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111 of 114 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great product, with 2 HD caveats, October 21, 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Having been a prior user of the SlingBox Pro, I was already familiar with the SlingBox software and hardware setup. Receiving the ProHD it was quite easy to perform the setup and installation required to be "slinging" my TV all over the world (and around my home).
Despite having setup one of the the original devices before, I attempted to walk through the installation as a completely new user. The booklet gives clear, easy to understand directions for the multitude of ways in which this device can be setup. It isn't relegated to "just" HD; the SlingBox Pro HD can also sling your standard definition content over the world or over your own network as well. This does not mean, however, that a person couldn't be easily confused just due to the sheer amount of devices one could potentially control with the SlingBox Pro HD (or the original Pro for that matter).
Remember when setting up the hardware, the location of the IR sensors is crucial in your ability to control your devices over the Internet or the network.
Once you are finished setting up your SlingBox Pro HD, you are prompted to download and install the Sling Player software. Of the entire process, I have to say this is the most frustrating part. It would have been easy enough to deliver a CD with the software inside the box, however Sling Media chose to force you to download the software. The only time I can see this as being an issue is if you purchased the SlingBox Pro HD with the express intention of "slinging" your media around your house and not over the Internet (and even then really only if you have no Internet connection). Deduct a point for the 5-15 minutes you must spend downloading the software; as if the anticipation of getting the device working wasn't bad enough already!
Next up was actually installing the software and finding the device on the network. The software walks you through every step of the process. The most difficult part, and calling it difficult may be stretching the definition, is in figuring out what remote to use. Some devices you may have in your home have several hardware versions and also have remotes with different nuances which could potentially throw a monkey wrench in the works. You are presented with the layout and a picture of the remote, so as long as your remote is handy you should be able to compare it easily to what is on the install screen.
You must install the Sling Player software on every PC (laptop or desktop; or cell phone if you purchase the software for it) you wish to view your media from.
Now for the fun part, actually watching your media!
From home, you can sling HD media around your network with reckless abandon. Even with a "slow" network speed of 10 mbps, you can achieve the ability to sling content in HD. At lower speeds you may notice some minor artefacting and other compression issues, but this is really only due to the slower network speed. If you are using a 100 mbps or faster connection, this should shoot high quality HD content all over your house with no problems. The only down side in this is that if you are using wireless, you must remember THERE IS NO WIRELESS CAPABILITY built into the SlingBox Pro HD (or other SlingBoxes for that matter). I wish they had included the Sling Link Turbo, which allows you to connect the Sling Link Turbo to your network, another cable into your power line and network the SlingBox Pro HD via your electrical outlets, negating the need to run network cabling all over your house. Including wireless connectivity would also be a bonus, however there is no guarantee on wireless connection speeds, which is why it is not included as a feature. Given variances in wireless speeds and quality of connection, there would be no good way, yet, for the SlingBox to offer a consistent level of quality in the video it slings.
Now we delve into watching from anywhere around the world. The first HD caveat I mention in my title for this review, is one of HD media slinging. Unfortunately you must have a decent upload speed from your Internet connection to be able to receive a decent HD picture. The recommended upload speed for a consistently good HD picture while traveling and watching over the Internet is 1.5 mbps. My DSL connection is capped at 768 kbps, which means I cannot watch HD content while traveling as I am given choppy images and broken audio. You can, however, still watch the content, only you will need to set the SlingBox Pro HD to "down convert" the video you receive to standard definition quality. So if all you want is to be able to watch local sports or TV while traveling and don't mind it not being in standard definition, this is a great device. The other side of this caveat is that if you will only be watching while traveling and don't have a fast upload speed, you may be better served saving some money and going for the regular SlingBox Pro instead of the HD.
The other HD caveat is that the SlingBox Pro HD can only accept and output sources UP TO 1080i. This means that if you have a Blu Ray or other HD capable device that can output and is setup to output at 1080p, you will have to dial it down to 1080i output. 720p content is not affected.
Which brings us to connections. There is NO HDMI connection on this device. Not a single HDMI connection. Your options are:
Inputs:
composite (red, white, yellow)
svideo (still needs red and white for audio)
component (red, blue, green, uses either red and white for anlog audio or orange connection for digital audio)
coax (your cable connection)
Outputs:
composite (red, white, yellow)
svideo (still needs red and white for audio)
component (red, blue, green, uses either red and white or orange connection for audio)
coax
The SlingBox Pro HD also has a USB connection for viewing media off of a USB thumb drive (may even work for a USB hard drive; I haven't tried it as of this writing)
You can control all sorts of devices with the SlingBox Pro HD, and especially important is the inclusion of an ATSC tuner within the Pro HD. What this means is that this SlingBox is prepared for the digital conversion we all keep hearing about on TV. The regular SlingBox Pro has only a regular NTSC tuner so is not future proof on its own (if you have a digital converter box, like the ones the government offers coupons for, the regular SlingBox Pro may still be an option).
One other "problem" is not being able to control the PS3. As the PS3 is one of the best selling Blu Ray players, I would have liked to have seen a way to manipulate it using Bluetooth connectivity from the SlingBox Pro HD. They missed the mark on this one, but only by a little. Hopefully they will allow for Bluetooth remote control connections in the next version of the SlingBox?
In the end, this device is amazingly nice. Very rarely does a device impress me as much as this. If you desire to watch HD sources all over your house, this is a great device to purchase. If you want to do the same with SD content, this will still work for you. If you want to watch HD media while traveling, this is the device to purchase (assuming you have a fast enough upload speed to the Internet); you can also use it for watching standard definition content while traveling, though again, if this is what you desire you may be better served with the regular SlingBox Pro and save a few dollars.
As long as you can look past the inability to input/output at 1080p and the Internet upload requirements, this is a great buy!
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Almost perfect, December 1, 2008
PROS:
+ Handles HD-content well, especially 1080i
+ Setup is simple and intuitive. I have two routers with a DMZ, and after a little tweaking, was able to get it configured quite easily
+ Continual software/firmware updates from SlingMedia mean that it's clearly a product that's going to be updated in the coming months/years
+ For the price, excellent
+ On-screen controls are easy to use, and Guide works
CONS
- No HDMI support
- Multiple devices of the same type hooked to different inputs cannot be separated with IR (meaning the IR signal is sent to all IR endpoints, which can cause some problems)
- Watching on Mobile phone isn't optimum, but it is great. Wish they would full screen and do better QoS
- Control mode is choppy
OVERALL
- Would buy it again in a heartbeat. While it definitely has room for improvement, I'm hoping those issues are remedied from a software standpoint and offered as free upgrades.
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27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
works but a few issues, October 26, 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I originally bought the slingbox pro last year and have just tried the Hava Platinum HD, so here are my impressions. Setup for the Slingbox Pro-HD is easy. You download the software from their website, install it and it guides you through the process of finding the pro-hd on your network and setting up your devices. BTW - hookup was very easy and straight forward. I connected the slingbox hd to my cable, my router and the power cord. Went to my laptop and took it from there.
In my scenario there are a couple of things to note. I live in NYC and have digital cable with HD. Now, I have to use my cable box to be able to see HD channels. By bypassing the cable box and directly connecting my cable line into the slingbox HD, I can either see all of my regular cable stations (up to channel 99) OR I can see whatever HD channels are free (or over-the-air) in NYC. You can't do both at the same time (at this time, according to their website - that will require a firmware update that is 'high' on their list - I have some history with waiting for them to 'develop' something . . I'll come back to that later).
I set up the slingbox pro HD to look for qualcom HD channels one my cable line and let it do it's thing. It found about 20 HD stations, the best being NBC, CBS, ABC, WB, UPN, PBS, PBSkids. The others are either home-shopping type sites or sports-versions of the big networks. The picture is really great - super clear and with no artifacts - great HD experience at a smaller size. This is VASTLY improved from the regular slingbox pro that I had last year - the picture on that was terrible - fuzzy, grainy - granted it was SD video, but I absolutely hated it.
I then set up the slingbox to look for the regular cable channels. I had to delete the HD setup and have it look up the SD channels. It picked up the channels up to 99. These looked OK and were still better than my memory of the regular slingbox pro. I had one issue in where the picture cut out and had 'low' signal strength. I searched through the forums at slingmedia and apparently this is common to other users and there's no quick fix that anyone has posted.
So, I switched it back to HD.
There is a program guide that looks like every other program guide out there. Nice feature, but only works for the cable channels, at least for me. The HD channels have show up as channel 1.1, 1.3 and so forth - and there is no program guide for those. A bit annoying because I had to figure out what each channel is. This would be OK, but there is considerable lag to changing the channel. You can select a 'quick mode' that basically lowers the quality of your picture while you change channels. It does make it faster, but still not as responsive as changing the channel on your TV. It's probably inherent in the technology.
Pros - easy setup, easy connection, picture looks great. Channel guide if you use regular cable channels
Cons - you can't have both SD and HD channels with a direct cable hookup - you have to go through your cable box, which means you have to set up the IR remote (I didn't do this, but I assume it works as I haven't seen anyone complain out it).
I didn't hook anything else up because it's doubtful that I'd want to stream DVD's or my camcorder's video to a laptop or PC - I would do that directly and have much more control.
Now, one of the reasons I bought the original slingbox pro was because they had advertised that they were working with Microsoft to connect it to Vista so that you could record TV to your computer, thus making it a DVR. That never happened and eventually both MS and Sling media removed those references from their websites. I found that really frustrating because I waited a long time for that. It tought me a lesson to buy technology for what it will do TODAY and not some promised future. All that to say, who knows if they will ever update the firmware to show both SD and HD channels at the same time?
Another thing - when I had the original slingbox pro, I didn't much enjoy watching my home TV remotely when I was traveling or on my phone. It was too jerky and I was worried about maxing out my home/phone bandwidth and data plans, so it was not fun for me. Plus, it killed my battery on my phone too quickly. You may have different needs, likes and dislikes, so take that into account when reading this review. It's unlikely I'll 'sling' my TV, so I'm not reviewing that, but keep in mind that it's the biggest selling point of the slingbox HD and you may really want that.
Overall, the slingbox pro HD does what it is advertised to do - nothing more, nothing less, and what it does it does with good quality.
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