Topic: Meet: The Slingbox

[Clive]

"a compact and elegantly designed, state-of-the-art electronic device that connects to the back of your TV...[and] redirects, or 'placeshifts,' the TV signal from your cable box, satellite receiver, or digital video recorder...to your computer or laptop of choice, no matter your location."


http://www.slingmedia.com/what.php4

[sam]

..i can see isp's having problems with these. looks like a way of broadcasting copyrighted material - also a bit expensive at the moment when you can probably do it yourself with a bit of time.

[Sandra]

It would be a lot to cheaper to install a TV card in your main pc and then send that via your router to your other pcs/laptops.
I think a TV card can be networked but I havent heard of anyone doing it yet.
I will let you know next year when I get a new pc set up as a media centre for my tv  

[sam]

it cant be too hard really - the software is bound to be out there for free.

[Sandra]

I have just been looking on the Nebula site which does digital TV PCI cards and USB versions and it does say that you can stream live TV over your LAN by ethernet or Wi Fi.

Networked TV!

Imagine being able to watch your favourite programme in bed on your laptop. With DigiTV you can. DigiTV allows you to stream a live TV programme over your local area network (LAN) and if you have a wireless connection (802.11g), you'll have Digital TV anywhere you like!

At around £99 plus vat including the remote controller and software, then I think thats a better idea than using a Slingbox, especially as it has the added advantage of probably being more flexible and more controllable.
Dont rush to buy one just yet though as next month they are supposed to be bringing out a dual tuner model which will allow multiple recordings and/or picture in picture plus slave USB devices for recording more channels if required