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Criteria
Comments
Rating
- Media support Component in, but no HDMI? Really?
- Video quality Quite impressive
- Audio quality Noise floor seems to get brought up a bit by the compression, but nothing that is too bothersome.
- Ease of use Setup, while easy, is not particularly user friendly, especially on Mac.
- Design and form factor Eh, it's a box. Weird form factor, so it doesn't stack normally with the rest of the entertainment center stuff.
Detailed review
I really enjoy the Slingbox Pro-HD. The initial software setup was kinda tricky, but that's really more of an issue with the UX than with the hardware itself. There are weird limitations on Mac, though. Chrome OS isn't supported, and I have to run Firefox 4 in 32-bit mode to get the plugin to run. Seems like arbitrary restrictions that, if Sling put some time into it, could resolve.
The quality of the streaming is excellent. Granted, I have a fat bandwidth pipe at home and at work, and the Slingbox takes advantage of that. Even on slower connections, the system still works well. It can sometimes be a bit annoying to control your tuner box through the connection based on latency and buffering, but I think the software does a decent job of trying to optimize for the best experience.
The iPad and iPhone apps are a bit astronomically expensive, though. The quality on the iPad isn't as good as streaming to the computer, but it works fairly well and doesn't particularly detract from the overall experience.
I'm quite happy with this purchase, as it allows me to get the most out of my (extremely high) cable bill.
The quality of the streaming is excellent. Granted, I have a fat bandwidth pipe at home and at work, and the Slingbox takes advantage of that. Even on slower connections, the system still works well. It can sometimes be a bit annoying to control your tuner box through the connection based on latency and buffering, but I think the software does a decent job of trying to optimize for the best experience.
The iPad and iPhone apps are a bit astronomically expensive, though. The quality on the iPad isn't as good as streaming to the computer, but it works fairly well and doesn't particularly detract from the overall experience.
I'm quite happy with this purchase, as it allows me to get the most out of my (extremely high) cable bill.
good review!
4 people find this review helpful