Originally published July 20 2005
Digital video recorders capable of streaming programs over the internet
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The $250 Slingbox from Sling Media can take TV from your living room and send it wherever you have a PC or even a mobile phone. A high speed internet connection can stream the data as a viewable rate.
Now you can open up your laptop and watch episodes of your favorite shows or innings of the home team streamed directly from your home digital video recorder via a high-speed Net connection.
The $250 Slingbox from Sling Media can take TV from your living room and send it wherever you have a PC with a Net connection--bedroom, back yard or barnyard.
You can connect the Slingbox directly to an antenna or cable feed and let it tune in analog channels, or attach it to a set-top box or DVR.
On any Net-enabled Windows XP machine SlingPlayer software will emulate your remote by controlling an IR blaster aimed at the box back home and then display the picture in its own frame on the PCscreen.
Unlike TiVo, Slingbox imposes no service fees.
But though designed to be easy to install, the unit has several gotchas, the main one being that you have to wire it directly to your router.
If that's impractical, as it is in my house, you'll need to spend $100 or so to link the router and the Slingbox via separate Wi-Fi or power-line alternatives that add complexity.
The first Slingbox I tried kept dropping the Net connection.
The box does change channels quickly, though it takes a while to stabilize the image and audio synch.
Install Orb Media software from Orb Networks on a fast Windows XP machine with a built-in TV tuner and you can use it to stream showsnot just to other PCs but also to almost any device with a Web browser and Windows Media Player or RealPlayer.
Sounds unlikely, but I was able to watch a ball game on a Nokia cell phone and a Wi-Fi-enabled HP iPAQ.
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