[rwbuck]

My son left for college last week. He has TV in his dorm room with limited cable channels, but is looking for a way to watch TV on his laptop. Been looking at slingbox and nomad, not sure if these are valid options or not. Anyone else have a kid away at college and if so, what was your solution? Thank you.

 

[Diana C]

We used Slingbox for both our kids. Colleges usually have excellent Internet connections so the PQ is quite good. That and/or a game console for Netflix and Hulu should give them plenty of options.

 

[sigma1914]

We had free basic cable in college and we could also get a cable box to get all the premiums. Charter waived the fee for all basics and just charged us for the extra.

 

[Fluthy]

This was before digital cable, but on our floor in the dorm room 1 room would pay for the max package and then we would fish coax cable thru the ceilings to all of the other rooms Kept cost down so we could spend more on beer and pizza. Oh the good ol'days.

 

[trh]

Nomad will require him (or his device) to come home at least every 30 days to add content, so probably not a good solution. My daughter's dorm has a pretty substantial cable line-up w/o additional payment. She also uses Netflix and Hulu any many of her shows are repeated on the network's web site. We looked at Slingbox but the speed here just doesn't cut it.

 

[carl6]

Sling may serve his purpose, but you are going to want to have a dedicated receiver or DVR for him to use. DVR would be best, then he can record what he wants and watch it when he wants. Dedicated receiver for the slingbox prevents him trying to watch at the same time you are trying to watch at home (sling would share the same output from the receiver).

 

[dettxw]

Well, if his room has a southern exposur, you could always try mounting a dish in a bucket or on a tripod and aiming it out the window.

 

[billcoff]

I have a Vulkano Flow
http://www.myvulkano.com/
connected to one of my Directv receivers. My son watches programs on his laptop. Works well.

 

[rwbuck]

Looked at the Slingbox, Belkin @TV and Vulkano Flow. Thinking of trying out the Vulkano Flow. Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[litex2x]

I feel a Slingbox will be your best option here. The only problem is you can't watch TV at the same time he is if you plan on using the same receiver the Slingbox is plugged into. Also you should do a speed check of your upload speed and his download speed to ensure quality HD picture. You may also need to forward your ports on your end in your router as well, which shouldn't be a problem.