Sling Box Review

Posted by MJdorn on May 16, 2012 in Product Reviews, Tech News |

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What is a Sling Box?

A sling box plugs into your cable box or any other media device, and can stream that music or video any where in the world where you have an internet connection. It can come in really handy when on vacation and want to watch all your shows right off your computer.

Product Features

Watch and control your live and recorded TV in standard definition or high definition on your laptop or desktop – supports Windows XP/Vista and Mac
Watch and control on your mobile phone – compatible with Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian or Palm OS-based mobile devices
Connects to one high-definition or standard-definition A/V device, such as a DVR, cable set top box, satellite receiver or DVD player

Technical Details

Brand Name: Sling Media
Model: SB260-100
Hardware Platform: Universal
Form Factor: External Device
Connectivity Technology: Wired
Networking Feature: Slingbox
Number of Ports: 1
Data Link Protocol: Ethernet
Width: 9.5 inches
Depth: 11.8 inches
Height: 3.6 inches
Weight: 2.55 pounds

How to Connect it to your home theater

For starters you need an Ethernet cable hooked up to your home network, you just have to plug that in. Then obviously you need to run either HD component cables or regular SD cables from the input 2 section on your cable box and plug that into the input section on the sling box. Then you have to go on your computer to www.slingbox.com to activate your box. This can take awhile because sometimes its hard to get everything situated and get all the cables plugged in. if your struggling to figure it out look in there little set up book its got some neatly displayed pictures to help you out. When everything is hooked up right your computer should be able to connect to it then you can watch anything from anywhere!

Watching from a mobile device

There is a great app that goes with the sling box, its called the slingbox player (crazy right) it allows you to access your sling box from your iPhone, iPad or android enabled device. This app is especially useful to those who are always on the go and never at home this. If your running late and your going to miss your favorite TV show, then you can access your DVR from the slingbox witch is very useful to most people who forget to set the recording before they leave home.

Conclusion

If you find yourself missing all your favorite shows I would recommend this to you. Its a good buy and is really useful when you need it. But sometimes when your really far away from home and you don’t have a good internet connection it is super laggy but if your just out and about and waiting for someone its really convenient. I think that these boxes have a long way to go in video quality, so its getting a bronze award for how convenient it is. And if your willing to wait till a new generation comes out that is also a smart idea, Slingbox has a lot to improve.