Sling Media - Slingbox 500 - Black

I live in Chicago and work in New Jersey and the hotel only has limited channels so this is a life saver!! I can watch my games and DVR shows wherever! The only part that sucks is that two people cannot watch at the same time and that the app on the iPhone AND iPad are 15bucks each! But if your clever like myself just buy the iPhone app and you can still watch it on the iPad with the 2x zoom still looks great. I have unlimited data on my iPhone with Sprint and it even works on 3G!!! This is a MUST HAVE! Will give 5stars when the allow at least two people to stream at the same time.

I wish there can be more than one user at the same time, maybe at least two users. But overall this is a good product to have if your always on the go.

I purchased the Slingbox 500 to sling my TV signal to a Roku. Slingbox support told me that it does not work because I have too many Rokus. I unplugged all my Rokus except one and the Slingbox 500 still does not sling the TV signal when there is just one Roku. Slingbox support is unable to tell me why this does not work.

I have xFinity and was looking for a solution where I can watch shows recorded by the DVR downstairs and cable in general upstairs. Also, I was intrigued by the prospect of watching my home cable anywhere in the world. I didn't want to purchase another DVR and shell out $19 in monthly rental fees. So, I came upon Slingbox 500. At first I was very skeptical but decided to give it a try. I also needed a media player that would play Slingbox stream and found that WD TV Live does in fact play it. The setup was somewhat easy as I pretty much figured out the wiring process going from DVR to Slingbox and then from Slingbox to TV. The Slingbox was set up next to our DVR downstairs. It immediately found my home Wi-Fi, I connected to it, then it took another 10 minutes to update the box firmware. It asked me about my current cable provider, my zipcode and the make and model of my DVR and that was that. Keep in mind that you need to create an online account with Slingbox website. This way it knows how to find your Slingbox on the internet and in case you have set up more than one, it gives you a list of available devices. Then, I set up WD TV Live upstairs to my bedroom TV. It asked me for my Slingbox login and magically it worked. Now, I can watch my DVD downstairs upstairs in our bedroom in HD perfectly streaming. What I was not happy about is in order to watch Slingbox on your mobile device, they charge you $15 for each while streaming to a laptop/desktop is free. But it really works. We recently went to Mexico and 99% of the channels are in Spanish which I do not speak. I had my phone hooked up to a room TV thru its HDMI input using room Wi-Fi at about 1Mbs and it worked flawlessly, giving me my home channels in Mexico. This is a wonderful device that works as advertised.

Compared to the competing products (Monsoon Vulkano, Belkin @TV...which is just a rebranded Vulkano, by the way), Slingbox blows everything away. While a computer with a TV tuner card presents an interesting opportunity to stream media and a TV signal, the options with TV tuner cards are limited, and the price of building a computer capable of doing that well exceeds the price of a Slingbox. The issue with slingbox is the price. The 350 model can be had for as low as $130, which matches well with Vulkano or @TV, but feature-wise it does not stack up (solo HD input, no wifi, no hdmi-output, must setup device over internet, no USB). For the full range of features you need this 500 model, but it runs at a cost. $300 is steep, considering that both the 350 and 500 stream at the same quality. Then add in the fact that no Windows application exists (viewing through a web browser). Windows 8.1 has a Slingbox app (SlingPlayer) in the market but it does not sound promising from the reviews, especially at the $15 cost for the app. Both a tablet and phone version of the app are available in the Google App market for $15. The phone app is noticeably more polished than the tablet app - even using the tablet app on a 1920x1080 screen fails to show all the content in the window. Very odd. Using 2.7+ versions of the phone app lets you integrate with Roku. I was having trouble getting it to work with my friend's Roku - you click the button in the app, and it auto-detects the Roku on your network. You have to have the Sling channel installed on the Roku and it is supposed to auto-load, but I was not having success. There are no controls on the Roku channel to load anything - quite stupid in my opinion. The device has an HDMI input, but, because the device is not HDCP certified, you cannot use it with HDMI-output from a cable box or the sort. You are limited to devices that are not protected. An example of where it would be useful is an ATSC-over-the-air device, like a DTA converter box or an ATSC DVR box. Which brings up an interesting point: compared to the earlier HD product from Slingmedia (the ProHD), this is a step down. They have removed the built-in ATSC tuner. I never had the ProHD product, but I saw pictures of it on the web and certainly would have utilized the port if it was on the 500 model. I can't give this a 5/5 because the price is steep, ya know? $300, plus $15 for a Windows App, plus $15 for an Android app. It starts adding up. The product itself is high quality and is recommended for anyone looking to stream TV outside of their home, but just be ready to pay the price. You can sometimes find it on sale for as low as $260 on a lucky day,.

Purchased slingbox after hearing two friends talk about it. It sounded almost too good to be true but once I started using it I was hooked. I travel a lot and like to stay up to date on my favorite shows (Shameless, Californication, Walking Dead, etc). Have traveled within the last month and have utilized it to watch the NBA Playoffs, SHOWTIME, HBO, NFL NETWORK and utilized it to watch shows I recorded via DVR....I even watched some of the shows on my Samsung Galaxy. In the event you have some downtime you can simply log onto the system via your cell phone and watch a quick episode of your favorite program or tune into the local or national news. This thing works great. The only downside to watching it on your phone is the fact you have to pay $15 bucks to install it, which may feel like a punch in the gut after already spending 300 bucks, but trust me you get over it. Also, if you don't want to spend the 300 bucks for the top of the line slingbox, you can splurge for the lower end model which is not a put down at all; it does the same thing but it just has to be connected and is not wireless. OVERALL, DARN GOOD PRODUCT!!

This machine is slick and is extremely easy to use. Tried to set it up connecting to older tv that has mostof our dvr shows with no hdmi connection and it couldn't be done. I know, I know, get a newer TV. So anyways, I set it up on a newer tv. Then moved the slingbox to the older tv (with no hdmi) and plugged it in. BAM! Works beautifully. Easy to understand instructions, great functionality. Glad I went with the 500. The remote doesnt show on the kindle or phone so it is harder to control but using a PC you can see the remote and control the tv like you would at home. Very happy with this purchase. $299 is a little high but I would still do it again and pick the 500 model.

The slingbox works just as it says it will. Traveling we can watch our service that we have at our home. We don't miss any of our favorite shows and if they are on our DVR we don't have to worry about time changes.