Playing with Windows 7's Slingbox-like feature
Summary
Topics
With many versions of Windows, Microsoft chops features as it gets closer to release.
With Windows 7, Microsoft has actually added a few features as it has gotten closer to launch. One of the most intriguing is a feature that debuted with the most recent release candidate allows a user to stream media from one PC to another over the Internet, a la the Slingbox.
There are some noteworthy limitations. The streaming feature works with unprotected video and music files, so one can't watch video from iTunes or other copy-protected content.
Also the remote media streaming, as the feature is known, requires both computers to be running Windows 7 and requires some setup work. That said, the feature is nice for the scenarios and locations from which it works. It seems particularly well suited to a Netbook or laptop user that wants to listen to some music or view some photos that they don't have on their on-the-go machine.
To get a better sense of the product, I decided to put it through its paces. The feature didn't seem to work when one of the PCs was attached to CNET's corporate network, but worked fine when I went to a coffee house and streamed the media off of a Windows PC at home. (The remote media streaming requires the PC that houses the content to be part of a home network.)
Set-up is not overly complex, but nor is it elegant by any means. To get the PC ready, you have to turn on Internet streaming in Windows Media Player. The other piece is associating both machines with the same Windows Live ID. (The feature may eventually support other ID providers, but for now it's only Windows Live.)
Getting up and running required downloading a Windows Live ID Assistant from the Internet, which sends you to a browser. Again, this wasn't super-technical, but it would have been nice if it did all that without opening a browser and requiring so many clicks.
Once I thought I had everything set up, I decided to put it to the test. Rather than go too far from home, I headed to Nervous Dog Coffee, my favorite spot for getting caffeinated and trying out new technology.
I started with what I thought was the easiest task--opening a photo. The library showed up quickly but opening the photo was slow. Also unexpected was the fact that instead of just opening that photo, it launched a slideshow of the whole folder.
From there I moved on to music, streaming the Indigo Girls album "All that We Let In." It sounded good, with no noticeable skips, although I could only listen in short bursts as I forgot to bring along headphones.
I then moved onto video, playing a built-in HD clip of wildlife footage that came as part of Windows 7. The clip played with its accompanying audio, though the video was a bit jerky in places.
Satisfied with the results, I packed up the PC and headed into the office. Interestingly, the media-sharing feature didn't appear to work on the same PC once I got into the office. I tried labeling my office network as both a home and an office network, but perhaps a network firewall or something got in the way.
Once I switched from a hard-wire connection to CNET's public wireless network, I was once again able to see content stored on the computer at home. I was even able to stream a Sesame Street episode that I had set to start recording after I left the house.
The quality of that viewing experience varied dramatically. In the best cases, the TV showed up in a small but passable window, while in a couple cases it was in a tiny window or took an unacceptably long time to buffer.
Microsoft says a variety of factors go into the size and quality of the video stream, including the characteristics of the content, the available bandwidth, and the processing power of the serving computer.
At its best, the ability to watch recorded TV is handy; it's not quite the live TV option that Slingbox provides, but still could be useful for road warriors stuck in an airport or at the hotel. But sometimes the delay was enough to send me over to Hulu for sure.
Overall, I found the media-streaming feature to be a nice addition, but both the limitations and the somewhat complicated set-up leaves me the feeling that it will be the enthusiast rather than the mainstream user that gets around to trying this out.
This article was originally posted on CNET News.
Talkback Most Recent of 9 Talkback(s)
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Protection is right
I think the copyright protection is the right thing to insist, while usability can be improved.
Gladiatorcn15th May 2009 -
RE: Playing with Windows 7's Slingbox-like feature
As cool as this may seem, I don't really see the value in being able to stream home brewed or stored content from home to a PC out in the wild.
Most broadband users have an asymmetric connection in which the download speed is significantly higher than the upload speed. For Cox consumer subscribers, the normal combination is 10Mbps down and 2Mbps up.
When streaming from home via a normal, consumer broadband connection, the upload speed from the source will always be 2Mbps--regardless of the available bandwidth the traveler has at his or her disposal while away from home. In that regard, video quality can only be but so good.
If Microsoft wants to add a few new features, I believe they should focus on the actual OS instead of an artificially limited (not due to Microsoft's fault) nicety. For example, I would rather see the availability of the classic start menu for those that need or desire it. Microsoft could also stand to do more work in UI customization and Explorer interaction.
DarienHawk6715th May 2009 -
RE: Playing with Windows 7's Slingbox-like feature
Winamp Remote has a similar feature, although it is
CPU intensive on the host machine, and tends to be a
huge memory hog.
badkid3217th May 2009 -
RE: Playing with Windows 7's Slingbox-like feature
IF it's anything like winamp remote, the upload
doesn't seem to be much of an issue. On my 8/3
connection I was able to view full-screen content
without much loss. I even used it on a cell phone
which seemed to suggest that it doesn't require much
bandwidth. Also, something to think about... more and
more home users are demanding the ability to access
their home network from away, and with that
(hopefully) ISP's are responding by allowing more
upload bandwith and less port blocking.badkid3217th May 2009 -
Nice feature
I'm able to get incredibly high quality off my connection/PC acting as host to my laptop. My laptop isn't terribly fast but my home desktop is. I kind of like the feature. It's not quite as good as WinAmp remote but still not a bad thing. Considering this is the first release of the feature it will only improve from here.
LiquidLearner17th May 2009 -
Can't I do the same for Vista?
Can't I setup a streaming server with Windows Home Server and do the same, too? (I mentioned Windows Home Server, but since I like to mention either Windows Server 2003 or 2008, I know this is intended for business users; however, I wanted more features out of a server operating system, so I found Windows Home Server to be quite limited to file server and as a backup server for backing up all the files from one or two computers. I used Windows Server 2008 R2 as a web server (IIS 7.0 with ASP.net for home automation) when beta testing.)
I know those kinds of questions are not geared toward average users, though. Plus, I don't think I can setup a Windows Media streaming server under Ubuntu Server 9.04, though. Or can I (I want to be in the legal side of the law and I live in USA)?
Grayson Peddie17th May 2009 -
Nothing new, hardly a feature, more of a headache.
The article says that M$ usually makes features and then pulls them last minute, but that isn?t entirely true.
Unless something was just so buggy that it wasn?t worth implementing, M$ has always pulled the more usable features to offer in the more expensive flavors of Windows then filled the home editions with useless bells and whistles that look good on paper and in practical application fail miserably without upgrades, add-on packages, or a signing your life over to M$. In many cases, they even leave the buggy apps there unadvertised so that ?clever? MCSE?s can geek talk about all the great hidden features in Windows 7 a year from now. So honestly, a program that copies something that has been available for free in iTunes and Winamp for close to 7 years on any OS except restricts the content you can stream, is immensely difficult to setup, and forces people to buy Windows 7 for all their computers, sounds like a lot more of the same.
A person would be a fool to buy Windows 7 or Vista. I just hope more people continue to switch to Linux and pirate XP until M$ does a little R&D, stops using their size to bully sales, and maybe learns some ethics.
Socratesfoot18th May 2009 -
Does your mother know ...
... that you turned out to be such a whining loser?
no_axe_to__grind18th May 2009 -
Windows Zune...
Remember when this 'feature' was added to the Zune? You could share stuff with all your friends - if they also had Zunes. And if the content wasn't copy-protected... Yawn. I can share any content I want, with any computer, (I don't use copy-protected media). I can do this because Windows 7... No, wait, I use Linux. Never mind.
barence77318th May 2009
Talkback - Tell Us What You Think
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