Manage updates with the Download AppSling Media Slingbox Solo
Manufacturer: Sling Media Part number: SB260-100
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- An evolutionary upgrade of past Slingbox models, the Slingbox Solo remains an excellent way to stream your home TV programming to an increasingly wide variety of broadband-connected computers and smartphones.
Read more
Where to buy
| store | customer rating | inventory | tax & shipping | price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  | In stock | Enter zip code to get total price: Price +Tax +Shipping =Total price | as of 05/13/2013 |
 | | In stock | as of 05/13/2013 |
CNET editors' review
Sling Media Slingbox Solo price range: $9.98 - $134.95
- Reviewed by: John Falcone
- Reviewed on: 09/26/2007
- Released on: 09/26/2007
The good: Streams home AV sources to any broadband-connected Mac, Windows PC, Windows Mobile, or Palm Treo device in the world; no host PC or monthly charges required; simple, straightforward setup; excellent, easy-to-use software; pass-through AV jacks compatible with standard and HD video; controls almost all cable and satellite boxes and DVRs; excellent video quality over LAN, good video quality over the Internet.
The bad: Cell phone/PDA viewing software costs extra; no built-in wireless networking support; monopolizes the attached device during viewing.
The bottom line: An evolutionary upgrade of past Slingbox models, the Slingbox Solo remains an excellent way to stream your home TV programming to an increasingly wide variety of broadband-connected computers and smartphones.
User reviews
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lousy support
by jamdoc1 on August 13, 2009
Pros: nothing since I can't get it to work outside of my living room.
Cons: tech support stinks. they want $29.99 to tell me why Port forwarding doesn't work remotely. I'd rather throw the darn thing out..
Summary: It worked at home but when I tried to view remotely I got an error message about DVI connections but I connected via s-video. I was on vacation in Canada ...
Summary: It worked at home but when I tried to view remotely I got an error message about DVI connections but I connected via s-video. I was on vacation in Canada and contacted Slingmedia tech support and 24 hours later received e-mail that they will help me at a cost of $29.99.
3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Excellent customer service; product works as advertised.
by RealDogfart on December 20, 2007
Pros: Best CS department in town
Cons: It's more difficult to get out of the box than to operate
Summary: The best part about my new Slingbox Solo is knowing that they’ve got an awesome customer support department to lean on. I’m one of those guys that tosses ...
Summary: The best part about my new Slingbox Solo is knowing that they’ve got an awesome customer support department to lean on. I’m one of those guys that tosses the directions aside in favor of figuring things out myself. I will admit however that I did look at the directions for a few seconds. After fiddling with the software setup for about 15 minutes I decided to give their chat support a try. I got Cathy. We chatted for a few minutes and I followed her instructions but I eventually gave her control over my system and watched her whiz through my multi firewall setup. It’s certainly not a real difficult task to setup the Slingbox equipment, but setting up port forwarding can be challenging. I have to tell you and everybody reading this review that my 6 minute CS experience with Cathy was ‘the best’ CS experience I have ever encountered. Anybody that’s purchased network equipment and had to contact the manufacturer knows how frustrating it can be. Most of the time you’re speaking to someone in India that knows much less about your equipment than you do. None of that at Slingbox. They know their stuff.
3 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Paid Support????
by dannyolds on May 11, 2011
Pros: Good idea, not sure if it works
Cons: Support is pathetic
Summary: I can't speak for anybody else, but I would assume most would be concerned that this company only provides free support for 90 days after purchase (after that you ...
Summary: I can't speak for anybody else, but I would assume most would be concerned that this company only provides free support for 90 days after purchase (after that you pay for it). Sounds an awful lot to me like a product that is either high maintenance, doesn't work, or a company that sees support as a profit center. I was encouraged by the "you are watching TV over the internet in 20 minutes" tagline. Sure enough I had the thing set up in 20 minutes, but it didn't work. After battling with obscure and misleading error messages for a few hours I called support and was told that I had to send proof of purchase before they could help. This was to ensure that I was within the 90 day horizon. Support closed at 7pm and it was 6:45. I was told I had to scan or photograph my receipt and email it in to get help, but of course that couldn't happen before 7pm so I was out of luck for the day. I asked four times if that was the standard means of confirming purchase and/or registering the product to see if there was a faster way via the web and the guy refused to answer. He eventually HUNG UP ON ME, and I spent several more hours in vain trying to get the stupid thing working. My error message had to do with "disconnected due to poor internet connection". Apparently this is a popular problem. The Slingbox was hardwired to my router and every other device in my house has good connectivity. The setup program found the Slingbox on my network, so clearly they are either masking their own problem or too lazy to provide actionable feedback about the real problem. Basically this forces you to contact them.........a very good strategy if you can get people to pay for support! Sent the stuff in today and now have the privledge of getting support. Every instinct I have is telling me that this is going to turn out to be a nightmare, but I will try and make it work because I like the idea.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Cannot give zero stars. What a shame.
by Audagee on January 12, 2013
Pros: Product might work... temporarily.
Cons: Won't be long before it fails. Absolutely horrible tech support - and to add insult to injury, it's free for only a limited time.
Summary: Sling had something going for it in the days of the classic, and solo versions, but these new 350 and 500 versions are just appalling. Poor, unreliable performance, no ATSC/...
Summary: Sling had something going for it in the days of the classic, and solo versions, but these new 350 and 500 versions are just appalling. Poor, unreliable performance, no ATSC/NTSC/QAM tuner, no possible way to adjust your video or audio level settings anymore, no more dedicated software - you are now forced to watch your TV in a browser.. Yuck! What were these goons thinking? I purchased both models 350 and 500 from Best Buy, but it wasn't long before I sent them back. Absolutely disappointed. Tech support was useless, and they admitted their newer product was lacking features present in older products. By the way, forget their heralded HDMI feature... doesn't work 50% of the time due to HDCP restrictions. USB support on the 500 still non-existent (they claim it will work "someday"). If you can still get your hands on a Classic or Solo/Pro version, do it while there's still time, otherwise don't even waste your breath on this company.
Just the putrid shape of the Slingbox 500 alone should have warned me to stay away... (looks like a plastic box left out in the hot sun and horribly warped) -
Great idea Bad execution
by sebringguy on April 7, 2011
Pros: None that I can think of
Cons: Everything
Summary: I purchased a sling adapter and sling turbo through Dish network and had it "professionally" installed by one of their installers. The device only worked marginally when the guy left. ...
Summary: I purchased a sling adapter and sling turbo through Dish network and had it "professionally" installed by one of their installers. The device only worked marginally when the guy left. Since then (3 weeks) I have only been able to get it to work marginally once. I have an Airvana in my home and have full cell service and network. My wife has 4g at her employment and still can't stream any shows. Dish network must be spending millions on advertising this product and service, but the delivery is horrible at best. If you are adventurous enough to try this product and service be prepared for many hours of diagnosis, waiting on hold for tech support, trouble tickets, rebooting your modem, moving wires and ethernet cables, unplugging your DVR, many weeks of non-performance, and a host of other issues that will drive you mad. I am giving them just a few more days to correct the problems. If I can't send it back for a refund, I'm going to drive my car back and forth over it. At least I'll have some fun!
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Amazing but a lil hard to set up
by gioakjoe on April 4, 2011
Pros: Tv any where
Cons: Some what hard to set up for not tech people
Summary: This device was a little harder to set up for most people out there and all the negative reviews are from that. If your not the most tech person have ...
Summary: This device was a little harder to set up for most people out there and all the negative reviews are from that. If your not the most tech person have your tech freind or family member set this up.
Once set up this is the easyest and reliable device out there. My dad and mom have no tuble using the device when they are out of town. (Thats saying alot!)
If you have kids this is amazing! My kids where screaming at dinner for missing there show so my dad pulled out his Iphone and shut them up for dinner and they became perfect and ate there dinner.
I use this box to sling tv to my room where I dont have a cable box to get the channels only on the cable box down stairs.
I use the net gear wirless network bridge. If you go wirless try to use the N 300 at least it will give you perfect quality. The usb on the back powers the bridge so it makes use of that random usb port on the back.
In the end the only major con of the porduct is the price pluss the price of the apps on the phone and the harder then avg set up, but once said and done and its well worth the money. -
More revolutionary than TiVo
by subtlecaffeine on February 16, 2011
Pros: Streams your TV over your network, the internet, even over your 3g
Included IR Blaster to send remote control commands
Skinned remotes resemble your device's remote
Built in program guide
Easy setup
Watchable in your browser or dedicated clientCons: Video can lag at times
No built-in wireless, requires available ethernet or expensive adapter.
Desktop video has no processing, looks very rough
Mobile video framerate limited
Mobile app costs extraSummary: When I bought a TiVo back in 2003 I never knew how much it would change the way I watched TV, in fact, I didn't think anything could change ...
Summary: When I bought a TiVo back in 2003 I never knew how much it would change the way I watched TV, in fact, I didn't think anything could change how I watch TV....then enters Sling Media's Slingbox to prove me wrong.
I won't go in to explaining just what Slingbox is, because you can read everywhere that it's a small box that connects to the A/V output of your cable/satellite/set-top box, includes a IR blaster and allows you to stream and control your box from anywhere...and that's exactly what it is. Rather, I'll give you the opinion of someone who's had one for just under a week...and had slightly higher expectations of the thing.
Overall I have to say i'm happy with the unit in a way that the "issues" with the unit are outweighed by overall usability/accessability. The video quality streaming over the network is what I'd call fair at best. It doesn't show a lot, if any, compression artifacts or framerate drop...in fact the VC-1 is being pumped across my network at upsards of 6mbps. The problem lies with the fact the video is 640x480, which is tiny compared to modern screen resolutions; and the unit does not seem to use any video hardware acceleration in Windows 7. It shows massive signs of simple interpolation resizing. It looks very rough when scaling up to full screen. Keeping the SlingMedia client in a sidebar mode reduces the amount of roughness and provides an excellent way to watch TV while you're still using your PC. However, the video maintains a nice stable stream over my WiFi, reaching as I mentioned, about 6mbps depending on the content. Occasionally something with a very drastic screen change or lots of action will make the video freeze up for a frame, and you will notice this when issuing remote commands because the stream will freeze up for just a fraction of a second. This results in a somewhat "mushy" feeling to using the onscreen remote, which I'll talk about in a bit. I have not been able to attempt PC streaming over the internet as I've not been anywhere with a fast enough internet connection to run a good test. The specs mention you need at least 150kbps for mobile streaming and 600kbps for SD streaming (which it only supports SD anyway). I've read the internet streaming is limited to a couple mbps. So if you want to stream online, naturally, keep your uplink speed in mind.
On the mobile side, the app will run you about 30 bucks for the various supported mobile platforms. While the price is steep, if you own a SlingBox it's an investment you very well may want to make. I personally have an Android device...and while streaming on WiFi, the result is excellent. The format of the mobile device profile may play a larger role in why the framerate seems slower, even when streaming on wifi. However, there's still a thrill of watching your TV, literally in a sense, on your phone. I have a Samsung Intercept on Sprint's 3G network, and I'm quite impressed with the quality of the unit when streaming. The mobile streaming, for the most part, is watchable when you're in an area of adequate 3G coverage/capacity. I've sat in a mall food court eating lunch while watching a DVR recorded episode of Family Guy. So the quality seems to solely depend on how crowded your network is and your reception quality...but the unit is capable of a very watchable 3G stream.
Setup was done through a web-browser, although you can do it through the player, the browser solution seems to have additional options. You're guided through the setup by the program and, with updating the unit, took less than 20 minutes, although finding the right match for your remote might take some time and you may need to try other models since often a provider uses the same remote across a generation of brands. In my case, I had to use a Motorola DVR model to get the right virtual remote skin for my provider's box. However, once you figure it out the interface isn't too difficult. You can have individual windows (virtual remote, program guide) dockable to the main window; you can set it to sidebar mode where the sidebar can take up to half of your screen, with the video at the top and virtual remote at the bottom, the amount showing depending on the size of the video in accordance to the aspect.
On the downside, you must have an ethernet connection at the unit as it offers no other way of connectivity. You could maybe get by with some sort of wireless to ethernet bridge, or even an AC networking kit (which Sling sling sells), but these options will cost extra.
Despite the handful of cons, if you're looking to stream your set-top box in your yard, halfway across the world, or while waiting at the DMV, the Slingbox Solo is the most affordable package to get the job done. -
DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY IT DOES NOT WORK!!!!!
by peter9481 on December 29, 2010
Pros: NONE THAT i CAN THINK OF
Cons: poor support, only works when I'm home but not when I'm away
Summary: when I first got this I was told that it came with life time support but now they charge you for support, every time I go away from home with ...
Summary: when I first got this I was told that it came with life time support but now they charge you for support, every time I go away from home with the hopes of watching a saved program on my dvr I am always let down , it can never connect , after two years of hoping that this product would deliver I am turning it into a paper weight. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY THIS SLINGBOX DOES NOT WORK
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Poor customer support = useless product
by EMacB on December 25, 2010
Pros: concept, size
Cons: We have had constant problems with our Slingbox Solo, but even if we just had one problem the customer support services would be useless. No replys to email questions, chat requests and no one to answer problem via phone.
Summary: Should probably go down as the worst customer service / customer support in their industry.
Okay, even if you work for sling media, no one would ...
Updated on Dec 25, 2010Summary: Should probably go down as the worst customer service / customer support in their industry.
Okay, even if you work for sling media, no one would think they have "excellent" customer support. They charge, you can't contact them, usually phone calls simply disconnect and they have no answers to your problems. Don't waste your time on Sling Media.
Updated on Dec 25, 2010 -
Not worth it.
by P-action on December 25, 2009
Pros: Great Concept
Cons: Everytime I leave me home to go abroad, I cross my fingers that the Slingbox will work properly during my time away. Most of the time, it doesn't and unless I have my wife back home to talk to customer service, I won't be able to use it.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Sling Media
- Part number: SB260-100
- Description: The Slingbox SOLO allows you to watch and control your favorite TV source - including your HD content - from anywhere in the world on your laptop or cell phone. So now you can watch your DVR, digital cable, satellite receiver, or DVD player wherever you see fit. With the Slingbox SOLO, you can watch your favorite TV shows and sporting events from anywhere.
General
- Type of product Digital multimedia receiver
Network & Internet
- Functionality Digital video broadcasting,
Digital audio broadcasting Audio System
- Output Mode Stereo
Connections
- Connector Type Component video input ( RCA phono x 3 ) - Rear,
1 x S-Video input ( 4 pin mini-DIN ) - Rear,
1 x Composite video/audio input ( RCA phono x 3 ) - Rear,
1 x Component video output ( RCA phono x 3 ) - Rear,
1 x S-Video output ( 4 pin mini-DIN ) - Rear,
1 x Composite video/audio output ( RCA phono x 3 ) - Rear,
1 x USB ( 4 pin USB Type A ) - Rear,
1 x Network ( RJ-45 ) - Rear,
1 x Remote control - Rear Miscellaneous
- Cables Included Video / audio cable,
Network cable Power
- Type External
Manufacturer info
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Sling Media products on Shopper.com
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- Manufacturer:Sling Media
- Phone: 650-378-4411
- Fax: 650-378-4422
