Mrs. Noded loves watching the Chicago Bears play football. For the past two years we've used Sage TV to stream the games from Noded North to her at Noded South. This year we went with another solution, a SlingBox. It's not that the Sage TV system didn't work, it worked fine. It just required that I keep a computer running at Noded North while we at Noded South.

The Sage TV solution requires a PC with a TV Video card and the Sage Server software which handles pushing the current channel data through the internet to Sage Placeshifter software on the computer at the other end of the Internet. The initial initial investement will probably run you about $250 for the TV card and Sage Software. It works quite well and we would probably still be using it if it didn't rely on the PC Server. I've got the server on a UPS to protect if and to keep it running durning a short power failure. Unfortunately if the outage is long enough the PC will shut down. If that happens the computer will not restart until I'm physically at the server to push the on button.

The Slingbox system is a small box that sits on the output side of the cable box and sends the TV signal computers that are running free Slingbox Desktop software. The advantage of the Slingbox is that if the power goes out the Slingbox automatically reboots when the power is restored. I've had the Slingbox installed for a day and I think the image quality is a little better than the Sage Solution. The Slingbox hardware starts around $179 but you may have to add the Slingbox SlingLink (addition $80) if the Slingbox needs to be connected to a cable box in a room other than the room with your Internet Router¹

I really have no complaints about the Sage other than the PC that I had to keep running back home. The Sage does have one advantage in that because it uses your PC you can record tv programs for later review something that you can not do with the Slingbox.

Slingbox Link
SageTV Link

¹The Slinglink uses the powerlines to transmit between the Slingbox in one room to a router in another. I will not work thru a surge suppress so it needs a dedicated wall plug. Something that may be in short supply if your computer room is like mine.