RSSSlingbox Launches in UK
By the Betanews Staff | Published May 30, 2006, 10:45 AM
Sling Media took its first steps in expanding into Europe Tuesday, announcing its popular Slingbox product was now available in the United Kingdom. Initially, the device would be available through computer store chain PC World, with availability in Currys within four to six weeks. The price has been set at 179.99 pounds.
Additionally, the company announced it had named Stuart Collingwood as its vice president of European operations. "The launch of the Slingbox into the UK market and ultimately to the European consumer is a significant milestone for Sling Media as we continue to build a worldwide footprint and deliver the same customer experience internationally that we do today for customers in the United States and Canada," said Blake Krikorian, co-founder and CEO of Sling Media.
The UK price of the Slingbox is a ripoff, in the USA it retails at $199. (£106) so what does it retail at in the UK ? £179.($336) Sorry to see that once again the Brits get ripped off.
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|The quick and easy answer, the SlingBox is described at www.SlingMedia.com
For detail: it acts as a tuner, encoder, and streaming device to allow you to receive your home television service remotely on your PC. By installing the SlingPlayer software on your PC, then connecting to your SlingBox (via URL or optional registration and lookup with SlingMedia) you can select what channel to tune and receive a media stream of that channel, optimized to the available connection properties (note - tuning a channel on the SlingBox does not change what channel your TV at home is tuned to, unless you are using a shared tuner such as may be the case with a satellite receiver or dedicated cable-box.)
In my experience, it works quite well, with basic cable (Northeast USA), and there is no fee beyond the initial purchase price.
They are also working on/have available a Mobile client app, but I have no experience with it.
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|Does it use proprietary formats, or standard UPnP media rendering?
If it's proprietary, I ain't interested...
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|I believe the answer to your question is that it is proprietary. You MUST use their client app to receive the broadcast, and only 1 client can connect to 1 box at any given time. Any kind of multicast would be a nightmare when it came to dealing with rebroadcast restrictions.
I am actually curious about the UK and how the use of this box plays with the TV tax over there. I remember some concerns regarding simple TV tuner cards in PCs being required to be counted against the tax...
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|If you've paid the TV license for your home, you can use any number of TV tuners in your house, and can also use portable TV tuners anywhere else, as long as the primary user is a resident of the house with the license.
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|What on earth is a slingbox? Never heard of it! I'm in the UK, and clearly they need to sort out their marketting!
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|Quality reporting??? The report does not even say what a slingbox actually is....
Whatever it is, we are getting it soon thou...
Sometimes you really wonder about the people writing these articles...
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