Sling Media Slingbox PRO-HD SB300-100
by Sling Media
|
List Price: Our Price: $249.99 You Save: $50.00 (17%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Sling Media Slingbox PRO-HD SB300-100
Customer Review: Works if you have a T1 connection on both sides...
Summary: 2 Stars
I read reviews online and saw how people were able to view their home entertainment from anywhere. And since I do a lot of traveling, for myself and for my company. I thought this would be great for me to watch what I have at home, instead of the crappy cable that hotels provide. So I purchased this Slingbox HD and hooked it up per its directions, and then spent the next three days trying to get it to work :(. After the first six hours going through the install program and not getting it to work, I decided to call the company of the product. Well the guy I first got was pretty helpful, but not very knowledgeable. We tried everything that I was doing and a few other ideas. And he even did a remote connection, through another company's program BTW. And still could not get it to broadcast onto my computer that was hooked up to the router via a wire, the same as the slingbox. Finally he said I had to call the company of the modem and talk to them, since he seemed to think there was a problem with the modem. Well I tried to call Brighthouse, and they were even less help. I then gave up and called the company of my router, two days later, which is Linksys. They figured out the problem in thirty minutes. Thirty minutes!! I spent almost six hours on the phone with everyone else, and Linksys knew what the problem was in thirty freaking minutes. Funny,.. but annoying. It seemed the guy at Slingbox inputted the wrong info in my router and modem, and that was why it wasn't broadcasting. So once I got that straightened out, I then tested my laptop and it worked ok. Wasn't the greatest picture and sometimes had limited channels. Had to keep sending a signal to the box to research what was available on my cable box. So I figured maybe I could put up with it if I had to.
Well a week later I take a trip and go to access my box in the room and low and behold the picture quality was even worse than at home (like a low quality youtube video). And to make matters worse, the streaming was horrid!! I had to wait almost 30 minutes to watch a show or anything I had recorded to the cable box. Thirty minutes?!? WTF?!? By the time it got streamed enough to make it watchable, I just didn't care anymore and wanted to just wait till I got home to watch. My experience with the box at that point was terrible to say the least! I tried calling Slingbox from the hotel, and they wouldn't help me till I got back at home where the box was. Why, I dunno.. So a week later I get home and called up you know who again.. And this person I got on the phone was a real A-hole! They basically blamed my connection for the bad signal and streaming issues. And said that maybe the hotel had a slow signal. And that I should call my cable company and purchase a better signal. What?!? I know I don't have a T1 connection and most places I go to don't either. But I feel I have a decent connection, around 7megbits per sec. And the hotels are about as fast. It all just didn't make any sense. Other than a bad product that was poorly conceived. So I hung up on this idiot and called it a day. I have used other programs from my home PC to access files while away, and the upload and download is very quick! Even for 100 Meg files. So since the damn thing didn't work as advertised and as other people are able to get it to work, I sent the stupid thing back. I recommend that if you have a "normal" connection, stay away from this product till they fix this issue!
Customer Review: Great Product
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I already had an older version of the Slingbox Pro...So set up for this one was rather easy..not that it is difficult to begin with. When I did set up the other Slingbox pro in India..... PROs are the only ones that work with PAL and NTSC I did have a few problems , but Customer service is excellent and is world wide. They run u thru all the steps simplifying everything.
In USA the set up seemed to go very smooth for me. The set is complete without any need to buy any more cables.Like someone else mentioned u will need the Turbolink if u want to connect the sling box wirelessly. But that was not a problem for me for which some of you might consider cancelling one star...because if u dont have ur tv service , router and slingbox in the same room u might have to make that expense. My brother had helped me out with that so that was sorted.
Now This one really doesnt have anything new to offer more than the HD compatibility. SO if u do use HD...then this shud be perfect for u. I have also tried the HAVA but prefer Sling because of its ease of use. Also the Streaming is excellent if u have a good Internet speed connection.
Dial up users...forget it...Let alone HD u wont even get decent SD streaming.
My connection speed in India is lower ...and I view the channels thru remote viewing here ...and the connection speed drops by atleast 200mbps..which is something u really must consider. If ur have a faster internet speed then the slingbox is a worthwhile investment.
Also when u check the remote viewing when u within the Sling box network ...as in ur watching tv on ur laptop or phone at home where u sling is connected...the picture quality is par excellence. But when u do the same outside the network the quality of streaming definitely suffers.
You have to download the Sling Player online..thats silly coz they cud have provided us with a CD for the same...but its hardly anything..In a way its not bad as they make sure u have the latest firmware.
Also SLing is compatible with MAC and PC...Since I use both...I totally enjoy the convenience of not have to switch between comps.
Also U will have to subscribe to watch sling on ur phone so dont fall for this thing thinking that the phone service is free...U do have a trial before subscription though.
It has a built in tuner which sets up all the channels and u u can mark ur favorite channels for quick access. that is a cool feature I must say.
MAjor drawback...Sling wont work with Iphone...not yet...they say they are working on it...but there are just a few hacks out there which are not even worth a try.I would rather wait for the authentic Slingbox player for Iphone.
If u have a good internet speed and dont want to pay monthly for watching TV on the go...Then Sling box pro is an excellent option.And for those with HD...SLingbox Pro HD is definitely a great option.
Hope this helped.
Customer Review: Slingbox with AT&T U-Verse
Summary: 4 Stars
I was able to install my SlingBox PRO-HD to work with U-Verse within four hours. The net result is excellent, making it well worth the effort of a surprisingly bumpy installation.
- The physical installation is very easy and the cables that come with the SlingBox are nicely packaged and coded
- The SlingBox software installation was much harder than it needed to be. The down-loadable installer doesn't work with Chrome at all. It claims to work with IE, but the messages requiring a response would often get hidden, making it annoyingly impossible to complete the install. When I switched over to Firefox, everything worked perfectly, and the installation was done in 3 minutes.
- SlingBox did recognize the U-Verse system, and its Motorola gateway (I have the Motorola VIP-1200). This enabled me to start receiving U-Verse programming on my PC immediately, using my home WiFi network.
- The placement of the remote IR cable onto the VIP-1200 was easy enough. I ended up using two of the cable heads to get optimal coverage of the sensor.
- The SlingBox software offered me the correct definition of the emulated remote channel changer, and I was able to start using it immediately. It does feel a little strange at first, but it is an ingenious emulation that lets you control almost all of the functions on the VIP-1200.
- Getting through all of this and getting the SlingBox to work inside my house took about 90 minutes.
- I am a little disappointed that the system does not import the AT&T U-Verse Programming Guide directly. (It declares that this feature is only available on cable or satellite systems). However, using the emulated channel changer, I am able to scroll through the AT&T channel lineup as if I was sitting in front of the TV. I can also control all of the DVR functions perfectly well with the emulation buttons, and access previously recorded content, and even delete programs that are no longer required.
- Then I went on to configure network access, by sitting at Starbucks and attaching to an AT&T WiFi hot spot. This was the hardest part of the installation process. The SlingBox configuration utility demands a Username and Password for the in-home router. My in-home router is a U-Verse branded 2Wire 3800 HGV-B, which doesn't seem to have a username, although the password is provided on an external label. The lack of a username caused the SlingBox configuration utility to reject my attempts to use it.
- By going to the 2Wire website, I found some helpful notes on authorizing SlingBox traffic to pass through the 2Wire firewall using a pin-holing technique. With this, I was able to configure my in-home router directly, and I didnt need the deficient SlingBox utility to help me anymore.
- Now, I was able to start watching my home TV content inside the comfort of the Starbucks store. The U-Verse uplink in my home is capped at 1.5Mbps, but this does not seem to harm the overall picture quality.
- Total installation time was about four hours. It could have been less than two hours with a better software installation package, but I am looking forward to enjoying the product now.
Customer Review: Great in theory but sling could stand to make things a hint more user friendly.
Summary: 3 Stars
The slingbox has behind it a great idea that could stand a little tweaking on their end.
The basics of placeshifting technology (slingbox) are that you take live streaming content (cable or satellite tv) then sling it to another device like an ipad, ipod, or if you have the right set up another TV. For the most part once up and running sling does this right. However sling media seems to look at each potential new device as a new quick source of revenue rather than than creating brand and customer loyalty.
Sling's ipad app cost $29.99, Monsoon/Vulkano's? Free. Same story on the ipod app. Even more problematic is that sling is slowly throttling those apps and online streaming for older models of the box trying to force current customers to upgrade their boxes thus increasing revenue. Meaning in a year or two sling could throttle the pro-hd forcing customers to upgrade to yet another sling box. On top of that, the latest update to the ipad app is a bandwidth eater, the amount of bandwidth it used on both SD and HQ is ridiculous considering how the device and app performed prior to this using about half the bandwidth.
Their warranty is pretty weak, if your $300 pro-hd unit starts malfunctioning due to manufacturer defect on day 91, sling tries to force their customers to pay yet another $29.99 for one time support or upgrade to their "extended warranty" for $49.99 to simply get your box functioning again. For a $300 device I expect the device to be of great quality and if the device fails within a year I shouldn't be forced to purchase additional coverage to get the device fixed or replaced. That said, there are known problems with the device including incompatible power supplies which are affecting and in some cases bricking the boxes as well as defective capacitors in some pro-hd units which sling isn't acknowledging (give a quick google search on those). Even though the power supply issue is a known problem to sling, they are charging many customers out of warranty $29.99 for a new power supply. $29.99 seems to be a theme with sling media.
That said, I was certainly nervous setting up the slingbox. It took some time for the box to find a signal and took multiple attempts to get it to do so even though it was hardwired to the modem on a lightening fast connection. Performing a few hard restarts to the device is what eventually solved the problem (as well as port forwarding on my router) but each time I held my breath hoping the device wouldn't just fail.
I get SD video on my ipad at work via wifi and HQ on my ipad via high speed cable modem at home. HQ on both of my hardwired connections at work and home. The only problem is, you can't really rely on a high speed connection being available when you are traveling so rolling back the bandwidth requirements would make the whole set up more appealing. It's my understanding a google TV app is coming this year (let me guess, another $29.99) and I have a logitech revue so that should help me eliminate one cable hook up.
In closing, the device itself is great and after the initial glitches in setting up is working very well, I just hope I don't ever need to contact their customer support.
Customer Review: High-quality streaming, but with some network issues and limitations (4+ stars)
Summary: 5 Stars
The Slingbox HD promises to take your HD and standard video content and "sling" it to computers throughout your house on your home network or anywhere else via the internet. You control your device using a remote skin that looks exactly like, or close to, the real thing. The idea and the technology are awesome, but it has some limitations that may dissuade some buyers.
First, the Slingbox does not have wireless capability. If you have your router and your media devices, including a cable connection, in the same room, and if you have an ethernet port available on your router, you're golden. Set up is a breeze, although you will have to download software from the SlingMedia site. If, however, you have a wireless home network and must set up the SlingBox in a different room, you are going to need additional equipment. Forget the company's SlingLink (Slinglink Turbo 1PORT Enet Connection Bridge (SL 150-100)) which supposedly makes the SlingBox wireless; it works well ONLY on the same circuit. For most people, this means that the router and television must be located in close proximity. Instead, I set mine up with a network bridge (Linksys Dual-Band Wireless-N Gaming Adapter) that makes the Slingbox work flawlessly. I get high quality streamed video on both Macs and PCs, both at home and away. However, this took me hours on the phone with SlingMedia to figure out.
The device has several connectors: coaxial (for cable), standard, USB, and HD. Some people may find the HD claim misleading, since it can stream HD 1080i, not 1080p, and the 1080p devices must be changed to a 1080i output. The dimensions are roughly 13" L x 4.5" D x 3.5 " H. The box is surprisingly lightweight and can sit easily on top of a DVD player or other piece of electronic equipment.
Before you buy, you should consider how you are going to use the Slingbox and where you are going to install it. Because the skin remote overrides what is currently being viewed, a remote user can change the channel on those watching at home. You cannot use it to watch different video content. (When testing this, I changed the channel on my sister during a crucial football play; you can imagine the cursing.) If you are buying this to allow someone in a different country to view US television, attach it to a rarely or never used cable outlet. Also, because the Slingbox allows only one computer at a time to view video, you may need to buy more than one Slingbox for multiple users, with each assigned his own.
As long as buyers don't expect a complex media center that slings different media to different parts of the house or the world at the same time, they should be thrilled with the quality of the device.
-- Debbie Lee Wesselmann