Slingbox review
Update (2007-01-21): After a combination of some internal network infrastructure changes and software/firmware updates, I can now give my 'thumbs up' to Slingbox [Classic]. The experience is much better than when I originally wrote this review. I'm currently running SlingPlayer 1.40.206 on my laptop and home PC, firmware 1.0.96 (Slingbox classic), SlingPlayer 1.1.095 on my Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone, and SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Smartphone 1.0.5.42 on my WM5 Smartphone.
I have now had my SlingBox for a few weeks and thought I’d share my experiences and my impressions.
I had seen a number of bloggers post about the SlingBox and there has been some lenthy chatter on some of our [Avanade] internal communities as well – all of which piqued my interest. All that and I’m back on the road full time so I figured it would be a good help to avoid the junk on the five channels that I would get in a hotel. My first stop was eBay where you can pick one up, new, for less than MSRP. That done, I waited for it to arrive. It came in the middle of the week, so that gave me one more thing to look forward to when I arrived home Friday night (and I actually <gasp> waited until Saturday to futz with it, although I *did* take it out of the box).
My first impression – it’s a lot smaller and lighter than I expected. That’s not a bad thing. Let me step back for a minute and talk about OOBE – out-of-box experience. Awful. Just bloody awful. Who designed the box? Wait, I don’t want to know. It took me several frustrating minutes to get the Slingbox and other included parts out of the box (whilst resisting my urge to tear the box apart to get at its contents). And I’m not partial to the fact that it was a clear plastic ‘box’ either.. just give me a cardboard box that opens easily at one of its ends (and the bonus is that I can readily recycle the box and don’t have to guess the type of plastic that it is (and whether or not my recycling company will take it)). Frankly, it more of an issue of how things were packaged inside the box than opening the box.
At this point I’m going to talk about pre-requisites:
1) Broadband connection with a reasonably good upstream throughput (I’m on Time Warner’s RoadRunner network)
2) A compatible router that supports UPnP (note: That is SlingMedia’s requirement – you *can* set this up on a non-UPnP router, but make certain it has the ability to do port-forwarding and that *you* are comfortable configuring this. Or, as in my case, you don’t even need a ‘router’ – I use Microsoft ISA Server which works just fine (yes, I did have add a new publishing rule)).
3) A supported device that you want to watch (most like a cable set-top box (STB)). I failed to do due diligence on this point – we’ll see shortly how that came back to bite me.
I connected my STB, a Pioneer BD-V1100, to the Slingbox and lo-and-behold, I was soon watching TV on my computer. “This seems quite easy” I thought at this point. I then went back into the SlingPlayer setup and tried configuring it for my BD-V1100. No explicit listing, so I tried each of the four ‘generic’ items. Nope. I searched the Internet and Usenet – nothing. SlingCommunity forums – nothing. So, I posted to the SlingCommuniity forums. No response after a few days, so I contacted support. No real help there either. So that following weekend I took my STB into the local Time-Warner office (Tri-County mall for any other Cincinnatians reading who live on the far north side of town) and exchanged it for a different box. I picked up Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000 (which does the SlingPlayer does have codes for).
I set this up on the Slingbox and still could not control it remotely. I carefully moved the IR emitters across the front of the unit a few centimeters at a time – nothing. I called SlingMedia support and they walked me through using my digital camera to ascertain if the IR emitters were actually working. They weren’t, so SlingMedia sent me new ones. Another week gone by. My IR emitters show up and I hook them up – voila! So, I can now control my Slingbox remotely (i.e. actually use it).
My first remote experience was from a Marriott Courtyard. How well did it work? So-so. It was mostly watchable, but it got pixelated often. My second remote experience was from a Marriott Towne Place Suites (over WiFi) – a so-so experience as well. Quite simply, at both hotels the connection was simply too saturated for me to effectively watch my Slingbox. At home it works great (of course). All told, I'm a bit disappointed.
This brings us to the recently released SlingPlayer Mobile. The application installs in a straightforward fashion has pretty straightforward controls (as does the SlingPlayer for the desktop). Unfortunately, I have found that the performance over my T-Mobile EDGE connection leaves a bit to be desired. SlingPlayer Mobile would work better over a UMTS or EV-DO connection.
In conclusion, I think that the Slingbox works well overall; however, I have several points of concern.
I see some weak links across two areas – the overall setup and the IR emitters. I’m not certain if most consumers will have an easy time of setting this up and may be confused around the UPnP requirement (given that, in the past, there has been much negative press about UPnP). Additionally, I think that the IR emitters are a bit frail, but I may be biased in that assessment given my troubles with them.
SlingMedia’s support could use substantial improvement – both the e-mail and phone support were less than stellar. The phone support could use better hours as well (currently 7am-7pm (Pacific) M-F). A better overall route for support is through the forums SlingCommunity (http://www.slingcommunity.com) – yes, I think that the community at-large provides better support than does SlingMedia. Additionally, the forums are some of the worst I have ever used – the search functionality is particularly poor. One other thing about the Slingbox – it runs hot, so be certain to give it good ventilation.
-Nino