Media Streaming Devices

Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD : Excellent kit for viewing your TV service remotely

- by Brandle - 1 Comment

As of 20th august 2013 freeview still does not work on this product, no problems with other sources as far as i know. I can connect my sky+ hd box. I rang sling support and they say they know and will fix it “this week”.

Only disappointment has been with the bandwidth of wireless connectivity at the hotel i normally use, which is unfortunately not good enough to be able to access my slingbox.

Really pleased good delivery time, good price compared to other media streamers, its a little bit fiddle to set up, i’ve got it paired with 2 wd tv players which are also a bit fiddly but it does work. Inputs aren’t very flexible if your dvd etc outputs doesn’t match and there’s no hdmi connection which is surprising. But i can now watch sky on my pc in work so all is good.

Quite pleased with purchase. The only thing i was disappointed with was. The product being named pro hd& the box has no hdmi connectivity.Considering that most devices in your homeesp. Set top boxes, connect with hdmi . With a name like pro-hd just a scart connectionis not ideal , though still very important to have. The device has various other connections& managed to work around the problem. Overall, great product, but would have preferedit with hdmi in & out as well at that price. In future, i would expect a trade-in , with no quibbles,should they sort that little niggle out.

  • Slingbox Pro-HD Great device, Check connections before purchase!
  • Sling is still king for transmitting to distant parts.
  • Excellent product

Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

  • Make sure this fits
    by entering your model number.
  • Viewing and control of your live or recorded TV from any Windows PC or Mac (desktop or laptop) computer and from compatible mobile devices
  • Connects to all of the most popular SD or HD cable or satellite set-top boxes, DVRs, DVD players, Media Centers, or home security cameras
  • Avoids conflicts with other home TV viewers by allowing users to switch to a different input source, such as a DVD or the integrated DVB-T tuner
  • Includes built-in digital DVB-T tuner

I was a little sceptical about the claims of this product, but it arrived quickly and i plugged it in without really reading the manual and it worked perfectly straight away, now i can watch all my channels from anywhere, just as they claim. I even upgraded to the phone version from the android app market, works great too. One thing i would note is that i was not very patient and to test the unit i only wired in one input, my sky box, then after it worked i wired in other devices, but could not switch between them and the option was not shown on my web control panel, it turns out that the option is not shown if you don’t have other inputs, so you need to update your settings first.

Great performer and simple to set up. My second slingbox and i am well pleased with sling’s product development over the years and customer support is super. I am streaming to croatia from uk and overall performance whilst subject to all the internet vagaries remains very good. I have no problem recommending this product, but do not expect full hd quality when you are streaming to distant locations.

Hooked up first time, once i had the right hdmi to composite converter and is just like watching the virgin media tivo box at home.

I had used my previous slingbox for a couple of year and then it failed just a few weeks before retiring abroad, so it was a panic to get a replacement. I have to say this is so much better than the previous version which did not have all the freeview channels. The firmware has been updated and now includes all the radio channels as well.

I have been using slingbox for a year and found it to fulfil my needs when i want to watch tv or something i’ve recorded when i’m not at home over the internet. It has been really usefull to watch tv or a recorded show from anywhere in the home on a tablet or laptop where it just uses your lan. There are a few issues though all of which i was aware of before handto watch hd quality over the internet ( outside of the home network ) you will need a fast upstream rate slingbox minimum requirement is 2mbs but no doubt having a higher rate than that is better. To take advantage of many pvrs like sky hd and virgin tivo i’ve purchased hdmi to component converter because slingbox pro-hd has no input or outputs for hdmi. I know in the usa there is a box which provides hdmi i/o interface + a wifi connection but i’ve not seen that in the uk yet. Having to pay extra for apps to watch on other devices than a laptop or pc, but seeing as it is the reason i got the slingbox it is very much worth paying £10 per app extra for.

Im using it with a 1mb upload internet connection in the uk. Im watching it in the middle east on a 10mb download and the picture quality via a mac mini on a 46″ led tv is better than expected. Its not hd but its as good as a normal analogue signal. Changing channels is a bit slow but that isn’t a problem. If you are overseas and want uk tv buy one.

I bought this a few days ago and so far am very impressed – though i do note that the price has just gone up by over £20 now. I am using a powerline link plugged into the wall as my modem is in another room and that was equally totally straightforward. The pc version is very impressive. V+ box as the main source and having the full remote control access via an identical looking on screen remote is a nice touch. The ipad software is an annoying pricey addiction at £21 but it’s also worth if if you have an ipad as i am using this as a way of watching tv in other rooms in the house and the ipad is the best way of doing this. It logs in on the ipad almost as quickly as turning on the tv itself. I do have a 50meg connection which no doubt helps. My main quibble would be with calling it hd when it isn’t really hd. There doesn’t seem to be a way of connecting it via the hdmi cable. But it does work with hd channels and the picture quality is better than i expected. Overall i do think it merits the five stars. Updatehaving just come back from a holiday where we relied on the slingbox to watch some important football games i must add more praise for this product. The net connection where we stayed was so poor that even basic web pages took ages to load but the slingbox still managed to produce a perfectly watchable stream on the lower quality setting meaning we didn’t miss the games.

Sling media have now corrected the freeview reception problem and my slingbox pro-hd now works fine. Mine is also connected to my humax freesat box via an inexpensive hdmi convertor and also to my security cameras. Providing there is sufficient internet bandwidth, i can view all inputs from anywhere worldwide and also control the humax to record the programmes that i require. Sling media recommend using their ’embedded slingmedia player’ which works great.

Its a bit of a misnomer call this a pro-hd when it doesn’t have an hdmi input. The product is ok for catching up on tv programs on your phone or tablet whilst you’re away from home. I think given the streaming technology available now the quality could be much better at this price point when you have products like roku, apple tv and chromecast that perform so much better.

Just upgraded from the old slingbox classic and it is a huge improvement. The old classic had failed on me numerous times and this was a risk for me upgrading after such a bad experience, however, the quality of image and the stability of the tuner is much better than before. The delivery was on time and i had no issues with installation. What is still sad is that even though slingmedia had to replace my old slingbox classic device 4 times, each one lasting no more than a year, they would not provide an upgrade on what was originally clearly a sub-standard product. Let’s hope that this one lasts more than a year this time.

This older slingbox allows you to keep using the older slingbox pc client. Newer slingboxes must use the browser app. Slingbox think its ok to force advertising onto its customers in the browser app which i think is pretty misguided. The slingbox device costs enough as it is and so i don’t expect to be ‘monetised’. Generally a solid product but i’ve had a few fail on me. Slingbox seems a good product, but it can go wrong or have gremlins for variety of reasons. It ends up being a bit of a challenge and gimmicky, even for the technically minded.

Upgraded from sling box prod non-hd, didnt expect the difference i got and should have got one years ago. Excellent product and now the picture quality improvement from remote locations is excellent.

The bottom line is that this is a good piece of kit – when it works. I purchased it about a year ago so that i could view united kingdom television set all-around the globe, although principally in the us. Given that the modern improve in the british isles freeview, it will not rescan the channels with no guide attention. A get in touch with to slingbox support (wolfgang) stated that this issue had been escalated to a ‘major incident’ – whilst given the size of issues, they evidently have not furnished a remedy to day.Anyway, the function about (as wolfgang observed) is when it gets to about 44%, disconnect the aerial, wait fifteen-twenty seconds and then reconnect it. I did discover that some of the main channels were being lacking (e. Film4), but at the very least i had some.

Uncomplicated to set up, operates nicely delivered you have a rapid uplink on your broadband connection, great to have an on monitor variation of the handheld remote control. Runs a bit warm so do not cover, not for these who stress about global warming and switch off each system when they leave dwelling.

I have given this products five stars as it is fantastic as does precisely as it suggests in the tin. I couldn’t established it up so phoned the helpline & they set it up for me – they ended up good.

Summary
Review Date
Reviewed Item
Sling Media - Slingbox PRO-HD
Rating
1.0 of 5 stars, based on 114 reviews

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About Brandle

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One Comment on “Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD : Excellent kit for viewing your TV service remotely”

  1. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    To all people who have a slingbox and have commented that there box would not rescan for latest freeview channels, i have used my box for the last 3 years but connected to a sky box, it was tuned in originally to freeview but stopped working hence connected to sky, this week i tried to rescan and as stated on other reviews it stopped scanning at 20% and disconnected, i tried several times then downloaded the latest firmware to the box and to my delight it scanned 143 channels perfectly, now have 2 choices of viewing, highly delighted with the box and am able to view local tv anywhere.

  2. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    To all people who have a slingbox and have commented that there box would not rescan for latest freeview channels, i have used my box for the last 3 years but connected to a sky box, it was tuned in originally to freeview but stopped working hence connected to sky, this week i tried to rescan and as stated on other reviews it stopped scanning at 20% and disconnected, i tried several times then downloaded the latest firmware to the box and to my delight it scanned 143 channels perfectly, now have 2 choices of viewing, highly delighted with the box and am able to view local tv anywhere.
    1. Absolutely brill the very rare bit of buffering but apart from that perfect prob would struggle on adsl 2 line but on my fibre sweet don’t buy the app for iphone i’m using the free version and there’s no adds :/ so well happy brill bit of kit would recommend to anyone using sky+hd but not hd on the slingbox due to expense of an adaptor don’t see why you’d need it unless u streaming away from home for long periods then i recommend a newer model with hdmi happy placeshifting.
      1. Absolutely brill the very rare bit of buffering but apart from that perfect prob would struggle on adsl 2 line but on my fibre sweet don’t buy the app for iphone i’m using the free version and there’s no adds :/ so well happy brill bit of kit would recommend to anyone using sky+hd but not hd on the slingbox due to expense of an adaptor don’t see why you’d need it unless u streaming away from home for long periods then i recommend a newer model with hdmi happy placeshifting.

  3. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    It was an old model version. It had returned back and got a refund back.

  4. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    It was an old model version. It had returned back and got a refund back.

  5. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    Doesn’t seem to connect to wifi. I’ve had two tv experts around who aren’t able to make it to my sky box. I have given up on this product.
    1. Doesn’t seem to connect to wifi. I’ve had two tv experts around who aren’t able to make it to my sky box. I have given up on this product.

  6. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    Bad quality-impossible to replace parts-rca died within 2 years and now internal tuner as well-even though it should be easy to service it they offer no service.

  7. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    Bad quality-impossible to replace parts-rca died within 2 years and now internal tuner as well-even though it should be easy to service it they offer no service.

  8. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    I have 4 slingboxes in various places. Mostly they fail through the power supplies, or one of the capacitors. It is a pity there are no really competitive streaming boxes, as i find them easier to use than connecting to networked pc with a tv tuner. However it is a shame that slingbox try to prevent direct connection and insist on their servers, as the latter reduce the bandwidth. So i sometimes do connect directly to the local network, and then view tv on the slingbox via a pc on the same network. I have four because i have several other boxes connected eg youview, sky, now, etc.
    1. I have 4 slingboxes in various places. Mostly they fail through the power supplies, or one of the capacitors. It is a pity there are no really competitive streaming boxes, as i find them easier to use than connecting to networked pc with a tv tuner. However it is a shame that slingbox try to prevent direct connection and insist on their servers, as the latter reduce the bandwidth. So i sometimes do connect directly to the local network, and then view tv on the slingbox via a pc on the same network. I have four because i have several other boxes connected eg youview, sky, now, etc.

  9. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    The product arrived in its box with no component missing. I mean dvb-t and remote control worked perfectly. So with seller there has been no issue. In the other hand the product in itself is obsolete and not updated by the maker. As a result there was no sound on some dvb-t channels. To find the remote that fits is very tricky. In my case i searched my remote on internet and found devices compatible, after that tried to locate them in their list, one by one. To configure manually the router is also very tricky. You may need a converter from hdmi (only 1080i) to components.

  10. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    The product arrived in its box with no component missing. I mean dvb-t and remote control worked perfectly. So with seller there has been no issue. In the other hand the product in itself is obsolete and not updated by the maker. As a result there was no sound on some dvb-t channels. To find the remote that fits is very tricky. In my case i searched my remote on internet and found devices compatible, after that tried to locate them in their list, one by one. To configure manually the router is also very tricky. You may need a converter from hdmi (only 1080i) to components.

  11. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    Needed 2nd slingbox to view more than one channel at a time. Also wanted tolink it to my cctv camera. This is an old model although has hd 1081 resolution, essentially has 3 input/outputs rather than the one that the latest have. Despite being refurbished it’s in excellent condition and all works. It was boxed (the external box cover was slightly non-pristine) but the inner box was in good condition had all the cables, power unit etc and the slingbox itself looked ‘as new’. A great price and, so far, all working ok. Very pleased with the purchase.

  12. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    Needed 2nd slingbox to view more than one channel at a time. Also wanted tolink it to my cctv camera. This is an old model although has hd 1081 resolution, essentially has 3 input/outputs rather than the one that the latest have. Despite being refurbished it’s in excellent condition and all works. It was boxed (the external box cover was slightly non-pristine) but the inner box was in good condition had all the cables, power unit etc and the slingbox itself looked ‘as new’. A great price and, so far, all working ok. Very pleased with the purchase.

  13. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    Im happy with it but need to get imformation on how to get it to work on my chromebook pc.

  14. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    It has been delivered faulty. I have asked to return, we will see if they will accept.

  15. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    It has been delivered faulty. I have asked to return, we will see if they will accept.

  16. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    On time and well presented delivery, just what i wanted, thanks.

  17. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    I purchased this item as described a “slingbox pro hd” which i believed to be the best available as a pro version, after seeing the results in 720 hd and researching the item a little more i soon realized that this in fact is a 2008 version. In tech terms an absolute dinosaur. I had been constructing a room to use this item, before opening and using it some time had passed and i was admittedly outside of the returns date. On contacting the seller the bottom line was that they would not refund the £170 item or deal with the issue at all and emailed me to inform me that i could write what ever i liked as a review.Appalling after sales service by any standardthe current model is around £70 cheaper and plays in 1080p.
    1. I purchased this item as described a “slingbox pro hd” which i believed to be the best available as a pro version, after seeing the results in 720 hd and researching the item a little more i soon realized that this in fact is a 2008 version. In tech terms an absolute dinosaur. I had been constructing a room to use this item, before opening and using it some time had passed and i was admittedly outside of the returns date. On contacting the seller the bottom line was that they would not refund the £170 item or deal with the issue at all and emailed me to inform me that i could write what ever i liked as a review.Appalling after sales service by any standardthe current model is around £70 cheaper and plays in 1080p.
      1. I bought the slingbox pro hd and it does what it says on the tin. Using a bt infinity hub 5 in the uk. I was able to access abroad and watch ‘britain’s got talent’ etc from sky box. Also after rescaning the digital antennae source i am getting a full set of freeview channels in good quality. Note you need to use internet explorer to reconfigure the slingbox, chrome will not work at this time.

  18. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    I bought the slingbox pro hd and it does what it says on the tin. Using a bt infinity hub 5 in the uk. I was able to access abroad and watch ‘britain’s got talent’ etc from sky box. Also after rescaning the digital antennae source i am getting a full set of freeview channels in good quality. Note you need to use internet explorer to reconfigure the slingbox, chrome will not work at this time.

  19. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    I write this review several years after getting my slingbox pro-hd; frankly it’s been nothing but trouble and frustration. I’m often away for weeks or months at a time and want to catch up on some home tv but then i find i can’t connect and that the slingbox needs resetting which can only be done while at home. On one occasion the power supply failed (apparently a common fault) and i was without home tv until i returned two months later and could plug in the replacement. When it is working i fail to see why it can’t stream better than it does. I have a 15 megabit upload speed at home (via fibre-optic line) but the slingbox can only manage 700-800 kilobits per second which is blocky and unreliable. It frequently disconnects for no apparent reason and when reconnecting it tells me somebody else is connected already (yes, that would be me) and asks to disconnect them. The reason for reviewing now is that recently my viewing experience has been ruined by adverts which slingbox has inserted. Hold on, i paid good money for this thing, also for the mobile software, and i don’t expect to be bombarded with inappropriate ads – some of which aren’t even in englishpotentially the slingbox is a brilliant place-shifting solution, but the implementation sucks and support is non-existent. I’ve finally had enough and will be looking for an alternative.
    1. I write this review several years after getting my slingbox pro-hd; frankly it’s been nothing but trouble and frustration. I’m often away for weeks or months at a time and want to catch up on some home tv but then i find i can’t connect and that the slingbox needs resetting which can only be done while at home. On one occasion the power supply failed (apparently a common fault) and i was without home tv until i returned two months later and could plug in the replacement. When it is working i fail to see why it can’t stream better than it does. I have a 15 megabit upload speed at home (via fibre-optic line) but the slingbox can only manage 700-800 kilobits per second which is blocky and unreliable. It frequently disconnects for no apparent reason and when reconnecting it tells me somebody else is connected already (yes, that would be me) and asks to disconnect them. The reason for reviewing now is that recently my viewing experience has been ruined by adverts which slingbox has inserted. Hold on, i paid good money for this thing, also for the mobile software, and i don’t expect to be bombarded with inappropriate ads – some of which aren’t even in englishpotentially the slingbox is a brilliant place-shifting solution, but the implementation sucks and support is non-existent. I’ve finally had enough and will be looking for an alternative.

  20. This review is from : Sling Media – Slingbox PRO-HD

    I’ve had a slingbox for the past 10 years with this being my most recent model. If i was writing this review 6 months ago it’d be 4 or 5 stars. What’s changed?they have included adverts in the user interface. They don’t work sometimes and interrupt the viewing experience. Considering the hardware isn’t cheap and the 2 ios apps (ipad and iphone) and 2 android apps (phone + tablet) cost me ~ £40 it’s completely unacceptable for them to suddenly start advertising. Especially when they claim it’s completely free. Whilst i’m using an adblocker now it’s not really working. It’s a big shame as i was a highly satisfied customer before – i had it connected to my sky+hd box via an hdmi to compositie converter and used it every day. I’m now actively seeking an alternative.
    1. I’ve had a slingbox for the past 10 years with this being my most recent model. If i was writing this review 6 months ago it’d be 4 or 5 stars. What’s changed?they have included adverts in the user interface. They don’t work sometimes and interrupt the viewing experience. Considering the hardware isn’t cheap and the 2 ios apps (ipad and iphone) and 2 android apps (phone + tablet) cost me ~ £40 it’s completely unacceptable for them to suddenly start advertising. Especially when they claim it’s completely free. Whilst i’m using an adblocker now it’s not really working. It’s a big shame as i was a highly satisfied customer before – i had it connected to my sky+hd box via an hdmi to compositie converter and used it every day. I’m now actively seeking an alternative.

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