# Should I ditch my Stream for Sling?



## GTXgp (Oct 19, 2012)

I think I may not be in the key Stream "demographic". I don't care about transfering shows to my iPad for offline viewing because I stay pretty current on my DVR when I am home. I also have zero interest in using my iPad to watch shows around the house... I have TVs for that. What I wanted was streaming when I am not at home or on vacation. I have a VPN setup and can "fool" the Stream app into working (by not completely closing the app before leaving my home network and not reopening till I am on a WiFi VPN) but I do not know how long the app will stay fooled as a longer-term solution.

As far as I know, the Sling only has one real draw-back... that if you are using the Sling, that STB cannot (or *should* not) be used by someone who is local trying to do something else. Well, I have a guest room TiVo that is used once or twice a year but it is still on my home network. So, why not just setup the Sling on THAT box and I can watch live TV uninterrupted and since that TiVo is on my home network, I can navigate to my XL4 to view recorded shows. I realize this solution may not work for everyone but it certainly seems to fit my needs.

The new Sling 350 is only $30 more than the Stream. I don't think I need the HDMI for iPad viewing, and some shows can't pass via HDMI anyway.

Thoughts?
Adam


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

For your needs it sounds like a Slingbox is a better option. 

Dan


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## GTXgp (Oct 19, 2012)

Doing some searching, this looks interesting too:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=490198

If I can run this proxy on my VPN server and it can convert & serve content, then I could use any video player on my iPad to watch TiVo content.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

GTXgp said:


> I think I may not be in the key Stream "demographic". I don't care about transfering shows to my iPad for offline viewing because I stay pretty current on my DVR when I am home. I also have zero interest in using my iPad to watch shows around the house... I have TVs for that. What I wanted was streaming when I am not at home or on vacation. I have a VPN setup and can "fool" the Stream app into working (by not completely closing the app before leaving my home network and not reopening till I am on a WiFi VPN) but I do not know how long the app will stay fooled as a longer-term solution.
> 
> As far as I know, the Sling only has one real draw-back... that if you are using the Sling, that STB cannot (or *should* not) be used by someone who is local trying to do something else. Well, I have a guest room TiVo that is used once or twice a year but it is still on my home network. So, why not just setup the Sling on THAT box and I can watch live TV uninterrupted and since that TiVo is on my home network, I can navigate to my XL4 to view recorded shows. I realize this solution may not work for everyone but it certainly seems to fit my needs.
> 
> ...


From what you said the Sling 350 makes more sense. I picked up a Sling 350 last Sunday. It does stream well outside the home to my FireHD and my cell phone. I do think it's priced a little high, but it does work very well.

And after using the SlingBox 350 for the last week, I'm not sure if I will pick up a stream when Android support is available. If I do I might just wait for the price to drop to $100 or for a refurb unit.


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## jaredmwright (Sep 6, 2004)

Sling Solo user here, I have two DVRs tht I use, one on component and one on RCA yellow input. I use a mono price $20 audio switcher that can use any IR command to trigger input changes. This setup works great since it allows two sources. The Solo is pretty good quality, and functions similar to the 350 I believe just not in full HD. I couldn't be happy with streaming at my house over iPad or phone or computer. The stream would be much more ideal if it did adaptive streaming for remote access. I use TiVo desktop for shows I want on my other devices. The stream sounds like a good idea, but is too costly and limited currently. Hopefully they release updates to add remote viewing and other features to make it more compelling.


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## Gaidin43 (Mar 6, 2013)

I bought a stream tried it out and returned it but it lacked the away from home capabilities that the Slingbox has. I ended up buying a Slingbox 350 and it's running great. HD quality streaming while on my home network and while traveling. I have unlimited data on my iphone 5 so that's not too much of a concern. 

I like the stream for it using only one tuner on the main tivo instead of how the Slingbox takes over the main viewing on whatever you have connected to it. If VPN was able to simulate the away from home viewing or if it was built into the new premiere 5 I would get it and use it in place of a mini and my Slingbox.


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## GTXgp (Oct 19, 2012)

I decided to keep both. I am using the Stream to transfer shows for offline viewing and using the Sling350 for remote online viewing.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Yeah, I like the idea of being able to view outside the home, but even in the home, I most of the time download rather than stream, just so I have faster control of the show.


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## button1066 (Sep 4, 2012)

I love my Stream but just for the sake of it I bought a Belkin @TV and am pretty impressed. It streams great away from home. It also allows you to record what you are streaming which if you do it on your home WiFi will be in high quality. The bonus is that the Belkin ignores the copy protection flags which means you can transfer premium content like HBO onto your iPad or laptop to watch offline.

The Stream is a little more convenient for sideloading but it does seem that there are viable alternatives that actually have the advantage off streaming outside the home.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

button1066 said:


> I love my Stream but just for the sake of it I bought a Belkin @TV and am pretty impressed. It streams great away from home. It also allows you to record what you are streaming which if you do it on your home WiFi will be in high quality. The bonus is that the Belkin ignores the copy protection flags which means you can transfer premium content like HBO onto your iPad or laptop to watch offline.
> 
> The Stream is a little more convenient for sideloading but it does seem that there are viable alternatives that actually have the advantage off streaming outside the home.


Does the Belkin stream in HD?


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

But it sounds like that Belkin just streams *in realtime* and records it.. right? So of course an hour show will take an hour (as opposed to ~15 mins on WiFi with a Stream).

Don't get me wrong, I dub shows live to my non-Tivo recorder almost daily (though I watch something else on that recorder at the time or do it unattended).


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## button1066 (Sep 4, 2012)

The Belkin is SD only. I think Sling is HD but more expensive and doesn't record. There's always a catch 

The recording process is old school. You have to tell it to record for a set period of time but honestly the results are pretty good on an iPad. The screen is so small you can't really tell its not HD.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

So in other words - YES, it's real time.


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## button1066 (Sep 4, 2012)

mattack said:


> So in other words - YES, it's real time.


That is correct. Why and even how would it not stream in realtime?


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## hugenut (Mar 24, 2009)

GTXgp said:


> I think I may not be in the key Stream "demographic".... What I wanted was streaming when I am not at home or on vacation. I have a VPN setup and can "fool" the Stream app into working (by not completely closing the app before leaving my home network and not reopening till I am on a WiFi VPN) but I do not know how long the app will stay fooled as a longer-term solution.


Adam, does your solution still work? Can you elaborate how you set up your VPN? I simply have the same wants, to be able to stream at my weekend vacation home.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

hugenut said:


> Adam, does your solution still work? Can you elaborate how you set up your VPN? I simply have the same wants, to be able to stream at my weekend vacation home.


The instructions for doing this are in this thread...

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=492571

The first requirement is that your iPad be jail broken. If it's not then you're SOL because the current version of iOS can't be jail broken.

That being said TiVo has said that they are working on out of home streaming for the TiVo Stream and that it should be available this Fall, so you might have a legit way of doing this in a couple months.


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## scole250 (Nov 8, 2005)

Anyone know what the bandwidth requirements and adjustments will be with the remote stream feature?


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## dmarzo2 (Jan 12, 2013)

button1066 said:


> I love my Stream but just for the sake of it I bought a Belkin @TV and am pretty impressed. It streams great away from home. It also allows you to record what you are streaming which if you do it on your home WiFi will be in high quality. The bonus is that the Belkin ignores the copy protection flags which means you can transfer premium content like HBO onto your iPad or laptop to watch offline.
> 
> The Stream is a little more convenient for sideloading but it does seem that there are viable alternatives that actually have the advantage off streaming outside the home.


ANy issues with Stream and @TV operating on the same network?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

scole250 said:


> Anyone know what the bandwidth requirements and adjustments will be with the remote stream feature?


Currently the higher quality stream requires about 2.5Mbps. The lower quality one is about 1.3Mbps. However I think this new update is going to use adaptive streaming, so it should have a bigger range of possibilities and automatically adapt to available bandwidth.


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