Sling Media’s second generation follow up to the Slingbox comes in three flavors: Slingbox A/V, Slingbox Pro, and Slingbox Tuner. We took a look at the Slingbox Tuner but the A/V enhances it by controlling cable/satellite boxes with composite and S-video inputs. The Pro takes that one step further by incorporating multiple inputs including HD with an add-on dongle to connect component cables.

Getting the Slingbox to work over the Internet is another matter altogether. First and foremost, we discovered we could not make any network settings from a remote location. If we were stuck behind a firewall blocking port numbers in the thousands, we couldn’t access the Slingbox via the Internet to change it down to 443 or 80. We got around this by remote controlling a computer with LogMeIn or RDP but this was cumbersome at best. The only reason beyond the initial setup where you would want to make such a change is when you cannot access the Slingbox remotely. Somehow you are allowed to perform firmware upgrades remotely but not change port numbers. We also tried installing SlingPlayer on a remotely accessible virtual machine with VMware but the virtual machine lacked the requisite graphics card to even get to the screen where you can change network settings.

We tried remote viewing with a Netopia R9100 router and an off the shelf Linksys wireless router. We found more success in using modern UPNP routers. No matter the firewall filter or NAT server rules could not get a connection to the Slingbox from outside of the LAN to work on an R9100 even though it's supported on the Slingmedia website. We believe unless you know a little bit about networking, you may find issues in sharing the Slingbox. Also, the Finder included with the box is not very accurate behind NAT and you will likely need to use a third party domain provider such as dyndns.org to tag your home Internet connection so you can connect to it from the outside.

Once you do get the Slingbox to work remotely, you’ll find that video streams with as little as 250kbps download. We tested the Slingbox in an open Wi-Fi access point with up 500kbps and at a handicapped hotel LAN connection with not more than 250kbps available. In both instances, we got video. At the lower end, you could only see fuzzy faces, which is only good for sitcoms where you know everyone or news programs. At maximum over the LAN, it can overwhelm Wi-Fi and command up to 6000kbps for a frenetic hockey game. It’s shocking at what HD would need to stream properly.

On the basic cable AV tuner, the SlingPlayer software can handle all the channel changes. For digital boxes, in higher end versions, SlingPlayer can be configured to mimic the IR remote (including an on screen skin) using an IR blaster. Basic cable contains all the fuzziness one would expect from analog video, and the SlingPlayer window cannot be reasonably maximized to look great. This is probably why people have moved on to HD. The SlingPlayer works perfectly in Windows 2000, XP and Vista environments. On the Slingbox Tuner, we found connecting the coaxial signal to the Slingbox and then using the pass through to the regular television set was just the same and yielded better quality than using the included splitter.

The higher end versions feature additional S-video and component connections. These can be used to hook up other equipment although you'll add more cables to your setup because of the pass through. The Slingbox is actually quite small in size but can get warm during its operation. It can be tucked in to almost any place and while it is a computer of sorts, it makes no noise at all.

For a one time fee, Sling Media also sells a mobile version of the SlingPlayer software. This will allow you to watch television over a smartphone running Windows Mobile or Palm (only for Treo 700). We can't imagine how much data charges you will incur and did not test this part of the product.

For people with bandwidth constrained ISP connections, you will need to be aware that slinging across the Internet requires significant upstream bandwidth. That means bandwidth limits will likely be exceeded if viewing remotely for long periods of time.

When we first heard of the Slingbox, we marveled at the engineering feat but could not really find a reason why people would want to do this when there is all this streaming video on the Internet and downloadable movies cropping up. We initially found the Slingbox to be useful if you’re moving around or away from a television set. A small office dealing with media or a home could use the Slingbox on a laptop to take television with them.

However, we found this to be the perfect tool for the frequent traveler who has a home somewhere and wants to catch up on local television programs. It’s especially useful if you're from a localized area (local news) or you're a sports fanatic who can't follow a certain sport at your destination. In Europe, for example, popular television shows such as 24, ER, and CSI are weeks behind the first run episodes in North America. The Slingbox is a perfect substitute for these situations.

Rating •••••73%•••••