LocationFree - Sony's Slingbox rival - hits UK at lower-than-expected premium

[Bob Crabtree]

Sony is now selling in the UK its rival to the Slingbox around-the-house/over-the-net video distribution system and it's going out for £70 less than originally expected - though still £50 more than the Slingbox.

More in this HEXUS.headline.

[autopilot]

I am really stuggling to see the point in these products - well the over the net bit anyway. Is anyone else here unsure just how much of a market these really have, accept maybe the 'show yer mate' geeky novelty factor? Surely there are better and cheaper ways of achiving the same goal. Just how many people people are really going to want to stream BBC1 or there dodgy DivX vids of the net to thier PDA to watch in Starbucks?

[RoganJosh]

I like the idea, I have a Neuston Maestro about 2 years now and it does something similar, but without the streaming to PSP - but you never know. As long as you don't have to spend too much time faffing around with network connections/ips etc I think this product should do well.

[MSIC]

I'm not sure that i completely understand what it does exactly. Mind you, i had a similar lack of full understanding about HDD recording until i saw a mate with Sky+, then all lightbulbs went on.
I currently have a number of home videos on my PC in Xvid as well as burnt DVDs, and do re-encode them to play on my Sony Clie, although this is more for novelty value than anything really practical. I also wirelessly stream these from my PC to my Netgear MP115 which plays on my TV. With this type of product, do i even need to re-encode Xvids to wirelessly play on my PDA, or does it do it all on the fly? Does this do anything dramatically different to what i already do?
Anyone who could describe in clear english how this works (little drawings with stick men called "me" and "you" on it would be nice) i'd appreciate it!

[Bob Crabtree]

Anyone who could describe in clear english how this works (little drawings with stick men called "me" and "you" on it would be nice) i'd appreciate it!

I thought I'd done that in the Sony article and in the Slingbox article, too. Perhaps I'm wrong about that.

Anyway, Sling Media, unlike Sony, does have available a whole lot of illustrations - and I was able to include some of those in the Slingbox article - which you can read here.

All the below assumes that you realise that the Sony box (and of course the Slingbox) has to be connected to your home network - wirelessly or by cable - and be properly seen by the network.

1/ You sit the Sony box by all your AV gear.

2/ You connect it to as many bits of AV gear as there are sockets in the box. In this case there are three video connectors but only two sets of L/R audio connectors, so you can only connect up to two devices at a time - say your Freeview box and Sky box or any other combination of kit including AV amps. That, of course, is the ideal situation - cos, in theory, your AV amp is going to have everything running through it.

3/ A cable that carries remote handset commands runs from out of the Sony box and sits somewhere pointing at the AV gear you're taking video from - and this allows you, from the supplied Sony player software, to control the gear from a virtual IR handset that appears on the PC's screen (I'm assuming something similar will be the case when you are using a Sony Playstation Portable for viewing).

The Slingbox definitely does offer the sort of control I've just mentioned (though not for PSP) but the information that Sony provides is so piss poor that I have had to make an assumption here - though it is one I did try to check before making the article live. I will, of course, update this thread and the article if Sony or anyone comes back to me telling me I've got the wrong end of the stick with LocationFree.

4/ When the network is sorted and the AV stuff is connected to the Sony box, you can now view on your networked PC whatever is being output by the AV gear that is connected to the Sony box. Further, if you have a fast internet uplink at home (I quote Sony's figure in the article) and a fast downlink wherever you are with your PC in the world (ditto) you can view the same stuff on the other side of the globe.

Oh, and I hope the stickman below helps you get your head around this.



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[MSIC]

Thanks bob.
Didnt mean to have a go at your aticle either, you do a good job generally, i think it may have been just me that couldnt picture it.
I think i get it now, i think that sometimes phrases like
"feed out videos to a Sony Playstation Portable at home or away" leave me scratching my head a little about how, whether there is some sort of DRM that overly complicates matters or if it really is a simple process.
I appreciate the clear explanations

PS I am a happy man now
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