- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 9 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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4.5 stars
"Very happy with the Sling Media Slingbox Tuner"
Pros: Easy setup, simple connectivity away from home, user defineable settings for tweaking resolution, user adjustable window sizing, does not commandeer home signal, excellent customer service
Cons: I waited too long before purchasing one... not their fault.
Summary: Usually I am guilty of rushing out to purchase the newest/latest gadget. Not wanting to be burned by a version 1/mass-marketed "proto-type", I waited longer to purchase a Slingbox after it's release than any other product that I've wanted. I am not disapointed with my purchase. I did not rate it a 10 because, especially where electronics are concerned, I believe there are very few items worth of a 10.
I've had my Slingbox for about 2 months now and I am very pleased with it. Set-up was simple out of the box. Slingbox includes cables, LAN and coaxial, if you do not have spares around. Excellent performance with my laptop connected to my home wireless network around the house and in my yard. Remarkably easy while traveling using my cell carrier's EVDO network pc aircard. My children love watching their favorite childrens television progamming during long and short trips. Of course I let my oldest child hold the laptop during the trips.
Slingbox compression works remarkably well considering the signal is analog from my homes source. The Slingbox A/V and Pro models are capable of handling digital cable. Key thing to remember with whatever model Slingbox you buy, the higher your home router uploading bandwidth and download bandwidth of the system you will be viewing the Slingbox software, Slingplayer, the better the resolution will be. So make sure your laptops aircard connection is at least 300kbps download and much more if possible. Wi-fi hotspots are typically way above that nominal speed.
Only one mobile device/pc can connect to it at a time. I purchased one for my wife to use with her laptop and aircard during her business trips. Both slingboxes connected flawlessly to the same wireless router. I contacted Slingbox to check out their customer service and was really impressed with their reps knowledge of the product. After talking with the rep for a little while about the product, I did something I don't usually do... I let him remotely connect to my system so he could check my router and my 2 Slingbox settings. I watched his every mouse move as my cursor swept across my screen as he switched back and forth between windows checking router and slinbox settings before finaly logging out. Everything checked out fine. I know it was only one call, but they earned excellent marks from me with that long technical call.
I wish it had it's earlier capability of recording programs and saving for later viewing. I believe I read elsewhere online that the change had something to do with possible impending legal consequences from some of the major networks. Made sense to me... why else would a company downgrade a feature on its great product that it had already spent money in research and development, builds, marketing and units already sold? Now had Slingbox shortly afterwards announced an add-on/plug-in download for sell to re-enable the feature, we would all know the all mighty dollar was the motivator. To date, that has not happened... yet.
Of course I am furiously fighting the urge to purchase the $30.00 Slingbox mobile phone software and change my cell phone to one capable of connecting to and receiving the slingbox signal.
Make sure you purchase it from somewhere with a good return policy so that you can return it for a full refund if you are not satisfied. I do not purchase items from merchants who have a re-stocking fee. Just one of my personal preferences.
Bottom line, my family is a very pleased 2 Slingbox household.
Z
Where to buy
Sling Media Slingbox Tuner:
$224.99
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$224.99 | See Site |
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