If you’ve not seen this device before, it basically lets you rebroadcast your home television signal out over your Internet connection, allowing you (and only you) to view what’s on your television, on a laptop or computer somewhere else. You can control the Slingbox remotely, and change the channels on your TV if you want. Great for people going on holiday, ex-pats, that kind of thing.
The only problem is the cost – a whopping £180 for something that should cost less than £50, based on the technologies and components involved.
I have the exact same system set up on my home TV system, and it cost me less than £30 to put together. I used free software (Windows Media Encoder), and a neat bit of kit called the Red Eye Serial, which basically lets you control a Sky set top box from your computer. A few lines of PHP code later, and I can now view and change channels on my TV set from anywhere in the world. I can even set Sky+ up to record and play back shows remotely.
If sufficient people are interested in how I did this, I’ll write up a full tutorial. Drop me a line at the address listed on the contact page.