Sling Your Tivo

I am a big fan of verbs.  When your company name, product, or service becomes a verb, you've accomplished something. Classic examples are "skype me", "google him", or "tivo it".  The verb thing worked out a lot better for google and skype shareholders than it did for tivo shareholders so getting to verb status is clearly not enough, but it sure helps.

I found myself using sling today as a verb.  I want to sling my tivo so that my family can access our tivo on our computers in our home and so we can do remote scheduling on our tivo when we are not home.

When I say sling, I mean slingbox, the cool new device that allows you to "place shift" your tivo and/or set top box.  It allows you to access your tv shows on your computer no matter where you are.

I have heard some horror stories about installation and I am prepared to have to do some work, which is not a great thing for a consumer product.

But I think the benefits will outweigh the installation pain.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Comments

[Mike Borella]

Try orb.com as well. The installation is pretty simple.

[Ted]

Having purchased my first tivo nearly 5 years ago, it is one piece of technology that has literally changed the way I live. I don't have time to watch too much tv, nor do I find much compelling programming, but tivo has allowed me to keep "current" with many shows and for that I am grateful. Our household is up to three of them. Unfortunately, tivo is not incompatible with the new HD receivers from directv which is a downer.

The slingbox sounds "neat" but I wonder about the overall practicality of such a device. For one who travels a lot and has ready access to wifi, I suppose it make sense, but for "most" consumers, I personally do not think that many will justify the price. Moreover, I have all my tivos networked on my home network and even transferring shows internally is time consuming. I have one connected via 802.11g and it takes nearly 10 minutes before you can realistically watch it, otherwise you'll catch up to the download (accounting for fast forwarding through commercials :- )).
Like your argument with iTunes, I would echo that I have the same problem with TivoToGo, which uses Windows Media Player. If they would allow me to use it how I want it, I would actually implement it.
Let me know how it works, especially the speed of transmission. I would be quite interested. It is a fascinating idea, but it may be premature due our paltry bandwidth in the US (as compared to S. Korea, where are corporate servers are located).
Interesting post as always.

[Jim Van Fleet]

I have successfully scheduled programs for recording remotely via my account at tivo.com. You should be able to do the same if your TiVo's are on a local network, although circumstances can arise where the scheduling will not complete.

[Rick]

I setup my Slingbox last week. I actually bought a separate Tivo unit and added the slingbox to it. (I'm going to use it to watch the Brewers while my wife watches the Red Sox.)

The main installation went fine.

However, it took a while to get the remote control to work and I was unable to get the Slingbox to be accessible outside my network. I think this is because I have two routers at home and thus two firewalls to make it through.

Supposedly Sling has fabulous customer support via phone so I'm hoping to try them out before March Madness begins next week!

[asdf]

I have to second orb.com - it basically turns your computer into a streaming server, leaving you with persistent access to your meadia through the Internet. You can use an EDGE or EVDO phone to view your videos. You can listen to Podcasts in your car trough your phone's audio jack. Live TV can be watched remotely if you have a TV tuner installed on your computer. It's pretty slick.

[Rob]

Fred, having set up this exact configuration, one hint. Assuming your network is more complicated then a simple cable-modem / router with a line to your new Slingbox. When configuring connect your laptop with the Slingsoftware into the closest hub to the slingbox possible. I had trouble configuring the box from a wireless connection that was a couple of hops away on my home network. Once the configureation was complete i could access the Slingbox easily via wireless, but in the initial state the box liked things simple... have fun

Rob

[Rick]

Another comment for you about adding a sling...

The two difficult steps (that I had) are the remote control setup and configuration with router (so your tivo is available outside your network).

One tip on the remote control... don't use the software that's on the CD, download the most recent version from the 'support' area of Sling's website. The CD's software actually did not have info on my Tivo so it couldn't setup the remote. I downloaded the most recent sling software and it worked instantly.

[Blake]

Rick,

imho, our customer support guys are pretty darn good...give em a ring!

or feel free to contact me directly, my email address is (my first name) (at) (slingmedia.com).

cheers,

blake
co-founder/ceo
sling media