Sling Media Slingbox PRO (SB200-100) by Sling Media
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Digital camera reviews of Sling Media Slingbox PRO (SB200-100)
Digital camera Review: A MUST HAVE device...but not for Cable Card users.
Summary: 5 Stars
Bad news first, if you are one of us that uses a Cable Card via your cable provider, them know that Singbox Pro will NOT Work with it. You will need to call your cable company and get a cable set-top box receiver. Make sure that if you do subscribe to High Def. programing that you get one of these and make sure it has component connection. In addition, you will need the HD connection from Singmedia. Might at welll get them at the same time. HDMI connection via your cable box will NOT WORK. That is it as far as the bad news goes, the rest is all OUTSTANDING. I love the device because I love to surf the web in my bedroom and always wanted a tv in bed...now I have one and it work EVERYWhere. So you yourself a favor and get one of the MUST haves for us Tech mofo's. Highly Recommanded device!!!!!Digital camera Review: A Must Have If You Live Overseas
Summary: 4 Stars
I live in Germany where English speaking television is minimal. I came across this gadget one day and decided to give it a try. I hooked it up in my mother's house in the US through a Linksys router. After a few setting changes, it worked. The next time I was in Germany, I was watching American TV. Unfortunately, the DSL at my mother's house went down periodically, or so I thought, which required a reboot of the DSL modem. This was a pain especially when my family wasn't home to reset the modem. What I then discovered was that I needed to change a setting on my router for an "always on" connection versus the "on demand" setting. I have had no probems since. The picture quality is adequate even overseas. I get about 310Kbps. Good enough for me. I connected my laptop to my 42" plasma TV via an s-video connection. If you live overseas, this is a must have.Digital camera Review: A cool gadged that works well
Summary: 4 Stars
The slingbox is a set-top box device that lets me watch and control
my video devices from anywhere. Setting up the box was easy,
it worked within 15 minutes. The most time consuming (as always)
is routing all kinds of wires at the back of the cabinet, and getting
rid of the empty packages and boxes. Even though the slingbox
comes with many necessary wires, a trip to RadioShack was necessary
to get some v-splitting cables. I hooked up all 4 available inputs:
-HD tivo series3 (component input)
-tivo series 2 (cvbs input)
-sattelite settop box (s-video)
-analog antenna
The button to switch between these inputs in the slingplayer
is hidden 2-levels deep in one of th menus. Otherwise, the
slingplayer UI is nicely executed.
When playing at home, the quality of the HD input is
excellent, similar to playing a DVD in my laptop.
Digital artefacts are present, but no worse than my plasma
TV. When reached from the internet, only 1/10th of the bandwidth
is avaiable (my DSL does 300kbs upstream). The slingbox does
an admirable job in dealing with these bandwidth limitations.
Playback is remarkably smooth (though not nearly HD, obviously).
Overall, this is a neat gadget. Not as great as Tivo, but
its a lot of fun for $250 (box + cable).
Pro:
-Very well engineered video encoding gets the most out of any connection.
-Well-designed player works. Now every laptop in the house is a TV.
-Slingbox does not run hot when standy. Most settop boxes (except tivo)
have huge standby power consumption (sometimes 30watts).
-Very nicely design packaging, almost as much eye candy as Apple products.
The slingbox does not have to be installed visibly, but it
can since it not an eye-sore.
Cons:
-The $45 HD cable is a rip-off and messy: these should have been
some extra plugs at the back of the box.
-Supports only one user at a time.
-No learning capability for the IR-codes of unknown devices. My
misty sattelite box is not in the list, and it looks like I'm stuck
there.
Digital camera Review: A great product without the proper set-up documentation.
Summary: 4 Stars
The Slingbox Pro is a dream come true for the road warrior who misses watching their home TV shows on the road (especially if you travel overseas). Once successfully configured, it works flawlessly. I also have it running at a full 30 fps on my Treo 700w on Verizon's EV-DO broadband network. JUST MAKE DARN SURE THAT YOUR ROUTER SUPPORTS UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) and that THE FEATURE IS TURNED ON BEFORE YOU TRY TO INSTALL THE SLINGBOX. If your router doesn't support UPnP, be prepared to spend several hours setting up your new Slingbox. It would be easier to just go out and buy a new router with UPnP (which is what I did). If you have UPnP, your new Slingbox will will probably take about ten minutes to set up. You will then have your identical home cable or satellite TV lineup available to you via a high-speed Internet connection (including WiFi) whenever and wherever you have your laptop.Digital camera Review: A word of Warning about this product and this company.
Summary: 1 Stars
While the Sling Box Pro works as advertised, it only works for a finite amount of time and then it stops working. You had better hope that it stops working within the warranty period or you can just throw it away. If you're shopping for this item or something similar, then you already know the price advertised (this item went up?? it was under $300.00 when i purchased it in 07)is not what you will end up paying if your cable box isn't right next to your router ($80.00 for a Sling wireless bridge) or if you want to use the HDMI port ($50.00 I opted out). I'm already on my second box as the first one simply stopped working, as did many other owners' boxes, (see Sling Community forums)and they replaced it. Here we are again with a box that now has a problem with video distortion that makes it completely unwatchable and ultimately useless. You would think that the folks at Sling Media would want to stand behind their product and maybe offer some help and you would be right. For $29.99 per incident they would be happy to tell you why your box no longer works as advertised. It's a shame that this product works for a limited time before it breaks (and if you buy one it will fail eventually). It's an even greater shame that the folks at Sling Media feel they have to gouge the consumer for their product's obvious shortcomings. In this day and age, while I'm not surprised, I'm still disgusted. It's possible that Sling Media only has a short term outlook and they want to make as much money as they can before they go out of business. Certainly, anybody who's had the same experience I've had is going to look at a different brand (Hava, Sony etc) and never buy another Sling Media product again. If you don't believe me, go to the Sling Media Community forums and browse through the problems others have had and their collective experiences with Sling Media support. While I would never EVER purchase another Sling Media product of any sort, you might still be interested and if so I hope that this helps you make an informed decision.