Watch TV On Your Laptop

How many times have you been on vacation or travelling for work and ended up stuck in a crummy hotel room with nothing on TV but 3 channels; 1 religious, one that looks like it's being beamed in from Latvia, and ESPN? You've probably sat there and wished you had your own TV with you, well now you can.

Slingbox is an ingenious little device that attaches to you Tivo or cable box and lets you watch your TV anywhere in the World on your laptop via a little piece of software installed on your computer.

I purchased the A/V version which is designed for Tivo or some other DVR and the onscreen display is exactly that of your TV. Picture quality is great ans sound is as good as your sound card allows it to be.

There are a couple of minor drawbacks. You must have a router right beside your slingbox so it can attach to your network and unless you have your TV in your home office, you are most likely going to have to get another router or buy the Slinglink, which is their own router ($75). I went with that option and it works just fine. The other issue is that if someone is using the Slingbox while you are watching TV then the channels will change according to what they are watching. First time it happened to me I thought there was a phantom remote controller in the house.

Overall though, I'd give the Slingbox a very hearty thumbs up and think it's an invaluable tool for the TV addict who travels a lot, especially the A/V versions as you can also access all your recorded programs as well as live TV.