| Sling Media Slingbox Tuner ( SB220-100 ) |
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Model: SB220-100
Brand: Sling Media
Manufacturer: Sling Media
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 40
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
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| Features: |
Redirects the TV signal to the computer of your choice--providing high quality video, no matter the distance
SlingStream technology delivers up to a 400 percent video quality improvement over the original Slingbox
Connects to basic cable TV or NTSC antenna sources
Includes free Slingbox Finder service to locate a Slingbox from any network location
Watch and control your basic cable TV anywhere around your home or around the globe |
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| Description: |
| The Slingbox TUNER is the perfect companion for your basic cable subscription. With the ability to watch and control your cable TV, the Slingbox TUNER ensures that you can enjoy your live TV entertainment anywhere you go. Turn every computer you use into a portable TV without the need to connect a coax cable. Using an Internet connected computer or compatible mobile phone, you can watch your basic cable TV anywhere around your home or around the globe. With a Slingbox TUNER you will never be separated from your favorite TV shows, sports broadcasts, or breaking news stories.The Slingbox TUNER is designed for TVs without a set-top cable box or satellite receiver (if you want to connect a set-top box, DVR, or satellite receiver, take a look at the Slingbox AV or Slingbox PRO). All you need to do is take the coaxial cable coming from your wall and plug it into the back of the Slingbox TUNER. We've even thrown in a cable splitter too in case you are using the cable for a cable modem or directly to a TV set. Connecting the Slingbox TUNER is about as easy as hooking up an old VCR, and the best part is there's no blinking 12: 00. |
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| User Reviews (40 total): |
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Better than I thought it would be, August 13, 2008
By user (El Paso, Texas)
Living is El Paso Texas, I am subjected to watching and hearing about the Dallas Cowboys. But the team I really care about is my Seattle Seahawks.
I was not about to pay the high price for NFL ticket, so I started look for alternatives. The Slingbox looked like a good option. So I contacted a cousin of mine who lives in the Seattle area and asked if he would be willing to host my Slingbox Tuner. He has a Comcast Cable Internet connection and basic cable. I am using AT&T DSL to download.
Took us about 2 hours to set up. I had to talk my cousin how to do port forwarding on what I considered an "off brand" router. More time was wasted with me just trying to find instructions for the router. :-)
Once that was done, and I had his Internet IP address, I tried to connect. I am not going to say it is as good as you will see on TV, but it better than most You Tube videos. I can't see the football, but can easily see how the play is going, who getting tackled, how many yards were made on the play, etc.............
One question that I was concerned about before I purchased the SlingBox Tuner was, "How do I find it, if my cousins IP address changes?"
There are a couple of ways to address this. One register the Slingbox with SlingMedia, they have server that will tell you what the current IP is. Or you can use a service like DynDNS with compatible routers so that you can find the IP Address to connect to your Slingbox.
I could have chose the Sling AV, but I thought the Sling Tuner would be easier to manage. With the Sling AV, I would have needed a VCR to act as a tuner. Did not want to hassle with that.
Overall, I am pretty darn happy with the results.
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Slingbox Tuner, July 17, 2008
By user (Pittsford, NY USA)
It was easy to install and works fine with my Netgear Router.. I like the built in Tuner since I only have one Set top and it would cost $100 a year for a second one..
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Freakin' awesome!, July 15, 2008
By user (Atlanta, GA)
Its my second slingbox. Needless to say I am a huge fan of this product. I have a windows mobile phone that I sling to along with my laptop. One is connected to my TiVo and the other to regular cable. These things are great!
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Indianapolis to Seattle, June 6, 2008
By user (Indianapolis, IN United States)
My daughter moved from Indianapolis to Seattle. She is a huge Colts fan and told me about Slingbox. Now she can watch our games or Indy tv whenever she chooses. It's wonderful.
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This is GREAT!, April 3, 2008
By user (Detroit)
I'm watching the baseball game on my laptop at work. Most of the games are on Fox Sports, so no broadcasting over the airwaves. The picture isn't A+, but it's certainly passable and better than I expected. And I can watch anything here that my cable box at home picks up, including local cable.
Drawbacks are 1. only one tv at a time. But, I only bought the basic unit; 2. No picture in picture; and 3. No recording. These shortcomings are probably addressed by the more expensive units. But, my needs are currently being met.
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Must Have, April 2, 2008
By user (Rochester, NY)
Great Product! Love that I can watch my home team Mets anywhere. I also purchased the add on for my Motorola Q and can watch it anywhere my phone gets signal.
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Ok but crippled software, March 27, 2008
By user
Honestly I don't know why Slingbox has such a huge following. It's a decent product (works great on LAN, so-so away from the house unless you have a 4+ Mb connection), but the software is essentially crippleware. This is the only video product that I've ever had that doesn't support video recording. I used to own ATI and Matrox video cards...their software supported TV connections PLUS video recording. Why can't this product replace my Tivo... my computer is fast enough and has plenty of hard drive space?! Also, why can't you view it on more than one computer at a time? OR why can't you but a "deluxe" version with two tuners inside that will let you view on more than one computer at a time.
This has the potential to be a killer product but in my mind is only mediocre because of the limitations that they've built into the software.
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Great product if you have at least basic cable, February 19, 2008
By user (Durham, NC USA)
There are several varieties of Slingbox out there, and trying to figure out which one is right for you can be challenging. So I'll make this simple: if you're looking to save a little money, have at least basic cable (and anticipate having it for a while) then this is the product for you. In other words, if you can get basic cable to your TVs without a converter box then you can make good use of this. Most cable companies offer this, so check if you're not sure.
What are the disadvantages? The tuner is the old NTSC standard instead of the new ASTC, which means that you won't be able to use it for broadcast channels when they switch to digital broadcasting next year (unless you have the adapter). You also can't easily use it for your digital cable channels (for most companies, this means any channel 100 or higher) or for satellite channels.
Still, it works very well for what it does. The quality of the streamed video is excellent over both Wireless-N and Wireless-G connections. It looks as good as on our TVs. I haven't tried it from away from our home network, so I can't comment on that.
Setup for the box is pretty easy, especially if your router supports uPnP. The box itself can get a little hot, so you have to be careful about how you place it. I deducted a star because you have to use a proprietary video player that doesn't support recording. For that reason it's only a very good product and not an indispensible one.
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Slingbox Tuner, January 23, 2008
By user (MI, USA)
The slingbox tuner does everything it claims. While streaming is quite good, with very little freezing, the picture is grainy when enlarged so the quality isn't quite where it needs to be. Buyers beware: as of April 2009, the feds require that all TV channels become digital, the slingbox tuner only has analog capabilities. For digital, you would need the Slingbox A/V or the Slingbox Pro.
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Slingbox Review, December 30, 2007
By user
This product is wonderful. I am visiting Germany and am able to watch my TV at home. The picture is clearer then I anticipated. I would highly reccommend this product to anyone who travels a lot.
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What an innovation!!!, December 29, 2007
By user
I studied this item a bit before purchase and was prepared to takle a few problems with installation, especially with Vista....I figured on a call to tech.support. Didn't happen.
Installation went flawlessly. I downloaded the software from the website, knowing that usually a company's website provides the most up-to-date drivers, etc. Installed and that was it. I just put in the finder code into the software on my other computer and it was up and running.
I'm watching the NFL and local news over 1,200 miles from home. Pictue was slightly grainy, but no worse than most other internet video (It may help if I upgrade my video card). This thing's a real marvel.
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Slingbox Tuner SB220-100, December 22, 2007
By user (Maracaibo, Venezuela)
Sling Media Slingbox Tuner ( SB220-100 )
I bought this unit in order to be able to watch at home in Venezuela, most of the channels my son has in Virginia; however this was not possible because the unit only catches something like the first 50 channels, so I returned it, and bought the Sling Media Slingbox SOLO (SB260-100)which was a bit more expensive, but I am able to watch all the channels.
The video and sound are OK, perhaps in some channels whatever is written it seems slightly out of focus, but it provides a very enjoyable result.
It is worth mentioning that the picture you see, it has to be the same one someone is watching at the other end and whoever decides to change channels, it also changes the channel on the other side of the world.Therefore, there has to be an understanding on both sides to watch the same channel, or to use the unit when you think the TV where the slingbox is, it is OFF. I presume that eventually this will be fixed by the manufacturer (hope it will be by a firmware setup, and not a new model).
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I like it, not love it, November 13, 2007
By user (New York, NY USA)
Easy to set up and works as advertised. Picture quality has a lot to do with cable signal and internet speed. I would buy it again but I do have a few complaints. It only works on analog signals from the cable company, so when they switch to all digital, this will not work at all. You do not get the channel information, so channel surfing takes quite a bit longer. They charge another $30 if you want the program for your pda, that sux. Take your time and read about their other units as they can handle digital signals, and control Tivo's etc and you may want that.
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Great product. Streams well., October 31, 2007
By user (Phoenix, AZ)
This product is a lifesaver for streaming live TV over a high speeed internet connection. Great for travel or other downtime where you have a high speed connection nearby.
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Finally,a gadget that works as expected (maybe better)!, October 28, 2007
By user (Portland, OR United States)
The slingbox is truely amazing.
The setup was a snap. My technology-phobic parents set it up in about 20 minutes. It's quite intuitive.
The installation software is probably the best I've ever experienced. It just worked! The software automagically detected the router and modified its settings to allow us to view the slingbox stream outside of the home network.
Video quality is quite good, but not perfect. There are some blurs, but I have no trouble distinguising what's happening. If you watch it at the same distance from the screen as you would normally watch TV it's about the same. It's better than I expected. The sound is perfectly synched with the video.
The only suggestion I would make to the Slingbox team is that station presets are migrated across sling players installed on different machines.
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Good; as advertised, October 3, 2007
By user (Germantown, TN USA)
Good product; as advertised. You will need help from IT if used inside a company network. It works well on other networks, but it will take some trouble shooting and reading the documentation. Follow the instructions.
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Outstanding product, September 6, 2007
By user (Houston, TX)
I bought the previous generation and installed in Taiwan last year. It works perfectly well on my PC, Laptop, and Cingular WM5 PDA phone in US.
I love its design idea and features.
Now the new price is almost only 50% of my old one; I probably will buy the 2'nd one soon.
Hopefully, Sling Media can provide client s/w for Apple iPhone. That will be an excellent killer app!
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Works great with FiOS, August 3, 2007
By user (Ellicott City MD)
We recently had FiOS (fiber optic TV) installed in our house, but we have no cable outlet in the kitchen. I had a small countertop rabbit-ear TV for watching news and Jeopardy! while cooking, and after it died, I searched for a replacement without much luck. Then I saw the Slingbox, and decided to try that with my router and laptop. It works great! I set it up in about 5 minutes, and now I can watch basic cable (mainly over-the-air stations plus Weather Channel and TV Guide) in the kitchen with no extra costs for a digital box, and no more antenna fiddling! Picture and sound are excellent. I haven't even tried setting it up so I can get TV away from home, but just as an "extension TV" at home, the Slingbox is very useful.
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Slingbox does everything it says!, July 30, 2007
By user
I bought the base version of Slingbox for about $100 to be able to watch US television in Europe. My friend set the Slingbox up on his cable TV system and router in Washington, DC. He said it was no problem to hook up on his end, just a couple cables and a log-in password. All he had to do for the TV signal was put a splitter on his TV cable like hooking up another TV, except the "other TV" is the Slingbox. He still has complete control over his TV set, and I have control over the Slingbox via my comptuer. In summary, the Slingbox was easy to set up and works exactly as advertised. I am a very satisfied customer.
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Revolutionary product! A sure fire hit., July 21, 2007
By user
Initially I had a lot of enthusiasm about this product, and upon using I wasn't disapointed at all.
Essentially, the Slingbox Tuner takes your cable tv signal, puts it online, and then allows you to stream the signal to your computer. The cool factor here is that your computer can be anywhere in the world! A very simple concept, but its really impressive the first time you see it happen.
Beginning with the requirements for using the device. The Slingbox needs to have the source of your cable plugged into it (a splitter is provided in the box so you may split the cable signal between Slingbox and your TV), it also needs to be plugged into broadband internet (I use a 4 port router), and lastly ofcourse it needs to be plugged into the wall for power In addition to this, you need to have a pretty good broadband connection when you are streaming the Slingbox content to your computer (see the company's website for official speed requirments). More on this later.
Setting up the Slingbox Tuner was really easy, I attribute this partly to the fact that this is the base model Slingbox (meaning less bells and whistles). Also, I had thoroughly researched how to set up the Slingbox and knew exactly how I was going to set mine up before it arrived (I highly recommend this). I was watching TV on my laptop in about 20 minutes of taking it out of the box.
Should you have any trouble setting up the Slingbox or have any questions about how the device works, then I recommend calling their tech support. I called them myself with some questions about product installation before I had purchased my Slingbox. The call went well and they were very helpful in answering my questions.
To view the Slingbox on your computer, you have to download software (don't worry it's free) from the website called the Slingplayer. I've been using the Slingbox for about a month and a half and I find the software to be well engineered and efficient. The software lets you view content in a large window, full screen, or you can compact it to either side of your screen. Thus far, this software has never crashed on me. A real bonus to Slingplayer is that if you have a cell phone with Windows Mobile on it, you can download a version of the Slingplayer that will run on your cell phone.....woohoo! Personally I have never got to try this but I'd love to.
The only real downfall I could find with this product isn't really the products fault. As mentioned earlier you need good broadband speed both where the slingbox is set up, and wherever your computer is that is streaming the content. At home when my laptop is on the same network as the slingbox I get a crazy good connection. The picture quality is very nice and the channels change fast. But away on my dad's modest dsl internet I only get a decent connection. This means I have to wait a few seconds for the channel to smooth out to fluid sound/picture, and the picture quality isn't as good. But it's certainly watchable and I have yet to find a better way to watch television on the go anywhere in the world. If your curious how your internet stacks up go here http://us.slingmedia.com/object/KB-005145.html
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