Sling Media Slingbox A/V Video

Sling Media Slingbox A/V Video Transcript

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>> I'm John Falcone, Senior editor at CNET.com and this is the Sling Box AV. This is a second generation Sling Box product and it expands on the already great options that the Sling Box offers. What it does is takes all the video output from your set top box, cable box, satellite box or a DVR and it converts that to a digital video format that you can access anywhere on your home network or even elsewhere on the internet, with a variety of devices. What that means is that you basically have full access to all your TV content that you pay so much for every month, anywhere else in the house or indeed anywhere else in the world that you have a broadband internet connection. Now when it first became available, the Sling Box was really a Windows only product. It could only run on XP and 2000. But, since that time, Sling has worked to really expand the universe of products that you can view your TV programming on. They've since expanded it to the Mac OS and even a few portable platforms. Windows mobile devices, both those with touchscreen and those without touchscreens and most recently, you can also get versions that run on a lot of the Palm devices as well, if they use broadband either WiFi or 3G networks. In Europe, they also have software that runs on Simbian phones as well. Once you install the program and get it up and running for the first time, it's even simpler to operate. You just boot up the program, start streaming and you're pretty much good to go. Now this particular streams is coming to us from several miles off site, but we could even be across the country or around the world and as along as you're getting a decent broadband speed, you can watch full motion TV. The other great thing about the Sling software is that it duplicates your home remote, right here on the screen. That gives you complete access to the remote box, even though you could be miles away from it. Because this particular system we're dialed into has a DVR as well, this is a Dish Network box, it also gives us access to everything we've already recorded. The other thing to keep in mind is that it is remotely controlling your box. So if I'm changing channels on this and watching a recorded program, the same thing is happening back at my home where the box is really set up. Those limitations not withstanding, the Sling Box is still really a great value. It's pretty much the best of breed in these sort of place shifting devices and compared to it's competitors, it's delivering better value, continued improvements through software and firmware upgrades and it's available on a wider array of devices than any of the competition. And all those reason put together are why we're naming it the Editor's Choice. I'm John Falcone for CNET. ^M00:03:20 [ music ]