Sling Media Slingbox SOLO (SB260-100)
by Sling Media
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List Price: Our Price: Calculated in a shopping cart Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $129.99 (click here) 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 SOLO (SB260-100)
Customer Review: Solo was my way to go
Summary: 5 Stars
I got the Solo for a few reasons:
Since the Pro-HD does not have an HDMI cable it's not really 720/1080 HD. Also, having read numerous reports of the Slingbox failing after about a year and customer support lacking unless you pay them for helping with their product I thought I'd save a buck in case that happens.
So far I've it for about a week. I found the setup process to be a bit of work. I think it took me an hour with tinkering. My cable provided HD-DVR box was not on the list so I found recommendations from users on which one would work close enough (software remote compatibility). But after it was set up it was good to go.
I use my slingbox on my Mac, iPad and on the web. Technically the slingbox software for the solo is not supported for my mac, but I found the download on Cnet and set it up.
Keep in mind if you have a ISP that has low data caps this will chew through it just like Netflix if you are not on your local area network (LAN). I went ahead and created a WAN (Wireless Area Network) Alias so I can choose to go through my Airport Extreme (dual band) WAN it works great, I'd say just like a non-hd good ole co-ax hooked up television, both on the iPad and Mac.
Out from the network, say at a coffee shop it is okay. I tried using my phone's 3G data and had a really choppy experience. I guess it would adapt to it after a while but long term watching I'd grow frustrated about the quality and the amount of data (bandwidth) I'd use.
Battery on the iPad doesn't fall any faster than other video watching and I found my fans on my Macbook did not speed up much if at all unless I ran it on the external monitor I have it hooked up with.
Aside from the $29.99 price for the iPad software I'd say I'm happy with my purchase. I do not regret going with the Solo over the Pro. So what if you have to watch what the person at the TV is watching. Usually that's not a problem. Or it makes for quite a game with the person in the living room!
We'll see in a year if this review stays this happy.
Customer Review: Empty promises from Slingbox
Summary: 1 Stars
Sling Media Slingbox SOLO (SB260-100)
After reading rave reviews about this product, I decided to buy one so I could access my DVR remotely, especially from my second home abroad. I had little trouble setting it up at home with the help of the excellent technical support Slingbox provided.
However, when I was away from home at a friend's house, I was unable to connect to my Slingbox. I contacted technical support who took control of my friend's computer and made adjustments -- all to no avail. In fact, the technician at Slingbox could not make a connection from their help site.
When I returned home, I contacted technical support again to see if there were a problem with my connection at home. I was told all was proper when they took control of my computer and checked all the settings. However, once again, Slingbox's technicians could not connect to my Slingbox. I was told the problem would be elevated to a higher lever.
A few days later I was called by a technician who asked me the same questions that the previous technician had asked and supposedly recorded. This second technician told me that my problem was not unique and that Slingbox had been working on it and that once they had a solution, they would get back to me. There is no end date given. Meanwhile, I have spent money on a Slingbox solo and a Slinglink to the tune of over $250 and have nothing to show for it except being able to connect to my DVR within my own house.
I am very disappointed and annoyed that Slingbox didn't even offer a hint of when this problem would be resolved, if ever. Slingbox made no offer to reimburse me for the product which would have at least shown that they stood behind what they produce. It is clearly a Slingbox problem and not in any way that Amazon sold something defective or less than as advertised by the manufacturer.
From my experience I would advise you to stay away from this product until Slingbox gets its act together.
Customer Review: It works well
Summary: 4 Stars
We have the slingbox up and running and it works well. There are three reasons why I did not give this 5 stars:
1) It is not emphasized enough when you are purchasing a slingbox, that you will almost definitely need to buy a slinglink with it. This is especially true if you have DSL for your internet. You would have to have your modem, your cable or satellite receiver, and your phone jack all in the same spot. If you don't have this, then you need a slinglink. So that is going to cost you more money to purchase that.
2) The picture on this thing is pretty good, but when you are watching sports games like I do (I have been watching Cavs games) the picture is not that great. It looks very blurry, but it is still watchable.
3) The slingbox will not work when I have my safe internet filter installed (K9 Web Protection). I looked on K9's website and they had other customers complaining about the same thing. The web administrator for K9 advised us that there is something simple that slingmedia can do to avoid this from happening, but they just won't do it. If K9 would allow the setttings to work for Sling as they are currently set up, they would have all kinds of things go through unfiltered. So for this I blame slingmedia.
The set up for this unit was pretty easy. I am terrible at mechanical things and electronics and it was not difficult for me. I have it set up on both a laptop with Vista and a home computer with XP and it works fine.
It is great to be able to change the channel on a remote that looks exactly like DirectTV. The only negative is, channel changing is a bit slow. But the good thing is, you can save all your favorite channels (the ones that I watch) and only scroll through those channels. That way I don't have to even look for something on TV unless I have the channel saved.
Overall this is a good product and I do recommend getting one if you need one.
Customer Review: A must have for the frequent traveler/sports fan
Summary: 5 Stars
As someone who travels for work frequently who is also a Detroit sports fan (Go Red Wings), I have come to love my Slingbox. It was really easy to set up and get connected to have it work. I never had to call customer support.
A couple of things you should keep in mind:
-If you have someone else at home that will be watching TV when you are remotely viewing, make sure you don't hook the Slingbox up to the main TV that they typically use. I have a second TV that my wife doesn't use that much and I run the signal for that TV.
-This should go without saying, but your ability to watch crystal clear TV on your laptop depends on your connection speed. Sometimes, I'll be at a hotel where I get only about 1 Mbps. The quality will be a little grainy. At home I have 15Mbps and I can watch it very clearly.
-I would not recommend using this if your ISP is a wireless mobile company, especially if you are paying for a plan that has a usage limitation. (I'm talking here about if your computer internet is through a 3G service: Verizon, Sprint, etc, not about viewing through a mobile smartphone using the Slingbox app). Streaming video can cause you to quickly go over your allowance. Also, I've heard of horror stories of people who have gone on vacation out of the country and used their wireless modem to connect and watch a whole football game through their slingbox. Imagine a bill where you have gone over your data allotment AND done so going off of global mobile towers.
Overall, a great purchase for me, a sports fan. Have two games you want to watch at home at the same time? Watch one on your main TV and sling the other to your laptop from your second TV. Going out of town, but still want to watch the big game with your local announcers...this lets you do that. Forgot to set your DVR to record something...you have access to your own TV's guide and can do that remotely too.
Customer Review: Please heed all 1-star warning reviews for this lousy product
Summary: 1 Stars
If Amazon offered a zero (0) for an overall rating, that's really what I would choose for the Slingbox.
As everyone else who's posted reviews and has already offered, the Slingbox is a lousy, terrible product with even worse "customer support." It just doesn't exist.
The Slingbox people have refused to acknowledge their products are defective and force consumers to fork over dough just to connect with a rep and even more money to diagnose a problem. It adds up to almost $100. There is no recall, no communication from Slingbox. As someone else wrote--buyer beware. You are buying a horrible product at your own risk.
It was after a firmware upgrade late in 2010 when my Slingbox's guts were fried. It is not clear if Slingbox was hit with a bad batch of capacitors, programmed its upgrade firmware with a frying capability or the capacitors initially used were "too small" voltage-wise and weren't able to handle the new firmware's power and were overwhelmed, burning out.
Slingbox has a firmware problem that fries the hardware, specifically, its 3 capacitors. There is a forum on the web that not only discusses this problem but also diagnosis it and shows you how to fix it yourself using brand new capacitors, a soldering iron and solder. This is how I was able to fix my Slingbox myself, saving my sanity and $100. Moreover, it now works better than when I initially set it up initially out of box--it's faster with less delay time.
When I opened the Sling's guts, I did indeed discover 3 very fried caps; one was actually bulging on both ends, appearing ready to explode. To protect my Slingbox, I used a slighter higher voltage on the new capacitors I bought rather than using the 16v caps Slingbox used.
Stay away from Slingbox and stick with Hulu, Netflix, X-Finity, etc.