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: Sling versatility
Summary: 5 Stars
I just bought my son a Solo for Christmas and currently own an Slingbox AV unit. I bought the AV to be able to use the Wi-Fi when out of town and watch home TV through my Dish network DVR.
Keep in mind that the quality of the Slingbox video depends upon two things. First the upstream speed of your home Internet connection. Keep in mind that if you have DSL, speeds are always slower on the upstream side. I've had 1.5, 3.0 and now 6 meg DSL service. The faster your upstream side the better the picture on your PC or Mac can be. The other controlling point of quality is the Wi-Fi throughput at the site outside your home. Heavy usage of the access point you are connected to will also negatively affect picture quality. This is something you won't know until you connect at the remote site.
The thing that I didn't consider is that by connecting to my wireless router at home, the Slingbox streams at very high speed since it doesn't have to negotiate through the Internet. Your laptop then becomes a very good quality TV. What we discovered is that we now use our Mac all over the house and outside on the deck. No wires, no moving TV's or running cables. I want to work on the car in the garage? I take the Mac out with me and fire up the Sling software and watch the satellite receiver in the garage. Consider that when running through your home router, the Slingbox will be able to stream 8-15 times more bandwidth than what you will get in the real life world connecting through your Internet service. That translates into pretty good picture quality. Yes it's not the quality of your big screen but it's pretty good.
Customer Review: Sligbox Solo
Summary: 5 Stars
I love my new Slingbox. It did take me a little longer to set up than I had hoped. But, in the end it all worked out great. I have read in the reviews that customer service for Sling is horrible. I had hoped not to have to deal with them. However, I could not get video or audio to work on my laptop even on my home network. I could see the Sligbox was connected to the network and I could turn my Dish DVR on and off with the onscreen remote. It turns out I had the component cable run from TV 2 out to the Slingbox. TV 2 is controlled by a UHF remote. Not an IR remote like on TV 1. After a quick call to customer service and a change to the component setup I was up and running.
I have a super SLOW DSL connection at home. (I'm not into having big monthly bills) So, the Slingbox works perfect on my home network. When I'm away and watching over the internet the picture is not perfect. But, I understand what is actually happening and I am fine with that. For $150.00 I now have two more options to watch at home ( i have a laptop and a pc) and pretty good option for away. I guess if I think I needed a better picture when I'm away, I could just upgrade my DSL.
Great product and credit should be given to there customer service as well. I have no clue as to why these products are not marketed and sold by the retailers that sell Dish Network. If I was retailer for Dish, I would require each installer to have a pile of Slingbox's in every truck. Just ask the customer during the installation if they have DSL in there home. Have them watch the Slingbox Demo online while I do the install and sold! One more Slingbox.
Customer Review: Be Prepared To Spend An Additional $80-$150
Summary: 2 Stars
The SlingBox was a great concept and I'm sure the product works beautifully. I had heard nothing but great stories regarding this product, so I was excited to buy this for someone as a gift.
If I purchased this for myself, I wouldn't have had an issue.
However, purchasing this as a gift for someone else is a really bad idea. Spending $180 on this device and sending it to someone is a thoughtful gift. Especially when they want to stream media on their pc. But when their router is on the opposite end of the house from the DVR Box, it presents a problem.
You can either:
A.) Get a long ethernet cord and run it throughout your house (which looks very unappealing).
B.) Be prepared to purchase the additional $80 SlingBox Turbo or $150 Turbo 4-Port to get wireless capability.
Another issue is -- it's a bit technical. I'm very tech savvy, but when someone is halfway across the country, you're going to have issues trying to explain what the security measures are during setup, etc.
It's pretty sad when the creators of SlingBox knew about this. When a product specializes in sending out a wireless signal, it's only obvious that it should have the "SlingBox Turbo" chip built into it. But instead, they are greedy and want you to spend the additional money. Why not simplify things and have this built into one device? That would be the obvious decision.
So in conclusion, if you are purchasing this device for yourself and/or someone else, be prepared to purchase both units. I wish someone would have told me.
Customer Review: 5 Stars Isn't Enough!
Summary: 5 Stars
The device is amazing and lives up to everything it claims to do. I am extremely happy with it. I purchased the Slingbox Solo, along with the Slinglink Turbo (because my router is nowhere near my DVR. Both products are wonderful and work perfectly together. Setup was very easy and was nearly automatic. It took only about 10-15 minutes total (and most of that was simply trying to get to the connections behind my console.) The only problem I ran into was that my DSL modem acts as a second router and the program could not configure the port forwarding on it for remote viewing (and I had no idea that the modem could even do any of that.) They have a "contact support" button right in the setup program which connected me to live chat and a tech helped me resolve this remotely in no time. I was very impressed to find tech support that actually could help me! He was awesome. The picture and sound quality are amazing! It's like I now have another HDTV on my laptop. I can watch TV out on my patio and enjoy the nice weather without having to plug anything extra into my laptop - it just works thru the WI-FI. I'm actually outside now writing this and watching TV as well. I love it! Using the virtual remote also is great; I can control everything on my HD DVR as if I was right in the same room. Response time is also much faster than I exprected. I have not yet tried remote viewing from another location, so I'm not sure how well it works. I'll write more on that after I try it. So far I've used the device many times on my home network and I love it. I highly recomend both products!!Customer Review: Forget about buying, get a HAVA instead
Summary: 2 Stars
This product works great initially, but after a year of usage, my box suddenly stops streaming properly and freezing after a few seconds.
At first I suspected the problem on my side due to failing networking equipments. I was wrong after intense troubleshooting. Visiting the Sling forum gave the hint that many others out there are also encountering this freezing issue, some with new boxes under warrenty. Sling have acknowledged the problem, but offered no solution.
When many others pointed out in the forum it is due to bad capacitors (google slingbox + capacitors), the moderators are doubly quick to remove these posts. My post with images of the bad capacitors for my box are also removed. It leaves people in the forum speculating from ISP issue to firmware and many others. It seems like this freezing issue is not confined to just the Solo, but other product lines.
Though hardware warrenty is 1 year, phone technical support is limited to 90 days??? After which it'll cost you $30 per call irregardless of whether your problem is resolved.
Avoid getting this product for the time being till Sling fully acknowledge the freezing issue with fixes before your box becomes another paperweight. Get HAVA from Monsoon Multimedia if you can't wait. It offers the same thing, but has more capabilities like external harddisk support and schedule recording not offered by Sling. The mobile players (other than for IPhone)is free while the IPhone player costs $9.90, compared to Sling's $29.90.
Read from Slingbox forum -> [...]