The iPhone Collective

[Luv2Camp]

The Solo is fine if you don't need HD (and I think HD can be a bit much to push over the Internet, but I haven't seen the HD model in action) and only need to control the one DVR. The HD unit can have multiple inputs, such as a DVR, cable box and a DVD player.

Great! I'm going with the Solo then. So, it looks like I'll need the Solo, the turbo thing (my DVR is in one room, and my router is in another), and possibly the Belkin cords (Amazon is recommending them if I buy the Solo!). I think I'm going to order everything for Christmas as a gift to myself!

 

[robind]

I wanted to see what was going on with this thread. I always believed that my slingbox controls the tv that it is attached to and I wanted to go check. When I went to check I realized my box was not connecting to my router and I ended up spending 2 hours messing w/ the silly thing.

That being said, mine is hooked up to the television/ DVR in my bedroom. If I am watching the slingbox on my iPhone or computer etc. I have control over that television. I can not be watching one thing on the external device and something else on the television in my bedroom. I can watch anything, tv or DVR recording. This has never been an issue because I am only using the slingbox when I am out of town and no one should be watching my TV.

Also as an FYI, you can not have to external devices watching the same show, if you log onto another machine, it will ask you if you want to disconnect the other one. I've run into this when I've offered to share w/ my coworkers. We were in Copenhagen once and we both wanted to watch the Amazing Race but were at different hotels. I gave her the password, but only one of us could watch at a time.

I have the solo and it's a little fuzzy on the iPad, it looks great on the iPhone, if I were to re-buy it, I might try the HD version.

 

[Luv2Camp]

I have the solo and it's a little fuzzy on the iPad, it looks great on the iPhone, if I were to re-buy it, I might try the HD version.

Hey, that's a good tip because I would want to use it on my iPad too!

 

[MM32830]

I can not be watching one thing on the external device and something else on the television in my bedroom.

That is because your television is connected to the DVR and not directly to cable.

My configuration is:

TV connected to cable via the "ANT" (coaxial) jack.

TV also connected to DVR via the external video/audio jacks. There are many forms of these jacks, depending on the TV and quality you want. One is composite video. Another is S-Video while another ic component video. Some DVRs can connect to a TV via HDMI. Depends on the capability of the DVR and TV.

My Slingbox also connects to the cable via the coaxial cable.

Lastly, my Slingbox connects to my DVR via the external video/audio jacks (as explained above).

Using this configuration allows you to watch live TV on on both the TV and Slingbox independently. You can also watch the DVR on the TV -OR- Slingbox while still watching live TV on the other independently.

Lastly, you are correct that only one person can connect to the Slingbox at one time. This was done to squelch and possibility of copyright infringement. Sling was concerned that the TV networks and cable companies would complain if multiple users could watch one feed, hence the reason for only one user at a time.




__________________
Armand

 

[doconeill]

That is because your television is connected to the DVR and not directly to cable.

My configuration is:

TV connected to cable via the "ANT" (coaxial) jack.

TV also connected to DVR via the external video/audio jacks. There are many forms of these jacks, depending on the TV and quality you want. One is composite video. Another is S-Video while another ic component video. Some DVRs can connect to a TV via HDMI. Depends on the capability of the DVR and TV.

My Slingbox also connects to the cable via the coaxial cable.

FYI, this won't work on FiOS any more, and may not work in the future on other systems, unless the TV/device is cablecard compatible and you get a cablecard for it. FiOS dropped the analog channels for capacity reasons (the analog channels take the space of 2-3 standard definition digital channels). They do provide a low-end free converter box for just the broadcast channels, but most devices like the Slingbox can only control one (I think the HD might be able to do 3).

 

[MM32830]

This is why I won't sign up for FIOS or similar services like satellite service.

Cable companies will continue to feed analog channels for years to come. Cable companies are increasing capacity by using new technology like switched digital service which they can use with existing converter boxes. Doing so allows the cable companies to continue offering analog service for the millions of television sets out there that don't have digital tuners.

Will cable companies eventually phase out their analog service? Absolutely, but that will be several years in the future. In the meantime, enjoy the flexibility of using your Slingbox with your cable company's analog service.



__________________
Armand

 

[doconeill]

This is why I won't sign up for FIOS or similar services like satellite service.

Cable companies will continue to feed analog channels for years to come. Cable companies are increasing capacity by using new technology like switched digital service which they can use with existing converter boxes. Doing so allows the cable companies to continue offering analog service for the millions of television sets out there that don't have digital tuners.

Will cable companies eventually phase out their analog service? Absolutely, but that will be several years in the future. In the meantime, enjoy the flexibility of using your Slingbox with your cable company's analog service.

FiOS could easily offer switched digital video service as well, but choose to remain compatible with the current cable industry standards...the problem with SDV is that is is not compatible with cablecards, which the cable companies are supposed to be compatible with but they've been skirting the rules there. They came out with special SDV adapters that certain equipment - mainly TiVo units - could use by plugging them in to their USB ports. The Slingbox HD might support such an adapter, but that only really matters for mid-tier and higher programs that you'd need a cablecard (which Slingbox does not support) or a box anyways.

I misspoke earlier about it not working on FiOS...at least with the current HD unit.

Most equipment nowadays have QAM and ATSC tuners in addition to the old NTSC, so the lack of analog channels is not a big deal except for older equipment.

Since the Slingbox HD has a QAM tuner, it can still be used as mentioned above - so long as the channel you want is A) not served by SDV, and B) in the clear (not encrypted - which is usually only your local and extreme basic channels). The challenge could be to FIND the station you want, as they do not necessarily map to the their "real world" channel numbers.

 

[denise]

ok my apple friends...
daughter wants to use my old touch for listening to music while she runs. Trouble is she doesn't like my music! (go figure) How do I put her music into my itunes without ruining everything I have in itunes (music aps)? I want to always sync it on my computer and not her netbook that contains her music. I have a PC, windows 7.

Went to the Apple store but they where too confusing...plain English please....

thanks
denise

 

[sarahsar]

ok my apple friends...
daughter wants to use my old touch for listening to music while she runs. Trouble is she doesn't like my music! (go figure) How do I put her music into my itunes without ruining everything I have in itunes (music aps)? I want to always sync it on my computer and not her netbook that contains her music. I have a PC, windows 7.

Went to the Apple store but they where too confusing...plain English please....

thanks
denise

When you sync, you can specify what you want to sync to each device. You don't have to sync the same songs to both. If you want to sync them both from the same computer/login/iTunes account, then all of the music will show up in iTunes on the computer, though.

To specify what you want to sync, you can do it a couple of ways. Once way is to specify on the "Summary" tab (when the device is plugged in) to sync "only checked songs" and then uncheck what you don't want. Unfortunately, the checking would apply to everything, so that's probably not going to be enough to keep your music separate.

Another way to do it is to go to the Music tab while the device is plugged in. You can sync "selected playlists, artists, albums, and genres." For each device, specify what you want.

 

[denise]

you are always so helpful.....thank you,
that part I understand (I think!)....... but it's getting her music off her netbook to my pc...went back to the apple store tonight and they told me yet another way. I will see if it works. I will let you know.
they said share her music and then drag it to a new playlist. We will see....

 

[wenrob]

Why does it have to be on your computer? The easiest thing would be for her to have her own itunes account and sync on her computer.

I'm here to tell you sharing an itunes account with someone who doesn't have similar tastes (ahem, MY daughter) it's a huge pain in the butt and I can never find my stuff because I have to wade through hers. I did make a master playlist for my music that I can just go to but she's totally taken over my itunes. She will be getting her own EHD soon and her own account!

 

[sarahsar]

you are always so helpful.....thank you,
that part I understand (I think!)....... but it's getting her music off her netbook to my pc...went back to the apple store tonight and they told me yet another way. I will see if it works. I will let you know.
they said share her music and then drag it to a new playlist. We will see....

What they are having you do is set up Home Sharing, which will let you import each other's music wirelessly. That is probably the simplest way to copy the music over to your computer, and that would indeed let you both sync to the same computer.

I agree with wenrob, though - unless there's a compelling reason, it would probably be easier to just have her sync to her own computer. Do you two share an iTunes account? Even if you share an iTunes account, it isn't necessary to sync both devices to the same computer. She can sync to her computer and you to yours and you don't have to complicate things by copying over all the music unless you want some of it. If your musical tastes don't cross over much, that would be a lot less messy.

You can have up to five computers on one iTunes account. You can sync devices to whichever computer makes sense. One thing to remember, though, is that you can't sync one device to multiple computers (it will erase what's on it and replace what's on the second computer). But multiple devices to different computers is fine, if that makes sense.

 

[denise]

when she gets her own iphone next year then that would be great. I am not giving her my touch just yet so want to make sure she doesn't mess up everything. I know I can re-sync it all to my specs but just wanted to add her workout tunes to it.
I got it to work. Was easy. Just made a new playlist on my computer, shared her itunes with mine and then dragged the music over. Easy, easy.

The girl at apple yesterday was not helpful at all. She told me to save it all to a flash drive and move it that way. Waste of time...and....I bought the Nike+ shoe thing and asked...will this work on the first generation touch? yes of course she says....real answer was NO. So took it back today. Manager helped me with the return and he said he will talk to her because that was wrong to tell me.
Anyway, all is good...thanks dis buddies....

 

[itch1]

HELP HELP
I was looking for some movies and I think I got hit with a bot! Since then I have run norton on all my computers but I am not getting the same amount of email and even more conspicuous is when I go to retrieve email on my phone it will show up for a second then with touching a thing it dis disappears ! I look in my trash file and they are not there! HELP am I screwed?
Itch

 

[CrazyChristie416]

My faves

Facebook of course!!
Twitter
SitorSquat (Tells you all the public restooms in the area and rates their cleanliness)
Chipotle (Online ordering!!)
Shazam- tells you song info for songs you dont know. All you do is hold it up to a speaker and click
Pandora (free internet radio, it makes great selections based your song searches
NYC subway map- always useful
Loseit! input all of your physical activity and foods for the day and it tells you how many calories you can eat, it is also great for setting weight loss goals

Lots of great ones on here!!

 

[vwlfan]

I've been resisting and resisting. Kept saying the Ipad was just a big iphone (which I have) without the phone. Then I thought I'd wait until version 2 would come out, whenever that would be. But Apple has won, who knows when they will come out with that and what might be the "upgrades" that would have made me wait for it?

So I am pulling the trigger. I'll get just the wifi version because I can't see paying two 3G plans. But

Now I am wondering if I should get the 16 or the 32 version.

Any opinions are welcome!

 

[Bell30012]

Psst, they also have a 64 GB version!

 

[Anna114]

If you are good about managing what's on your iPhone get the 16 if you are not or you plan on keeping a lot of video on your iPad then get the 32 IMHO

 

[dmwang9]

I've been resisting and resisting. Kept saying the Ipad was just a big iphone (which I have) without the phone. Then I thought I'd wait until version 2 would come out, whenever that would be. But Apple has won, who knows when they will come out with that and what might be the "upgrades" that would have made me wait for it?

So I am pulling the trigger. I'll get just the wifi version because I can't see paying two 3G plans. But

Now I am wondering if I should get the 16 or the 32 version.

Any opinions are welcome!

My general rule has always been to err on the side of caution and buy as much memory/storage as I can afford. It seems like every time I buy a new device, I think "there's no way I will ever fill THIS one up", and then about 6 months later, it's full. YMMV, of course.

 

[vwlfan]

What about the Apple protection plan?