Comments on: Playing with Windows 7's Slingbox-like feature

With the release candidate of the operating system, Microsoft added an option to stream media over the Internet from a home PC. CNET News' Ina Fried found it useful, albeit with some limitations and caveats.

[niraj246]

Engineering Windows 7 blog covers this topic very well. I believe that answers lot of question we have. http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/05/12/media-streaming-with-windows-7.aspx

[MoKraak]

The Lord be praised! This is the first that I've heard about Windows that actually makes me want to: 1) upgrade from XP Pro; and 2) continue using Windows.

[streamline35]

Rather than hearing about it, you should give the release candidate a try. It's lightyears ahead of xp, and without the bloat of vista (case in point - my netbook dual boots between xp and 7, and 7 actually runs better than xp).

[mados123]

Orb does this and works quite well. Winamp also has Orb built in (part of the installation options). You can stream live TV with it too. Just don't like how Orb conflicts with Windows Media Center's tuners nor how you cannot specify for it to not transcode media over your LAN. Good for those without Media Center.

[Papa_Grande]

Actually a program called 'Webguide' which MS acquired in early 08 may be the technology behind this. I've been slinging video and music from my home network using this program for over a year...

[bballpro]

http://www.ihatemindy.com/index.php?c=viral&m=index&id=5b299ad35a715aae8a6e16274e5ed78f

[bballpro]

http://www.ihatemindy.com/index.php?c=viral&m=index&id=5b299ad35a715aae8a6e16274e5ed78f

[expertzone]

Well, to use this at an airport or hotel, you'd need to set your network to home or work, which is not safe on a public network. This feature only works over home or work networks. Once you set to public, it is no longer avaiable.

[multmedia]

You don't need to set your network to home/work to use this at an airport to access content at home. The client can be on a public network. It's only the computer that's serving out the content (which is at home) that needs to have home/work network profi.e.

[t8]

I was a Windows fan once. But my IT skills improved and I grew up.
Just as McDonalds isn't the only place to get a meal, nor is Windows the only place to access the Web.
I think the Web is the platform and what OS or device people choose to access the Web is up to them.

[DEC_42]

Hmm...

1) Set up shared media folders (Music, Video, Pictures, etc)
2) Install Hamachi on both sharing and receiving computers (Shouldn't be an issue if this is your own laptop or so)
3) Go to a hotspot and stream.

This still depends on the user's UL and the location's DL, plus Hamachi's servers would be involved. Supposedly the streams are 256-bit RSA encrypted, though. This is the setup I've found to work. I tried using Orb... but I really didn't like its performance, even with a good UL/DL

iTunes sharing can be set up the same way - all you need to do is fire up Hamachi and turn on the Library Sharing option. Granted, the target computer will need iTunes as well, plus you'd need to authorize said computer to actually watch/listen to protected content.

As for HD content, the target computer will need to be able to play it well, regardless if it's from the HDD or streaming. Bandwidth will be a real issue if it's a movie.