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Slingbox Comes to the Mac
Egadfly writes "The Slingbox has arrived for the Mac world. Some long delays during development now seem over. Sling Media has finally released version 1.0 of their software for Mac OSX. This means that, after buying and installing the Slingbox, Mac users can 'sling' their home cable and satellite signals to themselves at the airport, or in a café hotspot, or over their office computers.
The article on SlingCommunity.com gives the details of the software's development — from last year's much-discussed beta to today's v1.0. Screenshots show how a standard-looking "TV remote," displayed onscreen, allows the Mac users to change channels or browse Tivo recordings over the Internet, many miles from their living rooms."
Get one, bitches.
Can I then use the iTV to sling it back to my television set?
Maybe we can get them to sling it back and forth until it opens a wormhole or something.
we will be right back after this paid-for-article advertisement
Is it a unique product users will find interesting, that Sling something? (writing comments so that part of story isn't showing up)
I can't find any mention of Intel Macs? If it supports them then I want one bad. My PCs are always tied up rendering so the Mac is my media machine, the fact it was a 20" wide screen doesn't hurt either. I've been meaning to pick one up in part to use it in the bedroom. There's no cable hook up there and I've been using a notebook to watch DVDs anyway. Really love the idea of Slingbox and this could push me over the top.
Reminds me of the I'm a Mac and I'm a PC and I'm Linux spoofs.
I run it on my MacBook Pro all the time. Not sure why this is news now, though, as it was released at least a week ago, and the beta version worked just fine for a long time prior.
Slingbox for Mac went 1.0 a few weeks ago I think. I'm not sure why it's just making Slashdot now.
That being said, Slingbox Mac is working very well for me, paralleling the performance of the PC version (I have the Slingbox Pro with HD adapter). The only thing I haven't seen the Mac version do is a "half screen size" mode which the PC version does. Otherwise the feature set seems identical.
You mean this isn't O/S independent? WTF? That totally sucks.
This will show him!
Has anyone done a "free" version of this, running something like a MythTV or other Linux-based media computer, say, and having it encode a cable signal on the fly to your laptop somewhere?
demi
...but it's still awesome.
I've been using mine for a while now, and can tell you that this is about the coolest invention I've seen in a while. Originally, I wasn't sure why I'd need one...now I can't travel without it. I sit in airports watching TV on my MacBook, and always get 1-2 people that ask about it.
Great stuff...
My
People usually use Orb for the free side, but Slingbox is really so easy and slick, it's nice to just pick one up and be done with it.
More importantly is that this tool comes all over Mac fans.
You can't handle the truth.
Hopefully this is a prelude to compatibility with a certain phone running MacOS..
http://applegeeks.com/lite/index.php?aglitecomic=2 007-05-16
A Linksys NSLU2, a WinTV USB external TV tuner and an external hard-drive are all what you need to create an alternative to the Slingbox. While this solution is more expensive that the Slingbox, about $360 CAD, you can actually save TV feeds directly on a hard-drive without leaving your computer on, just like a PVR. You can't save TV feeds directly on the computer using the Slingbox (they encrypt the feeds). To stream the TV signal from the NSLU2, you will have to use VLC, so you can watch TV anywhere in your home using your wifi-enabled notebook or anywhere in the world over the web.
The NSLU2 has a 133Mhz cpu that is easily overclocked to 266mhz.
You can use this setup to run rTorrent so that you can download torrents without leaving your computer on. With rTorrent, you just drop torrent files into a shared directory on the hard-drive that's connected to the NSLU2, and rTorrent will automatically pick it up and start downloading!
I currently have Debian Etch 2 installed on the NSLU2. I've been using this setup for the past couple of months. It's great and works flawlessly. It's a lot of fun too.
I used to sell these things when I used to work for a retailer, they sucked. Our display was buggy and what not. Concept was cool though.
Just as a followup, I apparently quite underestimated the cost of a Slingbox -- for some reason I had this idea they were about $75 or so, when they're really about $125. That would buy you at least one, probably two, PVR-150s if you shopped around for them on sale. If you could write off the cost of the spare computer to run it on (i.e., you have a few sitting around, as I suspect many /.ers do) then you could probably beat the Slingbox in price, although unless you have a spare ultra-low-power system, eventually your cost advantage is going to get eaten up in electricity consumption.
The closest thing you can get to a Slingbox that will work well with MythTV is a box called the HDHomeRun, $170, which does ATSC OTA and QAM Cable HDTV, letting you record it on a suitably-powerful MythTV box.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
lol. did penisbird get laid?
If I can sling it back and forth between the boxes like this, that means I won't have to watch it! Freeing me up to go outside and play or something. This could be a big selling point...
While not widely known, http://sightspeed.com/ has a free service called SightSpeed TV that let's someone with a TV tuner card in their PC stream the program to anyone in the world using SightSpeed's video calling service. SightSpeed works with Macs, but I'm not sure if the SightSpeed TV service works with Macs that have tuner cards, though a Mac can definitely recieve a SightSpeed TV stream.
I have tried everything I can, but I can't figure out how to hook up my laptop to hotel tvs that have those stupid OnCommand or Lodgenet devices attached to them. I have s-video to s-video as well as s-video to rca cables. I also have a universal remote because the hotel remotes don't have an input button. Problem happens when i hit the input button....nothing happens. The source does not change! There is also no input/source button on the tv :(
What the heck can I do. The onCommand device is securely attached to the tv. The coaxial cables have these lock thing to prevent them from being taken off. Has anyone successfully removed these(and subsequently put them back) without damaging the tv or cable?
I really want to watch my slingbox on the hotel tv, but I cannot figure out any other way. A quick google search of hacking the hotel tv brings up stories about people who have been able to remove the cable from the wall, and hack into the oncommand system to get all the pay channels, but none of these stories will be able to help me in my case. I figure if people on slashdot can't figure it out, then it's pretty near impossible to do without breaking things.
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I've been using Slingbox HD (whatever the red one is) since the beginning of December on a Mac. I started using the Mac beta which was updated at least once prior to the official 1.0 client. Setting it up was pretty easy and when I called tech support one evening I got one of the developers. Super helpful. In fact, before I bought one, the guy had me download the Mac beta and then gave me his Slingbox info to see how it worked on my machine. I bought one that evening after work. True story. I couldn't recommend the product or the company more. I call linksys, or some other giant company, and I'm talking to Mumbai. Ring up Slingmedia and you might just get one of the guys that made this happen. Anyway, my Slingbox has worked flawlessly, and I use it all day long every day I'm in my office (I refuse to pay the jerkoffs at Time Warner the premium they charge for a monthly "business" account). It isn't a stretch to think about capturing the stream and making my MacBook a "Tivo." I don't have the technical skills to do it, but somebody certainly does.
I was at first impressed by Slingbox, right until I read this line. It is already too many software activation to deal with on the Windows platform, and I would avoid that like a plague on my Mac.
I am always under the impression that Microsoft will deny my windows activation request on an unused license (or reactivate my computer in case the Redmond's fragile software is broken / infected with virus) after they pulled the support for Windows XP (and the activation is also a reason why I would stick to OpenOffice.org only on Windows). Some people find it hard to believe for Microsoft to do that, but then I don't want to bet for the software companies' greediness with my money.
I've been using MPEG4IP since before a Slingbox was trendy, not sure buy maybe before it was released. It's not exactly meant to be used the way I used it, but I can stream audio and video from my TV card and I can change channels when I want as well.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
If only they could integrate this with Apple TV, then users could stream live TV to their TVs.
Alternately, one's iTunes library could be made available for streaming to one's computer. (That was supposed to sound funny, but it's a real proposition for the "home server" group.)
Silence is golden... and duct tape is silver.
Typical Apple fare: welcome to the PC club, circa 2003.
Other examples of 'Apple Innovation' years behind the rest:
-2+ button mouse
-Intel x86 chips
-core duo (6 months behind)
-santa rosa based chips
-portable music players
-mobile phone O/S
-tablet based laptop (still yet to happen)
My wife's been wanting a TV in our bedroom for a long time. Unfortunately, we don't have room for a CRT and don't have the money for an LCD flat panel. (26" for $400?!? Only if it also makes breakfast, thankyouverymuch.) However, we both have laptops, her an iBook and me a Powerbook. We watch DVDs and downloaded videos on them in bed.
So when I heard that SlingPlayer was coming to the Mac, I suggested it. I got a sweet deal on a Slinbox A/V from Buy.com ($125, $30 or so under list) and as soon as we get our Dish Network installed we'll be able to watch our TV from anywhere in the house, even outside. And, as a bonus, I'll be able to watch my TV shows on the DVR from anywhere.
The only better thing would be a way for me to use the SlingPlayer to save videos to my Mac Mini's hard drive and convert them to the iPod (or AppleTV) automatically. That would be sweet.
I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.
My ghod! Listen to yourself, man! You're trying to make television suck harder than it does now!!
You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
I'm all for catchy slogans but this makes no sense:
"Save the world?" if there's no god, save the world from what? Save the world *to* what?
If there's no god, what possible objective standard of right/wrong could exist?
But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?
I sure do like them French-fried taters...um-hmmmmmm....
I mean no disrespect when I ask this question: Your appeal for a god with no contradiction implies that there is a standard by which god is judged. Don't you see that this very question is self-referential?
I worship and serve the God who created the universe. I am convinced that when people suggest that He is internally inconsistent that they are taking a simplistic view of God for the purposes of dismissing His relevance. What assumptions do you make when you judge god's moral framework?
WRT science, the fact that there is some evidence of moral behavior seen in creation makes sense to me based on my world view, although I'd expect it to be pretty faintly seen.
Respectfully,
Anomaly
But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?