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September 28, 2008 06:39 PM

Categories: General Sling Related Discussion

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John77

  Member
Joined: 09/28/2008

Hi.

I just moved to New York from the UK. I'm thinking of getting a Slingbox (the model kind of depends on the answer to my question) set up at my brother's in London, so I can watch UK TV here.

My original plan was to get a classic or a PRO, get him to simply run the TV aerial (coax) straight into the back of it and hook it up to his router. That way I could use the Freeview tuner inside to watch Freeview without affecting the channel he was watching on TV - he has Virgin cable.

Then it struck me that the analog signal stops very soon (or has it already?) and switches to digital in the UK.

Will this mean the Freeview tuner in the Classic or PRO will no longer work?

If that's the case should I just get the Solo and buy a seperate Digital TV Freeview box?

Many thanks

John.

Discussion:    Add a Comment | Comments 1-13 of 13 | Latest Comment

Generic Member Avatar
Member
September 28, 2008 7:16 PM

"Freeview" stands for the FTA DVB-T channels in the UK, which are already digital, so the Classic will work for the next 100 years. The Pro will give you a higher resolution, but you will need a pretty high upload, which is uncommon in the UK, so probably the Classic is the best choice.

Generic Member Avatar
  Member
September 28, 2008 7:41 PM

Cheers Singha, thanks for the quick reply.

I had hoped to hook my MacBook up to my Panasonic 42" plasma and watch it on that. Will the lower resolution of the Classic mean a pretty poor quality picture on a screen that size?

Generic Member Avatar
Member
September 29, 2008 6:59 AM

It all depends about your upstream in the UK. I watch the slingbox on a 32inch LCD and a bitrate of approx 700kbps. This gives a reasonable image on 640x240 resolution. For 640x480, I found out you need over 800 kbps for a smooth image. However, the new HD PRO uses a different codec, which provides according to the first tests, a much better image on lower resolution. But it doesn't have a freeview decoder, so you will need a seperate box if you should decide to go for it.

Generic Member Avatar
  Member
September 29, 2008 7:44 AM

Looks like it's going to be a matter of trial and error. I don't think the HD PRO is available in the UK yet.

Thanks again for your help.

Generic Member Avatar
Member
September 29, 2008 10:36 AM

First run a speedtest in the UK to a server near your US location (www.speedtest.net), it will give you an indication of what you can expect. You can eventually buy a HD Pro in the US and ship it to the UK. Thanks to Sling mathematics, a PRO costs 359$ in the UK, the PRO HD only 299 in the US ;-(

Generic Member Avatar
  Member
September 29, 2008 10:45 AM updated: September 29, 2008 11:10 AM

I'll try that out.

Will there not be PAL/NTSC issues using a US model in the UK?

Generic Member Avatar
Member
September 29, 2008 1:06 PM

I don't think if you connect your setup box to the AV inputs of the slingbox. It wasn't a problem with the previous generation of slingboxes anyway. Not sure if the build in digital tuner will work in Europe (I think not...)

MegaZone Avatar
  Sling Media
October 2, 2008 6:08 PM

The PRO-HD is not meant for use outside of North America. The current firmware does not handle 576i/p, 720p50, or 1080i50 input, and the built-in tuner is NTSC/ATSC/Clear QAM - no PAL or DVB-T - and that's a hardware change.

-MegaZone, Sling Media Beta Manager
Slingbox Pro, HD Connect, TiVo Series3, TiVo Pioneer DVR-810H, SPM Treo 680, SP WinXP
(I also run GizmoLovers.com)

Generic Member Avatar
  Member
October 2, 2008 7:47 PM

Thanks. I think I'll have to knock the Slingbox pipedream on the head for a while as no one I know in the UK has a good enough upload speed.

Generic Member Avatar
Member
October 3, 2008 2:30 PM

MegaZone said: The PRO-HD is not meant for use outside of North America. The current firmware does not handle 576i/p, 720p50, or 1080i50 input, and the built-in tuner is NTSC/ATSC/Clear QAM - no PAL or DVB-T - and that's a hardware change.

Thanks for the input. I was already afraid that the tuner would not support the EU standards. However, any tuner without a card reader would be useless in my country as al forms of digital TV we have come  encrypted, so a seperatate setup  box is necessary (I can not even use the DVB-T tuner in my UK Classic Frown

But the question is, if I connect a EU setup box through the composite inputs, whould that be a problem ? The reason why I concider to buy a Pro HD is for the better codec which might allow me to stream in 640x480 to Thailand (not possible for me with my Classic, and a UK PRO model costs 55$ more as the superior US PRO HD.....) 

MegaZone Avatar
  Sling Media
October 3, 2008 7:14 PM

*IF* the EU STB can output 480i/p, 720p60, or 1080i60 (and not 576i/p, 720p50, or 1080i50) then it should be compatible. But I couldn't say if the IR codes to control the STB would be in there. I'd suspect not, but can't say for sure.

-MegaZone, Sling Media Beta Manager
Slingbox Pro, HD Connect, TiVo Series3, TiVo Pioneer DVR-810H, SPM Treo 680, SP WinXP
(I also run GizmoLovers.com)

Generic Member Avatar
Member
October 5, 2008 9:12 AM

I'm afraid I don't understand the technical point. If I connect the "out" from the setup box to the composite "in" from the slingbox, I send a composite signal (which has nothing to do anymore with PAL, 1080p etc) from the setup box to the slingbox.

As far as I know, all previous US boxes work fine in Europe doing this. I completely agree that the tuner will not work and there probably will be a problem with the IR codes.

MegaZone Avatar
  Sling Media
October 5, 2008 8:36 PM

Actually that's the issue 'composite video' doesn't refer to a specific format, but a type of signaling. And a composite video connection (usually a yellow RCA connector) can carry video formatted in NTSC, PAL, SECAM, etc. In the US composite video is usually 480i, but in Europe it is often 576i. Some European countries use 50Hz current, while the US is 60Hz, so the frame rates may be 25/50 while in the US they're 30/60.

A number of European boxes will output the 'US' formats - 480i/30 - and in that case the US Slingbox should handle it just fine. But if the signal were, say, 576i/25, it probably won't work.

-MegaZone, Sling Media Beta Manager
Slingbox Pro, HD Connect, TiVo Series3, TiVo Pioneer DVR-810H, SPM Treo 680, SP WinXP
(I also run GizmoLovers.com)

Discussion:    Add a Comment | Back to Top | Comments 1-13 of 13 | Latest Comment

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