81
Criteria
Comments
Rating
- Media support Not really applicable. It plays whatever is plugged into it.
- Video quality This thing is basically useless. The quality is awful, and sometimes can't play at all.
- Audio quality Only slightly better than the video, but frequently glitches, and the sound effect on the remote button presses is awful. Things crater when it comes to mobile.
- Ease of use It works great when it works, works slowly when it doesn't (I'll expand on that).
- Design and form factor It's pretty neat looking, but the LEDs they use on the front are unusually bright and piercing.
Detailed review
I purchased the Slingbox last week, and next week it's going back.
The setup was pretty simple. I made the connections, signed up for an account, specified what kind of device was connected, and everything was working. The problems started the second I tried to watch Slingbox playback anywhere outside my home (and on my own network, frankly).
First, I should mention that I went all in on Slingbox. I bought the $299 box at Best Buy (because I needed it before a vacation and I had a gift card), and I bought both the $30 Android phone app and the $30 Android tablet app. So I've invested quite a bit of money into Slingbox.
But when I try to play back Slingbox on my phone or tablet, that's when the problems start. I'm doing this on a 10Mbps connection, with FIOS at home, and the video quality constantly changes. But for the most part it defaults to the lowest possible quality. Even this might be acceptable if it made the quality transitions gracefully, but instead it pauses and skips video. Controlling playback is extremely slow, so using the DVR functions of my Tivo is a pain. When I do fast forward, when I resume playback, the audio will emit a very loud glitch noise, cut out, and then about five seconds later it's fine.
For a comparison, and to see if it was an issue with my connection, I tried using Plex, with which I've had issues in the past. Video on Plex looked much better and stayed consistent, with very good, reliable audio. I could even play back an HD MKV video, although at a lower quality, but still better than Sling was doing.
So all this is probably enough for me to return the product, because I expect something that cost me around $360 to at least function adequately, but I'm not finished with the negatives of the Slingbox. Let me tell you about my audio issues and Slingbox support.
So, when I played back my Slingbox feed on my desktop computer at home, the audio sounded great, but when I played it on my phone or tablet, the audio was garbage. I could hear it and understand it, but there were two main problems:
1- it sounded like there was a slight echo on everything. It's hard to describe, but the best I can come up with is that it sounds like when there's a TV on in a completely empty room with hard floors.
2- there's a horrible digital noise in the background of every quiet scene. It' this awful, obnoxious, constant sound that make everything completely unlistenable.
It's here where I was introduced to what might have been the worst customer experience I've ever come across. I contacted their customer service and explained these problems with the apps. The one troubleshooting idea he tried was to have me uninstall the app on my tablet and reinstall it. This, of course, did not fix the problem (which was also happening on my phone). After that he informed me that Slingbox support does not make - and therefore cannot support - the mobile apps, and that for support on those apps I would have to seek it from the place where I bought them.
Yes, Slingbox was telling me to get support for their own apps from the Google Play store. I verified that this was what the tech was telling me, and he confirmed. I am not making this up.
After this experience, I was convinced that I needed to return the device immediately and find another solution. I will be trying that Vulkano product or whatever it is, despite how it looks a little low-rent next to Slingbox, but I've been informed that they actually support their users, instead of giving awful "support" for 90 days after purchase and then charging you after that. I will also seek to get my money refunded by Google Play.
DO NOT buy a Slingbox. It's a so-so product, backed by a terrible company.
The setup was pretty simple. I made the connections, signed up for an account, specified what kind of device was connected, and everything was working. The problems started the second I tried to watch Slingbox playback anywhere outside my home (and on my own network, frankly).
First, I should mention that I went all in on Slingbox. I bought the $299 box at Best Buy (because I needed it before a vacation and I had a gift card), and I bought both the $30 Android phone app and the $30 Android tablet app. So I've invested quite a bit of money into Slingbox.
But when I try to play back Slingbox on my phone or tablet, that's when the problems start. I'm doing this on a 10Mbps connection, with FIOS at home, and the video quality constantly changes. But for the most part it defaults to the lowest possible quality. Even this might be acceptable if it made the quality transitions gracefully, but instead it pauses and skips video. Controlling playback is extremely slow, so using the DVR functions of my Tivo is a pain. When I do fast forward, when I resume playback, the audio will emit a very loud glitch noise, cut out, and then about five seconds later it's fine.
For a comparison, and to see if it was an issue with my connection, I tried using Plex, with which I've had issues in the past. Video on Plex looked much better and stayed consistent, with very good, reliable audio. I could even play back an HD MKV video, although at a lower quality, but still better than Sling was doing.
So all this is probably enough for me to return the product, because I expect something that cost me around $360 to at least function adequately, but I'm not finished with the negatives of the Slingbox. Let me tell you about my audio issues and Slingbox support.
So, when I played back my Slingbox feed on my desktop computer at home, the audio sounded great, but when I played it on my phone or tablet, the audio was garbage. I could hear it and understand it, but there were two main problems:
1- it sounded like there was a slight echo on everything. It's hard to describe, but the best I can come up with is that it sounds like when there's a TV on in a completely empty room with hard floors.
2- there's a horrible digital noise in the background of every quiet scene. It' this awful, obnoxious, constant sound that make everything completely unlistenable.
It's here where I was introduced to what might have been the worst customer experience I've ever come across. I contacted their customer service and explained these problems with the apps. The one troubleshooting idea he tried was to have me uninstall the app on my tablet and reinstall it. This, of course, did not fix the problem (which was also happening on my phone). After that he informed me that Slingbox support does not make - and therefore cannot support - the mobile apps, and that for support on those apps I would have to seek it from the place where I bought them.
Yes, Slingbox was telling me to get support for their own apps from the Google Play store. I verified that this was what the tech was telling me, and he confirmed. I am not making this up.
After this experience, I was convinced that I needed to return the device immediately and find another solution. I will be trying that Vulkano product or whatever it is, despite how it looks a little low-rent next to Slingbox, but I've been informed that they actually support their users, instead of giving awful "support" for 90 days after purchase and then charging you after that. I will also seek to get my money refunded by Google Play.
DO NOT buy a Slingbox. It's a so-so product, backed by a terrible company.
good review!
0 people find this review helpful
review history
- 2012-05-27
-
Updated detailed review
Updated detailed review