Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

UPDATE 3/27/2015 Slingbox now with Ads I don't usually put updates on the top of my reviews, but this one fundamentally changes the viewing experience for a great portion of the slingbox community. Since this month (March 2015), Slingbox decided to push banner ads to users of both Slingplayer for Web and Desktop Slingplayer (These are the free viewers that probably 99% of people use). The introduction of ads has been a great shock to the user base, especially those who have been using the product ads free for years until now. Ads appear when first starting up (similar to other services such as YouTube) giving you an option to skip after a few seconds of viewing, then in normal screen mode(i.e. not full screen mode), ads appear on the bottom of the screen and change the new layout of the screen such that the actual viewing screen size is smaller. In full screen mode, the ads are not present. (See my pictures posted below) While the new ads are universally disliked, they are clearly implemented to enhance the Slingbox revenue stream and their addition has met quantum levels of dissatisfaction (See all new 1 star reviews on Amazon). I personally also found the ads highly distasteful and the management decision to add them regrettable. This is an unfortunate move by Slingbox and your individual level of comfort with this will be tested. Although I would add that this change makes an easy target for competitors to differentiate themselves. Please note this applies to ALL Slingbox models. There are several situation where there may be no other alternative to Slingbox (competition is currently non-existent). For these cases you should consider the cheaper Slingbox M1 version ahead of the Slingbox 500/SlingTV. See Sling Media Slingbox M1 Original Review (9/16/2012) I'm a long time slingbox user. I currently keep a SlingBox in Japan, and watch in US on the web slingplayer. I'm really excited about a new product from slingmedia, but I can see the placeshifting community will have a little time to wait until this is a fully functional system (which in my mind includes the remote home theater experience). Utility of HDMI This is probably the #1 concern. All the documentation cautions you to use component as a backup because HDCP content will not be allowed on the box. I don't completely fault slingbox for this implementation. I pretty much expected it. It's not a technical challenge as much as it is a legal one. I suspect this is the reason an HDMI product from ANY company has taken so long. That being said, I tested it with most of the channels I get thru my "Extended Digital Cable" package thru Comcast. I received all channels so far(about 70 channels) directly from the HDMI of the Motorola cable set-top box. I can't comment on premium channels because I don't have them. There do seem to be some handshaking issues when I'll get a blank screen to start, fiddle with some inputs, and it will work. I'm not entirely sure about what the specific process is that gets it working, but once it works, it is nice. If I figure it out, I will post it. Component has not had any issues at all (again, as expected). On both HDMI and component, I must say that the picture quality is almost indistinguishable. Another unfortunate drawback to inputs is the lack of a separate digital coaxial audio input that used to exist on the Pro-HD, so if the HDMI doesn't work, you also lose the digital sound. Getting around protection? There are no products that I'm aware of that remove the HDCP and go from HDMI to HDMI. You can go HDMI to component or to DVI with some dongles but HDMI to HDMI is basically non-existant. Correct me if you know otherwise. Other theories I have that remain to be tested, if a the source signal is split between the slingbox 500 and a HDCP-compliant device, it is possible that the one HDCP-compliant device will provide the handshaking that allows the signal to be passed to both signal splits. Again, I'm new to this, so feel free to jump in and set me straight. EDIT(11/25/2012): The people at HDFury have told me that a HDFury4(aka 3DFury) with Dr HDMI will yield a HDCP free DVI stream (no audio). EDIT(5/3/2013): Picture Quality When I first hooked up the 500, I had an extraordinarily difficult time distinguishing any picture difference between the 1080i stream that my Pro-HD was sending and the one from the 500. I recently became convinced that there has been a slight improvement in the picture quality with regards to refresh rates. The difference is subtle, but probably best appreciated when watching scrolling stock tickers and sports that have alot of camera panning. The movement seems a little smoother. The fact that it's really taken this long to appreciate that speaks to the really marginal improvement in quality (which was already excellent to begin with). I am adding back a star (to 3) for this as picture quality is of prime concern (especially in the age of ubiquitous HDTVs). SlingPlayer for Connected Devices (aka Goodbye, SlingCatcher): Want to watch your slingbox on a real TV or home theater? Surprisingly this segment has very few supported platforms including the SlingCatcher(now discontinued), BoxeeBox(recently discontinued), Western Digital TV HD Media Player, Logitech revue(discontinued) and Sony NSZ-GS7. Of these platforms the SlingCatcher is considered to be the best and most reliable. However, the new 350/500 does not work with SlingCatcher(confirmed by SlingMedia) and possibly not with the other slingplayer platforms listed above(unconfirmed, as there have been reports of it working for some and not for others). This could be because slingbox no longer uses port 5001 for internet traffic, but uses 5201 instead(not changeable, see network bullet below). In the SlingCatcher, my Slingbox500 appears in the directory of available devices, but it requests a password to access it. Since there is no manual setup with the Slingbox500(see above) there is no place to assign a password. Therefore you cannot gain access. A slingbox technician told me there are no plans to support SlingCatcher. This immediately places a serious cap the utility of the Slingbox500 for me and many others I'm sure. In fact before I knew this, I was ready to give up to 4 stars. With the slingbox 350/500, SlingMedia puts the final nail in the coffin of SlingCatcher. EDIT(1/12/2013): As announced at CES 2013, The Netgear line of media players (NeoTV series) will be adding SlingPlayers, including the soon to be released NeoTV Prime which is GoogleTV based (and therefore will run the same software as Logitech Revue and Sony NSZ-GS7). I have amazon reviews for most of the slingplayer enabled devices. While the list of compatible players is increasing, none have functioned as seamlessly as the original SlingCatcher. Additionally, there are two glaring omissions from this segment: Roku and AppleTV which probably hold the number 1 and 2 spots of marketshare of this segment. EDIT(4/8/2013): I reviewed the NeoTV Prime and left a review on Amazon. It basically is the same as the Sony NSZ-GS7 in terms of software interface, however I found the remote difficult to use, yielding a review of 3 stars. I think the Sony is the best of the lot right now. Please see my other review for more details. EDIT(5/3/2013): I have recently decided to forgo my loyalties to the venerable SlingCatcher (at some point we have to cut our loses, right?). It still remains as the best "off-the-shelf" solution for watching your slingbox on an HDTV screen. The qualifier of "off-the-shelf" is important as the emergence of home-built HTPCs has started to gain traction and become more mainstream. I built my first HTPC which uses the Web SlingPlayer as my streaming engine, in large part because it is the most supported solution by SlingMedia. I'm very happy with the results, but it has not been a cheap solution ($700) compared with other media players that generally do not exceed $200. I suspect HTPCs will continue to gain popularity as computing power becomes cheaper, smaller, more power efficient, and easier to use. EDIT(11/30/2013): This month Slingbox announced a SlingPlayer for Roku Players. This is a long requested addition that is very welcome. Sadly, SlingPlayer for Roku only works from a mobile device with the PAID app, and excludes the iPad. See my review of Roku 3 for details. Of course the big elephant in the room is when will SlingPlayer be available on AppleTV (currently only possible thru AirPlay which is not a true solution.) IR Remote Setup: The previous online setup is replaced by a handheld IR remote. Why was this done? Perhaps so people without computers could set it up? I'm not sure. That said, the setup process is relatively painless(not that the previous online method was bad): choose a wireless network, put in the access code, then just follow instructions. It takes a little while to punch in addresses with the remote. EDIT: As of 10/19/2012, there is a working web-based setup. Thank you! Network settings: You can use either hard-wire ethernet or wireless. The setup for both was easy to do, but lacks transparency in what it's doing. For most people this is probably OK, but for people who want more control of their home networks, this can be a problem. What really disappointed me about the setup is that I can no longer manually configure the IP address and the ports used. It appropriately picked up IP addresses from my DHCP server, but didn't let me assign one manually. I can think of a work around by reserving an IP address for the MAC address on my router, but that shouldn't be the way to do this. Without configuration ability it seems that the port will be locked on 5201. That could be a problem for people who have it blocked for whatever reason. I really think Slingmedia needs to make this configurable like before. Controlling your devices: It seems all the previous device remotes(PL binaries) that have been amassed over the years are still available(many thanks to the user community who spearheaded this). I use a somewhat obscure tuner/dvr in japan that was added sometime last year, and it's still available. Unfortunately the capability to "teach" new controls is missing in action. The website that allowed this with the Pro-HD was taken down several months ago. There has been no word if the site will be revived (although we know there is a physical IR eye on the box that could potentially be used to "learn codes"). In the meantime there doesn't seem to be anyway to manually upload NEW PL binaries(quite a handy function with the previous boxes). This leaves a big question as to how NEW device codes will be uploaded to the new box. Don't count on Slingbox staying on top of this in a timely manner, as they have been notoriously slow for adding new devices. Without the generous user community creating these on request from other users online, many of the existing codes would not be available. It is unfortunate that we as users can no longer tap into this self-supporting resource. UPDATE: Fixed! As of 12/4/2012, there is was a new webplayer that allowed the uploading of custom remotes. Basically inconsequential observations: The new power supply is 12V. (The previous plug was 5V). I know there were alot of problems with the previous supplies, so I don't know if this is better, but it's unfortunate that they aren't compatible with the older models. (Previously the slingbox pro-hd, solo & slingcatcher used the same plug). Also, it's been pointed out that there is no longer a coaxial tuner on-board but as far as I understood this would prove to be useless now that all tuners must be digital. I don't miss it at all, I don't need another tuner. A couple of nice things: It looks like the built-in IR blaster(built into the unit itself) is pretty strong. My cable set-top box didn't need any specific pointing or angling to see the signal. Although there is an external blaster included in the box, you probably won't need it. This makes for an easier and cleaner installation. Also, the box doesn't seem to get very hot as compared w/ previous models. Summary Overall, I think this product can only be considered a minor enhancement to the Pro-HD in terms of Wifi-access and possibly HDMI (which seems dependent on your channels and source hardware). In terms of accessibility it is a stepback due to lack of support for SlingCatcher or a suitable alternative (so far the existing media players aren't up to snuff.) I think the network and email problems I pointed out could easily be fixed with a firmware update. Overall, I am very disappointed in this product. Until these items are addressed, I find it difficult to give more than 2 stars for now. I would like to give more, but not in it's current state. I will update my review as the situation changes. In the meantime, my trusty Pro-HD will continue to be my main streaming device. UPDATE(5/3/2013): I gave one extra star to my original assessment due to the slight (and I stress slight) improvement in picture quality (which notably toke me 6 months to realize). However, given the importance of picture quality to the viewing experience, I am weighting this factor very heavily. My assessment of the other features of the Slingbox 500 still stand. Because the 350 uses the same processing engine, I would therefore likely recommend the 350 over the 500, unless you absolutely need wifi. In addition, there have been several minor bug fixes since the original release. (Thank you!) UPDATE(11/30/2013): I'm glad to hear this month's announcement for Roku support, however you must be aware getting the SlingPlayer to work on Roku REQUIRES A PAID application on a mobile device. Not really the kind of solution I'm interested in. If Slingbox can work out a deal with Roku and Apple for an real application on the Roku & AppleTV, I may be able to raise my rating by half a star. UPDATE(8/3/2014) Prompted by a recent reader's question, I've decided to give an update(since almost 1 year) to the "Slingbox on remote TV" issue (That is, watching Slingbox remotely on a REAL TV.) As it stands, this remains the most glaring void in the Slingbox experience. The dedicated PC/Mac users are by far the most well supported group with free Slingplayer app that gets the most development attention and support. Mobile viewers are well covered with Slingplayer for phones (iPhone & Android). While there is a $15 charge for each app, the app works well, and given the high cost of doing mobile data in the US (phone, contract, data plans etc) I would say the charge is not completely out of context for our mobile market. (Of course free is better, but at least there is a working option). That leaves the most disturbing void in the Slingbox experience: the remote TV. Other options for remote TV have come and gone (SlingCatcher, Boxee, Sony NSZ-GS8) and the current options are somewhat clunky in operation including GoogleTV iterations such as (Netgear NeoTV, Sony NSZ-GS7, Vizio C-Star, Asus Cube) and the WD TVLive. None of these were terrific (although I liked the Sony NSZ-GS7 the best). Along came the Roku announcement but this turned out to be a massive disappointment because it required the use of a mobile Slingplayer to work (much like the AppleTV via airplay solution). So basically the market has left us with nothing for Slingbox on remote TV. There are a few options and suggestions I can see on the horizon: 1. Get a GoogleTV media player. Sony Internet Player NSZ-GS7 has been my favorite and has a nifty remote. For the budget minded, Netgear and WDTV with external wireless keyboard/mouse aren't terrible but may cause slightly more frustration. Also, please note that for unclear reasons, Sony has discontinued its most recent NSZ-GS8 box, hopefully this is not a signal that they are withdrawing from the market, but rather put something more spectacular in (who knows, as Sony doesn't have a history rational business choices). Sony NSZ-GS7 Internet Player with Google TV NETGEAR NeoTV Prime with Google TV Streaming Player (GTV100) WD TV Live Media Player Wi-fi 1080p Search within Customer Reviews for the word "Slingbox". I, along with many others have reviews of these boxes dedicated to Slingbox. 2. Wait for Apple TV: There rumors of an AppStore to be created for AppleTV (right now, the only apps are the ones that are preloaded). I'm certain Slingmedia would launch an app if this became available. Of course they would want $15 for it, but for a solution that works (and doesn't go thru your phone), that's not the worst thing in the world. (Recall that the AppleTV is also not that expensive to begin with, so you'd be getting away with a fairly small investment). Unfortunately the latest news on this rumor predicts an AppleTV update delayed until 2015. Sadness all around. 3. Build your own Media Player (HTPC) and use the Slingplayer for PC application: HTPC, noun, Short for Home Theater PC. Basically it's a dedicated PC that outputs to your TV. Yes, I know the population that can set this up is a minority(there are no simple instructions), and it's expensive, but it's the option I chose. A decent PC running Windows 7 with Windows Media Player will cost $600 (including software). So yes, pricey, but remember the functionality is much greater than Slingbox and includes Tuner/DVR(no more need for TiVo), DVD/Bluray player, Music Player, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix, etc. All in one box! A similar setup can be made on a Mac Mini, but I have no personal experience with that. Having used this setup for over 1 year without any issues, I'm very happy with this solution, and my wife(a non-techy person) likes it too! There is alot of support from the online community for how to build one. I'd be happy to share my parts list for anyone interested. Sorry for the disappointment, my Slingbox fans. If anyone has more to add to this discussion, feel free to leave a comment below. I still can't live without my Slingbox, but it has been frustrating experience to close the loop on remote TV option which seems like such an obvious function to develop, and do well. I've said it before, the lack of this solution is what limits my ability to raise my rating beyond 3 stars.