Wondering if anyone uses Slingbox and how they like it? I undertsand it has to work off a TV in the US and that won't be a problem for us but what else as far as issues could I run into while living in Switz?

Thanks!

I have one for sale if you need one.
Never used it personally, but have heard they work fine as long as the internet connection is fast.

I use one, it needs port forwarding enabled on the home router which means (well I have had to turn off the security) to watch away from home.

It works well, watching TV on my laptop within my Apartment in Thalwil the quality is great, from elsewhere it is watchable but internet connection dependent can drive picture quality.

I use the slingbox and it works perfect I have yet to have any problems (viewing tv from US) I use the slingbox from my computer but I also purchased the sling catcher so I can view it on my 50 in plasma tv

I use sling player on my laptop with no problems but my internet connection is not so fast (2mb) so the picture gets grainy at full screen.

Another thing to consider is the internet connection speed in the US where your box is connected, this could also be a bottleneck. Finally, if someone is still living in the US and starts changing channels, it will change on your laptop.

I can change channels via my laptop

I have used my slingbox for a couple of years to watch UK TV when I am travelling. Quality is perfectly watchable, but more and more I now stream video which is a better quality direct from the broadcasters. I get around the geographical rights which limits where you can view the content by using VPN. If you are coming from the US then a slingbox would be good to keep up with events back home, but also look at www.hulu.com and see if this content is what you are looking for. Remember you will need a vpn to access this content outside the US.

We love our slingbox, we just hooked it up to our tv, with a monitor cable and a an audio cable and it works great. What is VPN and how do you install it? Is is something you have to buy?

You can get a lot of channels on channelsurfing.net also, I watch a lot of tennis on there.

What I am doing more and more is downloading programmes through a computer through a virtual private network either in the UK www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer or the US. www.hulu.com

This gets around the fact that it says you are not in the UK/US since you go through a server in the respective country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network

I am not saying the Slingbox is not good, but it is horses for courses.

But how do you get past the: you are not in the UK/USA and cannot view this. The wikipedia was way too involved.
Thanks

Have sent you a pm. In simple terms it is a private link or tunnel. So you create a tunnel from your pc to a pc in the UK or US and then enter the internet via their pc's which are located in the UK or US. This makes it appear that you are located in the UK/US., which lets you access the material.

Would you mind sending me a PM on this too...I just looked at the Wikipedia link and didn't get it at all!

cheers

I am thinking of getting a sling box to get TV from Canada.
I also have two questions.

Do I need a dedicated cable box in Canada or can it be connected to one in use?

Can I access the slingbox only through a slingcatcher or can I use another device like apple TV?

Thanks

You can use a box that is already in use, but you can only watch what they are watching or the other way round, it will not split the signal i.e the box is being used on TV1 and you want to watch TV2, if the box is not being watch you can watch what you like.

Not sure about accessing through Apple TV as the slingplayer is a free program you down load to a PC/Mac.

You can watch it thru the slingplayer that you download on your computer and then get cables for your computer to plug into tv which will enable you to on your tv or just get the slingcatcher.

I use both the slingplayer when I am in the second level of my house and then the slingcatcher that is in the living room.

can you get a slingcatcher here in switzerland?

We just returned to the UK from our place in Switzerland where we used Slingbox for the first time. We bought it a couple of weeks ago at John Lewis Dept. Store for £160 or so and set it up to our Virgin Media V+ box.

We installed Slingplayer on our brand-new Apple MacBook Pro 13", and our son in San Francisco installed Slingplayer on his as well (we had to give him the serial number of our Slingbox; when we set ours up because we were on the same network as the box it adjusted itself automatically).

While others may find the picture lacking in definition we found it adequate. I tried using our 32" LG television as a video display unit and our Harman Kardon speakers for sound. But although I think I had all the right plugs and cables I ran out of time and never got the Slingplayer image on the TV. That will be for a future trip to resolve.

Our son was able to watch UK TV as well. Since there is an 8/9 hour time difference his usage did not disturb us. (Only one person can address the Slingbox at a time; the administrator can override anyone else using it. And only one programme can be watched at a time although the V+ box, working like a TiVo, will record two other, unwatched programmes if you like.)

During our other stays in Switzerland (I am Swiss, and we spend about a week a month there) we had been using a VPN proxy service, http://vpngates.com . Using the UK proxy one can watch iPlayer and other live and stored programmes on BBC and ITV, etc. Using the US proxy one can watch otherwise-restricted US shows. And listen to http://pandora.com music.

You have to buy the Slingbox that is designed for and compatible with the TV system you want to watch and that is installed in that country. Slingplayer, once installed on your computer, will work in any country so long as the broadband service has sufficient bandwidth. You can search on Google or Bing for the personal accounts of people who have had, and perhaps solved, problems -- Mexico comes to mind.

Hi, I am setting up my slingcatcher and seem to have network problems. I am on the old cablecom 15k package and the internet speeds should be fine. I am not sure if the problem is coming from the location in the US where the upload speed is is only 384KBPS.

I have called sling support and they said they are able to view the catcher from there end so I am not sure what the problem could be. I am able to view slingplayer on my laptop with no problems so not sure if there are different speed requirements for the catcher.

Any feedback you can provide on the set-up of the sling catcher would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

All Slingbox users, the Iphone mobile player is now available via iTunes.ch not sure how long its been up but less than a couple of weeks.

Very cool...

So what can you do with it? Give me a clue please.