Customer Reviews

Sling Media Slingbox Tuner ( SB220-100 )

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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 --

I really like this placeshifting technology. I bought the Slingbox analog Tuner because it simplified installation and it did not hijack the digiital cable box. It connects to your cable like a cable ready TV. Additionally, you need to connect the Slingbox to your router so it can stream over the network.

The usage is limited to one user at a time. So if someone is using your unique Slingbox because you "loaned" them your password and access you cannot kick them off. They have it tied up until they decide to disconnect.

Installation was a snap although my particular Netgear router required me to follow the Slingmedia provided on-line tutorial for setting up my router for port forwarding. Slingmedia has an excellent forum for asking questions. It is well moderated and full of information about the ins and outs of Sling box setup and usage.

PICTURE QUALITY
Home network viewing streams video at 3200 kbps. Picture quality is excellent even at full screen. Remote viewing over the internet at work, or around the world is of lesser videop quality simply because the streaming size is limited to minimize the bandwidth consumed. A typical broadband connection such as a public open network will slow down when you "sling." For example, at Panera bread I speed tested their free wireless network and it ran at 600 kbps down and about 450 upload with two people connected. When I started running Sling box the download speed dropped by one third. Additionally, the speed of your broadband connection inherently can limit the uploading speed. My WOW Internet Service Provider downloads at 6000 kbps but uploads at only 600-680 kbps. The video streams smoothly and seamlessly. So the internet streamed video is best viewed via a smaller screen.

Caution -- If you plan on remote viewing at work you'd better check it out with your IT dept. at work. Some companies (and public, free wireless networks) may block video streaming because it's a bandwith hog. You Slingbox would be useless. Or, some companies may fire you for misusing company IT resources.

Two thumbs up from me.

I bought a slingbox tuner so that I could watch sporting events remotely and I am quite satisfied with it. Setup was simple and without problems. From the first moment I fired it up, it just worked -- and it has worked nearly flawlessly since then. In the 4 months I have been using it, the only problems I have experienced was once when the box stopped transmitting and needed to be reset.

Video quality is dependent upon the upload speed for the internet connection where you have the slingbox set up. On their website the Slingmedia folks recommend a minimum upload speed of 256kbps. They have a great utility for checking your upload and download speed before buying.

I am very happy I got this little box.

I ordered the Slingbox Tuner from Amazon a couple of weeks ago. Even with free ground shipping, it arrived in Miami within three days. Pretty good.

Setting up the Slingbox took a little work, as the outgoing stream had to go through a combination modem/router supplied by my ISP. I played around with it for a couple of nights with little success. The following evening I signed on to the Sling Media support chat to see if they could help. They did more than that. After granting them (temporary) remote access to my router, the support tech set it up himself and within 5 minutes it was up and running. Way above and beyond the usual level of product support I've seen anywhere else.

I also want to comment on Sling Media's high-quality product image awareness. It's a welcome change to see a product packaged with everything you'll need to get it up and running. You'll find the Slingbox, a high-quality signal splitter, a Cat5 Ethernet cable and two high-quality coaxial cables in the box along with the manuals, guides and software. Very nice.

So... how well does this thing work? Quite well, thank you. I'm streaming over a fairly slow 400 kbps upstream pipe, which isn't all that much faster than Sling's 250 kbps requirement, yet the stream looks pretty good at 320x240 on my Macs and just below regular TV quality when hooked up to a TV (via the Mac's Mini-DVI video out, to Apple's Mini-DVI to RCA/Composite & S-Video adapter, to the TV's S-Video input. Still waiting for the Slingcatcher). I'll report back when I upgrade the upstream bandwidth. I expect to get something very close to Analog TV quality with about 800 kbps upstream.

I'm really happy with the Slingbox Tuner and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to stream their basic cable signal.

There are several varieties of Slingbox out there, and trying to figure out which one is right for you can be challenging. So I'll make this simple: if you're looking to save a little money, have at least basic cable (and anticipate having it for a while) then this is the product for you. In other words, if you can get basic cable to your TVs without a converter box then you can make good use of this. Most cable companies offer this, so check if you're not sure.

What are the disadvantages? The tuner is the old NTSC standard instead of the new ASTC, which means that you won't be able to use it for broadcast channels when they switch to digital broadcasting next year (unless you have the adapter). You also can't easily use it for your digital cable channels (for most companies, this means any channel 100 or higher) or for satellite channels.

Still, it works very well for what it does. The quality of the streamed video is excellent over both Wireless-N and Wireless-G connections. It looks as good as on our TVs. I haven't tried it from away from our home network, so I can't comment on that.

Setup for the box is pretty easy, especially if your router supports uPnP. The box itself can get a little hot, so you have to be careful about how you place it. I deducted a star because you have to use a proprietary video player that doesn't support recording. For that reason it's only a very good product and not an indispensible one.

I bought the previous generation and installed in Taiwan last year. It works perfectly well on my PC, Laptop, and Cingular WM5 PDA phone in US.
I love its design idea and features.
Now the new price is almost only 50% of my old one; I probably will buy the 2'nd one soon.
Hopefully, Sling Media can provide client s/w for Apple iPhone. That will be an excellent killer app!