Sling Media Slingbox PRO (sb200-100) Video Capture
- Platform: PC Mac
- Adapter Type: Video Capture TV Input DVB Satellite Receiver
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TV on the go? Why not!
Pros
TV on the go! Watch your TV anywhere in the house.
Cons
Slow network = lousy quality. Not-quite-HD, and pricey mobile client software.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
If you think you'll be on the road and want local TV, it's great.
Once upon a time, our cable boxes and DVRs were stuck in our homes, with no way to get out.. but no more! The Slingbox allows you to control and view whatever your device is (in my case a DVR/cable box combo from my cable company) remotely via the internet, or your local area network. The setup is pretty easy, you just hook up the outputs of your device to the inputs of the Slingbox, and hook it up (along with power) to your network. The software included (be sure to download the latest version from the website!) will then walk you through a setup, which will include router configuration. It will test everything to make sure it works, and you're good to go!
Overall, the solution is pretty good. There IS a delay between clicking a button on your remote, and it's very much there even if you're running the software on your home LAN. The Slingbox does support "HD" inputs, via the HD200-100 HD Connect Cable, which gives you a set of component inputs. The software will transmit the signal, and it looks pretty darn good too, but it's certainly not HD.
The performance of the Slingbox will be determined first by your source (a VCR will get you poor quality, while an HD cable box will do much better), and second by your available bandwidth. When you're running the software over your LAN, I've seen the bitrate can exceed 6,000kbps, which gets you pixelated HD quality (more on this later) and looks really good. If you're watching it remotely is when you'll see the big change, however. My internet provider gets me about a 1mb upload, and the Slingbox will use every bit of it. Of course, because the bitrate is significantly lower, the quality will go down quite a bit. If you've got some outlandish 8mb upload on your internet service you'll have a great remote picture (provided of course you can get that high of a download where you're at) then you'll be good to go.
Like I just mentioned, the quality will depend on your connection. However, even then there are still some limitations. In the software, you can select what resolution it will optimize the stream for. Here is the list:
1920x540
1680x540
1440x540
1280x720
640x480
640x240
320x240
256x192
160x120
Notice anything? There is only one HD resolution there, which is 1280x720. 1080P is 1920x1080, and the closest it has is 1920x540, which is about half the height. Granted, you're not going to get high-definition TV streamed over your network with a simple consumer device like this. It does compress the video down, and it appears to play with the framerate too, dropping down to probably 20-25hz, rather than 29.99hz. The fact that it's being zapped over your network, if not the internet, it's still a pretty remarkable and the ease of it's configuration is low enough that an average consumer can get through it.
You can access the Singbox via the client (downloaded from the website), or you can access it through Sling's website (still in beta, as of the writing of this review), or through a mobile phone. They've got mobile clients for iPhone/iPod, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Symbian and PalmOS. I'm not sure about the rest, but the iPhone/iPod client is an extra $29.99. I think it's pretty bad that Sling Media is bleeding it's customers for another ~$30, after charging so much for the hardware, but it gets you TV in a remote area without a PC. Apple/ATT (the details are sketchy) recently allowed the client to run on the iPhone's 3G wireless network (it previously only operated on WiFi), and it looks pretty good. The amount of bandwidth that the Slingbox takes to run isn't too bad, and streaming semi-HD content onto your mobile device is a nice touch, even if they're charging for it.
All in all, the Slingbox is a pretty fantastic product. The initial investment is pretty high, but it has plenty of applications beyond just watching TV remotely. What if you knew someone who needs remote cable, but only has access to internet? Stash his Slingbox on a spare cable box at your place, and you're good to go. I use it to watch TV on my PC, because I have a projector hooked up to my home theater, and sometimes it's not worth it to fire it up to watch a 30minute program.
Overall, the solution is pretty good. There IS a delay between clicking a button on your remote, and it's very much there even if you're running the software on your home LAN. The Slingbox does support "HD" inputs, via the HD200-100 HD Connect Cable, which gives you a set of component inputs. The software will transmit the signal, and it looks pretty darn good too, but it's certainly not HD.
The performance of the Slingbox will be determined first by your source (a VCR will get you poor quality, while an HD cable box will do much better), and second by your available bandwidth. When you're running the software over your LAN, I've seen the bitrate can exceed 6,000kbps, which gets you pixelated HD quality (more on this later) and looks really good. If you're watching it remotely is when you'll see the big change, however. My internet provider gets me about a 1mb upload, and the Slingbox will use every bit of it. Of course, because the bitrate is significantly lower, the quality will go down quite a bit. If you've got some outlandish 8mb upload on your internet service you'll have a great remote picture (provided of course you can get that high of a download where you're at) then you'll be good to go.
Like I just mentioned, the quality will depend on your connection. However, even then there are still some limitations. In the software, you can select what resolution it will optimize the stream for. Here is the list:
1920x540
1680x540
1440x540
1280x720
640x480
640x240
320x240
256x192
160x120
Notice anything? There is only one HD resolution there, which is 1280x720. 1080P is 1920x1080, and the closest it has is 1920x540, which is about half the height. Granted, you're not going to get high-definition TV streamed over your network with a simple consumer device like this. It does compress the video down, and it appears to play with the framerate too, dropping down to probably 20-25hz, rather than 29.99hz. The fact that it's being zapped over your network, if not the internet, it's still a pretty remarkable and the ease of it's configuration is low enough that an average consumer can get through it.
You can access the Singbox via the client (downloaded from the website), or you can access it through Sling's website (still in beta, as of the writing of this review), or through a mobile phone. They've got mobile clients for iPhone/iPod, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Symbian and PalmOS. I'm not sure about the rest, but the iPhone/iPod client is an extra $29.99. I think it's pretty bad that Sling Media is bleeding it's customers for another ~$30, after charging so much for the hardware, but it gets you TV in a remote area without a PC. Apple/ATT (the details are sketchy) recently allowed the client to run on the iPhone's 3G wireless network (it previously only operated on WiFi), and it looks pretty good. The amount of bandwidth that the Slingbox takes to run isn't too bad, and streaming semi-HD content onto your mobile device is a nice touch, even if they're charging for it.
All in all, the Slingbox is a pretty fantastic product. The initial investment is pretty high, but it has plenty of applications beyond just watching TV remotely. What if you knew someone who needs remote cable, but only has access to internet? Stash his Slingbox on a spare cable box at your place, and you're good to go. I use it to watch TV on my PC, because I have a projector hooked up to my home theater, and sometimes it's not worth it to fire it up to watch a 30minute program.
