Gadget Show - TV on the Go - Slingbox

Watched the GS last night and they did a bit about TV on the go and one of
the devices was the Slingbox. This connects via a USB dongle on your laptop
to the internet where you can watch anything thats on your TV (ie Sky etc)
The set up was your laptop/USB 3G dongle/and the website. Plus, at home the
slingbox itself.

My question is would using the "the web" to watch your TV be included
within your USB/3G dongle allowance of say 3GB - its surely a form of
streaming and it would not take very long to use up your daily/monthly
allowance and get a hefty bill from your provider for the excess.

Frank Incense used his keyboard to write :
> Watched the GS last night and they did a bit about TV on the go and one of
> the devices was the Slingbox. This connects via a USB dongle on your laptop
> to the internet where you can watch anything thats on your TV (ie Sky etc)
> The set up was your laptop/USB 3G dongle/and the website. Plus, at home the
> slingbox itself.
>
> My question is would using the "the web" to watch your TV be included within
> your USB/3G dongle allowance of say 3GB - its surely a form of streaming and
> it would not take very long to use up your daily/monthly allowance and get a
> hefty bill from your provider for the excess.

Of course. The set up consumes download on your usb dongle, and upload
at home.

The slingbox can be set to stream at low(er) quality if you want to
save allowance...

Effective combinationof devices; I use it myself occasionally.

Frank Incense wrote:
> Watched the GS last night and they did a bit about TV on the go and one
> of the devices was the Slingbox. This connects via a USB dongle on your
> laptop to the internet where you can watch anything thats on your TV (ie
> Sky etc) The set up was your laptop/USB 3G dongle/and the website.
> Plus, at home the slingbox itself.

Just a note for accuracy sake - and I apologise if this is out of date
as my box is one of the Eurpoean beta models but I think this is still true:

As far as I know all Slingbox players have an ethernet port which
connects to either a switch/router/hub or a PC (via crossover cable and
ICS) and then if you wish out to the internet. It doesn't connect via USB.

You don't see what is on your TV but rather what is on one of the boxes
plugged into your TV (or its own internal DVB-T tuner). It is worth
noting that the device doesn't do RGB passthrough so if your device
(e.g. Freeview box) only has 1 output then you will not get RGB on your
TV without going through a switchbox.

> My question is would using the "the web" to watch your TV be included
> within your USB/3G dongle allowance of say 3GB - its surely a form of
> streaming and it would not take very long to use up your daily/monthly
> allowance and get a hefty bill from your provider for the excess.

Yes - and very rapidly so. Having said that I have frequently watched
mine either on my mobile or on my laptop over T-Mobile WnW and never had
a larger than the usual £7.50 bill.

Just a note for accuracy sake - and I apologise if this is out of date
as my box is one of the Eurpoean beta models but I think this is still true:

As far as I know all Slingbox players have an ethernet port which
connects to either a switch/router/hub or a PC (via crossover cable and
ICS) and then if you wish out to the internet. It doesn't connect via USB.


Many thanks - my main concern was more to do with the "mobile end" of the
chain, ie laptop in a cafe etc

On Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:16:39 +0100, JR <notsure@anymore.com> wrote:

> It is worth
>noting that the device doesn't do RGB passthrough so if your device
>(e.g. Freeview box) only has 1 output then you will not get RGB on your
>TV without going through a switchbox.

Mine had a pass-through SCART; so in my sky-box output I have the
Slingbox plugged in, then into that I have the TV. The scart plug for
the slingbox also has a socket, in other words.

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In message <1217358250.23280.0@proxy01.news.clara.net>, Frank Incense
<dmrt46@nospam.com> writes
>Watched the GS last night and they did a bit about TV on the go and one
>of the devices was the Slingbox. This connects via a USB dongle on
>your laptop to the internet where you can watch anything thats on your
>TV (ie Sky etc) The set up was your laptop/USB 3G dongle/and the
>website. Plus, at home the slingbox itself.
>
>My question is would using the "the web" to watch your TV be included
>within your USB/3G dongle allowance of say 3GB - its surely a form of
>streaming and it would not take very long to use up your daily/monthly
>allowance and get a hefty bill from your provider for the excess.

As is typical, it depends..

With most suppliers, it will come out of your allowance and eat it up
pretty quickly

If you're on 3, you can either have unlimited (fair use) slingbox to
your mobile (£5 a month IIRC) using the supplied slingbox client, or
download the generic slingbox client (£20?) and use your data allowance
for it.

I've not found the quality to be sufficient to make it watchable on 3,
as it stops and stutters so much, but it's perfect for setting my Sky+
box to do its thing.
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On Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:40:02 +0100, Doug Paulley
<doug.paulley.lartsspammers@kingqueen.org.uk> wrote:

>On Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:16:39 +0100, JR <notsure@anymore.com> wrote:
>
>> It is worth
>>noting that the device doesn't do RGB passthrough so if your device
>>(e.g. Freeview box) only has 1 output then you will not get RGB on your
>>TV without going through a switchbox.
>
>Mine had a pass-through SCART; so in my sky-box output I have the
>Slingbox plugged in, then into that I have the TV. The scart plug for
>the slingbox also has a socket, in other words.

The OP said it didn't do RGB passthrough, not SCART.

"Frank Incense" <dmrt46@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:1217358250.23280.0@proxy01.news.clara.net...
> Watched the GS last night and they did a bit about TV on the go and one of
> the devices was the Slingbox. This connects via a USB dongle on your
> laptop to the internet where you can watch anything thats on your TV (ie
> Sky etc) The set up was your laptop/USB 3G dongle/and the website. Plus,
> at home the slingbox itself.
>
> My question is would using the "the web" to watch your TV be included
> within your USB/3G dongle allowance of say 3GB - its surely a form of
> streaming and it would not take very long to use up your daily/monthly
> allowance and get a hefty bill from your provider for the excess.

You don't need Slingbox. I was doing this with Orb for a year free of charge
because it was included with my Three contract.

On Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:05:15 +0100, Ed Chilada <nospam@nospam.com>
wrote:

>On Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:40:02 +0100, Doug Paulley
><doug.paulley.lartsspammers@kingqueen.org.uk> wrote:
>
>>On Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:16:39 +0100, JR <notsure@anymore.com> wrote:
>>
>>> It is worth
>>>noting that the device doesn't do RGB passthrough so if your device
>>>(e.g. Freeview box) only has 1 output then you will not get RGB on your
>>>TV without going through a switchbox.
>>
>>Mine had a pass-through SCART; so in my sky-box output I have the
>>Slingbox plugged in, then into that I have the TV. The scart plug for
>>the slingbox also has a socket, in other words.
>
>The OP said it didn't do RGB passthrough, not SCART.

I know. I was pointing out that you could have both TV and Slingbox
reading the RGB signal from the SCART output on e.g. Skybox using the
passthrough SCART connector.

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