Sony LocationFree Base Station LF-B20 (Wireless)

In Brief

Miss your favorite TV shows when you're on the road? Or just want to watch movies stored in your DVR on any TV in the house? Sony's LocationFree lets you do both, completely wirelessly. The LF-B20 includes built-in Wi-Fi, so you don't have to string Ethernet to the living room. It even includes 5GHz 802.11a support, so you can connect it to the new dual-band draft-802.11n Wi-Fi routers that are starting to appear. The 5GHz band is much less crowded than the 2.4GHz 802.11b/g band, so you aren't likely to run into much interference, making for much more reliable streaming video.

The Sony LF-B20 is the third generation of the LocationFree line, and the experience shows. The LF-B20 (and its wired Ethernet-only LF-B10 sibling) now uses H.264 AVC video encoding, the same as that employed by the Slingbox Pro and video iPod. H.264 is much more efficient than the prior MPEG-2, and thus provides higher quality playback over typical remote connections, such as at Wi-Fi hotspots. The LF-B20 has two AV inputs, so you can hook up both your cable or satellite box and a DVR or DVD changer.

Setup is LocationFree's Achilles' heel, largely due to the hard-to-follow instruction sheet, which didn't seem to correspond with the software. We ended up just using the setup utility on the software CD, after making the obvious physical connections, and things worked fine. Client software is available for Windows PCs (in the box), Sony PSPs, Macs and Windows Mobile devices. Only one client can be connected at a time, and you'll need to pay extra for the Mac and Windows Mobile software, as well as for additional PC clients. Remote video quality is reasonably good. It's not like being in front of your home TV, of course, but as long as you have good broadband connections at both ends, laptop video is very watchable -- certainly orders of magnitude better than watching on your cell phone.

In Depth

The Sony LocationFree LF-B20 is a small box about the same size as a Wi-Fi router, with two AV inputs: one S-video/composite, and one composite only. It can be placed horizontally or vertically near your home theater equipment. A passthrough for the S-video/composite connection lets you put the box between your cable or satellite box and your TV, without using up scarce I/O jacks. The second input is perfect for your TiVo/DVR or DVD changer. There is no coax input or built-in tuner, but almost all cable/satellite boxes these days have AV outputs. Finally, two IR ports let you control each source individually, although only one blaster is in the box. (You can find a second one at any electronics store.) There is no HD input, which is an add-on feature in the Slingbox Pro, but given the relatively low data rates of streaming Internet video, most people won't miss it -- we didn't. You do have a choice of 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios.

Setup, as mentioned above, was a weak point. After connecting things up, we recommend going straight to the software installer, rather than trying to navigate the maze-like setup poster. The biggest obstacle for most people will be that unless your router has UPnP support (most newer routers do), you'll need to open a port for the LocationFree in order to view it outside your local network. You can find that port information in the NetAV section of the Web configuration tool.

The Web tool is also where you'll find wireless security settings and other options (just as you would in a Wi-Fi router). The LF-B20 has the ability to act as either a wireless client or wireless access point (but not both). In client mode, it connects to your existing Wi-Fi router using 802.11a or g (dual-band draft-802.11n routers generally support 802.11a as well). In access point mode, it connects to your broadband router via wired Ethernet, and streaming clients can connect directly to it via Wi-Fi. We tested the client mode, which is what most people would use who don't have Ethernet running to their living rooms.

During the software setup, you'll be prompted to configure the remote IR control for your AV sources. A very nice feature lets you simply point and click the remote at the box, and it will guess the brand and model for you. You then confirm the choice, and move on. If your remote is not in the extensive list, you can also teach the Sony to recognize it. Our specific DirecTiVo satellite box was not on the list, but we chose a close relative, and got most of the functionality. One drawback, compared to the Slingbox Pro, is that the remote layout is generic, so key placement will be different from your physical remote.

We normally use closed captioning on our TV, but the LocationFree does not support it (neither does the Slingbox). We got around this issue by placing a caption decoder between the satellite box and the LocationFree. You won't be able to turn captioning on and off remotely, however.

We tested the LocationFree with a Windows PC. Mac client software was not available at the time of our review, but we hope to test it later and update this article. Within our local network, picture quality was very good, thanks to our fast router and little interference. We did have to adjust colors in the Sony software, since they were washed-out at first. Remote video was noticeably lower quality, and sometimes stopped altogether for a few seconds. However, we found that the better the connection you have at both ends, the better the picture. You'll need at least 400Kbps upstream from your source for good quality. (Note that most DSL and cable connection provide much lower bandwidth for upstream data flowing out to the Internet than down. Check www.speedtest.net if you aren't sure what your upstream rate is. Our Speedtest upload number is 650Kbps.) Download speeds are not as much of an issue, since they are generally well over that, but some hotspots with interference, weak signals, or multiple users may not work well for streaming video.

Note that with either the LocationFree or the Slingbox, you can't have family at home watching one thing, while you watch another, unless you coordinate between the dual inputs (they use the cable box while you use the TiVo, for example). You also can only have one remote client active at a time. This is unavoidable, but the extra $30-$40 Sony charges for the Mac and Windows Mobile client software (and extra PC clients), is not. We especially disliked the fact that the Mac and Windows Mobile clients are developed and sold by third-party companies, with no support from Sony. The Mac and PC clients are also not downloadable, so you'll have to order them online and wait. With the Slingbox, the clients are free, downloadable, and well-supported. Sony has a PSP client, which Slingbox does not, and Slingbox has Palm and Symbian smartphone clients, which Sony does not.

In June, Sony will also ship the LF-BOX1 for receiving LocationFree video on other TVs in the house, making LocationFree the only place-shifting system that works with additional TVs, as well as computers and smartphones. If you need a wireless connection (which is not included with the Slingbox), and want the flexibility of viewing your TiVo shows on other TVs in the house, the LF-B20 is a good choice.