LifeStar's Full Review: Sling Media Slingbox AV Remote Control
The Big Idea
Back in 2004, a new company startup called Sling Media opened their doors and began development on a product that would take the available tools and ideas that had been floating around the technology industry and poured them into a simple box that would allow a home consumer to be able to access one's television shows over the internet from anywhere in the world. This product, being introduced during 2005, is known as the Slingbox.
The concept was simple, the Slingbox was a tiny computer box with a TV tuner. It would take the video steam coming out from one’s digital cable box, DVR, or analog cable and convert it to a streamable video feed that would be transmitted over one’s own home computer network or over the internet. Sling Media made watching your TV from any computer that has an internet connection incredibly easy.
Reaping the success
Within only one year of releasing the original Slingbox, Sling Media has seen its profits grow and demand for its product increase. Back in August 2006, Sling Media has released now 3 different flavors of the Slingbox. These boxes are geared for a particular home user, with a reasonable pricing scheme. This particular review will focus on the Slingbox AV model.
What this little baby can do
I had recently decided to hop onto the DVR bandwagon last month and signed up for the DVR service offered by Comcast. After getting my DVR, I realized that it would be convenient if I could not just watch the shows I recorded at home, but it would be wonderful if I could watch them at my hotel room in Atlanta when I go there for a vacation. I knew about the Slingbox because of a friend who had purchased one last year. He was able to watch Red Sox games over his smart phone and notebook whenever he was at my place. This seemed like the perfect solution for me.
After doing some research on the 3 different flavors offered by Sling Media, I decided to go for the AV model. Here are a few of my reasons:
Capabilities
The Slingbox AV is considered the model that is geared for the mainstream type consumer. It has a S-video input, composite video input, and two audio RCA inputs. This simple layout allows the consumer to directly connect an outgoing stream from one’s digital cable/DVR/satellite set-top box to the Slingbox. It’s small, simple, and easy to setup.
Price
When compared to the other two flavors of the Slingbox, it’s very easy to see why this would be considered the mainstream model for consumers. The price tag has been targeted at retail to be $179.99, but most places, such as Circuit City or Best Buy have been giving discounts and special sales on this item. The price drop is usually around $20. If one searches online vendors such as Amazon.com, the price can drop to a $154.99, which is the price that I bought mine at. I personally believe that the price you pay for what you get is very reasonable, especially for the home consumer who wants an easy, but reliable setup for a great price.
Ease of integration to home entertainment system
The AV model, thanks to its simple but reliable video and audio inputs, can be easily integrated into a home user’s television system. The purchase includes a complete set of gold-plated connectors and wires, and easy visual instructions on how to add the Slingbox to your system. Its small size also makes the model very easy to hide and maintain. After setting it up, I was able to tuck it away into a tiny corner and have seen no negative effect on my normal TV/DVR watching on my television.
How was the setup?
Setting up the Slingbox was very easy. Currently I have a simple analog TV setup that uses the Comcast digital DVR box. All my connections, from the set-top DVR box to my TV, are done with the use of component video and audio RCA connections. When I installed the Slingbox, I simply connected the available S-video output from my DVR box to the Slingbox. For the audio, I decided to use a splitter on the RCA jacks and connect my Slingbox to them. Please note, this did little to affect the audio quality and volume, it is not even noticeable.
Afterwards, I connected the power cable, the IR transmitter, and a network cable to my home network. The IR transmitter was the only clumsy part of the setup because of how long the wires were. The IR transmitter comes with 2 separate emitters that are to be placed in front of the DVR’s IR receiver. It was VERY easy to install, but since the wires were very long, it made it feel clumsy to spool them up and tie a little knot around them to make it neater.
Once the Slingbox was powered up and ready, went to my computer and inserted the installation CD that came with the box. The setup was quick and simple. It immediately detected the Slingbox on my home network and installed all the necessary files onto my computer. It even updated the software on the Slingbox. After that, the software determined what DVR box I had and it was able to power up the box with the IR transmitters with no problems.
Video quality
After the setup, I immediately went to one of my DVR recorded shows and began playing it. Please note, that all the remote control commands I would have needed to do this was done over the network, through the Slingbox remote control! It worked flawlessly and my show began immediately.
The video quality, depending on your preferences will vary, but for my setup, it looked wonderful. More than enough quality for full-screen viewing, and the audio was superb on my speakers. Watching my TV on my computer through the Slingbox did not eat up that much of my system’s resources and was able to do my “work” just fine while the video feed was playing.
As for remote viewing, the quality does go down a bit, but that’s dependent on how fast your broadband connection can send over the video stream to the internet. The viewing is good enough for watching your shows at a hotel, but don’t expect DVD quality here. If the action is particularly fast, don’t expect to see great detail, but nothing short of what one would expect to see when watching videos from youtube.
What about the other models?
Before I settled on the AV model, I did take a spin out on the top of the line Slingbox, the Pro edition. It costs approximately $224.99, depending on where you’re looking and it combines all the capabilities of the AV model and the Tuner model, which only has a cable RF input and output connection. The Pro does come with future support for HDMI video, but at the time of this review, it’s still in beta testing.
The Pro and AV pretty much do the same things, with the Pro having more connection options and the ability to pass through the connections so you don’t need to use splitters. This model is really more geared for the home consumer who wants the ability to watch and control up to two different devices, such as a DVR and a DVD player at the same time and wants less hassle with splitting the video and audio signals by using the built in pass-through technology.
The only problem for me about the Pro edition is that for my simple setup at home, it would be overkill. Though the option to use the pass-through technology was tempting, and theoretically it should have better audio and video quality than it would be if one splits the signals out, after testing the Pro, I found that the audio in particular, dropped by about 25% in volume when using the pass-through option. I don’t know particularly why, but other reviews on independent sites such as the ones on www.slingcommunity.com have confirmed this as well. With the pass-through connection being out of the question for me, the final decision to go with the Slingbox AV was simple and I haven’t looked back since.
Final push
Whether you’re an avid TV watcher or the occasional couch-potato, the Slingbox AV is a great and easy addition to your home entertainment system. The freedom to watch your shows anytime and anywhere where internet is available has made this a great upcoming Christmas present for the family and for yourself. Once you experience it, there’s no turning back.
Redirects the TV signal to the computer of your choice--providing high quality video, no matter the distance SlingStream technology delivers up to a 4...More at Amazon Marketplace
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