Slingbox Pro-Making it Work with an Apple Extreme in my Network

I bought an Apple Extreme Router a few months ago and could never get it to work with my SlingBox Pro which I had been running on my Belkin Wireless G Router for over a year just fine. Seems no one has been successful directly connecting a Slingbox to an Apple Extreme Router. After discussing with others I finally made my Apple Extreme Router a SubNet off of my old Belkin Router which I connected to the Cable Modem rather than the Apple Extreme. I hooked the SlingBox Pro to the Belkin as before and everything seems to be functioning fine. The Apple Extreme Router is connected to the Belkin via ethernet cable. I did not change a single setting on either router. I took the Belkin which I had unplugged a few months ago for the Apple Extreme which I have been running since, and I just plugged the Apple Extreme to the Belkin. The ethernet cable runs from the Apple Extreme WAN port to one of the normal device ethernet ports on the Belkin. The 2 networks have different names and run on different channels (1 and 11). Bothe networks use their default netwrok IPs. The Belkin uses the 192.168.X.X IPs while the Apple Extreme uses the 10.X.X.X. Everyone in the house uses the Apple Extreme as the main wireless router to connect to (it has great range and strong signal management) and I connect to the Belkin Network only for Slingplayer. I did not need to change the NAT settings on each either. Both routers still have DHCP enabled. I am able to connect within my home and from the outside via the Internet.

xbox 360 Connect360 to MacBook

Want to Play your media from your Mac Computer to your TV. Use Connect 360 from NullRiver. [ http://www.nullriver.com/ ]I wanted to do this since I only had one HDMI port on my HDTV and my sons xbox had claimed it. I’d love to have a Mac Mini but it has no HDMI and with the Apple TV there’s the xbox HDMI conflict.

Anyway, all you need to do is connect your xbox to your router (I wired it directly with an ethernet cable). Then download Connect360 from NullRiver. Unzip it. Then double click on the connect360prefpane from the unzip. This will ask you if you want to install Connect 360. Yes is obviously the answer.

If your xbox is already on the Internet for xbox live your router already knows about it. So with your xbox on, double click the connect 360 prefpane icon so it appears on your desktop. Then click the start button. It will find Music, Video and other items in your Mac and iTunes Lib. It will only list a few so you can demo it. All items will become available when you buy connect360 and register it. From here you open the Media selections on the xbox, select videos or music. You select and play using the xbox controller. You do nothing with the Mac computer.

If this is the first time your connecting the xbox to the Internet via your router you’ll have to go through numerous xbox menu selections and account setup with xbox live to get to the point where you can actually play the movies from your Mac. My son did all of this for us since this was the first time we allowed him with the xbox on the net. I’m sure all this is documented in the xbox world somewhere. He didn’t need a manual. Somehow he just knew. Through this process he had to download xbox video upgrades to allow movies to be played. They are all free. The xbox menus are easy to follow.

Once all the downloads were done we could play the items in the libraries. My MacBook actually showed up as a Device to Connect to for media. Select it and everything is there.

After sampling the movie “8 Legged Freaks” from my iTunes Lib and a few other items from my Mac I elected to buy and register. This went flawlessly. You can pay with Paypal. You instantly are taken to NullRIver where your activation code appears on your screen. Just copy and paste this into the Connect360prefpane screen within the register function and your instantly activated and Connect360 begins to index all of your libraries; movies, photos and music. Then you’re off and running.

Couple things: Make sure you know or ask your kids how to manage the video and music player controls via the xbox handheld device. It actually becomes quite second nature.

Also, we first tried to connect xbox to our Airport Express Access point via ethernet and thought we could hop to the Apple Extreme Router and then the net. No can do. We received “not connected” type messages from the xbox no matter what we did. We’ll buy a wireless adapter for the xbox soon to eliminate the cable. I’ll update the blog after we try it.

Lastly we did all this to a standard defintion television.

MacBook Airport Card Replaced

After 33 months the wireless card on my MacBook started to go really wacky. If it wasn’t within 6-8 feet of a router it wouldn’t do anything. I had AppleCare. At the Apple STore they did a test on continuous throughput and that was fine. I explained it was HTML oriented. We cleared the Safari cache and tried to load pages (20 -30 ft from the router). This illustrated the problem of little, slow or no throughput. They replaced the Airport Card and I had my MacBook the very next day. Internet is flying again from near and far. They also replaced my discolored Keyboard and inside surface as my early model was susceptible to discoloring…which it was. Cudos Apple.

SlingPlayer Pro, Upgrade on MAC, Firmware Too

Findings from Upgrading my SlingPlayer Desktop Software on my MacBook and subsequently the Firmware on the SlingPlayer Pro.

I’ve been using my SlingPlayer for about a year now and never upgraded the software or firmware. I originally set it up via Win-XP and things were OK. When I switched to MACs (MacBook) I loaded the SlingPlayer Software and things were pretty much the same. I’ve been hooked to a standard Comcast Analog Cable service with channels 2 through 102 or so. But I could only get channels 2-66 on my SlingPlayer.

Well tonight I decided to try and rescan the channels in the SlingPlayer configuration and ended up with only channels 2-13. YIKES! What was I doing wrong? Found out I needed to 1) download the latest version of the Mac SlingPlayer Desktop software 1.06.244 (I was running a 1.02.xx version). This new version added a new selection on the Channel Scan button in configuration….the ability to scan ANALOG CABLE. Selecting this and scanning got me all channels up through 102 on Comcast. After scanning it then forced me to do part 2) upgrade the firmware.

Things going smoothly so far.

Just goes to show you…check for updates for your peripheral devices too.

VG

X-Plane and Slots for the iPod Touch-Phone

What fun X-Plane and Slots are. X-Plane is very good. Although limited in functionality, if you’ve played it on PCs or MACs you’ll enjoy it. It suits the platform nicely. I’m sure upgrades are in process. At least I hope so.

Slots is just plain addicting. Great time killer.

iPod Software v2.1

Just updraded my iPod Touch to v2.1 of the software. Backups are soooooo much faster.

Games and other new Programs seem to install infinitely faster.

Amazon “Kindle”

Had a chance to play with a friends Amazon Kindle today. Very nice book reader. I can see why people would buy it. Quite lite and very easy getting around. It’s not for me, but certainly something to keep an eye on over the next couple years to see how it evolves. VG

iPod Touch – Screen Captures

Yes. Heard this on Adam Christianson’s MacCast. If you hold the center button down and then click the power button at the top of your iPod Touch it will capture what is on the screen and save it to your saved photos folder on the iPod/iPhone. Very handy since there is no cut and paste.

iPod Touch Screen Capture

Games for iPod Touch

Labyrinth and Cube Runner are two nice free games for the Touch. Both operate smoothly in graphics and accelerometer turning and twisting. Enjoy.

Cro-Mag Race Game iPod Touch

Tried this new racing game with my Apple Video cable from my iPod to my HDTV…no go. Image will not be displayed, only the audio….darn!!! Regular videos still display nicely under version 2.0 of the iPod Touch Software though.