Spawn Labs – Slingbox for your Xbox
Recently Brad introduced me to the guys at Spawn Labs as he wanted to try out a demo of their first product, the Spawn HD-720. Basically this is a Slingbox for your Xbox (or Playstation 3). It’s a small box that you install next to your game console, connect to your internet connection and connect to your console by Gamepad Adapters that let the box control your console just like any controller would (the console doesn’t know the difference). You then visit their website, install a small plugin and in minutes you’ll be playing your favorite games streamed over the net, in real time at up to 720p resolution. Sounds fairly cool, huh?
First I must say I don’t actually have a Spawn HD-720 but rather they set me up with a demo at their offices. So I can’t speak to how easy to configure the actual box is and I have no idea what sort of bandwidth they have (I assume tons). I’m running on a Comcast cable modem at about 20MB downstream, so fairly quick. For me it was a snap it get it all working – I accepted the invitation code they sent me via email (am guessing that’s only needed if you are browsing a friends machine). After creating a quick account online I was able to play on either a Xbox360 or Playstation 3. I clicked Play on the Xbox console and was prompted to download and install a small plugin which happened quickly and with ease. Once I connected my Xbox controller to my PC (I already had the adapter for this) I was ready to go.
Upon clicking the big green Play button a new window opens to actually play the game. This window has options for size (.5x all the way up to full screen) and a number of streaming and controller options. You can play with the keyboard/mouse but that’s fairly tough depending on the game. The first game I tried was Project Gotham Racing 4 – a game I owned a while back. So how was playing?
It was okay. The video and audio quality are impressive and there was virtually no visible lag at all. In fact the video quality was some of the best I’ve seen from a device like this, better even than I remember my Sling HD was. Input from the controller was a little laggy but far better than I expected. I’d have to guess there is a .10-.25 second delay in all button presses, etc. (they estimate something in the .1 second range but it “felt” a bit more than that to me). While that doesn’t sound like much when you are playing a racing game that has constant input (turn a bit, brake, gas gas gas!) it became pretty challenging to drive accurately. While very interesting it wasn’t something I wanted to do for more than a few minutes.
Next I fired up the PS3 to play some Soul Caliber – an arcade style fighting game. This was much more playable with button presses feeling near instant. I don’t know the game at all so I don’t know all the special moves but it was fun to play – and something that I could actually do without being frustrated by the delay. Impressive to say the least.
The more I thought about it though the more negatives I came up with. Who is the target market for this? Obviously hard core gamers that just have to play. Ok, so where are they going to play – most likely when they are travelling. Spawn Labs points out that LAN play is near instant – but why if I was on the LAN would I not sit in front of my Xbox at my big HD TV and really enjoy it?? I understand there will be some households where getting time on the TV is challenging so there could be a use case there. For me I’d use it travelling but most hard core gamers are going to have a laptop capable of at least decent gaming so again why would I want this? The only use I could come up with would be multiplayer, console specific games that you want to play away from home. I’m just not sure how often someone would want/need that.
There is another downside, you only get the one game disc that is in your console. While there are some games that will play directly from the hard drives in the consoles they are generally demos or of the “casual” type (ie the ones I never play). So you’re basically only able to play the one game that you left in the console when you left the house – sub optimal for sure.
I have to commend Spawn Labs for their implementation – very slick, fast, usable and easy. I’m just not sure who they are going to sell it to. As someone who owns 2 Xbox360’s, a PS3 and a myriad of controllers (Drum Rocker, Xbox360 Racing Wheel, Logitech G27 Racing Wheel, Fender Replica Bass, etc, etc) I’m obviously not averse to spending money on my gaming setup. For me though I’d see no use for this device at all. Fun, but definitely not a must have for me.




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