The High-Tech Texan Blog

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Another Reason To Get A Slingbox

One of my fave gadgets of the past two years has been the Slingbox. It's a device that plugs into your TV and lets you watch and control it from a remotely connected computer. I've tapped into my Slingbox from my office, WiFi hotspots, London, Dallas and several other places during my travels. Since I can control my TV I can watch live shows or programs I recorded on my DVR.

A few of my friends in other cities have their own Slingboxes and that is where we get "creative." We have exchanged passwords so we can log into each other's boxes. Why would we do this? Aha! To watch shows that we can't receive in our home TV markets. For example, when the Dallas Cowboys game is not shown here due to a conflicting Texans game, I log on to my buddy's Slingbox in Dallas and watch the local Dallas feed.

A friend of mine in the TV biz who recently moved away from Houston taps into my Slingbox to watch his old channel here (apparently he really misses the weather).

So guess where I will be this Sunday at 3:15pm CT (after sleeping an extra hour)? Watching the over-hyped and much-anticipated Patriots-Colts game. CBS plans to pipe the "Game of the Century" into 96 percent of the country's TV households but because the Texans play the Raiders at the same time, KHOU (Ch. 11) will be showing that barn burner of a match instead. Note: The folks at Slingbox don't endorse or suppport this use. But I do.

Getcha popcorn ready and get over to my crib. Game on!

Has anyone else used a Slingbox in such a creative way?

Labels: ,

posted by The High-Tech Texan at 11:53 PM

6 Comments:

  • I'm trying to find someone in Houston that would be willing to host a sling box for me. I would be willing to buy the box and the host could use as long as I could watch the local news. I moved from Houston several years ago and would like to watch the local news there. If there's anyone out there with an interest let me know. I could also install one where I'm at (Indianapolis market) if anyone would like to trade. Thanks!

    By Blogger MAB, at 5:58 PM  

  • You are a smart TV viewer. I have a few friends across the country whose Slingboxes I can tap into if I need to watch something not shown in the Houston market (i.e. Dallas Cowboys games).

    You must be a big news junkie to want to watch the Houston news. About how often would you plan to tap in to the Houston Slingbox? I will see if I can recruit a volunteer for you.

    By Blogger The High-Tech Texan, at 9:40 PM  

  • Thanks - Probably mostly evening news (10:00), channel 13 typically (I know, Marvin is gone). It wouldn't need a cable connection if rabbit ears can bring in the local stations. I work for a Houston company and like to keep up with local stuff there. I would probably try to see if I could record on my end.

    By Blogger MAB, at 4:08 PM  

  • Mark, send me your email address here: mgarfield@gmail.com

    By Blogger The High-Tech Texan, at 10:23 PM  

  • avoid mReplay, its buggy and they don't respect your privacy.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:26 AM  

  • I too am looking for someone to host a slingbox for me in Dallas. I want to be able to watch Dallas Cowboys games. My preference is that you already own a Slingbox so that there are no issues if you decide to stop offering this to me.
    I am willing to pay for each game that I am wanting to watch.

    By Anonymous Dan, at 3:40 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home