Sling Box Or Something Else?

[gadgtfreek]

My luck lately seems to be that certain college sports I want to see during the week are on ESPN3, which is fine, but they love to put them on ESPNU or something during the weekend, and it tends to fall when I work.

Since Directv does not have WatchESPN (yet), whats the good move for a device to allow me to watch my live Directv at work? My DSL connection is only 512k up, so I figure I do not need anything too fancy and Ill be watching on a phone or a 21" monitor at work.

I would be putting in bedroom with Genie Client so I could connect to router with hardline.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Just looking online seems a Slingbox 350 and this cable are all I need for the setup?

Amazon product ASIN B006R9O2PC

 

[gadgtfreek]

For some reason the forum will not take the amazon link.

Directv H25 Component Video Cable RGB with RCA

 

[harshness]

Assuming that nothing is in the home using the Internet connection, you might be able to pull this off. 500Kbps is the minimum for an Standard Quality session.

I would expect that if you use a reasonably sized window to view, it isn't going to be pretty (especially with sports programming that doesn't compress well).

This isn't an indictment of the Slingbox (as it is probably the best appliance one can reasonably afford) but a recognition that DSL generally isn't up to the task of video up-streaming (and in some cases, down-streaming).

 

[osu1991]

That will work, but I don't know how well it will work, with that slow of an upload speed.

I use the 350 with wdtv boxes to sling my Dish around the house in HD and to my lake house and the condo in Las Vegas I share with my dad. 512k is going to be tough especially with sports. I would think you will probably get closer to 400-450k or less real world uploads as other things around your house may be accessing the internet for updates or whatever. I have a 2meg upload with Cox and 6mb download with windstream at the lake house and it looks good on a 60in tv, but I've used the slingadapter before on my phone years ago with a less than 1mb upload and it was tough viewing, although I was on a slow congested 3G network too.

It may be adequate for what you are wanting to do, but I would say you will probably need to upgrade your internet to get a faster upload or if you have a choice, switch to cable internet with a faster upload.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Just something of note, when I had the Hopper with sling, phone and work computer were fine, granted the work PQ wasn't the best. It isnt something Id use for a large screen, but it is almost as good as ESPN3 which is fine.

My work connection is only about 1100 down anyways

 

[jcrandall]

I used a sling box with 512k upload DSL, it works but it will be blurry and jagged at times, especially higher motion.

About two years ago my DSL company started offering 768k upload with a higher package, which I upgraded to, it is still SD quality but not as many issues.

I would love better upload, but the DSL is the only provider where I live outside of cellular, which would be too expensive.

 

[twizt3dsist3r]

God I love living in a comcast region... 150mb down and 20mb up lol.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[osu1991]

Distance has a lot of effect on the sling. We have Cox 25/5 in Las Vegas and I have Cox 25/5 at home in Broken Arrow now and I get around 4800k in Las Vegas slinging from my sat receiver in BA. My dad lives 5 miles down the street from me and has Cox 50/10 and we still can't get anymore than 4800k in Las Vegas from his slingbox in BA either. Whereas I get 7800k if I access his sling from my house here in BA and vice versa if he accesses mine

It is much better than when I had 15/2 with Cox. I havent used it at lake yet this year to see what improvements I will get there. The lake house is only 60 miles from my main house so I'm hoping for good results as I already was getting a good picture with the slower upload.

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[harshness]

My work connection is only about 1100 down anyways

I have a similar setup at work and the T1 is much smoother than a "faster" DSL or wireless connection.

Reasoning isn't of much value where DSL is concerned. The lies about DSL bandwidth being dedicated are just that: lies.