On The Go Performance

My laptop and I wandered over to a coffee shop that isn't far from my house to test how the Slingbox performs when not on your home network. Unfortunately, on-the-go performance will greatly vary depending on the network conditions and connection of your hot-spot. So while one location will perform great, others will not. As Internet connections continue to get faster and faster, the quality of the Slingbox will continue to get better and better.

My coffee shop test was very admirable. I used the Finder service from Sling, and it pulled up my Slingbox in a matter of seconds. After about 15 seconds of optimizing, the resulting image was more than acceptable. I have a 512K upload speed out of my home network, but the streaming speed at the shop stabilized around 290K.

Compared to the connection at home, the remote performance has a lot to be desired. The image became noticeably blurry and less detailed, but still acceptable in window mode. Full screen mode was unwatchable at a close distance. Quick moving images were noticeably jerky at large sizes, but not enough to make me wish I wasn't watching.



I set the action speed to low, which made the image more detailed and less fuzzy. The difference in quality was pretty dramatic, but still unwatchable at large sizes. As long as I viewed shows at window size, I wasn't disappointed at all. And, if you can get to about 350K to 400K, you'll be very pleased.

Summary

In my opinion, the Slingbox is the most innovative gadget to hit the market in a long time. People can talk about the iPod all they want, but the truth is that portable music has been a reality for a long time. This is something totally new.

The well-known fact that you can only watch your TV shows if you're at home is now a total myth. YOUR shows can now be viewed from anywhere in the world. At home, at work, at a hotel, at a cafe, at the in-laws, at an airport... anywhere.

No longer will you be sitting in a foreign hotel, where every channel but CNN is in another language. No longer will you be waiting until you get home to start watching the game. No longer will forgetting to set the DVR to record a show be a big deal. No longer will you wonder if the babysitter is stealing booze from the liquor cabinet. No longer are you limited to your sofa when you watch TV... all thanks to the Slingbox.

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