Paphos People

Hi All

As anyone heard of this ..Slingbox ..A media streamer
Iv read about it on Eastern Owners and Buyers site
Was wondering if anyone else is using it

For Satalite TV Dawn

Hi Dawn,

Not heard of Slingbox but we did have a post about something called Dreambox a while back, check out this link:
http://paphospeople.com/paphospeoplefor ... c.php?t=61

Is this a similar thing

Hi Pete

No , from what iv read Slingbox is legal where as Dream box is Illegal

Theres a front page cover in Cyprus Mail .....see EOB
For the post
Dawn

Hi

Having used good old google, I found this website
http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/slingbox.html

It seems

The Slingbox is a gizmo that connects to both your TV equipment and to a home broadband Internet connection, and lets you watch your home satellite, cable, digital or analogue TV, over the Internet, from anywhere in the world.

So it would seem from that, that provided you have, say, Sky in the UK, and you connect a Slingbox to it, that via broadband you could watch it in Cyprus. Not quite what I first thought, but that's how it reads to me.

Jean

Hi Jean

Thank's for that , Well it seem's that you have to still use a UK addy ...But im still a bit confused , Because reading the post on CEO .They say you dont need a uk addy

Dawn

What makes you think the Dreambox is illegal?
It is only a high end general satellite receiver.
Regards Brian

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Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want....

Dreambox isn't illegal , subscription card sharing is.

So with Slingbox if someone connects it , say , to a BBC channel in the UK and sends the signal over to Cyprus via broadband, that can only be legal if the receiver has paid the BBC licence fee , am I right?

I know it's sad , but I listen to Terry Wogan on BBC radio via internet , but don't pay a licence fee .

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I intend to live forever -- so far so good.

Hi Dawn,

With a slingbox you locate the box at your home address (ie in the UK) and connect your sky box or FTV box to it. You can control the slingbox from anywhere with a broadband connection, and watch your TV on your computer. You need a UK address to locate the box and a broadband connection. I have some customers who have these and use them when on hols to keep up with tv without a sky dish.

regards

Digby

We thought of buying one a couple of years ago when they first came out, but decided against it - don't remember why, but it would be interesting to know if they are any good. Also not too sure if the broadband connection we have with Cytanet would be good enough.

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"Your dog is your friend, your partner, your defender. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true until the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion"

Stormy - just to make you feel a little better, I listen to Kerang radio. At least I have heard of the bands my kids are listening to, so that offsets any guilt I may feel at not paying a licence fee.

I have paid enough to the UK in my life not to worry about the minutiae - right or wrong.

Verity.

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Verity.

Be who you are, and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.

http://coecyp.blogspot.com

Santa brought me a slingbox classic. Easy to set up and used it on trips around uk; works well. Hoping to try it in Cyprus in April.

Steve

We have a slingbox in UK connected to NTL extra box situated in in-laws spare room and we get all the basic channels on our telly in Cyprus. (for example we are watching Six Nations on BBC1 as I am typing this).

As has been said earlier, you need broadband at both ends and a little bit of computer knowledge to set it up.

Only trouble is that the time difference is a bit disorientating, with soaps on at 9.30, Richard & Judy at 8pm and so on.

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Sulum ad suum

Unless you have "slingcatcher" then you are locked into your PC rather than comfort of your sofa ?

Also the quality of the end result, due to the bandwidth out of UK and/or into Cyprus must not be of a particularly high quality with MPEG-2 transmissions needing 5-10 (approx) MB's !?

This all sounds a little bit complicated, I think I'll stick the Sky system I have, I don't think it'll be gone for a while yet, if ever, so why change

We have 1 cheap computer attached to our telly and can watch slingbox in comfort.

Dont know the technical terms (I leave that all to the IT dept - aka my other half) but as I understand it the most important speed is the 'upload' eg in UK and not the 'download' - slow cytanet speed.

Looking forward to Liam/Maria wedding on Corrie tonight.

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Sulum ad suum

Will be watching too hils.Liam is rather nice
Tricia

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new me new life, , never forget my cyprus life and friends .

The problem with the slingbox is connection speeds.
Let me try to explain:
Your upload speed will always be considerably lower than your download speed.
Very basically:
The download speed is the speed that data gets into your computer.
The upload speed is the speed that data gets out of your computer.

If you have a data connection of say 8meg that is the maximum download speed. In reality you will probably get around 5meg as a maximum.

Its a similar story with upload speed.
With a 5 to 8 Meg package in the UK you will probably get an up speed of 512k Max this will, under heavy local usage, go down considerably.

To run a slingbox you need at least a reliable 256k per channel.

Your download speed in Cyprus only needs to be around 1 Meg. to get a reliable 256k minimum.

The whole system is really geared to the American market where fiber optic and cable is the norm.

I hope this simplifies things a bit for those that are interested.

Regards
Brian

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Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want....

But surely regardless of compression type used (MPEG-4?!) there must be obvious quality loss against original transmission ?

Pete - a topic worthy of the gadget section !

Good point BD, if no one minds, I will move this post in to the 'Gadgets' folder tomorrow ok