Slingbox - will it sling from Detroit to Cincinnati?

April 29, 2008 6:12 AM

Can I put a slingbox on a television in Michigan and watch the video in Cincinnati?

I'm confused about how slingbox actually works. With the Red Wings in the playoffs, and most of their games on Vs, I am desperately seeking a way to see the games without switching to satellite. Could I put a slingbox on the extra television at a family member's house in Michigan and have it "sling" the feed from the Detroit sports station to my computer? (we both have broadband connections) That seems to easy. Do you have a slingbox? Does it work? Is it the answer to my prayers??

posted by dpx.mfx to technology (7 comments total)

My friend regularly uses a slingbox between the USA and UK, he says its very watchable...
posted by gadha at 6:18 AM on April 29

Yeah, that's the whole point. If you pay extra you can even stream it to a 2.5G or 3G cellphone.
posted by meta_eli at 6:32 AM on April 29

Yes, this is exactly what it is good for. My parents in the UK grab a Slingbox feed from a headless cable box we have stashed in our house (in the US) for that purpose. The video quality was pretty bad until I got the upload speed upgrade from Comcast (~$10/mo), but I don't know offhand what kind of speeds we are talking about, but I'm guessing that if your upload is DSL you might get pretty crappy video.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:39 AM on April 29

That last sentence was bad and I feel bad
posted by Rock Steady at 6:40 AM on April 29

I feel like this use case is exactly what the Slingbox was designed for. I have a Slingbox Solo and love it!
posted by AaRdVarK at 7:06 AM on April 29

Slingbox works very well in a variety of bandwidth conditions (even with DSL); it does dynamic bandwidth adjustment and video quality monitoring. I have used it on a dodgy satellite link in Africa before to watch rugby (my television was on a Comcast connection in the USA).
posted by arimathea at 8:38 AM on April 29

Slingbox works very well in a variety of bandwidth conditions (even with DSL); it does dynamic bandwidth adjustment and video quality monitoring. I have used it on a dodgy satellite link in Africa before to watch rugby (my television was on a Comcast connection in the USA).

From my experience (going on two years now), the downstream bandwidth where you are watching it does not matter very much, but the upstream speed at the location of the actual Slingbox matters a great deal.
posted by Rock Steady at 11:42 AM on April 29