SlingBox Personal Broadcaster

By Aaron Jacobs

ant to watch live TV at the café? You could use the SlingBox. This little gem allows you to watch or listen to whatever is available on your home TV or stereo from any high-speed Internet device anywhere in the world. The $269.99 box connects to your home entertainment system and sends what's playing over the Internet to your computer or PDA in real time.

Looking somewhat like a gigantic chocolate bar, the silver device enables you to watch and control your living room TV programming from anywhere by turning your Internet-connected laptop or PC into a personal TV. While hard on the bandwidth, the SlingBox redirects the TV signal from your cable box, satellite receiver or digital video recorder (DVR) to your computer or laptop, over your high-speed internet connection.

Proprietary software enables you to optimize the video frame rates to match Internet throughput. The video quality isn't something you'd want to project on a plasma screen, but a tad better than the average streaming Web video. SlingMedia claims this sleek device will even let you watch TV from your mobile phone, but that’s clearly pushing it (jerky images with indecipherable audio). The SlingBox hardware remains connected to your TV, while the SlingPlayer is installed on your desktop or laptop. This software program gives you full control over your source.

The SlingStream optimization algorithms lets you watch your TV in full-screen or windowed mode. There’s also the Slingbar mode, which docks the SlingPlayer on either side of the desktop. Your desktop will dynamically resize to fit the remaining screen space, so you can watch TV while using your computer for other functions such as surfing the Web or working on a presentation.

The SlingBox is powered by a high-performance digital signal processor from Texas Instruments, and the live TV streaming system utilizes Microsoft's Windows Media technologies; the S-Video, coax, and composite RCA inputs allows you to hook up basically anything you want to the SlingBox and sling that signal around the world. Right now, the software works with Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/MCE computers.

Your friends can now watch your home movies stored on your DVR or Media Center PC; they'd just need the SlingPlayer software loaded on their PC. One of the channels you set up could be home security cameras that you connect to, say, your VCR's or TV's video-in jacks. Don’t you just love living in the future? - A.J.