Anyone Sling?
 

With cable/satelite TV as expensive as it is... I am looking for a way to "sling" media from my primary home to my vacation home.

I am looking into using slingbox to roku.

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I do it on my iPads(Dish Hopper w/ Sling & the app) when I travel, but not on a television. It's awesome.

I have the slingbox and have used it for years. It works well but uses a lot of data on my phone.

I have three Roku boxes and none of them work consistently with the Sling application. It works in a really stupid way in my opinion - it works off (I assume bluetooth) from the device. So you download the slingapp to your phone/tablet and then it sends the video signal to the roku device. As if the quality wasn't struggling enough already with the slingbox it has to push that signal to the Roku. Total Waste of time and it never works as advertised.

Key a Fire Stick from Amazon. Plugs right into the HDMI on your TV - gets power from USB and has a native Slingbox app that works awesomely (if that is a word).

How does the Fire Stick control the remote DVR that is slinging the media? Is it through the Fire Remote?

It looks like Chromcast is another option.

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The way the Slingbox works is it has a Remote IR that sits in front of your DVR - there is a remote control that comes up within the Sling application like it does on your computer (although it is not as cool) and you use the Amazon Fire Stick control to control your DVR. It works really slick - the only down side to the Fire Stick is that it uses Bluetooth from the remote to the stick and my universal remote doesn't do Bluetooth. The best thing about the Fire Stick is that if you are an amazon prime member it allows you to stream Prime TV shows and movies (as well as netflix, hbo, hulu) to your TV - this is the only way to do it other than connecting your computer to your television. The netflix application is awesome.

The Chromecast device looks like the same ****ty set up as the Roku.

Thanks. I went with the FIRESTICK and the SLINGBOX M1. Will try it out this weekend. Hope it gets me the Superbowl in the mountains.

Good luck. Let us know how it turns out. I would recommend running ethernet to the M1 box if possible. makes a huge difference in transmitting video. There is also some shady stuff that happens with the content protection that is built into HDMI. I went with composite connections so it didn't shut down some shows/channels who don't like you Slinging their stuff. Luckily I put the Sling on my office DVR that way I don't really care that I don't have HDMI on that television. You can read about it online but it does make a difference.

Yes, HDMI looks less reliable because of the encryption option. I will use the composite connections.

I have been using an HTPC unit for a few months now. Like a roku,chrome, fire, BUT, the apps or "add ons" are not regulated. You can stream anything you want as long as it's on the internet. And everything is on the internet. Live ufc fights, boxing, hbo, movies still in the theater, some movies that are not even showing yet (watched american sniper 5 days before it was in a theater.). Here is a link to a unit that is much like the one I have. This link simply shows you how they work and what they offer. I have no affiliation with this company, just a great link to show you what these boxes do.
However I have heard the streamsmart box works great and has fantastic live customer service. Hooks right up to your tv using hdmi. runs off of wifi or ethernet.
http://www.streamsmart.tv/

so you have to spend almost 400 to stream the stuff??

Got chromecast at the house and its cool. Not 'cut off the directv' cool but headed in the right direction. Lots of companies playing in this space. not sure streamsmart will be around in a year so a bit hesitant to shell it out for their soon to be obsolete box.

Nacho.

The streamsmart box is expensive. There are comprable boxes available on Amazon that are around $100. Some cheaper. The streamsmart site had a great vid that showed what an htpc box does, that is why I linked it. The program that they all run is called Kodi (used to be xbmc). If you are at all interested, you can google it and see what options there are. I had a Roku before this box and hated it. Not enough relevent content for me needs.

I use sling at my lake house and it works great over a pretty poor connection (it's a terrestrial antenna setup that gets about 2.1 mb on a good day). There are no wired ir repeaters on the new sling box so long as the sling box is on the same shelf or same cabinet as your cable box. While we still use a plex media server, etc. down there,as well Sling is great for live games and recorded shows. We use an apple mini to receive the sling on (as well as to HBO GO, iTunes, etc) which has worked very well except that it is somewhat complicated for visitors. You can pick up an older mac mini and an HDMI adapter for $200 or so and call it a day.

Patrick

I had trouble with my Mac mini getting to the right resolution to my television. Likely user error but I could never get it right.

At $40 the FireStick seems like an ideal SlingBox catcher. It also smartens up my TV.

Setup the M1 Slingbox tonight. Really easy. Really cool. Slinging to my PC over the internet below.

I am going to love NOT paying for cable/satellite at the lake.

Looks good. The one thing that I have noticed with Sling is that the quality of the picture improves the longer you maintain the connection. When you first initiate the connection it will be pretty poor but over the next 3-5 minutes you will see real improvement in the picture quality.

The new Sling TV service is pretty exciting... Not necessarily in its current (about to launch) incarnation, which is pretty limited in both content and features, but just that someone is finally doing it. Hopefully this will start to open up all kinds of a la carte type options. So annoying that I can't pay to get showtime anytime without being a cable subscriber (hbo has announced it will be doing a standalone hbo go subscription, I assume showtime will eventually follow)...

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/26/sling-tv-preview/

I was reading about that over the weekend. Thank god we will finally have choices. I can't wait.