W.O.W. → Ultra TV/Sling Box ???

Has anyone tried hooking up a sling box through their ultra TV gateway ? I was thinking of getting a sling box so that I could watch TV on my laptop, wasn't sure if it would work or not.

It works great. You actually connect the Slingbox to one of the receivers. I use mine to watch TV on my tablet and cell phone. It's great in a waiting room, watching the ballgame while lying in a hammock or when out of town.

So, you hook it up via the cable box, NOT the gateway ? Awesome !!! Thank you for your feedback. I've been wanting to try it, but wasn't sure if it would work. My son ties up our main TV watching cartoons and such, so I was hoping to hook up the sling box so I could watch shows I recorded on my DVR through my laptop and Ipod. Can't wait to try it.

I have a slingbox 350 hooked up component to a media player, and I ran the ethernet cable to the gateway, and it works very well over the internet. I've been able to stream full HD video on it with no issues.

I have been wanting a Slingbox for a while now, so was interested when I saw this thread. Has anyone tried a Belkin @TV? I see it is a bit cheaper, AND the tablet app is free (they charge for the phone app). The thing that caught my eye for the Belkin product was the ability to record to the PC, phone or tablet, or transfer a recording from the dvr to another device. I don't think Sling does this, and it would be a great feature to have.

If anyone has tried the Belkin product I would love to hear about it. I might go ahead and order it and be the guinea pig. .

Thanks,

Gary

I went ahead and picked up a Belkin @TV about a week ago. Setup was pretty easy, and other than not pointing the blaster at the correct place on the UltraTV media player, it has worked smoothly for me. It works great for the most part but there are a few things I've noted after using it for about a week now:

I find the response time for commands entered on the on-screen remote to be slower than I had expected, and you need to be patient when doing things that require mutliple pushes of the buttons. I have also noted I don't have a 'next' or 'back' button, so when I pull up the "Info" screen on the ultra tv I haven't been able to find a way to page down through it.

The UltraTV guide is completely unreadable on my Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx. It is somewhat readable on the iPad. They do pull down a nice guide that is clear, but when you use it, it doesn't seem to change the channel on the UltraTV box. I will have to play with the settings more to see if I can figure out if the guide is usable.

The picture looks great on my PC, laptop, iPad and Android phone. I am very happy with the picture quality. It's also nice to be able to view items I've recorded on the DVR. I picked the @TV over the Slingbox because 1) Belkin's tablet app was free and the phone app was only $12.00, 2) the Belkin was cheaper than the Sling, and 3) the Belkin allows you to record things onto your mobile device and watch later when you don't have an internet connection. This last item was of particular interest to me, but it's exactly what it says - you can record them and watch them later. You can't "copy" things you've already recorded. This recording must be done live and cannot be scheduled at a later time. So if you want to record a movie off of HBO, you'll need to tune to HBO when that movie starts, hit record, and then tie up the device for the duration of the movie and hit stop when it's done. I had hoped for something better, but it is what it is.

If you read the reviews on Amazon you'll see comments that the remote on your PC looks exactly like the remote from your cable company. This is probably true if you're with one of the big boys, but the remote does not look like the Ultra TV report. It works, but it doesn't look the same - I just point that out as a fact. I don't mind. When you use it on a tablet or phone you get a generic remote anyway.

If anyone has any questions let me know and I'll do my best to answer them.

Thanks,

Gary

cool, i just ordered the @tv. the android app is actually free in the amazon app store right now. amazon even gave me a dollar credit towards a free mp3 or album.

Just a follow up. I tried streaming to my phone while on 4G and have been unable to do so with the Belkin @TV. I have looked through their forums and it appears to be a port forwarding problem. I've checked mine and have it set correctly, but I guess I will need to play with it a bit.

Does anyone know if the UltraTV gateway has issues with forwarding ports? I'm not sure that's the problem since it works on wifi from outside my home, but when I try to steam it over the cellular (either to my phone, or on my iPad using my tethered phone or my cellular access point) it doesn't work.

Thanks,

Gary

Ok...opened another port and got it working over 4g. The instructions say if your router has UPnP their software can configure it, but it was not successful after a couple attempts. For manually configuring the ports, the instructions said to "Open port 56123 for both UDP and TCP traffic, then open port 49177 to TCP traffic;..." I did that but wasn't connecting using 4G. I added 49177 UDP just for the heck of it, and it's now working over 4G. I may still have a problem, as I am using DHCP to get an ip address on the @TV, so if that changes the port forwarding will be broken. I am going to go ahead and configure it for static later just to be safe and re-do the port forwarding to the static ip.

Just to warn everyone, there is only what I would call a "quick start guide" included in the box, and the full manual from Belkin's website is pretty lacking. I read a fair number of reviews at Amazon before taking the plunge, and I'm convinced that helped me get it up and running more easily.

Take care,

Gary

One more update - just in case it helps anyone that might pick up one of these. I went ahead and gave it a static IP this morning and then fixed the port forwarding on the UltraTV box to point to the new IP. UltraTV seems rather particular about something when setting up the port forwarding. I had to do it two or three times before it "stuck". I would enter the ports and it would say it was updating and then nothing would be there. I'm not sure if it was because the new IP hadn't taken for the @TV, or what, but eventually it stuck.

Also, I figured out one reason why the auto configure didn't work for the port forwarding. I have my old Netgear wireless router (WNDR3700) set up as a switch in my office and to provide wifi to the upstairs (Gateway is in the basement and doesn't make it to the second floor for wireless). That router had UPnP turned on and so did the UltraTV gateway. The software configured the Netgear and not the UltraTV gateway. I disabled UPnP in the Netgear and tried to let the software autoconfigure the gateway, but it still didn't succeed. I did the port forwarding manually, and once it stuck everything worked like a charm. Since I know a number of folks are using old routers to boost their wireless coverage I wanted to post about disabling the UPnP on the router.

Take care,

Gary

i had the 4g problem too, gary, but the app just updated in the amazon app store and the latest version worked without me having to open any ports. the phone app is not the greatest, but the system works well from computers.