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 $109.99 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Sling Media Slingbox SOLO (SB260-100)
Customer Review: It works well, good product
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been using this Slingbox for about a month, and so far it has worked out really well.
Setting up: The Slingbox is connected to the Time Warner Cable (NY) HD Scientific Atlanta box via components input. The Slingbox is wired to a Linksys DIR 655 router. The setup was a breeze. I followed the steps that came in the box, and was able to choose the right remote control, which looks exactly the same as the physical one that I'm using. I spent about 15 more minutes installing Slingbox player and setting up an online account.
Home Network Streaming: With Slingplayer installed on the laptop, I was able to stream live TV with a nice VGA (800 x 600) resolution without any issues. The connection speed was averaging over 4000 Kbps.
Remote Streaming: Initially I wasn't able to stream remotely at all. After reading online, I found that I need to forward a port on my router to the Slingbox. I believe that, depending on the router, you may not need to do this as during Slingbox setup, it should have configured your router for you. I could be wrong. With everything working, I was able to stream at a lower quality than streaming within the home network. The speed average around 400 - 420 Kbps only, which gives QVGA (320 x 240). To me, this is sufficient watching it on a laptop. It's the limitation of my Road Runner cabe in NYC, which has a slow upload speed. If you are in an area with fast internet upload speed, I'm sure that picture quality will be better.
Overall, I'm satisfied and haven't had an issue with it. Some reviewers mention that Slingbox takes up bandwidth. I haven't experienced that problem. No one has complained about the Internet or latency problems in their online games while I'm streaming outside the network.
Customer Review: Slingbox Solo beats Hava Titanium HD by a country mile.
Summary: 5 Stars
With DirecTV at home and Cox Cable in my weekend apartment I was tired of paying $200+ every month to watch TV. I read reviews and concluded that a Hava Titanium HD installed at the house would save me over $1000 a year by cancelling Cox at the apartment and watching DirecTV over the Internet on my 70" JVC 1080p display.
After buying the Hava, I was so disappointed with the performance that I returned it for a refund. However, I decided to give the Sling Solo a try and the difference is amazing.
Over the Internet, Hava High Definition channels are streamed at around 350Kbs giving a resolution of around 240 lines - not even standard definition, never mind HD. Images were broken up with ghosting, painful to watch. In less than an hour of viewing, the Slingbox hit transfer rates of over 1200Kbs and picture quality was excellent.
The Hava on screen remote control for DirecTV has a generic skin - the Slingbox one is identical to the actual DirecTV remote. Furthermore, although the Hava remote can record selections on the DirecTV DVR, it has no way of viewing or playing those recorded programs . . . Hellooooo !
The reaction time in using the Hava remote is very sluggish compared with the Slingbox and the Slingbox has an onscreen program guide independant of the remote DVR which can be customized for favorites and allows single mouse click selection of channels to be viewed.
In a nutshell, the difference between Hava HD and Slingbox Solo is like night and day. I have to thank Amazon for their generous return policy that allowed me to check out both brands without obligation. They even paid the freight cost for me to return the Hava unit for a full refund. Thank you Amazon.
Customer Review: Awesome device
Summary: 5 Stars
What an awesome device. Easier to set up than most reviews I read. Being somewhat tech savvy I was a little worried I'd be the one with "we never heard of that problem before" issue. But anyway after taking the unit out of the box and seeing a small setup book I was a little worried. But I followed the directions and was up and running in 40 minutes. The only problem I had was actually finding my directv dvr in the setup menu of my account on the slingbox web site. It is an HR23-700 and I believe it is the latest dvr from directv. But was able to use the next closest model the HR22 and the remote worked. I was so thrilled with the ease and quality I actually went on my Iphone and paid $29.99 for the iphone app. It was quick and easy also. There is a two second delay from live tv to streaming but no lock up or delays as of yet. Being I just set this up 2 hours ago I will update this review if need be. But as of now I am thrilled with its ease of setup and quality overall. I gave customer service 5 stars but actually haven't had a reason as of yet to call customer service. I also checked the Sony LF-V30 version with wifi and the Hava before purchasing the slingbox. I feel overall my research proved the slingbox to be superior to the Sony and Hava. I am running my system on cat 6e ethernet cable. I paid $15.00 for 75 feet and have found my ps3, my directv dvr all work best wired direct. So the Sony and its wifi issues kept me out of that market leaving me to decide between slingbox and hava. If you travel and are on the fence about the slingbox, forget it go out and get it while it's on sale. I paid $157.00 on Amazon with free 2 day shipping and couldn't be happier.Customer Review: LOVE IT!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Where do I begin, it was easy to set up, easy to use and it just works! I have a D-Link DIR-601 router, an iPhone 3G (yes, the second generation iPhone, it's old) and a Comcast cable DVR. My router has the firewall up, is encrypted, and I use MAC fitering to allow only devices of my choosing to access my network. I simply turned off the firewall and MAC filtering, hooked everything up, turned it all back on and it worked. Total time, about 15 minutes to do this along with the wiring and fishing the patch cord thru the wall. At home with WIFI, the reception on my iPhone 3G was excellent. On the road, driving at highway speeds, my kids were able to watch the Disney channel and Nickelodeon as if they were sitting at home, except on a much smaller screen. For those who say they have had problems, it is most likely their wireless provider's problem and not with the Slingbox hardware and software. If we were in an area where the mobile internet service was weak, the resolution degraded, but again, that is a problem with being in an area of signal strength, not with the Slingbox product itself. I'm looking into getting the AV adapter for my iPhone so I can plug it into the overhead DVD player in my Avalanche so the kids can watch cable on long drives. All those mobile satellite providers better watch out, this is going to put them out of business. Why pay hundreds of dollars or even a thousand for a big satellite dish that has to sit on the roof of your vehicle and pay twice for the same cable TV service? After you buy the hardware, less than $200 for the Slingbox Solo and iPhone app, there are no more fees to pay! Bottom line, it works and I love it!!!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.