Sling Box on Board

Converse48

Converse48

Well-Known Member
Nov 20, 2006
2,161
Chesapeake Bay
Boat Info
2010 McKinna 57 Pilothouse
Engines
QSM-11
If this has been discussed here before I apologize...

One of my presents to myself this year was a Sling Box. If you've not heard of it, it is a doodad that you connect to your cable box and internet at home. Then you can literally "watch" your home TV/DVR over the internet from anywhere on a computer, tablet or phone. There is actually a mini version of your remote that shows up on the app or computer that allows you to control the cable box and DVR exactly as if you were sitting in your family room. There is a delay on the remote that takes some getting used to, but it's really cool.

I hook my iPad up to the composite input on the TV (using a dedicated cable made for this purpose) and watch all my home channels and saved DVR programs on the main TV on the boat. Beats paying monthly for satellite! Once you buy it there are no recurring fees. The device was about $140 and the iPad app was $15 (watching on a computer is free).

It streams just fine using a mi-fi or dockside wireless.

I am very pleased with this purchase.

Since it seems like I am "hawking" this device, rest assured that I have no financial interest in this product or company, I just think it's very slick!
 
I was thinking about getting one but my marina has no WiFi and the cell signal is pretty weak. I am looking at setting up a WiFi for the group of us that share the dock. Then it would make sense.
 
I want one. But I am not 100% sure if the wifi the marina supplies has the band width. Any way to test before ponying up $300 for the unit?
 
Been using one for a few years. Great device. Needs decent bandwidth or not very enjoyable......
SlingBox Solo [old model] is $99 @ amazon
 
I too have one (slingbox) and it works well. One word of caution. If you have a marina were the wifi requires a terms and conditions agreement (T&C) before being able to authenticate, devices like Chromecast won't be able to access the web because you need to 'agree' to allow the device to get onto the internet. That usually takes human intervention to click on 'agree'.
 
I have been working towards getting my slingbox feed to the boat's two TV's. The issue is I don't want to connect and disconnect my iphone, ipad, or ipod from the two TV's using wire adapters.

So the question is, can I connect an Apple TV to an HDMI 1 to 2 splitter then two HDMI cables (one to the Solon and one master stateroom TV's) then stream the sling player from my iOS devices wirelessly through the Apple TV to the televisions?

secondly, I plan to have a wifi booster and cell booster installed on the boat so I can either stream the slingbox through wifi or my cell network (I have an unlimited data plan with AT&T). Also the marina has a very good wifi network while the boat is there.

Any experience with such a setup?
 
You can stream the sling box to the Apple TV for sure...

As far as the splitter, I can't say for sure but if the splitter works for everything else (I had no idea you could split HDMI!, I got out of the A/V business in 1995) then it should work for a sling box or similar device.
 
ttmott said:
I have been working towards getting my slingbox feed to the boat's two TV's. The issue is I don't want to connect and disconnect my iphone, ipad, or ipod from the two TV's using wire adapters.

So the question is, can I connect an Apple TV to an HDMI 1 to 2 splitter then two HDMI cables (one to the Solon and one master stateroom TV's) then stream the sling player from my iOS devices wirelessly through the Apple TV to the televisions?

secondly, I plan to have a wifi booster and cell booster installed on the boat so I can either stream the slingbox through wifi or my cell network (I have an unlimited data plan with AT&T). Also the marina has a very good wifi network while the boat is there.

Any experience with such a setup?
Click to expand...

You'd run into problems with HDCP compliance and video would probably only display on one TV. Not sure if you could split the signal directly out of the slingbox. Depends on if it requires HDCP.
 
Thanks for the help! Converse48-is there a reason you prefer to hardwire your sling player device to your boat's television rather than something like the wireless Apple TV?

Newman-the HDMI splitter would be on the boat and connected between the Apple TV wifi device and the two televisions. The two televisions are identical Samsung LED units and the splitter Etechcity 1X2 HDCP compliant.
 
ttmott-
Damn good question! I use a hardwire because the prior owner left the proprietary Apple to composite video connector on the boat… I wish I had a better answer for you than that. Plus, if I can eliminate an "air" connection, I figured why not? Lastly, it charges the iPad while it's plugged in.

P.S. I see you're on the Space Coast… I spent some time there in Melbourne this past fall. Nice area!
 
Converse - A friend of mine gave me one a year ago and I cannot get it to work. Was yours easy to set up?
 
Bucit said:
Converse - A friend of mine gave me one a year ago and I cannot get it to work. Was yours easy to set up?
Click to expand...
The sling box? Yes it was. The only hard part was figuring out the make and model of my cable box. Turned out not to be that hard… I was like "Hell if I know? Xfinity X1 maybe? Sure enough, that's what it was.

Other than that, easy as pie.
 
ttmott said:
I have been working towards getting my slingbox feed to the boat's two TV's. The issue is I don't want to connect and disconnect my iphone, ipad, or ipod from the two TV's using wire adapters.

So the question is, can I connect an Apple TV to an HDMI 1 to 2 splitter then two HDMI cables (one to the Solon and one master stateroom TV's) then stream the sling player from my iOS devices wirelessly through the Apple TV to the televisions?

secondly, I plan to have a wifi booster and cell booster installed on the boat so I can either stream the slingbox through WiFi or my cell network (I have an unlimited data plan with AT&T). Also the marina has a very good wifi network while the boat is there.

Any experience with such a setup?
Click to expand...



tt, I plan on doing the same thing this year. I was going just give it a go because I haven't seen any other posts anywhere on it.

I have a Slingbox and it works great, but I recently bought the "TIVO stream" as I use tivo's at the house after kicking out the cable company's DVR boxes out. I havent tried to stream it from the iPad to the Apple TV yet but I will where I don't have a cable hookup, just the flat panel.
 
Last edited:
After many years of trying to find Eagles games in Ravens or Redskins countries, I decided to invest in Slingbox also. I have a Slingbox streaming app for Android and my tablet has HDMI port which allows me to watch on any TV with HDMI port. I use either marina Wi-Fi or my unlimited 4G LTE data plan... usually stream good quality with occasional hick ups...

Love it overall....
 
I don't believe this option has been mentioned... even though I'm a hardcore Mac fanboy I bought the Sony Internet Player with Google TV to connect via HDMI to my salon TV. It has an Android OS and therefore many Android Apps available including Slingbox. It's a very clean way in and the Sony TV's multifunction remote can control the Slingbox etc. It also created an easy way for me to bring up my home security cams and marina cams using the appropriate apps. Bookmarking various wx apps makes it easy to keep radar, wind and other regularly used boat pages on the big screen. I've been very pleased with the setup.
 
Converse48 said:
You can stream the sling box to the Apple TV for sure
Click to expand...
To be clear... to watch Slingbox using Apple TV you would have to use Airplay using the Slingbox app to wirelessly stream from one of your i devices. There is no native way to watch Slingbox on the Apple TV.

What's also very important is that the upload speeds at the location of your Slingbox are good. I have found that with less than 1.5 Mbps upload speeds (which are typically much lower than download speeds) Slingbox does not perform reliably. If you have very good upload speeds the HD quality is actually quite impressive.
 
I just use my ipad, I seem to be able to watch most things via netflix, HBOGO, as well as various TV apps. I also have direct TV on the boat for $5/month. The appleTV is a great addition to the boat. I have 1990's technology on the boat but with a few gadgets... brings it up to at least 2003.
 
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