FRED MANTEGHIAN BLOG

Slingbox, makers of an internet aware media server of heretofore limited interest to our readers, has burst into the home theater aficionado market with their newly announced Slingbox PRO. How new? I tried to get one before I went to Japan, but that wasn't going to happen. (….turning to the audience for a soliloquy, Fred reveals that it often takes much time between an announcement and an actual product. Sssh . . . don't tell Bill Gates).

So what does the Slingbox PRO do? It allows you to control certain video sources at your house when you're away from home. Watch Directv on your laptop from your in-laws house or even, yes, Japan. (sigh!). You have to install a software product call SlingPlayer on any computer that will control the Slingbox remotely, so realistically, you're probably only going to use your laptop as your TV-away-from-home, which makes sense.

SlingPlayer software is available as a free download from Slingbox's website, so I suppose you could leave a trail of Slingbox-enabled hotel computers in your wake as you cut a swath across the country. Just don't be surprised if some 14 year old wiseguy figures out how to change your channel when you're back home. Shiver me timbers.

Want to watch a DVD you have at home while you're on the road? Bring it with you in your laptop case. The Slingbox family can't control a DVD player, just things like cable boxes, set top boxes and DVRs, both the standard def and, with the PRO, one of the high def variety

I think the Tivo/DVR aspect of the PRO has me the most excited. Time shifting is most important when you yourself have been time shifted across coasts, or even continents. You can catch the latest episode of Lost off your Tivo in Connecticut three hours before anyone in LA sees it! Just so long as the desert island you're stranded on has broadband.

The Slingbox PRO lets one of your sources be a high-def source. You will actually need to purchase a separate interface device called the HD Connect that passes a hidef component connection through to your regular TV while it, presumably, taps the signal and sends it to the PRO. I don't see a DVI or HDMI connection.

Are you actually going to get to watch a high def signal when you're out in the wild blue yonder? The folks at Slingbox aren't saying out loud anywhere on their website that I could find, but I think it's mostly a case of how Marketing can't understand Engineering. My guess, though, is no, of course not. When you want to access the Slingbox from your hotel room across the country, you won't have enough bandwidth to support a streaming high definition signal, so this is just as well. In fact, the Slingbox's claim to fame is their technology that monitors what you're seeing in Paris and if it gets too Max Headroom on you (for those of you too young to remember, that means "choppy"), it tells the Slingbox at home to compress the crap out of it so you won't call Slingbox and ask for a refund.

There's an option to hook up to your home system with a mobile phone, to which I say, hey, get a life!

I'm trying to get my fingers on the PRO and have it installed (and debugged) before CES in January. If so, I'll be able to tell you all about it when I get back.

I need to get a new phone too . . .