Using the Slingbox for anywhere, anytime TV

By David Hakala

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A personal video recorder (PVR) frees you from TV and radio schedules; you can record any television or radio program and enjoy it whenever and wherever you wish. The Slingbox, from Sling Media, frees you from your home. It sends live or recorded content to wherever you are, via the Internet.

Why do this? You’ll never miss a home team game again. You can keep up with hometown news while out of town, and dress for the weather when you board your return flight. You can watch the season finale of "Battlestar Galactica" from an airport lounge. You can call your daughter and honestly tell her how much you loved her piano recital (thanks to a video recording).

Is this so-called “place-shifting” legal? It may depend on whose content you view. You can view content that you create any time or place you wish, of course. But those copyright notices broadcast at the beginning of televised sports events grant viewers permission to record and view events “for home use” only. Major League Baseball, which makes a ton of money selling the rights to broadcast games outside of their home regions, has claimed that what Slingbox does is copyright infringement. On the other hand, the viewer-starved NHL has formally granted Sling Media permission to do what the latter was already doing. For now, nobody is threatening to put Sling out of business. And nobody can tell if you are using a Slingbox.

Why Slingbox is so simple

The Slingbox itself is not very entertaining. There are no pushbuttons or flashing lights, just a slab of plastic housing with input/output connectors on the back. But that’s all you need.

Three models are available through Sling’s Web site or major electronics retailers. The Slingbox Tuner is for basic cable with no set-top box; it supports one connection to cable TV, but no other input source. The Slingbox AV supports two connections so you can record on one and watch on the other and they can be cable TV set-top boxes, satellite receivers and/or PVR devices. The Slingbox Pro supports up to four connections and HDTV input (via an optional HD Connect adapter cable). Street prices range from approximately $100 to $250.



The Slingbox is not much to look at, but through it you can look at anything from anywhere.


The Slingbox Pro accepts up to four switchable inputs from a variety of signal types, plus Ethernet and USB ports to connect to a PC or router.

Setting up Slingbox

Physically connecting the Slingbox to your home entertainment system is straightforward.

• First, just plug the input devices into the appropriate connectors on the back of the Slingbox.
• Next, install the SlingPlayer software on your PC so that you can communicate with the Slingbox.
• Now, connect the Slingbox to the PC so you can configure the Slingbox’s software. A direct Ethernet-to-Ethernet cable suffices, but usually you will want to connect through a router that is connected to the Internet. If it’s a standard Universal Plug-n-Play (UPnP) router it will configure the Slingbox automatically. If you have a non-UPnP router, you will have to configure the Slingbox and the router manually. Slingbox’s user manual provides good general instructions.

Once connected to your PC and powered up, the Slingbox asks you what devices are connected to it (TiVO, DirecTV receiver, etc.), and then configures itself for those devices.

If the router is UPnP, the Slingbox will offer to configure the router so that Slingbox commands that you send from a remote location will be allowed in through the router’s firewall. If the router is non-UPnP, you will have to perform this port-forwarding manually, following the router’s user manual instructions. (Here are tips on port-forwarding and a way to purchase the PFConfig utility that will do the job for you.)

Potential problems with Slingbox

The Slingbox can only be used from outside of your home network when it is connected to the primary router that provides service on the home network; that is, the router to which the Internet connects directly. If you have an Internet phone line, then plug the Slingbox into one of the Ethernet ports on a modem/router or a VoIP gateway, and connect the Internet phone to another Ethernet port on the modem.

The Slingbox works with wireless networks, the faster the better. If your wireless links are slow or unreliable in some parts of the home, you may want Sling’s Turbo Slinglink module. It uses Powerline networking technology to turn your home’s electrical wiring into a data network. You don’t have to string Ethernet cable through the house.



The optional Turbo Slinglink module uses home electrical wiring to connect a Slingbox to devices in other rooms.

How Slingbox works

The Slingbox accepts digital content input, compresses it using a proprietary algorithm, and streams data to a receiving device somewhere on the home network or on the Internet. The receiving device can be your living room TV, a laptop, a desktop PC or even a smartphone running the Windows Mobile or Palm OS. The data must be decompressed before it can be played, so the SlingPlayer software must be installed on the receiving device. SlingPlayer also enables remote control of the Slingbox and the input device from which the content is being received.

If you have a Slingbox AV or Pro model, you can switch from one input device to another from a remote location. In a stroke of pure genius, the SlingPlayer displays a virtual version of the remote control for the input device in use, so you can control your set-top box or PVR using a familiar interface.


A football game viewed from a TiVO PVR, with the familiar TiVO remote control available on screen.

Limitations with Slingbox

Slingbox is one-to-one technology. You cannot share your home video with multiple viewers in different locations.

The first few seconds of remote Slingbox viewing may be jerky on a relatively slow wireless Internet connection, but the SlingPlayer software will buffer incoming data to smooth out replay. The Slingbox detects connection speed and adjusts the video resolution to optimize playback smoothness and image quality. On a hard-wired Ethernet or Powerline connection, Slingbox video quality equals direct analog TV quality.

While the Slingbox can decode HDTV signals via the optional HD Connect cable, it cannot transmit HDTV through a home network or the Internet. So you get analog TV quality, at best.

The Slingbox, and competing products, completes consumers’ liberation from the constraints of time and place. Now you can watch whatever you want, wherever you want to be.