Slingbox is getting a lot of press this week. Basically Slingbox lets you stream your cable or satellite to any internet connected pc or laptop in the house. While there are other and cheaper ways to do this, the quality and ease of use is supposed to be unmatched. PCMAG.com has a review that states:

Streaming multimedia content from your home to a remote PC (or other device) is a hot area, and Slingbox joins a handful of other devices or services targeting this market (most notably Orb Networks, Sony Location Free TV, and TiVoToGo). The Slingbox unit connects in-line with your TV set, cable box, DVR, or a PC equipped with a TV tuner and infrared remote. It has input and outputs for virtually any kind of video, plus a wired Ethernet jack. An IR blaster controls power, channels, and play/pause on the TV, cable box, or DVR. You set it up from a PC inside your house (hence the Ethernet jack), but that's the last time you need an in-house PC running while using Slingbox. That is, unless you decide to use the Slingbox like a media hub to rebroadcast video within the house, which you can do over Ethernet, powerline networking, or Wi-Fi.

Any PC with an Internet connection-but for all practical purposes, you need broadband-can connect and play whatever signal Slingbox is currently receiving. It's a one-to-one relationship of one player streaming to one remote PC, and the remote PC must have the proprietary SlingPlayer software installed (you can't just walk up to a Web terminal in a Key West coffeeshop and see the latest episode of whatever shows TiVo recorded last night at home).

That all sounds great but geez, the Slingbox design sure leaves a lot to be desired. What do you think?

Read the Slingbox Review at PCMAG.com