[Series3Sub]

There isn't a good substitute for a Slingbox because it is the best at what it does.

While SlingMedia is no longer maufacturing Slingbox's, they still sell the remaining inventory (Slingbix site, Amazon, etc.) and will support latest gen of Slingboxes. The Slinbox latest gen for sale with continued support are th 500 and the M2. 500 uses on-screen setup and has HDMI, Component, and Composite, with up to TWO different devices connected and swtching between devices to stream. The M2 has Component and Composite for one device.

Slingbox will stream OTA via HDMI because OTA is not flagged at all. However, if you wish to stream flagged content, then it must be via Component connection.

I have two 500's and they outperform my sad TiVo stream with near perfect reliabilty and better PQ, especially with slow internet speeds. Even DishAnywhere can be flakey (same Sling technology--Dish owns Sling Media--but far more complex app and services) at times (although not nearly as utterly useless as my TiVo Stream), but my two Slingboxes have been rocksolid by comparison.

Don't bother buying older legacy Slingboxes at fleabay, etc. They are no longer supported. 500 and M2 and possibly M1 are supported. I should state that SlingMedia has announced only no longer manufacturing of Slingboxes, but they also announed that latest gen Slingboxes will continue to work for the future.

Of course, with each payTV provider offering its own app for viewing content and with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon et al. the need for a Slingbox is not what it once was. Get ur Slingboxes while you can.

 

[Series3Sub]

Why does the connection type make a difference?

Because HDMI being DIGITAL easily incorporates HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Copy Protection). Many basic and higher tier pay cable/sat channels such as Disney, Nat Geo, etc. may contain flags that will limit copies or simply not allow any at all and will NOT pass through to the Slingbox or a DVR Recorder, etc. as a clear image and will display BLACK only.

The Component (Red, Blue, Green cables) connection is ANALOG and the digital HDCP is not effective on component connections. This is why it is recommended to use Component connections when passing through signals that contain HDCP. I should add that there are ways to shut down even the component output, but those copy protections methods are not implemented/allowed at this time, but content owners had been working to change that, but I don't think it went very far mostly because it would have "broken" a lot of legacy TV's that have only component inputs for HD. HOWEVER . . . .

If one has only an HDMI connection available, then using a very inexpensive HDMI POWERED Splitter (not to be confused with an HDMI Switch), will render the HDCP ineffective, and one gets a clear signal via HDMI from the output of the HDMI splitter to the Slingbox, etc. for streaming/recording, and this should not require anything else be on/powered up except the cable/Sat/DVR box and the Slingbox. Such splitters are for sale at the very large on-line retailer named after the river for around $20. Read the reviews at said on-line retailer to verify. You only need a 2 way POWERED splitter unless you have uses for the 3 or 4 way one.

I will say that when you first set up the powered HDMI splitter, you may have to connect and then reconnect the power a few times or connect and reconnect the HDMI cable to get it to consistently send a clear signal AT FIRST, but after you establish that, their is almost never anything else to do. It is just that the very first HDMI "handshake" can be a very tricky, fussy, intermittent hit or miss thing at the very first time you set it up--even with approved devices--so it can take a few more times of messing about and getting the "handshake" just right taking just a minute of two of your time, but after that, you should never have to mess with it again.

Again, OTA does NOT send any copy protections flags (in very rare cases a few stations were unaware they were sending out such flags until they were made aware of it, and then removed them) as per Federal Court ruling that the broadcasters never appealed. The broadcasters just let it be. However, that is for ATSC 1.0 today. We may see digital copy protection with ATSC 3.0; I've not read anything regarding this, but we should expect the worst when it comes to digital copy protection.

Just an "if you're interested," the court didn't rule on the legality of the copy protection scheme, just that the requirement and enforcement of the Copy Protection scheme was beyond the FCC's mandate. Congress (and the NAB hacks who wrote the law and paid--I mean paved its way through Congress) had erred. The broadcasters never appealed the decision, so it stands. Lots of digital recording devices at the time such as DVR's and DVD recorders had software that was compliant with the "required" broadcast copy protection scheme, but then the court decision came down, and there was no "requirement" after all. I don't think the broadcast copy protection flags were ever implemented except by accident, and I seem to remember a preliminary injunction preventing its implementation until after the case was decided. So, lots of useless CP software on my old DVD Recorders.

 

[Series3Sub]

Thanks for the info. Where exactly do I connect the powered Splitter to? What are the different connections I need to make? Should I get a 4K 30Hz or 4K 60Hz one?

I'd be using either a Tivo Stream or a Slingbox.

EDIT: I'm leaning towards a Tivo Stream, since the powered HDMI splitter solution should resolve one of the drawbacks of the Tivo Stream, which was the copy protection.

I have had the TiVo stream for years, and I do use it on occasion. Frankly the only reason to get a TiVo stream is that you can transfer recordings to a mobile device-- if they don't have the copy protection from transferring that program to the mobile device, and a great many do-- because the TiVo Stream can be quite unreliable. it works best with in your LAN, but even then you can get very poor quality streams. as for out-of-home streaming the TiVo Stream follows even flatter on its face, but does have its good days. it has been reported by many on this for him that the TiVo Stream will not do so if you are outside of the United States. I can't tell you the number of times that I tried to use my stream and just given up and used my Slingbox instead. So, if you want to get a TiVo Stream to transfer programs that are allowed to be transferred to your mobile device, fine. But don't count on it as a streamer. be aware that the TiVo Stream is an old product and has not been in production for years and has not received any updates or enhancements in a very long time.

if you if you want a reliable streamer with with good to excellent quality video, then the Slingbox is the only tool that delivers. keep in mind that the Slingbox will take over whatever box it's connected to operating it as if you were right there at the home in front of your TV so this means that while you're slinging from that particular Box nobody else can be watching TV independently off of that same box. however many TiVo users have solve this problem by connecting the Slingbox to the mini and using the minis component output using the breakout cable. the advantage of using the component cable is that all content can be passed through to the Slingbox and she remote location even content that has digital copy protection on it because component is not digital, but component connection still provides high definition.

Or if you take the HDMI route, referring to the earlier post, all you do is have an HDMI cable from the output of the cable sat box to the input of the splitter and then another HDMI cable from one of the outputs of the splitter into the Slingbox HDMI input.

You can view your streamed content being sent from the Slingbox to your remote location on a computer or mobile device or if you want to watch it on a big screen TV I suggest you invest in the Amazon Fire TV because there is a free Slingbox app for Fire TV that when you launch it it will automatically connect to your Slingbox and begin streaming and the picture quality on a big TV is very nice. that's the easiest and most reliable way of watching your stream content on a really big HDTV screen.

Slingbox uses Slingbox uses proprietary encoding that is capable of sending good quality video even in very low speed or low bandwidth internet situations, and I'm talking about Upstream internet speed as slow as 3 megabits per second. for the most excellent absolute highest quality picture approximately 8 megabits per second is required. however the picture quality is outstanding at even half that rate. the encoding occurs on the Fly constantly adjusting to the speeder bandwidth of the internet connections without having to drop out or restart. as for the TiVo Stream, on good days it's really good, and on bad days, which are most of the days, it is a subpar in regards to streaming, may have problems logging in, can be a little flaky buggy and also provide very poor image quality requiring you to maybe disconnect and reconnect disconnect and reconnect again and again and sometimes you just can't fix it then I go to the Slingbox.

Personally, I recommend this Slingbox option but of course that's your final decision.

 

[Series3Sub]

And how does using the Powered splitter help get past the copy protection? Why does it work?

I really I really haven't found an explanation as to why it is so. However there are plenty of Tech sights and audio video media sites with plenty of articles about the fact that it does work to circumvent the hdcp. this should not be surprising as the stupid media content owners always throw tons of money at these supposed copy protection solutions that have all been easily circumvented. yeah I know it sounds crazy that all you need is an HDMI splitter to circumvent hdcp, but that has been the history with stupid copy protection that the media company to blow money on licensing and then finding out that it's easy to circumvent. you can also go to Amazon looking up these HDMI Splitters with a lots of people verifying that it does circumvent hdcp. I use an HDMI splitter for one of my sling boxes for both dish and TiVo and it does circumvent hdcp. It really works. all the dish channels that are hdcp come through clear and beautifully through the HDMI two-way and into the Slingbox and through the internet to my mobile device or Fire TV connected to a big screen HDTV.