Slingbox system

After many trials we got our TV system set up in Geneva to work.

As of Wednesday we are able to watch live programming from Charlotte NC on our local TV in Switzerland.

This is how it works.

Back home we have a normal Time Warner DVR set up and hooked up to a TV (HUGE SHOUT OUT AND THANKS TO UJ AND AJ FOR HELPING US OUT!!!).  To the DVR, we connected a device called a Slingbox which is also plugged into the internet router. This little guy sends our DVR signal over the web and we can watch and control the DVR through our computer. It’s really cool.

This is what the screen looks like when you use the over the internet watching mode. Of course you can make it show in full screen, it doesn't have to be so tiny...

Now we also have a second piece of equipment called the Slingcatcher, which is basically a receiver at the end destination which plugs into our local TV in Geneva and puts the Slingbox signal into it. Oh, obviously the Slingcatcher is connected to the local internet router as well.

Here is our local tv transmitting an NBA game live.

I love technology! The set up is no perfect. If the weather is bad or power goes out in Charlotte we are screwed. Also if the internet connection at end destination is bad we can’t receive the signal property = we can’t watch the show.

But you know what, I will take the occasional outage for the ability to watch my beloved NCIS, CSI’s, Hawaii Five-O and of course The Bachelorette, which according to some friends on Facebook, is full of real tools this season… Need to catch up on my DVR…

Oh the best thing – we can actually watch live TV too, which I did not think was possible till we actually had the set up in place. So each morning we get ready for work we can watch Channel 14 News from Charlotte in real time.  Note that when I get ready for work at 7am here, it is 1am there… I feel for the suckers who have to work that late at night to keep ME entertained in Suisse… Ha!

Next step: set up the Roku player, so we can stream Netflix her in GVA. But that will take a while to figure out...
I can't imagine how expats did life overseas before all this technology...