I was first offered the Sling Adapter from our local Dish Network when we upgraded to an HD DVR. What I liked was that you can be anywhere around the world and via Internet, access your Dish Network DVR and watch a program anywhere. And I figured, why would I need this? The last thing I needed, was to be busy at work and then having the TV play on our cell phone, iPad or device.
But the reason why I purchased it was for the main purpose of giving my wife and child access to the DVR when I'm busing watching something on the main TV (movie, playing video games, etc.) So, now they can watch Dish Network on her laptop, computer or iPad. So, no more kicking me off the TV or vice versa.
I. THE SLING ADAPTER
The Sling Adapter is quite thin. It just sits on top of our DVR but it's a device as pictured...just plug it in to the back of your Dish Network DVR, connect to the Internet (I use a Logitech HD Powerline 200a, so one of the Powerline Adapters is connected to the router and the other one is connected to a wall socket that plugs into the Sling Adapter) and that's it.
II. HOW IT WORKS
You then go on Dishnetwork.com and log in and go to my account and then to DISH Remote Access. And you can access what's on your DVR, watch any program or schedule your DVR from your computer Laptop, iPhone or iPad. There is an app for iPhone and iPad. Very easy to use and lag depends on if you are doing many things on your computer. Note: Only one person can access the sling adapter at one time.
JUDGMENT CALL:
Aside from giving my wife and son another way to catch their shows when their father is hogging up the TV, I found it important during an emergency situation.
On March 10, 2011, the Sling Adapter had become so important in my life. On the day of the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan, while I was working and talking with a client from Japan late that night (afternoon, March 2011 in Japan), the earthquake hit and she had no idea what was going on and it was long. I was on Twitter and Japanese news trying to get updates of what was going on and I was able to access CNN from my iPad via the Sling Adapter and watching the US news, while utilizing my other work computers to watch the live Japanese news via Ustream.
The Sling Adapter was so useful as I was on the Internet working on the news of this disaster while watching both Japan and American news broadcasts. Although I was in the US at the time of the disaster, I realized, that if I was in Japan on business at the time and had access to the Internet, I could still watch the CNN broadcast or if you have NHK on your Dish Network service, I could have access that as well. Anything from Dish Network, I could access anywhere around the world from my iPad or iPhone through the use of my Dish Network service, DVR and Sling Adapter.
Also, I was recently at a relative's place who had Internet access but wished he had access to a sports game. No problem, I told him that I can access it using his Wi-Fi and then connecting to Dish Network on my iPad and sure enough, we were able to catch the game.
Another an example recently was when I traveled with family members. My father had to take a stop to a Ham Radio event and we were left in the car for which seemed like over an hour or maybe even two. Fortunately, where the event was located, there was free access to Wi-Fi and once again we were able to access Dish Network via the iPad through the Sling Adapter and tada...the kids had access to programming.
Overall, At first, I thought this device was something I would never use but now I realized how awesome this device is. It was more useful in our lives than I would have expected and I saw the importance of it especially during emergency situations.
It's only $99-$100+ and there is no extra cost from Dish Network to utilize this device.
I give this device my highest recommendation! Sling Adapter
I bought this with high hopes. I was very excited because of the android capability. To my disappointment, it is EXTREMELY laggy. Do not plan on ever fast forwarding a recorded show, because you will only be frustrated. It is slow to respond, making it impossible to fast forward and play as planned. Poor quality over 3g (often doesnt work at all). The app itself has a long ways to go. I downloaded the most recent update as of 5/25/11 and it still forces close all the time.
Pros-The app is free. No monthly fee.
Cons- The adapter is $100. Quality on phone is poor. Controls are extremely slow to respond.
I've been pretty disappointed with the performance of this, because I have only 0.5Mbps upload on my Internet. It's not really usable in any way at this speed. (NOTE: I'm still rating this positively because it's obviously not the device's fault.)
If you are considering this, I'd strongly recommend you do this first--
1. Go find a speed testing website. One that's easy is at [...]
2. Run the speed test. All you care about is the "upload" speed which is always a smaller number than your download speed.
3. If the upload speed is:
About 500 Kbps - Prepare for sadness, consider upgrading your broadband first
700Kbps - Bare minimum for the video to run so you can at least watch it.
1Mbps-2Mbps - You're probably fine
3Mbps and up - Sweet! You should have no problems streaming HD!
Note: 1Mbps = 1000Kbps. Convert as needed.
Sadly, many ISPs in this backwards country provide sub-1Mbps upload speeds. It's a shame. - Slingbox'
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