Inside Sling Box TV Streaming

Slingbox/Internet Streaming question?

by Matt Biddulph

Question by Mike Baggins: Slingbox/Internet Streaming question?
I have a question about the slingbox and internet streaming of television picutres. The slingbox works very well for me in terms of quality and clarity of broadcast. The problem I have with it is the time lag or buffering. I use it almost exclusively for live sports and the buffering can make this a frustrating process. Is there anyway that i can 'broadcast' or recieve my cable tv at home through the internet in real time?

Best answer:

Answer by Steve
From your description, it is a little unclear about whether you are talking about the normal delay of a few seconds when you first start streaming the video from your slingbox, or whether you are talking about repeated pauses in the broadcast for rebuffering because the bandwidth between your slingbox and the computer or device you are watching it on is not big/wide enough.

If you're talking about repeated pauses for rebuffering, then the only good way to solve that is to buy more bandwidth, either on the network where your slingbox lives, or on the network where you are watching it, or both.

If on the other hand you're talking about the one-time buffering delay when watching anything on slingbox, in my experience, the video from my slingbox is usually less than ten seconds behind the actual broadcast. That buffered delay is necessary for the video and audio to stream smoothly to you and will occur no matter how wide your bandwidth is, although more bandwidth may shorten the time required for buffering a little. If this is what you're talking about, I'm a little surprised that it is a problem. Are you trying to watch the streamed video while sitting in the arena or listening on the radio or something else that makes the delay obvious?

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!