Video: Spawn Labs HD-720 aims to be the Slingbox to your game console, we go hands-on
By Ross Miller 
posted September 15th 2009 11:08AM
posted September 15th 2009 11:08AM
We had a chance to take a look at the streamer and talk with some of the minds behind it at TechCrunch 50 to fill in some of the missing details. In a fairly controlled environment -- the device hooked up via ethernet to a private router on the show floor -- we were able to competently play Soul Calibur IV with what we were told was around 100ms audio / video and 5ms controller lag. Under ideal situations, it streams 720p / 30 frames per second in H.264 video with AAC-LC audio, but that can automatically downscale when the connection slows -- should we decide we're too lazy to make it from our bedroom to the couch to play Halo (an all too frequent scenario), it'll clearly work fine over a local network, but it's gonna be how well it works across that internet that's the real deal-breaker, and we weren't able to test that. Cross-continent play isn't recommended, but you can have spectators from all over the world and it won't at all affect your latency. Any PC controller can work and be custom-mapped, including just keyboard and mouse, although if you're wanting to use a PS3 pad you'll have to find the drivers for it yourself. The game window itself has buttons along the bottom for pulling up the system's specific guide menu or recording the video for upload to YouTube. What's impressive to us is that it's said to work with any computer that can handle a 720p video stream, and so far in the labs they've apparently got it working well on an ION-based netbook -- but we didn't get to see that for ourselves, so we'll hold applause until we can put it through its paces ourselves. See a video demonstration for yourself after the break.
Dell Studio 15 just like mine! I'm all over that console! Very nice implementation, let's see how to holds up next to OnLive and Microsoft's on-demand gaming offering.
It max out at 720p 30 frame not 60 it seems :/ according to the guy playing in the video
It also have the ability to record the stream, if there was no lag I'd buy it but HD PVR is another option that's lag free so not sure
HD PVR does 720p 60 frame and 5.1 audio too but it cant stream over the internet as this one
This hardware kinda sexy i wish if we get more results about the lag
Just wait for the Sling loaded Dish box that's coming.
i thought Microsoft's "games on demand" offering was found to be a complete misnomer - it is a straight-forward download service rather than a streaming games service.
I WANT DIS!!!
nice thought, but they underthought it. In the video that was post yesterday, they got tripped up when asked about mobile devices. Honestly, that should have been the focus.
Just imagine, the ability to set up a game server, or just play any console game on your blackberry, IPHONE, Zune, etc.
I feel that they missed the mark. This seems to be one of those fad items that you buy to impress your friends, and then forget about a month later because it is not worth the hassle.
If it was targeted for mobile, that would be an entirely different story. Plus, the band would not be as much since they don't have as large of a screen.
Compared to developing the hardware, producing clients for other devices should be easy - controllers could be more of a problem.
They claimed that the transmission is network bandwidth adaptive - perhaps adapting to the target device display resolution would also be straightforward.
I'll be honest...my friend and I don't need to play co-op together at the price of 200 bucks + consoles... and some real world internet latency...
I'd much rather see OnLive get to market and really be able to perform...
OnLive's idea is cool, but their technique is flawed. They won't be able to do what they say they can with the performance they say they'll get.
how so penguin?
Wait on, surely 100ms lag is appalling?
Across a LAN, yes. It should be more like 20ms. Across the internet, it's relatively good. It's about the average ping on online fps servers.
O_o on what servers? If you play on a local Time Zone Server (up to maybe 3-4 states away) my ping is never above 50-60 on FPS servers on the interwebs.
LAN pings should never be above 10....5 is average.
100ms on video; I am assuming that is including any transcoding that the device is doing on the video. Which IMHO is quite fast.
Yeah, especially under their 'controlled' tests. I never play on internet servers over 60, usually pick local ones for 10-20.
100ms is even a little high for vlan, but its not awful. i've played counterstrike at 120ms (public wifi) and it was at least playable. frustrating, but playable. for other types of games that dont require fast twitch precise movements it would be fine.
Now this here is a product that you will never hear about again once we're halfway through 2010 or so.
Guaranteed fail. If you don't know why, you deserve to be out $200.
Why are they using the Screen Gems logo?
do they have a device to extend the controller range?
There is a delay with a slingbox. And it seems like it would be a lot worse with the constant controls of gaming. I wonder how they managed to eliminate the delay
So who changes the disc in the host console?
There's a third party product for that. It's on amazon.
Exactly.
I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time, but really, who will buy this? OnLive or OTOY are much better options.
The PS3 Slim, PS2 Slim, and GameCube are small enough... If you're that serious about gaming somewhere other than your living room, why not just bring it along?
Or better yet, buy a PSP, DSi, or that gaming device by Apple if you plan on gaming on the go.
Let me make sure I understand this.
This gadget will let me play Halo 3 using a keyboard/mouse combination?
OMFGWTF.
Whatever to the other features.
If all you're looking for is mouse/keyboard for a console, you're better off getting an XIM:
http://xim360.com/?page_id=9
and was covered by Engadget a while back:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/18/xim2-brings-your-keyboard-and-mouse-to-the-xbox-360-but-you-sti/
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/03/xim-2-xbox-360-mod-ready-for-pre-order-you-arent-ready-to-pony/2
but they caught up with demand a while ago so new units are shipping out daily.
I get about a 20second lag watching video on my slingbox.... that kinda lag will make fraggin' difficult. I don't see how they will get around that...
Wait... what laptop is that? Looks like a new Studio XPS.
I'm not seeing the point of this, really. $200 + a laptop, and it doesn't look exactly small and portable either.
I think I'll stick to a DS when I really need gaming on the road.
Or am I missing something?
The box sits next to your console, on your laptop you only need a controller (or use the keyboard). That sounds pretty portable.
The next gen netbooks should have enough hmph to decode HD. Now that would be portable with a big screen. I like the idea of using it around the house.
Vaporware
iPHONE IS THE ULTIMATE GAMInG MACHINE
steve jobs told me so
lol
if the network is the bottleneck, not the hardware, then this is very promising. $200 sounds like a lot but that can only go down. Any family with kids bickering over consoles would buy this before buying another console. For one, it works with any console. Also, it works in every room of the house. I think if they rounded out the features to complete w/ slingbox and adding hd recording abilities it would be a killer piece of kit.
pretty innovative.. The price tag is kinda steep, but I am sure lots of research went into this. Not for me, but its pretty good idea. Internet speeds for the common folk are going to have to bump up in order for this to fly. Not all of us have FioS.. If I got one of these my wife would divorce me for sure.... just sayin.. ;-)
"Honey you have been playing Halo all day, do you think you could take a break and watch food network with me?"
"Sure lovebug, hey could you please pass me the laptop?"
Wait I don't get it. For $200, why wouldn't I just buy another console? OnLive's business model makes sense because their hardware is cheap and so are the games (and on demand as well!). With this, you still have the hardware cost of the original console, plus the software cost of the games, PLUS all the costs of this setup as well. I don't get it...
My thoughts exactly. For $200 I'll just buy another 360.
To me, the big question this raises is: What are the content producers going to say about their games being streamed to your friend's machine? It obviously only supports one host at a time, so is this a fundamentally different from sharing a game disk? Even if you charged your friend for access to your copy of Halo, is this a fundamentally different IP question than renting single copies? Someone get me an IP lawyer, stat!
What's the upload requirement to get 720p out of the home?
And if you've got a media center and use your xbox 360 as an extender, this is EXACTLY like a Slingbox, allowing you to get to that content and, apparently, record it. Suddenly this feels like a very real competitor in a unique scenario with additional functionality.
Let's say your 15 yr old son wants to play the new Madden 2010 game his friend at school got on XBOX 360, but he has PS3. With Spawn Labs HD-720 he can connect to his friends game on the other side of town without having to buy the console or the game. The Spawn Labs box provides more of a peer to peer model where Onlive is more of a client server model.
in real time? yeah, right...
100ms video delay isn't the same as bullet registration latency in a game server. Imagine playing any fps that you actually shoot a moving target (not one standing still) on a DLP tv from years ago or even guitar hero/rock band uncalibrated then multiply that delay by at least two. This is the video delay of your spawnlabs on LAN.
This is a very promising technology!
I bet not only game streams can be sent via internet, but live video as well, making it a wonderful no-lag videoconferencing tool, for home, business, medical and even military use.
I can't wait to try one myself.
now i can buy a notebook!
Ok. I think I get it. So you can play from anywhere once you have the thing hooked up to your consoles. I don't like how you can't use a keyboard/mouse, but hey, nothing's perfect. So even if your friend doesn't have a 360 and doesn't live in the same city/state, you can still play a 360 local multiplayer session on the same console over the internet, or they can spectate while you play.
Reminds me of PSP Xlink Kai. You can play local adhoc on your PSP with other people through the internet. So it's pretty much faux multiplayer.
So if you in some way can't get any game consoles (poor, strict parents, etc.), you can play Halo or Gears with your rich internet friends who just so happen to have an HD-720 hooked up.
This would be great for anyway who travels on the road! I've spent many a night in a hotel room watching crappy HBO when I'd much rather play something on my XBox.
$200 sounds high though. I'd much prefer $100 or maybe $150. Plus, the demonstrator mentioned something about if you don't want to play what's in the disk drive, you can select something installed to the hard drive. That couldn't work right? You have to have the disk in the drive to play a game even if it's installed to the XBox hard drive... right? Must just be limited to live arcade stuff...