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Slingbox and the Series 3 TiVo

I'm a big believer in having only one TV in the house, but I do sometimes like to watch lightweight comedy shows while I work on my computer and it would be handy if I could watch last night's TiVo'd programs when I'm riding on my bike trainer. Since multi-room viewing (MRV) isn't an option in the Series 3 TiVo, I looked around for any hacks that would allow for extracting video and streaming across the network.

Lucky for me, a quite popular product already exists and as I found out, it's dead simple to add it to a s3 TiVo. I was concerned that I'd have to disrupt my home theater setup and pipe video into the slingbox (as HDMI) and out as a lower quality stream (component video) to my TV. Turns out, the s3 TiVo outputs video to all outputs at once.

The setup literally took five minutes from the time I started to the time the Colbert Report was playing on my desktop. I downloaded the mac beta client and installed it on my mac. I connected RCA cables from the TiVo to the slingbox and placed the IR blaster near the front of the TiVo. I walked to my computer, connected to the slingbox, configured briefly, and was done.

I still remember seeing a slingbox for the first time almost two years ago, so I know I'm late to the game, but thanks to the way video output works on the s3 TiVo, adding a Slingbox Pro or Slingbox AV is trivial and won't disrupt your current setup.

I haven't tried watching TV away from home yet, but I can do both of the things I set out to do: I can watch TV in a window on my desktop and I can use a laptop in the garage to watch some TV while I spin out the miles on my bike. The video quality on my 802.11g wireless network is very high, just about as good as standard def output on the TiVo.

by Matt Haughey November 6, 2006 in Product Reviews

Comments

As it turns out, you can also "sling" the composite video output of an HD show from your Series 3 TiVo using an original Slingbox. When viewing an HD image remotely in SlingPlayer, simply select "Video Size: Widescreen" to un-squish the image. :-)

Posted by: Series3Slinger at Nov 6, 2006 3:30:38 PM

I didn't think SlingMedia added official support for the Series3 yet. If they didn't, then are you just using the Series2 profile/controls?

Posted by: Grant at Nov 6, 2006 4:49:13 PM

Yeah, I was surprised they didn't have a Series 3 virtual remote, but the s3 runs fine with any series 2 remote and the slingbox codes all work with the series 3.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Nov 6, 2006 7:06:16 PM

What are the sales figures for Slingbox? Because people had a hard time understanding what TiVo does, I wonder if the same barriers are there for Slingbox (i.e., you have to try it to want it...a Catch-22 for Slingbox).

Posted by: Bruce Klopfenstein at Dec 11, 2006 6:33:52 AM

The post above says the HD content from an S3 will 'sling' from an 'original Slingbox.' But, will it "sling" with the newer 'Slingbox Pro' ? I'm considering this option but don't care to spend for already outdated hardware. --PS

Posted by: Paul at Jan 10, 2007 11:17:41 AM

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