Operation Aussie Sling

It’s been fairly well documented that you can Sling television feeds around the world, but Hobotech Ron and I wondered what type of quality one could expect outputting that signal to TV. So in the name of science, we broke several international laws to conduct an intercontinental experiment. Ron loaded up his Dell laptop with the SlingPlayer and viewed my Washington, DC-based Slingbox feed from his home in Canberra, Australia. As you can see above, video quality was decent on his rear projection TV with a consistent 320kbps-350kbps download bitrate (which is about what I get here in the US). We believe the limiting factor is not distance, but rather my DSL upload speed which is capped at 384kbps.

Ron says: I hooked it up to the RearPro via S-Video and my wife and I watched it for quite a while and came to the conclusion that, while less than perfect we would be quite happy to watch it, if it provided us with material we couldn’t get from any other source. A little bit like food, while one might prefer a steak, a hamburger will usually do quite well if that’s all that’s available!

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Sony LocationFree TV Coming To Macs and Mobiles

Looks like Sling will be getting some more competition… Sony plans to expand it’s LocationFree TV streaming to include Macs and Windows Mobile devices. Extreme Tech says: Sony Corp. said Tuesday that it licensed its Location-Free technology to Kaga Electronics, which will port the technology to the Mac OS X platform. “Location Free” allows content … Read more

SlingPlayer Mobile Released, For Real

The SlingPlayer Mobile for portable Windows devices, which has been in public beta for a month, is officially released today. If you were savvy enough to buy and register a Slingbox by 4/26, the software is free… otherwise it’s going to cost you $29.99. It looks like they’re still working out the kinks on non-touchscreen … Read more

HBO Doesn’t Like Slingbox

Does it really come as any surprise that HBO isn’t in favor of place shifting? If you recall, HBO petitioned the FCC to ban DVR recording too. Light Reading says: “Content owners don’t like it [Sling] because they think it violates their copyrights,” HBO CTO Bob Zitter said during a panel here Tuesday. Zitter’s comment … Read more

Never enough time… TiVo cofounder Jim Barton broadcasts the revolution. (ACM Queue) Netflix quarterly conference call doesn’t mention TiVo. (Internet Stock Blog) Save fifty bucks on a Slingbox and get 2000 United Airlines miles. (Sling) Details on Clear Channel’s digital radio plans (aka HD) to compete with satellite. (MarketWatch, Business Week) Sony releases PSP firmware … Read more

Standard Def’s Last Stand (In Dave’s Bedroom)

I may doubt the necessity of 1080p and HD DVD at these prices and with limited content, but the fact is I’m down to a lone standard definition setup (the 9″ kitchen TV doesn’t count) holed up in the bedroom. TV I picked up this 32″ JVC about 6 years ago when Consumer Reports recommended … Read more

Have a Slingbox? Wanna be on TV?

If you’re a photogenic Slingbox owner living in the DC area, check out this television opportunity posted to the Sling Community. We have an interesting media opportunity coming up, and I would like to recruit a greater DC-area Slingbox owner to get a chance to participate in it! Here are the requirements: You must be … Read more

Slingbox On Symbian?

The Sling folks allude to some enticing news with this job opening… Sling Media says: Job Title: Tech Lead, Mobile Embedded Software Essential Responsibilities Directly participate in design and development of multimedia/networking software products using J2ME, BREW and Symbian operating systems/platforms. Architect multimedia software frameworks for Sling Media mobile software products that address the requirements … Read more