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 Published 05-15-11
Have you ever been traveling on the road and
stopped at a hotel or motel to spend the night and wished you could
watch something on your home DVR or cable TV rather than watching
whatever the motel was serving up at that particular time? You spend
20 minutes just trying to find your favorite channels only to
discover your favorite programming is already over! Or you are
trying hard to get settled in before the Mavericks playoff starts
only to discover the motel you selected does not even broadcast
TNT!!
If you are a traveling salesman, how nice would
it be to get comfortable in your motel bed and set your laptop on
the bedside table and watch anything you would normally watch while
you are at home?
Do you have a "child" in college who wants to
have access to cable TV in his or her dorm but its not possible? Or
its just too expensive?
Do you find yourself sitting in airports or other
waiting areas trying to kill time and wishing you could do more than
just log onto Facebook on your smart phone or laptop to pass the
time? Would you like to be able to watch anything you normally view
on you home cable box while you wait?
There is a relatively inexpensive device that
makes this all possible. The Slingbox (click
here for picture) is a device that connects to both your input
device (DVR, cable box, Uverse box, etc.) and your local network to
transmit the audio and video signals over the internet to your
computer or smartphone, where ever you are! And you will see an
on-screen remote that looks exactly like the one on your coffee
table at home so you can play recorded programs, fast forward,
pause, change channels, etc., just like you do at home! And the
volume on both your laptop and your smartphone will be sufficient so
you won't be forced to use headphones.
Once you purchase the hardware, which costs
approximately $160 at the time this article was published (May
2011), connect it to your home system and configure it, you only
need to create an account and then log onto
www.slingbox.com to control
your home cable TV box or DVR as if you were at home!! And you can
purchase an app that will enable you to view your home TV on your
iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, etc., but only over a WiFi
connection (3G is not supported).
Click here for more
information. Keep in mind, you must use the virtual remote
control to use the Slingbox on your mobile device and the small size
of the smartphone makes this very difficult. The remote is
much easier to use on a tablet such as the iPad or on a laptop or
netbook.
If you purchase the device and are told you can
configure it yourself in about 30 minutes, don't believe it! It took
me about 2 hours to get it working! There is no phone number
anywhere I could find for tech support, so I had to work through
each network issue on my own. Having done that, I can probably get
your system installed and working in an hour or less unless you have
other problems with your network.
The Slingbox Solo is the least expensive model
and will allow you to connect a single device to the internet for
viewing. If you wish to connect additional devices such as a VCR,
security cameras, etc. you will need the Slingbox Pro which costs
approximately $100 more than the Solo.
Please contact me by
sending
an email or calling the number below if you have questions or need assistance.
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© 2011 K.I.T.
