Is Slingbox Too Complicated for the Masses?

Filed in archive Wired Home General on July 5, 2005

When it comes to selling technology to the typical consumer, ease of use has to be a big consideration. Mike Langberg of Mercury News is reporting that the Slingbox isn't as easy to setup and use as advertised. He states:

I had to spend about an hour on the phone with a helpful Sling Media executive to get the SlingPlayer fully functioning. My setup, which includes an older router and an adapter for voice-over-the-Internet phone service, is a bit more complicated than most. But the process will still be daunting for anyone intimidated by terms such as ``IP Address,'' ``Port Forwarding'' and ``Network Address Translation.''

He goes on to say:

Where I'm stuck, though, is coming up with scenarios where Slingbox makes sense. There are certainly easier ways that deliver better-looking video for moving TV from one room of the house to another. If you want to watch recorded programs away from home, you can get a home DVD recorder for less than $200 and put the programs on rewritable DVDs to watch on your laptop -- again at much higher video quality.

Read TV-show Slingbox not worth the trouble