The Slingbox

July 26, 2005 5:46 PM

Meet: The Slingbox, "a compact and elegantly designed, state-of-the-art electronic device that connects to the back of your TV...[and] redirects, or 'placeshifts,' the TV signal from your cable box, satellite receiver, or digital video recorder...to your computer or laptop of choice, no matter your location."
posted by JPowers (28 comments total)

While tempted to ask if it comes in blue....

This would be nifty for folks like me who would love some US/UK cable channels down-under. All I need is a complicit northern hemisphere friend with one of these.
posted by bystander at 6:08 PM on July 26, 2005

It's a decent idea, I guess, but how is this better/more legal than Bit Torrent? Ads?
posted by sdrawkcab at 7:15 PM on July 26, 2005

This seems like the kind of thing that is only legal because they haven't made laws against it yet.

Kind of like early-Napster.

Having said that, if it worked with a Mac and my TiVo, I'd try it.
posted by ColdChef at 7:31 PM on July 26, 2005

I have one - bought it the day it came out after reading a gizmodo article about it. Works like a charm; set it up in one afternoon. My boss is going to get one for his daughter to use when she goes away to college, so she'll still have Tivoesque functionality. She can go out partying/studying/whatevering, and when she gets back, his TiVo back across the country will have captured The O.C. for her.
posted by jonson at 7:59 PM on July 26, 2005

Correct me if I'm wrong, but couldn't you just get a TV tuner card (and I'm guessing a few adapters and cables) for a fraction of the price?
posted by zardoz at 8:01 PM on July 26, 2005

Also, ColdChef - while it WILL work with your TiVo (or Replay, and potentially a slew of others), it is NOT mac compatible yet. But soon, they say. I just used it during a three day business trip where I was out on client dinner/drinking/misadventure until the wee hours, and when I got back to my room Entourage & the 4400* were queued up and waiting.


*Did I say Entourage & 4400? I meant The News Hour w/Jim Lehrer & something educational from the National Geographic channel.
posted by jonson at 8:06 PM on July 26, 2005

Okay, now I'm turning into a shill. But Zardoz, no, you're wrong. A TV tuner card wouldn't get MY directv channels (no Entourage, no 4400, no National Geographic channels) when I'm on the road. Nor would it allow me access to the programs on my home TiVo (see the daughter @ college example above), nor would it let me (as happened the other day) SET my tivo from work to catch a show that afternoon which I wouldn't have been home to record otherwise. Any other questions?
posted by jonson at 8:08 PM on July 26, 2005

Capture cards are hard...they take a bit of technical savvy.

When things become plug-and-play, the public buys.

Transistor radios were way more popular than crystal sets...the first home computer already built started the revolution that computers built from kits only began. Same effect we noticed from the public while at Napster.

Vidcap is doable and done now...but mainly only by we geeks.

First comes the ease of technology...THEN come the laws.
posted by Dunvegan at 8:08 PM on July 26, 2005

i can't believe this is legal (and want a mac version) : >
posted by amberglow at 8:13 PM on July 26, 2005

This seems like the classic time- and space-shifting permitted as fair use, no?
posted by shivohum at 8:16 PM on July 26, 2005 [1 favorite]

remote fair use is still fair use?
posted by amberglow at 8:23 PM on July 26, 2005

The first thing I thought is that they are going to make a ton of money. Loads of it. I've wondered for a few years why there isn't a product just like this one, and here it is.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 8:35 PM on July 26, 2005

I can't believe this is a single link post that's not being trashed by those that hate them.
posted by Balisong at 8:36 PM on July 26, 2005

That's awesome.

Aside from preventing the manufacturer from making these, how could they make this illegal? Or rather, how could they enforce it if they did? Seems to me that there's nothing to shut down, really.
posted by danb at 8:36 PM on July 26, 2005

It's locked, so you can't broadcast more than one stream at a time. Otherwise, I'd be reselling my HBO subscription to millions (or at the very least, to this one guy I know who's too cheap but loves Deadwood). BTW, there IS another product like this, it's Sony's Location Free TV, and it's been available for like a year. The difference is, this product uses your own screen (laptop or desktop) for output, while Sony's product sells you the screen, and therefore costs a whole lot more ($900, I believe, for the small unit).
posted by jonson at 8:41 PM on July 26, 2005

Oh, and danb, the thing they COULD shut down, if they wanted, is the centralized database that tells my computer in New York on my business trip that television 1234556673242987234 is the one at my house in Los Angeles. Without that db, my laptop couldn't find my home broadcasting base unit, and I'd be S.O.L.
posted by jonson at 8:43 PM on July 26, 2005

Bingo, jonson.

Here's comes the science...and then here comes the irritating non-germane but mega-corporate protective laws.
posted by Dunvegan at 9:08 PM on July 26, 2005

I can't believe this is a single link post that's not being trashed by those that hate them.

I'm somewhat new to MeFi. Are single-link posts generally frowned upon?
posted by JPowers at 9:34 PM on July 26, 2005

Only by douchebags.
posted by jonson at 9:39 PM on July 26, 2005

I think it's a great post! I didn't know this technology existed. But if it had been for some other commercial product, that didn't show you the competition, I could see people frowning while wiping Pepsi Blue (tm) from their mouths.
posted by Balisong at 9:57 PM on July 26, 2005

... the centralized database that tells my computer in New York on my business trip that television 1234556673242987234 is the one at my house in Los Angeles.

You mean, um... the root DNS servers for the internet? After all, if this isn't what the device is already using, it ought to be, and could easily be using regular old DNS. This is the same way people work on their home computers while they're on the road using dynamic DNS, only the company is probably doing the legwork for you.

Were there ever to be an idiotic law passed that limited the company's ability to set this up for you, it would only be a matter of inserting a few paragraphs of instructions in the user's guide to direct you how to do it yourself with existing DNS resources that, for the simple reason that they are the foundation of the internet, cannot be outlawed.
posted by odinsdream at 11:26 PM on July 26, 2005

You can change channels on your cable box remotely. This feature alone effectively extends spousal remote control disagreements beyond the living room and across teh internets!
posted by HyperBlue at 11:42 PM on July 26, 2005

Gah, no PAL.
posted by NeonSurge at 2:34 AM on July 27, 2005

You mean, um... the root DNS servers for the internet?

No, I think he means the company's server on the other end of the net.
posted by yerfatma at 4:49 AM on July 27, 2005

Yeah, if I meant the DNS servers, I'd have said so. Slingbox uses a proprietary directory, and creates a proprietary box ID for each machine during setup.
posted by jonson at 5:31 AM on July 27, 2005

Thanks for the explanation, jonson. Damn those centralized databases!
posted by danb at 7:03 AM on July 27, 2005

For every service that uses a company-provided/required hook-up via the web, there is a hack.
posted by mrblondemang at 8:53 PM on July 27, 2005

I'd be too afraid it'd kill me with a blow to the head.
posted by HTuttle at 10:40 PM on July 27, 2005