Sling Media Slingbox PRO-HD

I ordered one of those and set it up recently, and after I got it working, I can understand why the reviews are mixed on it. As of right now, the Slingbox Pro WILL NOT WORK on Windows 7 64 bit without some modifications. I tried for a couple of hours setting it up on a Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit system and finally gave up (the setup will continually loop from step 1, 2 and 3 then back to 1). I then set it up and tested on a Windows XP system, and set it up and got it working first time without issues. After I configured it, I tried to see if I could watch it on my 64 Bit system, and it will not connect to it. I tried IE9, Firefox 8 and Google Chrome, and I get a connection error message connecting to the viewer, even though that computer is connected to the same router as the Win XP computer. I then tested it at a remote location with a Windows Home Premium 7 32Bit system, and it worked without issues. According to the Slingbox.com website, 64 Bit systems have to run the 32 Bit version of the browsers (IE, Firefox or Chrome). I haven't tried it yet to see if it works. Interestingly, none of the browsers mention in their release notes which one is installed on your system. Switching Ultimate to XP mode didn't make any difference in my case. If I get it working I'll post an update. Bottom line is, avoid using it with 64 Bit Win 7 at all costs until those issues are resolved. Now for the performance. I mapped some cable channels using the built in tuner and connecting my cable coax to the Slingbox. I had it scan for available channels and it found a few. It does not find nearly all and it appears it is mostly scanning OTA channels. The tuner is both an ATSC, NTSC and QAM according to Slingbox, but I haven't found anywhere how to switch between the different tuner types. As plugged in, the tuner appears to be running in ATSC mode which is OTA (Over The Air) channels only. NTSC is used for analog standard definition channels only and is completely obsolete in the USA. The QAM tuner is for un-encrypted digital cable channels. I have not found a way to get this tuner feature to work yet. As of right now, I'm assuming I'll have to use a cable box to get any useful content, which in my case is not an issue since I had figured it was needed to get all the cable channels anyways. I have tested the system with the SD and HD channels the Slingbox found with the tuner to get an idea of how well it works, the quality of the feed and what kind of bandwidth is required. The tuner is a bit slow, takes a good 5 to 10 seconds to switch channels. For SD channels, they are going to look like up-scaled SD channels, meaning kind of lower resolution content you will have to watch a few feet away from your monitor to find acceptable. Like a low res Youtube video running in full screen mode. With the HD channels, they are crisp and clear. The quality is almost like sitting in front of your HDTV quality, with some exceptions. The system struggles a bit with fast motion and motion in general. I find it likely that the system compression/encoding algorithm has an easier time compressing frames that are very similar vs frames that have significant changes between them. It is very watchable, but if sports are your thing this might not be your best solution, if you watch news, soaps, talkshows, documentaries, this should work reasonably well. By setting the stream to Best Quality/HD, I could get crystal clear HD picture and watch news and similar programming at 2000 Kbps streamed over the internet. My recommendation is to leave it there whenever possible since the Auto mode struggles a bit to figure out what your upload bandwidth can handle. The lower quality settings help with lower bandwidth limitations but your video quality will suffer in direct relation to the bandwidth selected. If Best HD doesn't work, then work your way down until it works and leave it on the highest setting that works. The box has 4 IR transmitters to control your DVD player/changer, cable box, satellite box, etc. My second cable box hasn't arrived yet (I am planning on dedicating a little used bedroom/office cable box for the Slingbox so not to interfere with my living room one) so I have yet to test this feature. Overall, pretty nice and I very happy with it so far. But we are not quite yet at flawless TV streaming worldwide and this can require some knowledge and patience to set up. Also, there is a known capacitor issue with the Slingboxes which makes them fail after a year or so in many cases. My technical background means I can easily repair it by replacing the capacitors when the time comes (my background is in electronics and IT), but there are also instructions online for those who want to attempt it themselves. If you don't feel comfortable with that task, you may have to take it to a local TV repair shop or to someone (a tech savvy friend) to get the capacitors replaced. UPDATE: May 5th 2012. After 5 months of very light use, I checked my Slingbox today and it is DEAD. Checked the power adapter and it is putting out 5.2V, so I doubt it is the cause of the issue. The only way to confirm power adapter issue to is to test it under load, but to do that, I'll have to open the Slingbox and it is still under warranty. Tried another 5V adapter with similar ratings, and the Slingbox didn't work with that one either. Slingbox insisted on sending me a power adapter first. After that, I guess I'll return it for warranty replacement. If I knew for sure it was the capacitor issue, I would open it up and swap them out. But since I can't tall, decided not to risk it and will see how the warranty process works out. Hopefully it is not as painful as I have heard it is.... UPDATE JUL 27th 2012. Contacted Slingbox support to get the problems with the Slingbox resolved back in May. Despite me checking the power adapter and using a second power adapter, Slingbox support insisted on sending me a replacement power adapter. It arrived about a week later, and as expected, did nothing at all, the Slingbox was just as dead as before (tried to explain to support that I measured it with a digital Fluke meter and tested a second adapter, but to no avail). After installing the replacement power adapter and finding it did nothing as expected, called them back about my still dead Slingbox. After hearing horror stories about them forcing you to buy extended support and paying for extended warranty, was rather pleasantly surprised to have talk to someone at Slingbox support who didn't try to sell me anything. He had be play with the power adapter, hold the reset button, and after it was just as dead before, he offered me two options, either send the bad one back and wait for a replacement once they received it, or give them my credit card for an advance replacement, they would ship me a replacement one right away and not charge my CC as long as I shipped the old one back within a couple of weeks. I chose the second option, I got a replacement box within a week. I plugged it in and set it up, and it worked without issues. I shipped the defective one back in the box the replacement one came in, and they included in the box a prepaid UPS return label to return it back to them. This happened back around middle May, and the replacement box has been working fine since then. It appears (IMHO) that Slingbox has fixed some of their customer service and warranty issues and the process was pretty painless overall, and left me overall impressed with how smoothly everything went. Hopefully the second one will make it a bit longer than the first one, but for those concerned about CS issues, this may be some comfort to those still on the fence. I did most of my support through their chat line feature on the website. I had to call to give them my CC information as they would not accept it through the text chat, but chatting with CS appeared work pretty well, although I recall on their site they asked people to call for support, but chatting worked without issues for me. If anything else develops, I'll update my review.