Sling Media Slingbox PRO-HD SB300-100
by Sling Media
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List Price: Our Price: $249.99 You Save: $50.00 (17%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Sling Media Slingbox PRO-HD SB300-100
Customer Review: Slinging with success to laptop, Windows Mobile, and iPhone
Summary: 5 Stars
Like the majority of reviewers, I purchased the Slingbox Pro-HD to have ready access to my home media content while away from the house. A side benefit is access from different rooms within the house, but I did not justify the investment based on anything other than remote usage. Here's what I bought, how it is set up, and my findings.
Purchased: Slingbox PRO-HD, 4-port SlingLink Turbo. (No wired ethernet ports available near cable box.)
Connection: Slingbox connected to Time-Warner Cable Scientific Atlantic 8300HD DVR. (Component video and regular audio)
Viewing solutions: HP laptops (three configured), Samsung Blackjack (Win Mobile 6.1), and four iPhone 3GS'.
Pro's:
1. Everything worked exactly as hoped right out of the box.
2. SlingPlayer for Windows is much nicer than expected.
3. SlingPlayer for iPhone worked great for BOTH WiFi AND 3G. (A very cool demo to show friends...)
4. SlingLink Turbo was a concern at time of purchase, but worked great. You MUST plug directly into the wall however. No surge protectors can be used, so make sure you have an available outlet near your router and media components. Used additional ports for other network traffic that was formerly wireless. (Wii and MediaCenter PC)
5. Virtual Remote looks and works just like the regular remote that comes with the cable box. Fantastically easy with the Windows Player SW.
6. Streaming quality of HD content rates as follows, based on bandwidth:
- 2.5Mb and up : Perfect. Picture is great at full size as is audio. No jagged or chopped frames.
- 1Mb to 2Mb: Pretty Good. HD is not ideal, but quite usable. Standard def still very good. No change in audio quality.
- <1Mb: HD not really acceptable. Switched to SD. Audio is good. A few buffering pauses will occur.
7. No monthly fees. Nothing new to learn. Easy to teach the "non-technie" family members. My wife LOVES this.
8. Built-in tuner is a plus, but currently unused.
9. Picture-in-a-Picture (PIP) works great. I used it extensively during NCAA basketball tournament.
10. Even with the 4-port lingLink Turbo, this was still a relatively cheap investment via Amazon.
11. SlingLink can easily be mounted on the wall. (I did this and it was great for cable management.)
12. Works at the Marriott over their wireless network, even during the evening when traffic is the heaviest. A true test.
13. Cables for ethernet and video/audio were included. It would have been easy to drop these and force additional investment. A pat on the back to Sling Media for getting this right.
14. Slings ALL cable channels, including the premium channels I pay for. (HBO, Cinemax, etc.)
15. Controls DVR exactly like you are in the room. (Record, Play, Delete, Pause, etc.)
Con's:
1. No media included with box, so had to download the free SlingPlayer for Windows, which took a while to find.
2. Audio on one laptop is unexplainably not very loud. Still haven't figured it out, but I think it is the laptop configuration.
3. SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows works, but value on a small screen device is minimal. Sound actually more valuable than video.
4. Only one user allowed at a time. Takes over HDTV that it is connected to. A given, but worth remembering.
5. SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone is $30 per phone. It would be nice if SlingMedia included at least one license for free.
6. Still concerned about all of the negative comments around Sling's support policy and limited warranty. I am just assuming I'll have to drop $30-$60 a year for a couple of calls if something no longer works. Not an acceptable policy for a product that they should be able to stand behind with pride.
7. No HDMI support. A pretty glaring weakness given the HD support, but included component cable worked fine.
8. Cables could have been longer. (Ethernet, video, audio, and IR cable all seemed about 18-24 inches shorter than I would have liked).
Final thoughts:
I have been tracking the Sling Media offerings for the better part of four years and finally decided that the combination of features, pricing, and reliability was right to jump in. I am glad I did, since it all worked exactly as I had hoped. The recent addition of the iPhone support over 3G was a bonus.
There will always been things that I'd like to see improved, including better quality at lower bandwidths. However, given the content being "slinged", this is really a pretty polished offering. If you are going to be accessing the SlingBox regularly from a "Good" bandwidth connection, I would highly recommend the Pro-HD. Enjoy!
Customer Review: Excellent for Viewing Satellite HD on PC
Summary: 5 Stars
Although I appreciate Slingbox's placeshifting function, my needs were more local. For years I have used PC cable TV tuners (such as SiliconDust's HDHomerun) to view HDTV in a window on my PC monitor while I, uh, work. It's a convenient way to use the PC while being able to switch back and forth to TV viewing. Recently we switched our household from cable to DirecTV satellite. Unfortunately there are no DirecTV satellite tuners that will work with a PC. DirecTV had such a product under development but the project was killed a couple of years ago. DirecTV does offer DirecTV2PC software which works very well but only allows you to view shows recorded to the DVR (if you have that) over the network but not live shows.
I tried to use the Hauppauge HD PVR for this purpose. It was great for recording to the PC from the satellite receiver, something the Slingbox cannot do, but it was otherwise not useful for watching TV on the PC. See my review under that product.
The Slingbox Pro HD does **remarkably** well at viewing DirecTV anywhere in the house on a PC, as well as it's more common use for remote viewing. The Slingplayer software is extremely good. Not only is the image and sound quality excellent, but the remote control emulation and guide is exceptional. The guide is far handier than what DirecTV provides in that you can see far more channels in one view and scroll through them in a second. You can switch channels by clicking on the guide as well as using the remote control emulation. The remote control emulation is also remarkable in that it is skinned and works exactly like the actual DirecTV remote. There are assigned hot-keys that can be used from the keyboard too. They are so intuitive I started using them successfully without reading the manual first.
In my attempt to get satellite TV on my PC, I bought a new 32" HDTV to use as a PC monitor since it included PIP functionality so I could watch TV in a window while working on the PC. Unfortunately the PIP window was not resizable, only movable to 4 locations. And to switch to full-screen TV, I had to grab the remote and switch to the TV input. Since I bought the Slingbox, I have stopped using the PIP function. The Slingplayer window is resizable, infinitely movable, easy to switch to full-screen with a click and has a few unique configurations, such as a right or left side-strip position that abuts to the desktop instead of overlapping it. Finally, Slingplayer adds a 60 minute buffer, so it creates a time-shift function that the non-DVR satellite receiver in my office does not have. Maybe you can tell I have fallen in love with it. The Slingplayer integration into the PC is so seamless and convenient, I can't see doing without it.
The one thing the Slingbox cannot do that I was able to do with my PC cable tuners is easily record shows to my PC hard drive. The Monsoon HD Platinum permits recording, but I chose the Slingbox because it has higher resolution streaming (1080i versus 720p). The Slingbox image is stunning. Despite being interlaced, I see no deinterlacing artifacts. The DirecTV receiver puts out 1080i native except for some PPV movies at 1080p. So, the Slingbox image looks identical to the DirecTV.
Also, I have used Slingplayer to connect to the Slingbox with my Acer 1st generation Netbook. The Slingbox dynamically scales the image to accommodate any wireless transmission issues and fit the 1024x768 Netbook 8.9" screen. Once the connection is made there is a 10 second or so period when the "optimization" occurs. There is a little stuttering on my Netbook during that soon cleared up. After that the image was remarkably clear and stable.
Over all, I am quite impressed with the Slingbox HD Pro. It's a rather expensive solution to get satellite TV on my PC, but the Slingplayer PC software is vastly superior to any thing else I have seen. I am going to try a $99 capture card (AVerMedia AverTV CaptureHD) that, in theory, can provide TV in a window and PC recording from the satellite box, but I am expecting it to be less polished and more unstable. It might end up being adequate for satellite TV on PC, but it will not offer the remote watching (placeshifting) of the Slingbox.
Customer Review: Works Great - but there are issues - including Warrent Warning
Summary: 3 Stars
First let me get to the warranty warning. In Sling's customer support words: (Quote)
Finally, let me inform you that SlingMedia has warranty support policy and procedures on which you need to get a Warranty Service Agreement after 90 days of purchased your product in order to get full support. Your Slingbox may be applicable today to extend the full support (phone, E-Mail, chat, hardware) for three years from the date of purchase for US$49.99. [...]
In otherwords - you get only 90 days free tech support (including installation and issue support) and 1 year limited HW support... after that it costs extra ! And you MUST renew within the warranty period (ie 90 day and 1 year) or you will have to pay extra or not get extended support at all (At least that is the way I read it).
[...]
Another thing... You see the USB port on the product... but no where does it say it does nothing! Not on the website or in their documentation. Also a quote from their support "At this moment the USB port in all Slingboxes Pro-HD are not active or working yet. This feature will be available in the near future." So do not be fooled by their lack of notice in their marketing. So even a USB security or web camera - will not work.
Other than all that... the product can be very difficult to install on your network for the first time. They have a tool called the setup assistant that is suppose to help, but if you do not get it right all the way through, you basically have to start over because it does not keep the settings of what has worked up to that point. The sticky part might be setting up the router. The most common DSL modem by Verizon is the Westell 327W - this modem has UPNP which should let them do it for you, but it does not work - so you have to do it manually. I am very advanced in networking and it took me over 8 hours to finally get it correct. Their support was little to no help. Their online support got the instructions wrong. Part of it was my fault, I have my router's firewall blocking almost all ports. They say they only need port 5001, but I found that during setup it needed ports 2969, 5004 and 5678.
Once up and running. This product (and its SlingPlayer SW) works like a champ, even on slower computers. Just keep in mind that this product (as advertised) does not support recording the programs by itself or through 3rd party SW. The only way is to use a DVR device like TiVo on the side where the Slingbox is located (not the side where you are watching TV).
Also keep in mind that there is no HDMi port on the Slingbox to make the interface with another HD product a bit more seamless.
Pros: It works!
Cons: Bad warranty for continued support. No working USB. No HDMi. No DVR capability (even by 3rd party SW allowed).
lacking: I wish it offered the ability for 1 person to view and change the channel and more than one person to watch. Then it would even make a great way to do a remote seminar. Where using a camera you could present yourself instead of a TV show.
Nero LiquidTV a USB antenna / video card / PC based / with TiVo DVR might be more of what you are looking for. This product has a future if they can get their act together and offer more features worth using.
UPDATE UPDATE I have used it for over 30 days now.
If you use it on the same LAN (such as watching shows on another TV in the same house), then it works great. With the above cons I already mentioned.
If you want to use it over the Internet, then be prepared for many many headaches over time. I am VERY VERY technical savy and I have already submitted over 15 help tickets! Most of the time (80-90% of the time) SlingMedia tells me that they do not give out that kind of information, or I have to figure it out on my own (I am of course paraphrasing). They have not given me any solutions that have helped. I have had to hunt them down on my own on other web sites. Most of the time it had to do with the constant changing IP address by my Verizon DSL. When I finally used DYNDNS.com that helped a lot.
I am still going to keep it. I have to. I am passed 30 days. But I am fearing all the issues after the 90 day warrenty period.
Customer Review: Terrible Support Makes this a Questionable Buy
Summary: 2 Stars
If you have the patience to get this box working, it's a pretty amazing device.
I bought the Slingbox Pro HD specifically to be able to watch stuff that I've already recorded on my Dish 522 DVR, from my PC - wherever I am (connected to the Internet).
After installing it and selecting the Dish DVR 522, everything worked - EXCEPT the remote had no controls for the DVR. I couldn't select a recorded program, play it, pause it, rewind or fast forward it. That made the Slingbox a $250+ piece of junk, for me.
So I called support, and told a guy who couldn't speak English well my problem. He put me on hold, and then told me to fill out a form on the Internet. I told him I was CALLING him for support, I didn't want to fill out a form.
He put me on hold for a while, then came back and told me the DVR remote wasn't supported, but that it would be supported by a software upgrade in a week. OK.
After a couple of weeks, I called support when it still wasn't working. I asked for a supervisor. I told the guy who couldn't speak English well the same stuff. The supervisor said the same thing - tough, it's not supported and we don't know if it will ever be supported.
Then he told me to look up a KB article on the Internet to find new codes (whatever that is). I told him I was CALLING support, and didn't want to look up anything on the Internet. I just wanted this expensive box to work.
I mentioned to him that I thought it was a safe bet to buy the Slingbox to use with my Dish 522 DVR, since Slingbox was owned by DISH. Guess not.
I told him that I tried many of the listed Dish DVRs, and none had the silver remote. He told me they all have an option for a silver remote. I told him none of the ones I tried had an option. Now I'm really wasting my time.
Then he tells me the secret to getting it to work - which the first idiot could have told me, and he could have told me in the first minute of our conversation:
Don't pick "Dish DVR" off the menu when you set it up - just select "Stand-alone DVR." Then tell it you have a Dish 722 (instead of a 522), and you'll have the silver remote working (assuming your Dish box is set to use the default remote codes).
That worked fine - the silver remote came up and I could control the DVR just like I could from a real remote. Very neat.
If they would have told me this on the first call (or actually would have written the program correctly so the correct remote would have come up in the first place), I wouldn't have such a bad feeling about this thing.
While the tech support was a definite improvement over talking to Indians (who usually have no clue, and don't even try), it still leaves me with a bad taste for the Slingbox, and I already hated Dish because of their unbelievably rude/bad support from India.
I asked the guy what country he was in. He said Costa Rica. If you speak Spanish, you may get better support? BTW, you only get free support for a few months. After that it's something like $30 to talk to these idiots - so you get to pay extra for BAD SUPPORT. Maybe keeping the fixes secret is job security?
My thinking is that this is a company that's about to go out of business. When I asked the support guy if the Slingbox would work if their servers went down, he said it wouldn't.
He did say that I don't need their servers to use the Slingbox. I can open port 5678 in my router, and route that port to the IP address of the Slingbox on my network. I could use a KB article on the Sling site to set it up without using their servers. He said there is also some kind of service on the Internet that will do the forwarding.
If Sling goes out of business, I'm sure their KB articles will be gone. Hopefully the information will be available on the Internet, somewhere?
If you really need the amazing capabilities of this device (it is very neat), and you have the patience to handle the frustrating support and unfinished software, $250+ is cheap to get the features of this box.
Customer Review: The perfect gift for the road warrior!
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
My husband is on the road a lot and there are several shows we record on the DVR for him to watch when he gets home, but sometimes two or three episodes pile up or get accidentally erased leaving him frustrated. This is the perfect solution for road warriors to be able to watch, record, and erase their favorite cable shows from anywhere in the world.
The set up was initially very intimidating with many cables and the need for Internet and Cable TV to be in the same vicinity. I accomplished this by using the Acoustic Research PR430 High Performance 2 GHZ, 2-way splitter. Not all cable splitters will split cable Internet and cable TV, but this did the trick very nicely with no noticeable quality decline in either area.
I moved my cable modem onto one end of the splitter and attached my coaxial cable to the other end. I then attached my wireless router to the cable modem. The slingbox is then connected to the wireless router, and then the component video cables are attached to the DVR and slingbox. Another wire runs from the slingbox to the front of the DVR as a remote transmitter. I found I got the best quality signal using component video cables rather than the other options. The slingbox allows you to connect up to 3 devices, but I didn't see the need to attach additional devices since we won't be using them.
Once that was accomplished I downloaded the sling software from slingmedia.com and was quite surprised to realize that everything was working perfectly. You need to register your slingbox, and then no matter where you are in the world it will find it by it's sling id # so there is not a lot of complicated configuration required, at least in our situation.
When using this on a laptop I found it didn't work too well when I had the laptop set to powersaver or balanced power consumption. You have to set it to full power otherwise your stream will break up. Also, if you have a less than strong connection, you can downgrade your resolution by several degrees until you get a consistent, live stream. You can also watch your TV in a small floating screen, full screen, or sidebar mode.
There are two easy ways to access television shows. First, you can click on the remote icon in the upper right hand screen and your DVR remote (or other corresponding device remote) will pop up so you can use your home remote on your computer. If you are watching live TV, I found it more convenient to use the program guide which is the button immediately following the remote button. Then, about 1/3 of your screen will populate with the program guide so you can scroll through channels, change channels, see what is coming up, and set up recordings. Even though I tried all cable options for our cable company, for some reason there are some channels left out of the lineup. I expect this problem will be fixed in time.
Although I really think this is a fantastic product, I think the lifespan of this technology is limited by cable company innovations that will eventually become standard. I expect that one day soon our cable accounts can be managed through the Internet anyway. I expect we can do things such as set up recordings, watch live television, delete shows, and order PPV right from the Internet provided you are a paid cable customer. Also, I think the lifespan of DVR's is limited by the same factors. Doesn't it make sense for the cable company to store our recorded TV on mass servers for on-demand play? Considering most homes are now connected to the Internet this is a solid stepping stone technology. If you are looking for the perfect gift for a road warrior, this is it!