PC World reviews the new Slingbox Personal Broadcaster. What exactly is the Slingbox? Here’s a quote from the product website:
“Slingbox is a compact and elegantly designed, state-of-the-art electronic device that connects to the back of your TV. It redirects, or “placeshifts,” the TV signal from your cable box, satellite receiver, or digital video recorder (DVR) to your computer or laptop of choice, no matter your location — so long as you have a high-speed Internet connection. This utterly unique device will transform the way you watch TV. Whether you want to watch your soaps in the laundry room, or catch the big game during a conference call, or watch your local news from China, the power is now in your hands.”

In other words - the Slingbox connects to a video source and lets you watch this video source from any network connected location - where at home or on the internet. You’ll have to install Slingbox software for Windows but once you do, you’ll have access to the device (assuming your router also supports Universal Plug and Play).

Sounds like a good idea right? Well PC World’s verdict is as follows:

The Slingbox Personal Broadcaster has its uses, but its image quality may be disappointing unless you have a high-bandwidth connection.

So it looks like video quality is still somewhat iffy. Plus - the software viewer doesn’t act like a DVR - you can’t record video streams or pause the video stream etc. However, it’s still a very interesting idea and I hope to see more of this device in the near future.

[Product page]

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