Slingbox setup

What model of the slingbox should I buy?
Though Slingmedia does not advertise this, the Slingbox Pro supports both NTSC and PAL signals. So this means that you can buy a Slingbox Pro in the US and use it unmodified in India.

Wireless router
Another thing you will need is a wired or a wireless router. Since it is quite difficult to buy a wired router these days, I would recommend you buy a wireless router. Any router with multiple ethernet ports will do. This router will help you share your internet connection to multiple hosts.

Cable or satellite?
I assume that you plan to place shift a cable TV and not a satellite signal. The advantage of cable TV (cable over coax) over satellite (e.g. Tata Sky) is that the slingbox’s internal tuner can tune into the desired channel. This means that you could be watching a particular channel remotely while a completely different channel could be playing on your TV in India.

Connectors
In India the default connector used in TV’s seems to be the Belling-Lee connector. The slingbox however accepts input via an F-connector. You can easily find converters that go from PAL to F. However this is something you need to keep in mind.

Network setup
The slingbox itself is pretty easy to setup and the instructions provided by Slingmedia are excellent. Their tool does a great job of detecting network settings on routers (it supports almost all major routers) and modifying the firewall settings via UPnP to enable remote viewing. However in my case my ISP had installed a DSL modem which also had a firewall. This modem did not come with a user manual and it took me a couple of hours to configure its firewall.

More help
There seems to be a pretty big community setting up Slingbox’s in India. Go here for more information.

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