our legislators.

I think I'd FTP the file to watch here, if I weren't watching it live, rather than playing it back in the U.S.A. and streamed via the SlingBox and Internet? I understand you can control (stop, pause, etc.) the SlingBox but would much prefer to do that locally.

I watched an NFL game streamed to here live over this type of set-up and the quality was worse than poor. It looked fine on a 1"x1" window but anything bigger was unwatchable. Good to see some commercials though.

Edited December 27, 2007 by lomatopo

[corkscrew]

Another solution: I have a friend in Seattle who records my favorite shows and sends the DVDs to me in Bangkok. There is just a week delay....but, at least I don't have to do anything complicated with my PC and there is no worry about download speed. With the DVDs I can watch them at my leisure....pause....back up....fast forward....replay.....even view them in my car...share them with friends....and keep them.

[marcus]

You can use the slingbox in two different ways :

1) use the slingstream (as most people do), and the stream will adjust itself automatically to the available bandwidth. This guarantees a smooth stream, but not always in the best possible quality.

2) use the advanced settings : you have to specify video bit rate, resolution etc by yourself.

And since a couple of days there is a 3th solution : a Slingbox user wrote a plugin for the VLC player, so you can watch your TV in VLC, record shows, timeshift them etc. I tried it out by myself and find the quality better as that of the original Slingplayer. You can download the plugin at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/slingbox/files/ Follow the instructions in the readme.

[Jingthing]

That's interesting Marcus.

I have my slingbox which is hosted in the US connected to a dedicated DVR which of course I pay extra for. It is working great so I am too lazy to change it, but given the time differences, I do consider some kind of record and playback facility an absolute necessity.

[marcus]

I created some files you can use with VLC how to schedule a recording using VLC and the "Scheduled task function" in Windows. I posted it on the forum of the slingbox users ( http://www.slingcommunity.com/forum/thread...ingbox-/?page=4 ) It's the last article on that page under my username over there (Singha)