While the box is physically wider than the original, it still has a sleek form factor. Setting up the Pro HD is straightforward and simple. Slingbox provides step-by-step instructions, and the setup tool on their web page is very useful and easy to use. In particular, the user interface is quite intuitive, with an onscreen remote that mimics the one from your home source, thanks to an IR blaster. High-definition sources on my laptop looked almost as good as at home on my television.
Two other LEDs, network and power status, can be found on the bottom right of the unit. The top and sides of the unit are constructed of solid plastic with the Sling Media name centered on top. Around back are all of the different connections.
The top sections in grey are inputs and the bottom ports in black are output. The USB port on the back of the device currently has no function and according to a Sling rep. If you've got a Web browser -- Internet Explorer or Firefox -- you can watch video from your Slingbox via the slingbox. There's also a desktop client, which you can download for free from the Sling website. We like this option, because it's more responsive than the webpage. But we're old school, and the differences between the website-streaming and the separate software are very minimal.
The software does have better display options, like 'always on top', which make it more useful if you want to do something else while watching TV. The third and most exciting option is to use the Sling mobile application. We'll talk about this in more detail below, but it suffices to say, it's one of the major selling points of this product. The downside of Sling's mobile app is that it isn't free.
There are versions available for Android , iOS , Blackberry and Symbian handsets, in the relevant app stores for those devices. Our testing was done on Android, and we have to say, we were impressed by how it performed. We liked the picture quality, which almost certainly benefited from being downscaled to the smaller phone screen. On Wi-Fi, in the same house as the Slingbox, we found the image to be smooth and sufficiently detailed.
This isn't the sort of picture quality you'd get with a podcast or video stored on your device, but it's watchable and the sound is clear. Using your data allowance for video is also a fool's errand, as it's extremely likely to bankrupt you financially too. We loved the picture quality of the Slingbox on the mobile phone.
Using it on a PC with a decent monitor was a less impressive experience. All good, but there are some drawbacks. What's more, the maximum resolution it can handle is i rather than p. And you can only connect a single HD source as well as two SD ones. There's nothing quite like being able to control and access saved telly to improve a dull business trip, and the video quality, though dependant on the monitor you're using, is generally crisp and controlled. Unfortunately, the lack of HDMI limits its usefulness, and that's only going to get worse.
Follow whathifi.
0コメント