Slingbox Moves Your Home Cable TV To Your Boat

[dgurgel]

"Slingbox" is a device that has been well proven over the last five years to provide Internet viewing of your home TV from any bowser on the Internet. The most common use is business travelers who want to view their home TV for sports or anyting else. The Slingbox Solo sells on Amazon and elsewhere for $120.

It take just ten minutes to connect the Slingobx to your cable box. The device them acts a a web server, sending your TV's picture and sound over the Internet to any computer with a web browser. (The TV does not need to be on, just the cable box.) Image and sound quality are excellent. From the computer you can click to bring up an exact image of your cable box remote, and you can then change channels, change volume, and do anything else that you could do on the sofa with the remote.

I bought one in September and tested it (but not on my boat). I then gave it to a business associate who connected it to a TV at home so that her daughter could watch all of her favorite channels from her college dorm. The person at the TV and the remote person both can control the set, but both will have to watch the same channel.

On a boat you will need WIFI (or a wired internet connection) at the dock, and underway you would need a Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, etc mobile broadband connection. We have used broadband on our laptops at work for th last five years to remotely connect to our office PCs from client sites when we travel and have no problems. I am not sure of the broadband marine range, but think it should be just a little less than regular cellphone range. Remote TV viewing uses a lot of bandwidth so you would want an unlimited plan, which runs about $90 per month. The broadband access device on the laptop is a card or USB device and costs only about $50. Mobile broadband quality is unaffected by the motion or orientation of the boat, and the signal is little atttenuated by the FRP hull and bulkheads.

Just give the login and passwrod to anyone with a web connection, and they can go to the SLingbox site and from there download software and then connect.

[jcollins]

Dave,
I was just thinking about adding Slingbox for next season. I do have Netflix and there is always Hulu but the Slingbox has everything we want. Looks like it's on the Christmas list.

[crowra]

Dave,

This is a great idea!!! Just the innovative idea I have been looking for. I have looked into a TracVision antenna ($$$), VueCube ($$), and omnidirectional antennas ($). But your Slingbox idea seems perfect, not to mention simple (especially because there is no on-boat installation) and 'cheap', for our cruising area which is the Chesapeake Bay. Combine Slingbox with an Android or iPhone, for example, and you've got a wifi hotspot and HDMI output-to-TV. If you have DirecTV, no need for Sirius/XM -- music stations are part of the package. My wife and I have been fine with loading up our DVR with shows and 'old' movies along with DVDs for entertainment but we are both football fans and 'need' a real-time TV solution.

Thanks,
Rob