Slingbox experiences?

namaste_cat

Good for you, why should you feel bad. There's some great programming in the U.S.
I can't live without my favorite shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Dexter, etc. I don't give a toss if people think I'm not highbrow enough!
I have not used it personally but I have seen my brother hook it up for some of our Indian relatives in Delhi. They have not reported any problems other than some speed issues now and then.

The DVR is hooked up in my brother's house in the U.S. & can be controlled/operated in India remotely. Programming can be done easily by going online or using the DVR interface like one would with Direct or Dish in the U.S.

Here's a video that might help you:
http://cnettv.cnet.com/?type=externa...&value=6474291

And a long review of the product:
http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-medi...-31423815.html

Hmm, looks like the folks at Dish have this combo DVR-Slingbox set-top box
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10137052-100.html
going to have to ask my brother about it because my parents love certain American shows and can watch their beloved Law and Order epsidoes

sg402

Thanks for sharing the info on slingbox that you have gathered so far, Greenslim. I will continue to ask around as I meet new friends in Chennai & promise to share if I have any relevant info.

Good luck to you & family!

arsenalsri

http://www.slingcommunity.com/forum/...hennai--India/

I registered on this site just to post this link for you. Hope it helps you.

Cheers

skk

Hey Great post - thanks.. btw, I have posted links on how to use proxies to watch BBC TV via BBC's IPlayer outside of UK and US TV via HULU outside of the US - Here's the link again - http://www.kaisersblog.com/2009/01/h...side-us-or-uk/

Anyway, I read that forum - I'm confused - slingbox "slings" the signal from a legitimate feed across the net to some recipient device, usually a computer; so what are these guys watching ? Nobody mentions that they are hooked up to a OverTheAir/Cable/Satellite feed somewhere abroad, e.g. UK or USA and sling that signal across to the net to their PC in Chennai, India.

That's what the base poster wants to achieve don't they ? They'll have to keep paying for the cable/satellite feed, or their PVR here in the USA or the OTA connection and hook that up into the slingbox, connect that to their router here in the USA and when in Chennai, they'll fire up their PC, connect to their "home" slingbox in the USA via the net and voila, bob's yer uncle and all that.

I could ask at their forum - I'll have to register I suppose, but where am I missing the point here ?

Meantime, I look forward to watching last Thursday's BBC Question Time ( with Fascist leader of the BNP on it ) via a proxied feed of BBC IPlayer, here in the USA

BTW, the picture also looks pretty crappy at that forum, IMO, but of course, like elephants mating, its not how pretty it looks, its the fact that it can be done at all that's important.

-skk

Nick-H

Thanks for re-posting that kaiserblog page: I was wondering, only yesterday, where I'd seen the howto on this

The slingbox thing is for watching your TV sources away from home. As such, it assumes that one has a home--- with all the facilities set up, specifically Satellite/Cable TV and a good broadband connection with a decent upload speed. It is not a solution for those who are unwilling to finance this during a long absence.

arsenalsri

SKK,

You are right. The base poster in this is case is hooking the other way round. Slinging Indian TV to watch in the US/UK. You will need to attach sling box to your Cable / Satellite TV box in the US and then download the software on your pc and access it via internet in India.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpGewxI0Z_4


An indepth review and a how to sort of thing.

skk

I hope by now that greenslim is persuaded that neither slingbox nor my proxied-Hulu method is worth it from a value+quality for money angle. Tata Sky, meaning satellite TV is the way to go - you'll get a good quality picture, reliable non-hissy-scratchy but Standard definition only picture for around INR 2600 ( USD 52 ) installation + h/w and for a mid-level program package 260 per month ( USD 5 ). From a US perspective ( I pay USD 76 per month for the 3 room mid-level HD package ), that cannot be a bad price can it - believe me, both Slingbox and my proxied Hulu are going to be like "elephants mating".
http://www.tataskyplus.com

A PVR/DVR will cost more, around INR 8000( USD 160 ) more.

I can't see a HD service on Tata Sky, no doubt somebody will correct.

Check out the packages - you'll get a LOT of the stuff you are used to here and while your favorite program doesn't come on the channels you are used to in the USA, you'll find it on some other channel - in fact, I'd go about it that way - make a list of programs you _must_ have and when talking to the TataSky guy, tell them you want these _programs_. For your daily, Daily Show ( Comedy show, more truthful than the news) fix, though, you'll have to use the net. I'm not going to discuss the availability of porn.

I think that's what I really mean - for daily stuff, sound and motion and to keep the kids occupied (NICK, DISNEY etc), old reruns of Friends, LawAndOrder get TataSky; in addition, for those must-have up-to-date series ( like when I my niece visited from the UK and had to have her latest EastEnders, a soap, episode), experiment with either the proxied method or slingbox(if you are keeping your home and sat service going there)- just don't expect the smooth, TV quality picture for all of the 60 minutes, 30 minutes or whatever.

Of course, if you know the euphemistically called Free-To-Air (FTA ) stuff, your range widens considerably, since I _think_ the satellites over India are still sending out Nagra-2 encoded signals. Its Nagra-3 over the US and Canada and so far that's looking like a really tough nut to crack - purely for research purposes of course.

Of course, if _I_ was doing it, since those 2 rows of crawling ant ads at the bottom AND the 1 at the top that many channels in India have would drive me wild, I'd feed the signal into my multi-media PC, scrape the ads off and then send the signal on to the TV. But I've decided not to live in India ( sniff, sniff ) so its moot.

-skk

greenslim

Thanks to all for the additional info! I will be in Chennai in a week or so for several weeks so I will check out TATA Sky. Sometning else has come up as a possibility! A2BTV is a hosting service in California that hosts your slingbox and PVR and you need a Direct Tv account. This is a little more pricey but is more reliable beter resolution. Afriend of mine is trying this in France and is optimistic. Anybody have any experience with this? Thanks again See y'all in Chennai in a week or so.

skk

Interesting information on AB2TV - Thanks. Ignoring the cost issue, that certainly takes care of the upload speed I reckon; so when in Chennai you just have to worry about the download speed - also if you are used to HDMI quality, the S-video quality may disappoint.

As an earlier poster mentioned, in the back of your pocket, there's the bay where the pirates hang out of course - a lot of very recent up-to-date stuff is dumped in that bay.

-skk

Nick-H

You can see what is available on Tata Sky from their website.

skk

Well, I, in the USA used the proxied method to get round I-Player and watched that BBC-Question Time(UK signal) I've referred to earlier and am currently watching Episode 1 of "Around the World in 80 Days" - I have a 1.5 Mbps download speed and actually this is pretty watchable on a 42" 1080P 240 Hz LCD TV (I mention that because if the quality was bad, it would totally show up ). Its not brilliant, I'd class it as SD quality though, which is pretty damn good. The sound is pretty good but just stereo I think but the 7.1 system is comfortable with it - no lip-synch issues that I can see.I haven't checked how many hops are involved for the signal nor whether Akamai style caching is going on somewhere. Obviously, I've got a super-fast, self-built multi-media PC to process it all ( data available if needed).

The picture and sound is that good that we'll probably watch TV this way for the next few days ! roll on Panorama, tommorrow ( do they still have Panorama on Mondays in the UK ).
What's this gotta do with the base poster question ? Well, technology is location independent, so if the parameters I've mentioned exist for India reception and the USA signal generation then one would expect identical results for the base poster picking up USA TV in Chennai India.

-skk

skk

Closing out the aspect of using proxies to fool BBC IPlayer to watch British BBC TV outside of the USofA.

I was watching "Have I Got News for You" on Wed. and it just totally froze on me. I watched, sort of "Fleetwood Mac - Don't stop" this morning - I say sort of, because I've seen them _live_ twice, across hmmmm 40 years almost, and I have DVDs so this was just a curiosity and a x-comparisons exercise rather than a must-do action. O Well (<--- that was intended ) and of course all BBC Formula 1 ( open wheel for US people) car racing programs had a fragment from the "The Chain" as bumper music - and its absolutely tres cool that certain rich Indian origin people have seen fit to spend their money into a Formula 1 team - http://www.forceindiaf1.com/ ( yup, a shameless plug).

Overall, this is definitely not a replacement for your average Murdoch "Dirty Digger" service.

I'd still pay up for the sat channels via TataSky etc and then add this mechanism, perhaps hosted slingbox, Utube contributions and of course consort with those pirates on that bay to round out my options.

FWIW.

-skk

tbs99kk

Here are my suggestions to this front:

People missing their DVR: TataSky+. Get away from those pesky ads! Its not the highest capacity DVR out there, but its the only one available as of now. AirtelDISH does something I've not seen before -- they timeshift TV -- on the server, without a DVR.

American shows: www.surfthechannel.com -- It has links to most TV shows' videos that are hosted on something like megavideo, etc. Especially when you combine it with the "DownloadHelper" plugin on Firefox, you get videos downloaded to your desktop. Last tip: look for "vreel.com" link -- this is Divx quality videos that get downloaded to your HDD, so you can watch shows on here offline as well.

American sports: www.myp2p.eu -- read the FAQ on this site, but it requires a couple of extra pieces of software installed.

All of the above needs a decent speed 'net connection.