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Sling Box - Your Living Room in Your Hotel Room

Details
Category: DVD and DVR
Written by Rich McComas

slingbox-100w.jpg Stuck in a hotel room in Toledo, Ohio?  Are programs piling up on your DVR because you have no time for TV?  Did you forget to record a special television event before leaving home? Want to watch the local news from back home?

Sling Media, a newcomer in the battle for a share of the digital living room, announced a strategic investment from Hearst Corporation at DEMO in Phoenix this week. The Slingbox, announced at CES, plugs into your set-top-box and rebroadcasts to any computer in your home or to anywhere on the internet, even to your PDA or web-enabled cellphone. The product is remotely upgradeable, so as more remote devices are added, the drivers and codecs can be downloaded via the Internet connection.

Based on Texas Instruments chip technologies, Slingbox communicates with your mobile computer or PDA, constantly adjusting the frame rate, compression and resolution to keep your signal streaming at the highest level of quality possible.   Don't expect to stream a HDTV signal to a conference room wide LCD screen, but depending on your connection speed, you should be able to stream a fairly decent video signal, the best image possible constrained only by your bandwidth.

The Slingbox controls your TV/DVR/cable/satellite box via an external IR transmitter, and will ship with built-in controls for 97% of all media signal/storage devices. On your laptop in your hotel room, you will click on a graphical version of your remote control side-by-side with your video signal -- it can't get any easier than that.

Advantages: Slingbox is a hardware-only solution costing $249 with no monthly service fee, compared to the PC-based solution from Orb Networks which operates on a service model costing $10 per month. The Slingbox is small, just big enough for all of the inputs on the back, and is a stackable design, so we should anticipate other products from Sling Media in this form factor.

Drawbacks: The Slingbox includes only one input signal, compared to the $800 SkipJam iMedia Center which serves input from multiple devices. In most installations, Slingbox monopolizes the DVR and/or set-top-box, leaving your entire home video entertainment system unavailable for other family members while you are accessing it remotely. The media stream is currently delivered as Windows Media 9, although other codecs are part of the plan down the road.

Summary: At $249, this product is a mid-level consumer electronics device, and it may face price barriers even in the early adopters market, although we expect the price to drop over time. Also, if there is a big demand for "placeshifting" technologies, one wonders if DVR and STB manufacturers aren't far behind with an integrated Ethernet port on next-generation boxes.

Who are the Gadget Gurus?

peopleatsign.jpg Gadget Gurus technology reviews are heard and read by millions of people across the United States, including more than a dozen print publications, dozens of tier-one radio stations, on third-party websites, and more than ever, online at our own website.

NEWS: This year, you will see a number of exciting announcements from Gadget Gurus, including podcasts, our syndicated "Gadgets-in-a-Minute" broadcasts, and our ever-expanding "Best Of" lists.   Also, you will be seeing our portfolio of magazine "gadget pages" growing into a number of vertical markets.

TECH2 LAKE HOUSE

th-channel7-370.jpgUPDATE - The exterior of the Technology Lake House is complete and we are now working on interior finishing and electronics.  Last year, San Francisco's Channel 7 ABC News ran a special video report on the construction progress of the Technology Lake House, and we expect them back for a follow-up soon.  Click HERE for a DLINK Live Video Feed with pan and zoom features (userid=user, no password, daylight hours only). 

Ron Rosberg's current project home, the Technology Lake House, is currently under construction on the shores of Clearlake in Northern California.  Even though the house is a wireless demo house, we have installed more than seven miles of wires in the walls for dozens of flat panel TVs, speakers, control panels, and sophisticated lighting. So far, more than a dozen technology and fixture manufacturers have agreed to sponsor this project, which has been simmering in Ron's head since he attended the first CES show in New York in 1967.  The 7,500 square foot project (plus three existing rustic cabin guest houses) is being built on a five-acre Honeymoon Cove resort with 500 feet of beach directly across from Konocti Harbor Resort.  This summer retreat will host  technology gatherings annually, inviting Western states home builders, contractors, and technology consultants for a live open house showcasing the latest in home technologies.  There is room to park plenty of boats, so plan on coming up for some lake fun after the project is complete.  For more info, send email to ronald@usa.net, or call 707-995-2683.  To see the latest photos, visit Ron's Flickr gallery.

We are currently looking for products to evaluate in these areas:

  • Home automation: lighting, security, and entertainment
  • A/V technology for the 500 SF home theater media demo room

Hot News on Cool New Features: The ENTIRE front of the home is made of 21 sliding NanaWall glass panels that fold into the walls, opening the entire home up to the lake during demo days.