5. Under the Covers

Figure 6 shows the main board of the Slingbox. The main video processor is a Texas Instruments TMS320-series ICS 1893BF. To check its presence on the LAN, I did a network port-scan of the device and found only a single port - 5001 - open, which is the standard port used by clients for acquiring video.

Figure 6: Slingbox main board
(click image to enlarge)

While I was at it, I tried pointing VLC, a video streaming "Jack of all Trades", at the Slingbox, but it got nowhere fast. That confirms that the protocol used by the Slingbox is custom.