PlaceShift Your TV with Sling Media and your Smartphone

[Mike Temporale]

http://www.slingmedia.com/



SlingMedia has released a Windows Mobile Smartphone version of their popular SlingPlayer Mobile software. I've been lucky enough to be a member of the pre-Beta test group and thus, allowing me to play with the software for a number of weeks now, and I have to say; Sling Media has done an excellent job on the mobile client. Recently, I spent a couple weeks on the other side of the city, locked in a test lab with no real access to the Internet. A lot of my time was spent waiting for code to compile, run and possibly break. So, what did I do while I waited? Watched my home TV over GPRS on my Smartphone.
If you're not familiar with Sling Media or the Slingbox, you don't know what you've been missing, especially if you do any sort of traveling. All the Slingbox does is take what is currently playing on your home TV and stream it over the Internet to you. You can watch your TV from any Internet enabled computer or Windows Mobile 5 device. You can do more than just watch the TV too. You have full control of your TV as if you were sitting in front of it holding the remote control. You can even turn it on and off. If you have a Media Center, or another DVR/PVR type device, you can control that as well. Which means, all of the content you have recorded can be watched remotely over the Internet. You can pick up a Slingbox from Amazon (affiliate) for around $180, or from your local electronics store.

My GPRS connection has never been very fast. Any speed tests that I have done always seem to indicate a very slow connection. So I was pretty worried that I might not be able to use the Smartphone client. Needless to say, I was worrying about nothing. The resulting stream produces some excellent images considering the size of the device. If you have WiFi on your Smartphone, your even better off. The higher bandwidth really shows, especially if you're downloading email in the background.


Figure 1: Launching the SlingPlayer client will present you with the familiar Sling logo and then it's ready for your commands.


Figure 2: The first thing you need to do, is setup your Slingbox on the mobile device. If you installed the client from a PC that already has SlingPlayer installed on it, then this is done automatically during the install.


Figure 3: To add your Slingbox to the Smartphone, you just need to go select Menu / Slingbox Directory / and then hit Add. Fill in the name, Finder ID, and password for your Slingbox and your all set to go.


Figure 4: In some circumstances, you might not be able to, or want to use the Finder ID. However, if you can use the Finder ID, I recommend that route over hard coding your IP address. Regardless, Sling has taken the extra time and effort to make sure you can still connect using your IP address instead.


Figure 5: Everyone always likes to play with and tweak the options of their applications.


Figure 6: In the case of the Smartphone client, I don't think there's much room for tweaking. And to be honest, I really don't think it needs much tweaking.


Figure 7: If you want to conserve bandwidth or would rather just listen to the TV, you can do that by simply selecting the player mode you want to use.


Figure 8: Let's get down to the good stuff. Connecting to your TV. Once you have your Slingbox setup, just press the Watch button. SlingPlayer will start by locating your Slingbox over the Internet and then it will begin the process of connecting to it and starting the stream. This screen will toggle between those 3 states and then start to show you your TV signal. It only takes a matter of 5 to 10 seconds before the picture appears.


Figure 9: Lucky for me, my kids left the TV tuned to the cartoon network, but that's not a problem.


Figure 10: I can quickly punch in the channel of my choice on the keypad and watch as my TV changes the channel and I get to watch the program of my choice. I'm on satellite service at home. You can see I'm tunning into a popular movie.


Figure 11: TV enjoyment, from wherever you might roam.

Screen captures can only show so much. The SlingPlayer Mobile client is a solid performer. If you do any traveling, or perhaps you're looking for a way to watch the World Cup games while you're not at home, I would strongly suggest you look into a Slingbox and SlingPlayer Mobile.
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"I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious" - Albert Einstein

[Kris Kumar]

Thanks for the review Mike.

Wow! It works over GPRS. That means that it will be smooth over EDGE networks and will rock on EV-DO/Wi-Fi.

So there is no buffering problem on GPRS. Wow! You are pushing me closer to buying a Slingbox. The decision is between TV Tuner for my PC or Slingbox.

[Mike Temporale]

Well, I'm told that my carrier (Fido ) has implemented EDGE, but when I do speed tests, they suck. When I was stuck in the test lab I was seeing about 100kbps. When I do it from my house, I see a great range of speeds. Sometimes I can't seem to get over 50kbps which is a little choppy - so just use the slideshow option. Other times I'll get 120kbps which seems to be more than enough to handle video.


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"I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious" - Albert Einstein

[Mike Temporale]

I spent a lot of time trying to create a video of SlingPlayer running on my phone so that you could get a better idea of what it was like. Unfortunately, I failed miserably. It seems I'm not very good at taping things. I couldn't get a good clear capture, and when I did there was too much light bouncing off the screen.

It turns out I wasn't the only person thinking of doing some video on this. (which means you're all in luck ) Head on over to MoblieBurn and check out the video demo of SlingPlayer Mobile on a Q. The only difference I noticed is that "full screen" on the Q is actually landscape on other Smartphones. Considering the different screen, this makes sense.
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"I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious" - Albert Einstein

[Wireless]

Nice job Mike, I was lucky enough to be in the BETA as well and can also add that "Ol Mike was quite an active and contributing participant. HWere doiws he find the time? LOL

Mike, I would like "beg to differ" a bit on your useage of the terms "GPRS" and "EDGE" basically it looks to me from looking at your screen shots, you are definitely hitting EDGE, at least in these shots. Although 100 kbps is not going win any races, it is certainly not GPRS. GPRS, is basically out of steam around 40 kbps.
Technically speaking, not carved in stone of course, but I would say no one will argue for the purposes of this discussion:
GPRS runs between 20 and 45kbps with latency between 800 and 1100ms

EDGE steps things up to 60-100kbps for a 2 slot device, 110 to 200kbps for a 4 slot device with latency the same as GPRS
Also, keep in mind, that EDGE is just the next version of GPRS= EGPRS which stands for Extended GPRS

In my market, Wash DC, it runs pretty cose to that. When I run a dslreports.com/mspeed test on any GPRS device I get about 27kbps as an average. When I run an Edge device (4 slot) Im averaging 120 -160 kbps.

I only bring this up as I would hate to get people investing in the place based on the fact they believe they will get the performance Mike is showing, on a regular GPRS only device. I think you would be a bit dissapointed. But, in the same breath, it is in BETA so give it a whirl. Will be interested to hear from some true GPRS Only devices.

I have not tried using GPRS yet with the Slingmobile Player as all I have active are an TMOBILE MDA and a Cingular 2125. I do have a Pocket PC Phone Edition for TMOBILE that runs just GPRS that I may want to load and try out and see what we get. (Its a warranty replacement, new, from HTC and I hate to make it "Used" LOL.

Once again, nice job Mike, look forward to seeing ya in some more BETAs!

Ron aka Wireless


Note: Thought this may be informative to some

Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) is a third-generation (3G) high-speed mobile data and Internet access technology, with theoretical peak rates of 473 kbps and average throughput of 110-130 kbps. The average rates are fast enough to support a wide range of advanced data services, including streaming audio and video, fast Internet access and large file downloads. EDGE also can support “push-to-talk” services.

EDGE is occasionally referred to as Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS) because it increases the capacity and data throughput of GPRS by three to four times. Like GPRS, EDGE is a packet-based service, which provides customers with a constant data connection.


SOURCE:
What is EDGE? from GSM America
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Cingular 2125 w/ 256 Min-SD
Leather Case & JABRA BT800 BT Headset

[Mike Temporale]