Slingbox Improves Streaming Throughput 300%
By Dave Zatz |
September 29th, 2005
Comments (2)
The Slingbox crew just released version 1.05 (beta) of Sling Player, the PC desktop client for controlling and watching your video feed.
Jeremy Toeman, VP of Product Management, elaborates on the update:
- The geniuses in our engineering department have figured out how to squeeze even more throughput out of your network connections, which results in streaming improvements by as much as 300%.
- We’re bringing your remote TV experience to a whole new dimension with these easy-to-use, fully customizable buttons that let you set up your favorite channels right in the SlingPlayer UI.
- For TiVo, Replay, Echostar, Motorola, Scientific Atlanta, UltimateTV and other cable/satellite receivers, we have improved our IR code libraries and virtual remote controls.
- Play around with all the input settings, including brightness, contrast, audio volumes and even hue.
October 23rd, 2005 at 1:05 pm
Even with a “300% improvement” (althought a 300% improvement on zero is still zero) Slingbox isn’t meeting expectations.
Just recently, someone picked these reviews apart, showing that screenshots used in Slingbox reviews weren’t from people accessing their TV from across the country, but from across the room using high-bandwidth LANs. What’s sad is that even with that, the picture is still poor.
The report is here (with pictures to prove it): http://zanecochran.com/blog/tv2me.html
There are a lot of products out there that are starting to do this, but the people who came up with this first, still do it best. No, it’s not Sling Media (as their multi-million dollar PR campaign would have you believe). It’s a company called K2B, Inc. and their box called TV2Me.
I’d like to see Slingbox step up and have someone host a side-by-side comparison. If their box really can perform as they say…that is, being able to move your television someplace other than your living room (or 6 feet from it) then let’s see it in action.
November 28th, 2005 at 4:40 pm
Actually I got a Slingbox so my mom who is in Florida can watch some satellite TV we get (in Dallas) from overseas. And while the picture wasn’t perfect, it was still watchable. And considering she was watching on an XVGA screen, I am sure the quality would look decent on a (non-HD) TV screen. The link in the above post seems to be obsolete. As soon as I can (not in the near future though), I’ll try to grab a screen capture from her computer.
There’s two chances of my mom being able to do a screen capture… Slim and none.