Saving money with Slingbox
April 16th, 2007 by Kenric
Slingbox may be one of the greatest inventions ever! Ok, maybe it’s not quite in that category but it sure is nice to have. For those who don’t know. Slingbox is a device that streams whatever is coming through your cable box at home to any computer anywhere in the world. Couple a Slingbox with a DVR like Tivo and you’ve got a power combination at your fingers.
Imagine, you set your DVR to record NBC’s “The Office” or CBS’s “LOST” while you’re on a business trip. You get to your hotel, fire up the laptop and start watching them whenever you want. Or your flight is delayed for 2 hours and you’re sitting at a terminal, you can watch the shows you want on your laptop rather than the boring MSNBC or CNN that all airports show.
I know you’re wondering, how do I save money with one?
I moved to Phoenix from Chicago. I will always be a Chicago Bears fan. Unfortunately, I can’t get any Bears games here unless I get DirectTV’s NFL Sunday ticket package. That was a problem because I don’t have DirectTV which would cost me about $400 to install and also the NFL Sunday ticket was $280. It would have cost me $680 just to watch the Bears games.
However, my friend in California has DirectTV and he had the Sunday ticket package. So I went out and bought a Slingbox with the proceeds from my TMX Elmo sales and shipped it to his house. He hooked it up and all he has to do is watch the Bears game through his DVR and I watch along with him on my computer. In fact I can watch whatever he’s watching on his TV. The one major setback is that I have to watch what is on his DVR or whatever he is watching.
But wait, how much is an additional DVR once you have cable or satellite? Probably $15 a month right? So he gets another DVR and I pay for it. Now I have my own personal DVR for my use at his house.
Let’s take this even further. I like watching “Sopranos” and “Entourage” but I don’t have HBO. But he does. I don’t have Showtime, he does. See where I’m going with this?
What if I totally disconnected my cable plan and watched TV exclusively off of Slingbox? Personally, I could never do that because I need the 50″ HDTV. But, to the person who does not watch alot of TV and is content watching a 12″ screen, a one time investment in a Slingbox and an additional DVR placed at a friend’s house can get them all the TV they want.
BTW, my cell phone, the Motorola Q (which I hate) can run Slingplayer Mobile can get streaming video from the Slingbox. Is that crazy or what. I can watch TV on my phone driving down the highway!
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