Review: Sony LocationFree

All this severely limits its appeal and makes the name LocationFree look rather contradictory. With the Slingbox you could be on any Internet-enabled PC in the world and, after downloading the free software, start watching your home TV.

We quizzed Sony as to whether the software might be made free in the future but were told there are currently no plans to stop charging for it.

Annoyingly, the LocationFree Player only has a standard 4:3 aspect ratio and no way of changing it to widescreen. You can use the remote control feature to adjust the aspect ratio settings on your TV source, but quite why Sony elected not to provide widescreen support is a mystery to us.

Hopefully this will be sorted in a future software update. If, however, you're using a PSP to watch video, you will be able to view in widescreen.

As far as video quality goes, LocationFree is similar to the Slingbox and depends on how fast the upstream is on your broadband connection. We had both up and running at the same time and the Slingbox appeared to exhibit slightly fewer compression artefacts.

Unlike with the Slingbox, you can’t play around with the likes of saturation, hue and sharpness with LocationFree.

Although we've highlighted some of its flaws, we should point out that LocationFree isn't a particularly bad product and it does indeed do a good job of streaming your home TV over the Internet. Indeed, had we seen it before the Slingbox arrived we would have been seriously impressed.

But, as it stands, the Slingbox makes LocationFree look totally inferior. Our biggest complaint is that Sony charges for the software, but other gripes include the lack of widescreen support, high price, lack of display control and the confusing manual.

Unlike with the Slingbox, there's also no integrated digital tuner with LocationFree.
Those who own a PSP might be tempted to go for LocationFree, but there are just too many areas in which the Slingbox triumphs.

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Sling Media Slingbox
If you want the ability to watch your home TV from anywhere, the Slingbox is well-worth considering