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: Excellent product
Summary: 5 Stars
As long as you set your expextations appropriately, you should be very happy with this product. I have had it a few weeks now and watched on my Blackberry in Startucks and on my laptop in various places.
You do need a decent network connection but so long as you do, I have found quality to be pretty good.
So what I should mention is my set-up because you can set things up in many different ways.
I have the coaxial going into my Slingbox and then back out into my DVR/Cable box with no other connections. This means I only get basic cable but, I have no impact on the folks at home, do not have to worry about people knocking the IR blaster etc.
It was not clear to me that you could have your coaxial flow through the Slingbox with no effect to the cable box so that was a nice surprise otherwise I would have had to buy a cable splitter (already splitting the signal at that point with cable modem)or locate the SB somewhere else in the house near anothe rcable point and messed around with an airport express network extender to plug it into (I have an airport extreme wireless router).
The other really nice surprise is the online TV guide. It pops up and then you are able to select the program you want and it changes channel.
I downloaded the 30 day free Blackberry app and this was very impressive. However, I will pay the $30 for he ipod app when I buy a new ipod touch or ipad.
All in all this is very impressive technology - I find myself wondering why my cable company does not offer a Slingox type app from their own website so I do not even need a Slingbox.
Update:
I thought some people might like to know that I tested the Singbox on the in-flight internet service on Delta last week. Initially the quality was bad (picture kept breaking up) but after a while the Slingobx software seemed to optimize based on the connection speed and it became very watchable (although no where near as good as a decent ground-based network). you have to say that this is impressive.
Customer Review: Pretty good right now, and will only get better over time.
Summary: 4 Stars
I had a Slingbox Solo for over a year, but I couldn't take advantage of our HD antenna with that so I bought the Pro-HD which has the tuner.
The Pro-HD flavor of Slingbox has a lot more inputs then my Solo, which does open up a lot of possibilities. Coaxial digital-in is nice to have. The installation is just as easy as the solo version. I have a mac with Boot Camp into Vista and the installation takes a little longer on Vista which I believe is because the Vista player has more features then the current Mac software.
The HD works quite well. I only use it on a laptop but the picture quality is good. Maybe a little compression-e, but really nothing to complain about. Now the first thing to mention is as of January '09, Windows is the only OS Slingbox will stream HD. I prefer Mac OS X so that is a negative for me, but on the other hand a software update for the player is expected this year that will allow HD on the Mac as well. This is not to say you can't watch HD channels on the Mac now, it will just appear on you computer as 648x480. I did have a slight problem with the HD on the Vista side of things at first, but it was my own fault. Since I use Vista on a laptop, I didn't realize that I was in "Power Saving" mode which throttles the performance of my laptop, so when I fired up the HD, it was choppy. Luckily it wasn't long before I realized I should switch the computer to it's "Performance" mode, and the HD was nice and smooth.
The remote viewing of the Slingbox is about the same as the Solo. You take a big hit in quality when you view remotely, but the convenience and the possibility of watching TV anywhere you have internet connectivity make up for it. Also my internet connection upload speed is pretty bad, so I am pretty impressed with the remote viewing as it is.
Announced at the CES were the enhancements for the Mac software which would make the HD accessible; as well as announcing that the iPhone would be supported this year. That's what makes me think this good product will get better.
Customer Review: Just bought our second SlingBox HD
Summary: 4 Stars
We have been using the SlingBox Pro HD for a about a year and it works so great that we have just purchased a second so that we can also stream the HD Tivo from our upstairs games room...
We use the slingbox player mainly when we are in mexico at our condo - as local cable is all spanish and satellite is just too expensive for what you get. While the signal is not always perfect, it allows us to:
Display regular cable signal, and even change the channel using the Windows Media remote that came with the computer.
Access our Mortola HD cable box using the on screen remote (you will have to get used to a little bit of a delay) so that we can watch recorded shows
Access and select from any of the 200 DVD's that we have loaded in our 200 disk DVD changer
And soon (when we get our second Slingbox Pro HD), be able to access the Tivo HD unit within the games room...
Yes I am a techy, proud of it, and love the Slingbox. I also use the SlingPlayer for the IPhone (worth the extra fee) as well as having the slingplayer on both my Windows Vista and Macbook (both Windows and Mac versions of the software work great)...
The only con would have to be that loss of quality of signal at some point (when we are in Mexico - so this could be the Mexican internet).
As far as improvements, would love to see a universal remote that you could use to control the Slingbox... Or even better an interface so that you could for example take your Mortolola remote with you and be able to control the SlingPlayer from the remote... I know I might be asking for the impossible... but hey five years ago, the Slingbox was only a dream (used to have the Sony product Sony LF-V30 LocationFree Base Station but not even close in comparison)...
As far as HDMI support, add on product available I believe because I have it for the main Slingbox in the great room
Customer Review: Too Good To Be True, But IS
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a 64-yr-old Slingbox junkie. Started with the Pro 4 years ago, but Sling Media didn't have it's tech act quite right yet. Gave it away when the Solo was introduced and would have replicated this review at that time. I was amazed at its performance in terms of the video quality and video/audio sync and ultra smooth play.
Then came the HD. I was skeptical. I was already happy that I could watch NCIS on my 17" laptop in fine quality while my wife watched the lame "American Idol" on the Sony Bravia 52" HDTV--in the same room. I have the most ideal setup for a Slingbox: I have 2 HD Cable boxes, one attached to the Sony and one attached to another 42" Sharp on the other side of the house--it happens to be next to all my computer equipment, most importantly, my hard-wired router.
Decided to take the plunge for the Slingbox HD. No instructions needed if you know component setup. When I turned this baby on, I was totally blown away. How could a laptop display produce an image as sharp as the Sony 8 feet from where I sat. I don't mean almost, I mean exact. Sling Media put every bell and whistle into this box, including the ability to access the box from anywhere via a browser (not need by me)--tried it on my Firefox and it was a winner. Caution: Image deterioration when distance grows, as noted in the instructions.
I'm still in awe! YES, I could have remained in "pig heaven" with the solo. However, once you see the difference in HD on a laptop 28" from your eyes with little peripheral interference with a quality set of headphones--NIRVANA. Last night I chose to watch the SAME program as my wife, but I used my Slingbox HD via the other cable box--it's so much more immersive.
Best "Toy" I ever bought and Amazon had the best price--worth its weight in platinum. Price may seem steep, but the reward far outweighs the small long-term investment. As my title says, "Too good to be true", and we ALL know what that means. Yet, in the case of the Slingbox HD it *IS TRUE*.
Customer Review: How does it look?
Summary: 5 Stars
So, I purchased the Slingbox PRO HD before going to Japan for the military. I wanted to watch my local sports teams and was willing to pay for it.
My setup- I have a 54" plasma TV I'm watching it on. Other ancillary devices: Tivo HD, SlingCatcher. The upload speed at the Slingbox is 20MB/s (thank you FiOS!) and download speed at the SlingCatcher is 10MB.
I'd love to say I was getting transfer rates above 3MBPS, but I am not. I've had a huge range of transfer speeds and I wanted to give an idea of how it looks at different ranges. This will help those deciding if they should upgrade their internet service, or switch services altogether.
3+ MBPS-- Looks great! Low quality HD (not blue ray by any means, but very very good). The only time it is out of synch is on fast moving scenes in football games. Fantastic and I'd be thrilled if I were always able to keep it this fast!
2.5MBPS-- Still looks great. Football gets choppy and but is still great.
1.8MBPS-- Normal TV is still HD quality. The choppiness of football is annoying enough that I don't try HD. I do 480P. Not bad. Still happy when it's here
1.5MBPS-- Normal TV starts getting choppy. I usually set it to 480P
1.2 MBPS. Always in 480P. HD is way too choppy
1.0 MBPS- 480P gets choppy. I use 480i instead. Football is very choppy.
0.8 MBPS- 480i still looks good.
0.6 MPPS- Go to lowest quality and looks decent on my huge TV. I'm annoyed when my internet sucks this bad
0.4 MBPS-- Even lowest quality is grainy and choppy. Sucky!
The quality depends totally, or almost totally on your internet speed. I get my speed clamped down by my ISP and so I get ranges all the time. Overall it's fantatic and I can't wait to watch the Super Bowl, but there are times its very frusterating.
As I was looking to buy I never saw this kind of review so I hope it's helpful...