Sling Media Slingbox PRO-HD SB300-100
by Sling Media
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List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
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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: Amazing device
Summary: 5 Stars
I was in Italy a couple of months ago and found that I was very limited in being able to watch TV over my laptop. Netflix streaming and most everything else said that broadcasts outside the US were not allowed. We finally were able to find that we could watch Southpark reruns off their website, which was great, but we wanted a little more variety the next time we traveled. I had heard about a Slingbox and got this one when we returned. I haven't traveled with it yet, so I don't know how it will do under differing situations, but from other reviews it looks like it will be fine.
From computers on my home network the Slingbox picture looks great. It works flawlessly and you are able to lower the resolution of the picture so that it shows well at your transmission speed. Cable internet going through 802.11g wireless works fine.
I was a little concerned that I would need to have the AV (surround-sound) system and/or TV on as my devices are connected to them by HDMI cables, which transmit information both ways and devices sometimes will not operate with HDMI-connected output devices off. The Slingbox operates the digital cable box/DVR fine with the AV system and TV off. I am waiting for my new Roku box Roku HD Player (my first one quit on me) to see if that will work OK, but I suspect it will.
Setup was easy enough. You may have to struggle some with your home network, but they give good step-by-step instructions on getting it to connect. True it does not have any HDMI connections, but the composite connections worked fine. The software needed by the computers to watch the signal downloaded and installed fine for both Windows XP and Vista computers.
You do not need a Sling catcher if you are only going to watch TV through a laptop or cell phone. Slingbox is developing software to use it on Android phones. It already will work with iPhones.
The Slingbox really works amazingly well and if you want to watch video from the sources you have in your home anywhere you happen to be, it is a great device.
Update 2-12-2010 - Hooked up Roku (Netflix) player. Works great. I am able to switch quickly between the cable box/DVR to the Roku player quickly on the browser. I haven't tested it on the road yet, but operating on the same home network, it works great.
Customer Review: Never again
Summary: 2 Stars
If you look at my review history, you'll see I don't write many reviews. I feel passionate enough about this product to review it, which hopefully points out that my feelings are extreme here...
I spent $300 on this hunk of junk a couple of years ago. The thing just stopped working one day. When I turn it on I get a random pattern of blinking LEDs which changes every time. Go through the factory reset procedure and I get the same thing, just random LEDs dancing around, a changing pattern every time I turn it on. Needless to say, my computer won't connect to it, it won't pull an IP from DHCP, yet I can ping it. Weird because the factory setting is to get an IP from DHCP, and it's acting like it has a static IP. If the factory reset procedure worked, it would set back to DHCP which it clearly does not.
Support costs $30, which would make sense if I had a stupid question. But if your product breaks out of the blue, I'm not going to pay to fix it. I hate Slingmedia and will never buy anything from them again. Worst $300 I could have spent.
Also the Slingplayer software is incredibly lame, but that was forgiveable because of how cool this thing was when it worked. In retrospect every aspect about this thing sucked the whole time. The suckiness was just eclipsed by the idea that I was watching TV over TCP/IP.
This thing sucks. Don't buy it. Finally I leave you with a direct copy/paste from my support session, with the technician's name obscured, just to show how much they don't care to stand by their product. I should mention that I think this support model is fair because people will take advantage and ask stupid questions. But when the thing breaks through no fault of the consumer, you should do something for them instead of just saying HERP DERP GIVE MEE MONEES AND ILL FICKS IT:
11:18 AM Rxxxxxx: Based upon the current warranty status of your Sling product; you are currently outside your standard complimentary support period (over 1 year after activation date).
11:18 AM Rxxxxxx: You can type your question in the search bar at [...] to get self support at no charge or you can purchase a Per Incident Support Agreement ($29.99).
11:18 AM Rxxxxxx: You need to contact us at 877.GO.SLING (877.467.5464) to proceed with the order.
You can also check the warranty options at the following link: [...]
Customer Review: so far it's as good or better than first two Slingboxes
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I live and work in Europe and like to follow all sorts of American sports, especially my Michigan teams (yes even the lowly winless Lions!). Before getting the PRO-HD I used an original Slingbox at my home in Ann Arbor and a Slingbox Pro at my brother's home in Arizona.
Sling Media does a great job of upgrading/updating its software improving picture resolution. When I upgraded to the Slingbox PRO I saw significant improvement in the picture quality. It really gives a much crisper pictures at large viewing sizes.
So far my experience with the PRO-HD has been somewhat limited through no fault of Sling. I'm still waiting for an HD upgrade of my cable service at which time I'll update this review.
I tried setting up my new PRO-HD as a new Slingbox and encountered quite a bit of difficulty. The instructions were not very helpful. I also looked online and still could not figure out the setting. I ended up using my original Slingbox's setting. This did the trick. When I set up my original Slingbox I recall going through quite a bit of frustrating trial and error before figuring out the right setting fro my wireless network. I can imagine that people who are not as technically inclined may need some assistance to get their Slingboxes working.
As for the picture quality, I got the usual crystal clear picture while streaming at home on the wireless network. After returning to my overseas home in Budapest I kept my fingers crossed and hoped that I could reach my Slingbox. The streaming is fine but For some reason the Kbps is rather low. On my end here in Budapest I know that I have more than enough bandwidth as I receive NFL Gameplan HD at almost triple the Kbps. I suspect this is more a problem with my ISP in Ann Arbor. I'll need to check this as the picture is not as crisp as I know it should be.
I'm still waiting to stream with HD and to try controlling on demand features. As soon as I have these services I'll update this review. In the meantime I can recommend this Slingbox and its predecessors to people who want to view their home television from remote locations as close to another room or as far as around the world.
Customer Review: Nice hardware with apocalyptically bad software
Summary: 3 Stars
The hardware side of the Slingbox Pro-HD is nice: a sleek, attractive (although somewhat large) device with multiple inputs and the ability to control a wide range of external devices, from cable boxes to DVD players to DVRs. Other than HD capabilities--although these are almost worthless with the Mac software provides (and more on that momentarily)--the most significant feature of this device is its hybrid tuner: it can receive signals from old analog cable, an antenna, or digital cable (although only unencrypted--or clear QAM--channels).
The ability to bring this video to your computer or smartphone should be a "no brainer." Unfortunately, that term best describes the team of programmers who created the software for the Slingbox--for all the elegance of the hardware, the software is pure schlock. As an illustration, the initial setup of the device when connected to cable requires scanning for channels. This is all well and good, but the Mac software couldn't do it correctly--in particular, channels 3, 5, and 7 were just gone. After pulling out my hair, I thought to try the Windows software on a different machine. Here, I pulled out my hair trying to get the software to even find the Slingbox. Once that was resolved, the Windows software looked up my cable provider (which the Mac software did not do) and magically initialized the Slingbox so it could find all the channels. This result is simply insane: the initialization of the device should not depend on which computer was being used--and, indeed, had I not had access to a Windows machine, I could not have gotten the software to work properly at all.
This is just one of many illustrations. For example, in watching TV, changing channels randomly works or does not work. When left on automatic settings, the software constantly complains that my home network is not fast enough; despite this, when manually set to the highest possible settings, everything works fine. Unlike the Windows software, the Mac software won't send an HD signal--everything is maxed out at 640x480 resolution.
The result is a product that, once properly setup is useful, but fails to fulfill its potential. This should be a great device. Instead, because of corners cut in the software, it is equal parts useful and frustrating. Simply put, I don't love the Slingbox; if the software worked correctly, I would have.
Customer Review: Horrible customer/technical support. Only 90 days warranty!
Summary: 1 Stars
Overall, I have been pretty happy with the functionality of this product over the last 9 months. Other reviews have covered the features well, so I'd like to focus on the customer support/warranty side of things, which is an important consideration.
In order to use access the video from your Slingbox remotely (when away from your home), Sling has created the concept of an online "sling account" which stores your Slingbox access information on the internet.
As far as I can tell, once you leave your home network, there is no way to access your slingbox signal, without logging into your sling account. This is basically a website, that you log into with email/password, and designate which slingbox you want to watch.
I recently ran into a problem where my email address changed (they require you to login into your slingaccount with your email address rather than a userid), and I needed to update it on my slingaccount. After MUCH searching, all I could find was a way to change my password, but no way to change my email address.
So, I found the "contact us" email link, and fired off a quick request to "please let me know how to change the email address on my sling account".
What I received back was really shocking. Honestly, I have been buying electronics, web services, etc for a long time, and have never received as outrageous of a reply as this.
The response was basically:
- We checked your account, and you purchased your slingbox over 90 days ago, which makes it outside our warranty.
- Therefore, in order for us to resolve you issue, you will need to pay us $29.99 per incident.
- OR you can pay us $49.99 for 2 more years of support.
Are you kidding me! It took them LONGER to write that reply than it would have to copy/paste in the answer for how to change my email.
So just beware, that you will very likely need to pay an extra $50 (or $30 per incident) in order to have access to ongoing functionality of your SlingAccount.
Also, at least in the email I received, they indicated that the $49.99 2 year support coverage was only available PRIOR TO MONTH 12 of your ownership of Slingbox. So if you want to avoid the $30/pop charge, you need to pay the $50 before the 1 year mark.