I have been looking at Slingbox for awhile now but was afraid to purchase the first generation product for fear of a tough installation. I am a business travel who finally decided to purchase a Slingbox now that the second generation product has been released. To say the least, I am not disappointed. I have (regular) basic/expanded cable with a coax cable protruding from the wall and a WiFi DSL setup. Installation was easy EXCEPT I had a problem installing the software onto my laptop using their CD-Rom Disc (Which is why I give this product 4 stars instead of 5). The CD does not contain the software download, instead it guides your PC to obtain the download over the internet. My laptop would download up to 90% of the software and then hang. I ended up having to retreive the download directly from the Slingbox Website (no big deal). Once installed, the software automatically configured my router so I could use my slingbox from the outside (from the road anywhere there is a high-speed internet connection). The picture is pretty good when I use slingbox from within my house. On the road away from home, the picture is considerably more distorted. In order to get a better picture, I need to shrink my screen. I watch my local news on the road and plan to watch my local sport teams. I love this product and it helps me make the most of my cable which I pay too much for! If you are a non-techie like me, BUY IT! Do not be afraid of the installation, it was easy. Sling Media Slingbox Tuner ( SB220-100 )
I purchased the Slingbox so my wife could watch TV on her kitchen laptop (new Dell Inspiron) rather than buy a new Flat TV or an external PC tuner (and then run a cable). Product works well and as promised. Good, smooth picture quality across my wireless G. Easy to set up. I have not yet tried to view TV remotely, so I cannot comment on that.
Points of criticism:
1) It does not work well if you want to multi-task (i.e. watch TV while you do other tasks on the same PC) as it seems to be a resrouce hog. When I tried this I had synch problems between voice and audio. I did not try reducing the quality settings to rectify this (isn't a big deal to me).
2) The box runs HOT. The underside is not well enough raised from the resting surface. When I picked it up the other day, it was hard to handle it was so warm. I now have it sitting on a small, rasied wire cooling sheet for cookies and it seems to be much cooler.
3) You can't view on multiple PCs simultaneously. I understand that it has only one tuner, but it would seem feasible that two PCs could watch the same channel.
4) I think they should've added a coax input for the SlingBox AV like they have for the Slingbox Pro. I would've paid an extra few bucks for that. Not a huge deal for my situation, but it limits future options.
Please post a comment if you have any insight into the above cirtiques.
PS: If you have a Logitech DiNovo wireless keyboard, the cordless multimedia numeric pad works great as a remote control.
I bought the base version of Slingbox for about $100 to be able to watch US television in Europe. My friend set the Slingbox up on his cable TV system and router in Washington, DC. He said it was no problem to hook up on his end, just a couple cables and a log-in password. All he had to do for the TV signal was put a splitter on his TV cable like hooking up another TV, except the "other TV" is the Slingbox. He still has complete control over his TV set, and I have control over the Slingbox via my comptuer. In summary, the Slingbox was easy to set up and works exactly as advertised. I am a very satisfied customer.
I ordered this device based upon good reviews of the first model. Installation went fine and the device works almost as expected. The problem is that Slingmedia, without notifying customers or potential costomers has downgraded functionality.
The new devices (and the old models which incorporate new firmware) now utilize an encrypted stream. This breaks programs such as "At Large Recorder" which let me record my TV material for my review at a time of my choice.
Since I travel abroad a lot, I have a great need to be able to place and time shift. Sitting in a hotel in Tokyo at 6:00p.m., I'm not much interested in watching what is on in the US at 3:00a.m.!
I'd advise looking at other solutions. I think it is very irresponsible of Slingmedia to have introduced this dramatic reduction in function without telling customers they would be getting less than in the past!
I purchased the SlingBox Tuner last week to watch TV at work when I work late. It installed perfectly through my home network - a Netgear 16 port switch, but it did not work with the Internet feature for remote watching. I called tech support the next day and the courteous rep guided me a page where I agreed to their version of remote desktop control/management. He logged in to my older Netgear router which was connected to my switch, and he configured the Port forwarding properly. In 5 minutes it was done. He was patient enough to guide me through channel setup.
Other reviewers have discussed the great features, but I wanted to add how comfortable tech support works. After having it for a week at work, it's awesome. It seems to stay under 300k of bandwidth so we don't get in trouble with IT or being bandwidth hogs.
I was somewhat concerned that the SlingBox Tuner would not work in 2009 or whenever digital TV is coming for good. He mentioned that it was highly likely that SlingMedia would come out with an adapter so that the Tuner customers were not stranded. Still, for $99 on Amazon with no tax or shipping, I figure if it doesn't work after 2009, then it's still a good deal at $50 per year to watch TV remotely. If I do buy an updated HD / digital version of the new Sling Box in 2009, you know it will be better than the current versions too. A win-win -- - Placeshifting - Slingbox Tuner - Internet Tv - Sling'
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