Slingbox

[scooter84]

I'm sure slingbox has been discussed before but I am hoping for a quick and dirty answer to the following...

I have a family member who teaches overseas (S. Africa). They want me to go buy a slingbox and hook it up to our TV so they can acccess it to watch the NCAA games tonight and tomorrow night (and future stuff, obviously).
- How hard is this going to be for me to set up?
- How hard is it going to be for them to figure out how to access it from their end
- What are they going to need on their end (I believe they have an Apple TV).
- Will it interfere in any way with our TV watching at home?
- Will it allow them to monitor our activities (y/y)?


Thanks for any help...

 

[DeacHead]

I relied on a Slingbox a few years ago when I spent spent a year in Asia for an expat assignment. During that time I've became a Slingbox ambassador.

1) Easy peasy.
2) Should be easy. If we're talking about the 8xDeac stereotype, maybe not as easy as it should be but on the client side it's mostly a matter of opening a browser and typing some things.
3) A computer and a browser.
4) Absolutely. I would hook it up to a DVR, that's what I did, otherwise if you connect it directly to a tv you will find it switching channels.
5) Again, if hooked up to your tv, when they log on they'll see what your tv is currently tuned to. So yes.

I advise a separate line out to a DVR they're responsible for, that way your stuff and their stuff stays separate. You could share a DVR and if it had multi show recording capability (as they all do now) then you should be able to not step on each other's toes, though you'd each see what the other was recording.