Sling Media Slingbox PRO-HD SB300-100 by Sling Media
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List Price: Our Price: Calculated in a shopping cart Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Sling Media Slingbox PRO-HD SB300-100
Digital camera Review: Excellent Product
Summary: 5 Stars
The Slingbox PRO-HD is a wonderful product. I'm currently in the Philippines and able to watch the channels with no problem. Of course, you have to have a pretty fast broadband connection in order for it to work flawlessly.Digital camera Review: Excellent Product
Summary: 5 Stars
Setup was easy and works great over the home network. I'm using a laptop and Wireless N for viewing at home and it's running at full resolution with little or no noticeable compression.
Of course, outside of the home network you are limited by your internet provider's upstream bandwidth. The Slingbox does an excellent job of managing this and still yields a reasonable picture.
Digital camera Review: Excellent for Viewing Satellite HD on PC
Summary: 5 Stars
Although I appreciate Slingbox's placeshifting function, my needs were more local. For years I have used PC cable TV tuners (such as SiliconDust's HDHomerun) to view HDTV in a window on my PC monitor while I, uh, work. It's a convenient way to use the PC while being able to switch back and forth to TV viewing. Recently we switched our household from cable to DirecTV satellite. Unfortunately there are no DirecTV satellite tuners that will work with a PC. DirecTV had such a product under development but the project was killed a couple of years ago. DirecTV does offer DirecTV2PC software which works very well but only allows you to view shows recorded to the DVR (if you have that) over the network but not live shows.
I tried to use the Hauppauge HD PVR for this purpose. It was great for recording to the PC from the satellite receiver, something the Slingbox cannot do, but it was otherwise not useful for watching TV on the PC. See my review under that product.
The Slingbox Pro HD does **remarkably** well at viewing DirecTV anywhere in the house on a PC, as well as it's more common use for remote viewing. The Slingplayer software is extremely good. Not only is the image and sound quality excellent, but the remote control emulation and guide is exceptional. The guide is far handier than what DirecTV provides in that you can see far more channels in one view and scroll through them in a second. You can switch channels by clicking on the guide as well as using the remote control emulation. The remote control emulation is also remarkable in that it is skinned and works exactly like the actual DirecTV remote. There are assigned hot-keys that can be used from the keyboard too. They are so intuitive I started using them successfully without reading the manual first.
In my attempt to get satellite TV on my PC, I bought a new 32" HDTV to use as a PC monitor since it included PIP functionality so I could watch TV in a window while working on the PC. Unfortunately the PIP window was not resizable, only movable to 4 locations. And to switch to full-screen TV, I had to grab the remote and switch to the TV input. Since I bought the Slingbox, I have stopped using the PIP function. The Slingplayer window is resizable, infinitely movable, easy to switch to full-screen with a click and has a few unique configurations, such as a right or left side-strip position that abuts to the desktop instead of overlapping it. Finally, Slingplayer adds a 60 minute buffer, so it creates a time-shift function that the non-DVR satellite receiver in my office does not have. Maybe you can tell I have fallen in love with it. The Slingplayer integration into the PC is so seamless and convenient, I can't see doing without it.
The one thing the Slingbox cannot do that I was able to do with my PC cable tuners is easily record shows to my PC hard drive. The Monsoon HD Platinum permits recording, but I chose the Slingbox because it has higher resolution streaming (1080i versus 720p). The Slingbox image is stunning. Despite being interlaced, I see no deinterlacing artifacts. The DirecTV receiver puts out 1080i native except for some PPV movies at 1080p. So, the Slingbox image looks identical to the DirecTV.
Also, I have used Slingplayer to connect to the Slingbox with my Acer 1st generation Netbook. The Slingbox dynamically scales the image to accommodate any wireless transmission issues and fit the 1024x768 Netbook 8.9" screen. Once the connection is made there is a 10 second or so period when the "optimization" occurs. There is a little stuttering on my Netbook during that soon cleared up. After that the image was remarkably clear and stable.
Over all, I am quite impressed with the Slingbox HD Pro. It's a rather expensive solution to get satellite TV on my PC, but the Slingplayer PC software is vastly superior to any thing else I have seen. I am going to try a $99 capture card (AVerMedia AverTV CaptureHD) that, in theory, can provide TV in a window and PC recording from the satellite box, but I am expecting it to be less polished and more unstable. It might end up being adequate for satellite TV on PC, but it will not offer the remote watching (placeshifting) of the Slingbox.
Digital camera Review: Excellent option for remote viewing
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a great solution for remote viewing. I recently visited Korea for a couple of weeks and did not want to miss some football games. The Slingbox did the job. I was able to watch the games and the quality was very good considering I was in a remote part of Korea with only wireless access to the internet. In the states, I am able to watch my tv while traveling. I would recommend it highly.Digital camera Review: Excellent product
Summary: 5 Stars
The Slingbox HD Pro is awesome. I've read the reviews and some people were having problems and customer service sucked or couldn't reach them. Well let me tell you its not that hard to hook up and I had to call customer service for one thing (I didn't install the RF blaster correctly)and she was helpful and very knowledgeable about the product. The box works perfectly there is a little delay with the remote I assume its because the signal has to travel far. It works very well with a computer with a lot of ram and an HD monitor and not so good with a slow computer although still watchable if the video quality selector is set to low. There is no HDMI output but the composite video connection works just fine. The only thing I would have liked was to have an adjustable picture size there is only regular and fullscreen other than that it is a terrific product. From Oahu Hawaii