andrewgbrown wrote:Sling does a REALLY good job of trying to hide the desktop client. Here's the link for the Windows application, so you don't have to fool around trying to log into their website every time you want to stream from your device:

http://support.slingbox.com/go/windows-download-desktop-us

I don't log in or fool around... I click one button... "Sling" on my bookmarks bar and I'm watching TV. Super simple. But I'm on a Mac. ; )

[quote postid="4951055" user="andrewgbrown"]Sling does a REALLY good job of trying to hide the desktop client.

I will say this about the desktop client, it works well even on slower computers.

It works fine on my Asus EEE 900HA (Intel atom),

and we have were able to get it running on a 900HD (celeron)

I'm in for one! I already own the AV and the Solo and I have had no problems with either one. Knock on wood. I am aware of the capacitor problems but I guess I am one of the lucky ones who hasn't had an issue.

This HD version should be a nice upgrade while I am streamin around the house. I doubt I will see much of an upgrade while on the go since I rarely have a connection speed high enouh to support HD while on the go. Regardless the HD version will still be an upgrade when I do have the bandwith to support it.

I imagine this will be sold out by the morning. I could be wrong of course but this hasn't been this cheap since Slingbox offered it over six months ago.

Here's a video showing the setup.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESohaFL89N8&noredirect=1

qwiktune wrote:Could someone enlighten me on the difference between this unit and the Solo, because I have the Solo but I can't think of justifying on upgrading to this one. I understand the quality is better (though the quality on the solo is fine for me as im not in to many situation where i'd be watching long enough for the quality of the solo to bother me. Also on my cell phone I always wondered if the service was good enough to even run high definition without any glitches (Verizon 3G). So what else do I benefit by this unit besides higher quality?

Better quality because it can actually stream at 1080i and a coaxial port that supports ATSC or ClearQAM.

Streaming at higher resolution is a lot better on 4G LTE, so I'd say it isn't worth the upgrade for you.

qwiktune wrote:Could someone enlighten me on the difference between this unit and the Solo, because I have the Solo but I can't think of justifying on upgrading to this one. I understand the quality is better (though the quality on the solo is fine for me as im not in to many situation where i'd be watching long enough for the quality of the solo to bother me. Also on my cell phone I always wondered if the service was good enough to even run high definition without any glitches (Verizon 3G). So what else do I benefit by this unit besides higher quality?

In my opinion, you are on the right track in all your thinking. I likely wouldn't upgrade to the HD. When on my phone (also Verison 3G), my connection often downgrades the quality to play smooth.My HD has three input options.. I think the Solo has one. I only have one device connected, so that's not huge for me either. I have fast internet at my house, so I'm going with the HD for my parent's house in another state (read between lines on that one..)

My opinion is unless you are watching Slinged content ON another TV with high speed connection, the Solo is just fine..

NewMaster wrote:It doesn't need HDMI. This is not like other devices where you are playing internet content on your TV. This is for playing TV content on your computer; you hook it up to your antenna or cable box.

Unless your cable or satellite box has component out (which many don't anymore), the "HD" part is pretty useless. The lack of HDMI is because of the inherent lack of HDCP, due to the nature of the device.

beekermartin wrote:I'm in for one! I already own the AV and the Solo and I have had no problems with either one. Knock on wood. I am aware of the capacitor problems but I guess I am one of the lucky ones who hasn't had an issue.

I also have not had the capacitor problem on the Slingbox HD I currently own. My thinking is on this refurb is that these are most likely units with FIXED capacitors, so I feel quite good buying this for my parents.

The difference between this one and the SOLO is that this one has a tuner, so you don't need to plug it to your cable box, and supposedly you can switch channels faster.

Watch out if you buy this and expect to watch tv on your iphone/android, the client costs $30. And if you have both types of devices, you'll need to buy twice.

Sling box Pro-HD
I own this gem & it is a gem....
We travel too much especially with the job & if you've ever been in another part of our beloved USA but, the hotel only has the local cable.....well, you take out your laptop, go to the www.slingbox.com website & watch YOUR TV AT HOME!
It is great when visiting family, especially when you prefer to watch TCM & the adults in the room would rather watch, "Two tadpoles From Slime Land". Just an example, of course.
It does work & if you have HD at home buy the HD slingbox to get the best from your HD channels!
The solo & the pro are very different compare @ www.Slingbox.com.
Love my Slingbox...
Gr8tone99
aka Teresa

This product has been out for over 3 years. Consider Sling's lack of support/updates for their older products, I wonder how long this will continue to be supported.

I woke up early this morning with the strong gut feeling that today would be a Woot-Off... sadly no

Sure I travel a lot and I record so much on my DVR it would fill up in no time, even with the external DVR extender drive. This is great for catching up on all my shows while away and keeping the DVR from filling up (not to mention a wonderful way to fill the down time while traveling or waiting for the wife and kids to get ready).

Got the HD model several months ago and so far not one issue.

But it's not just for travel. Right now I'm on my desktop in my basement catching up on The Biggest Loser from last night while I do my morning internet ritual of reading news/forums etc. There's no TV convenient to where I'm sitting and keeping an "always on top" window in the corner of the screen allows me to multitask easily.

Keep in mind the slingbox "takes over" the TV you are watching and anyone watching the TV the slingbox is connected to is subject to watching what you have on (or they could change what you're watching). The included internal tuner is standard cable only so you are limited in the channels you could watch on that tuner depending on your service. I just have mine set up on the TV nobody uses much so it won't interfere with anyone while I'm away. FIOS allows access to any DVR (I have two) from any set top box so it didn't matter which TV I connected the slingbox to.

DISH customomers can get one for their HOPPA for $30. (722 model recvrs also)free support, free mobile App

(thru dish.com)

Does anyone know if a remote control interface for Roku devices is provided?

Could you view the video stream on a netbook (Asus EEE w/Atom 450n CPU)?

Just making sure, but because this model has the tuner, all I need to do to get my beloved Seahawks out here in New England is send this to the family, have them plug in the Coax and plug in the internet, do a little setup and I'm good to go?

Also, does the Coax (internal tuner) get HD channels or is that only possible using the component inputs?

Ok - I've heard of slingbox, but can someone say in plain and concise language what exactly this thing does? I have a roku...

I bought a slingbox classic many moons ago on woot. About a year and a half ago, I bought this model new and I have not had problems with any of them. I tend to use it a couple hours a night when I am working night shift. I usually view mine on my android tablet.

Cool! A lead bar! I want 2

I have this box, for about 2 years now. I got it right when Slingbox was having their massacre of server issues. I had all kinds of problems.

These days, things just "work" - so I would recommend it for those who want to stream content from one place to another.

If you want to send near-HD content, you need a fast internet connection. So make sure you have good upload bandwidth!

I own one and use it a lot.

I agree with a previous poster that there is some lag with the remote. it can be annoying but isn't a big deal.

Streaming over WiFi is pretty good. 3G can be painful at times and the client will eat your phone battery.

I've used my Sling while on travel in the middle east and had no lag issues. Just make sure you have a decent upload speed to your ISP and you should be fine.

I had a Solo that had the dreaded capacitor issue. Tried to fix it but didn't work, so I upgraded to the Pro-HD. Very happy with my decision to do so.

I bought this a few years ago and it's still going strong. I believe the mobile apps available (for iPad at least) only work with the Solo and the Pro models.

A note if you have a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD box connected to your TV via HDMI, plugging component cables from your cable box to the Slingbox will result in audio only and a "no video detected message on your laptop/mobile device. Seems that particular cable box is designed to lock out simultaneous use of both connections. Not sure if that's the case with all HD cable boxes as this is the only model I've ever had.

The workaround is to use component cables from the cable box to the Slingbox In ports and then another cable from the Out port of the Sling to the TV. Either that or you have to remember to unplug the HDMI cable from the back of the 8300 before you leave the house every day (been there, done that, forgot too many times).

I love this box. Sling used to be a cool company that was very responsive until they were swallowed up by a large company. Then support and responsiveness took something of a nosedive and there was a huge uproar when they offered no upgrade pricing when the iPad version of the app came out, resulting in dropping another $30. In addition to that, the iPad app was programmed in such a way that older sling boxes didn't work with it but they offered a $50 coupon to upgrade to a newer (much more expensive) model. That caused another mini riot.

I've watched on my iPhone and despite hiccups occasionally, have been pleased with the performance. I primarily use this on my balcony with an iPad. The person that wrote about lag was spot on. Also, forwarding through commercials when watching the DVR is something of a challenge. Well worth it though. I LOVE this box.

Does anyone know if the desktop client or the browser plug-ins require administrator rights on win7?

I would like to use this while at work but they control our application installation rather strictly.

Read amazon 1-star reviews. I will not buy a product from a company that has such bad customer service. And it's really bad!

How does this do with sports? I bought a cheaper model back in 2009 and the picture quality for sports is pretty bad, especially on basketball and football. Will this do better? Not sure how fast my Internet is but other streaming (ie Roku) works pretty well

ndesloge wrote:
A couple of things to keep in mind:
1) This is 1080i, NOT full HD, but still very good.

That's because you're dealing (primarily) with broadcast TV. I suppose you could connect it to a Blu-ray player for 1080p, but broadcast doesn't go higher than 1080i.

FierceDeityLink1 wrote:Analog loophole, so no HDMI, but most devices (DVRs and whatnot) have HDMI and component and often output both simultaneously.

Not most new devices. Most new devices only have HDMI for HD. One simple, MUCH smaller interface. New Rokus don't have component video out. I have a Dish Network DVR - only HDMI, and no ability to pass the source coax to the Slingbox since it's a satellite feed.

Fortunately, I have the option for Dish-provided Sling, whether embedded or inexpensive add-on. My current DVR (the ViP922) has embedded Sling, and (as mx023 said) the current HD DVRs can take a cheap add-on to get it.

I have 4 Slingbox's and all have had problems. They have low end Chinese capacitors that fail and cause the unit to freeze up. The only good solution is to replace the capacitors yourself with better quality' then they work great.

I had the slingbox solo, it bit the dust after a year. The whole bad capacitor thing is all over the forums regarding this. I don't know if this is any better, but I refuse to give my money back to a company that knew they had a defect in their product and did not do anything to change it for several years. Just google slingbox solo capacitor failure. I also found this about the PRO-HD:
http://placeshiftingenthusiasts.com/forum/slingbox-hardware/slingbox-pro-hd-has-bad-capacitors-too/

So I jumped boat and went to Vulkano:
http://www.amazon.com/Vulkano-Flow-Mobile-Device-Viewing/dp/B004M189OM
This device offers more options at a cheaper price. This is the cheapest one, but they offer different levels also. Comparing the streaming quality of the Slingbox (when it was working) to the Vulkano, the Vulkano streams better. The interface for the Vulkano is a little clumsier, but has potential to be better. The only thing I miss about the slingbox is that the software had some type of crossover with a mediacenter remote where I could use the physical mediacenter remote to do some rudimentary things like channel up/down and channel input (vs using the on screen remote)- most people probably would not miss this functionality though.

Oops posted to wrong site

Bummer, I really thought I was going to get anew stepper for my aerobics class.

Nell4620 wrote:Ok - I've heard of slingbox, but can someone say in plain and concise language what exactly this thing does? I have a roku...

This is a placeshifter- this will tell you about them:
http://dvr.about.com/od/tvcapturemethods/f/placeshifter_fq.htm

The difference between between this and the pro-HD for the most part is the HD will send the signal at a better resolution, assuming the device it is connected to is a higher resolution device.

I can also attest to the crappy capictors and crappy customer service. it was 35$ just to get support outside of warranty if i remember correctly. disappointing.

but when it worked it was AWESOME.

OK, I'm a complete novice here. With this device would I be able to switch my satellite TV account to a single connection (living room) and then stream the feed to my bedroom? I understand that would mean whatever is on the living room TV would be the content on the bedroom TV, but that isn't much of an issue.

If so, it would eventually pay for itself, right?

Thinking...

The software for PC or laptop remote use is a free download.

I enjoyed the slingbox while i needed it, but alas, i hit the problems with the capacitors, and the terrible support after about 2 years.
Its a GREAT product... if you can keep it alive.
But if you have any issues, be prepared to pay for below-average support to try to find a problem.

We purchased one of these so our son overseas in London and Hong Kong could watch American Tv. It has been great! We have it hooked up to a dvr and he schedules his own programming. Much easier that Syping during a football game with the camera on our TV. The only issues we have had have to do with the cable company outages and having to sometimes reset it.

rguggenmos wrote:Just making sure, but because this model has the tuner, all I need to do to get my beloved Seahawks out here in New England is send this to the family, have them plug in the Coax and plug in the internet, do a little setup and I'm good to go?

Also, does the Coax (internal tuner) get HD channels or is that only possible using the component inputs?

The tuner will get all the "Clear QAM" services from your provider. Clear QAM means unencrypted. Most provider have their local broadcasters as clear QAM and not much else. So... The tuner would let you get the local broadcasters remotely; super for distant sports.

Sling support is a drag and don't always use the best quality parts. If your unit stops working check out this site:

http://placeshiftingenthusiasts.com/solo-bulging-capcitors-repaired-with-images/

My Slingbox busted just under a year of ownership and customer service was basically "You're SOL". (My Slingbox would connect then lose drop after a minute.)

A search found me to the above website. About $2 and 15 minutes later my Slingbox was up and running better than ever. It's been about two years since I did the repair.

blindrivalx wrote:Does anyone know if the desktop client or the browser plug-ins require administrator rights on win7?

I would like to use this while at work but they control our application installation rather strictly.

Yes it requires admin to install