What's the difference between the solo and the pro?

My router is nowhere near my tv, so I have read about this thing that goes through your electrical outlets that you can use to "connect" the two... just seems like that couldnt work that well, does it?

3/23/2011 7:05:47 PM

solo is like when you jerkoff all by your lonesome.
pro is like when you hire a charlie sheen level prostitute and go all out.

3/23/2011 9:20:34 PM

awesome response, bet that took a while

3/23/2011 9:52:46 PM

The solo is basically a fire and forget streaming device. It takes whatever signal you're feeding it and pushes it to your laptop or phone across the internet or your LAN to another room. Think of it as a signal relocation device. (The features of your TV experience will remain largely the same - you can use the IR blaster to control your set top box or DVR over the phone or laptop.)

The pro adds in a lot of features. Instead of just blindly streaming whatever you feed it you have the option to change input devices (from say a tv to dvd or roku box (el-cheapo way to stream netflix!)), and more importantly comes with it's own tuners. It won't take over the same feed your TV is using (with the solo if someone is sitting there watching local while you're streaming they'll be watching whatever you're watching.)

Through-the-wall networking is another feature, but if that's just why you're going for the pro you're definitely over spending. You can get a netgear set to go through the wall for say $40 or so, probably less on sale. The tech powering these things has gotten significantly better in the last few years. I'd be more than confident you'll be set unless you're talking across a 3000 square foot house. When it comes down to the business you internet connection can probably only muster around 1Mbit of outbound traffic, and even the cheapest through the wall networking can sustain 30-50Mbit's. It's not going to be the bottleneck.

For what it's worth I don't think the pro is worth the cash unless you have enough outbound bandwidth to push HD video (like fiber to the home or roadrunner signature).

3/23/2011 10:13:53 PM

hmmm interesting. So I could get the solo for $120ish on amazon, then the in the wall networking thing for $40... this might be a really dumb question, but does the tv (or I guess I should say the cable box) need to be left on so that I can use the slingbox while away?

3/23/2011 10:28:58 PM

no, the slingbox program has a remote control GUI that looks pretty similar to your cable box remote, it has a power button

basically there're 2 small IR things that you will stick on your cable box that are like the IR thing in an actual remote. when you connect to the slingbox the program controls the IR signal that gets read by the cable box


btw a slingbox is finicky as fuck ... sometimes it just wont connect, so beware

3/23/2011 11:08:26 PM

I see... and there arent any gay ass black out shit for sports right because you are literally watching your own signal

3/23/2011 11:12:38 PM

right, only thing is whoever is at home has to be watching whatever that cable box is showing so if they change the channel, it changes the channel on your end too


lol one time i was too lazy to get up and find the remote so i logged into the slingbox and changed the channel from there, i still consider it one of the most lazy things i ever did

3/23/2011 11:16:36 PM

yeah, going to have to get one, the slingbox app on the ipad seems pretty tits

3/23/2011 11:21:47 PM

If you buy a lot of channels, or you're addicted to some sport it's probably worth it. If you already have wifi in your house it may be cheaper to get a wifi bridge than a through the wall kit.

3/23/2011 11:25:03 PM

the major thing with slingboxes is your upload speed needs to be pretty damn decent.

TWC Turbo (the old turbo, not DOCSIS 3 speeds) upload still makes it pretty hard to watch sports (especially hockey)

3/23/2011 11:27:17 PM

Condo has pretty good connection

3/23/2011 11:41:20 PM

I have a slingbox classic I don't need any more. For $80 I'll come over and help set it up.

3/23/2011 11:44:44 PM

slingbox is wonky and worthless

3/23/2011 11:45:44 PM

What's a classic not do that a solo does?

3/23/2011 11:51:32 PM

Lower resolution: 640x240 versus 640x480, as I understand it.

3/24/2011 1:02:57 AM

does anyone use slingbox with directv or have one I can test with? I just got road runner extreme and I want to buy it so I can watch tv abroad. I'm moving out of the US soon and won't have access to NFL broadcasts. I'll be keeping this residence and connection while I'm not here.

4/5/2011 3:46:50 PM

there's no reason for it to not work

an AV output is an AV output

4/5/2011 4:09:40 PM

^yea, you won't be able to use HDMI or other encrypted connection. But if you run it across something analog you should be good to go

4/5/2011 4:39:32 PM

yeah, i was hoping for some better integration than IR blaster over ip and rebroadcasting component. If I can't use hdmi I'm not sure my interest in this :-\

4/5/2011 5:28:00 PM

I have one of the older slingbox's that was the normal ones. Got it on woot for $70 like 3 years ago. Worked pretty good, although the quality sucked because I was using a POS VHS as the source device and upload was capped at 44KB/sec, so streaming sucked.

That being said, I'm pretty sure they had an actual HDMI version of my old model that was one model up beyond mine, then another model that was able to control up to 4 devices at once. I guess they slimmed it down to solo and pro, with pro being able to stream HD. Smoothcrim, the pro-hd should be able to take hdmi with an hdmi to HD component adapter (not exactly sure if it's included, I would think so for $300).

And yes, this should be just fine to rebroadcast while your abroad. One of my old co-workers did that since he lived both in RTP and the UK, he was an MLB fan so he had it setup and worked fine for him. I got it when I lived in Asheboro and didn't have cable TV, but hooked it up at my parents house.

4/5/2011 6:48:02 PM

yeah i forgot about the HDMI thing

my sister's slingbox is the "slingbox AV" type, i had thought that they had a "slingbox hd" type that DOESNT make you have to have the TV turned on for it to work

4/5/2011 8:46:03 PM

i bought one at best buy to test out. gotta say im loving it. the dvr for directv simultaneously outputs hdmi and component making this work very well. going to submit the serial of my old one to get a coupon for the android client.

4/9/2011 1:11:05 AM

Ok, now that football is here, I might get one... but I cant find an answer to a very simple question... do you need a PC at home to make it work or just for setup? As in, I plug in the SOLO, I set up the wireless, I use my PC (laptop) to set it up, etc. Do I then only need the SOLO and wireless connection from then on or do I need a PC constantly connected?

[Edited on September 12, 2011 at 5:35 PM. Reason : f]

9/12/2011 5:18:55 PM

No. You only need a PC for setup. Once it is set up and working, you only need to leave the slingbox on.

I still have a slingbox classic for sale for $60.

9/17/2011 2:57:48 PM

So I know that the Slingbox Solo doesn't stream HD (which I don't really care about) but here's my question:

If I understand it correctly the Slingbox goes in between the source (my TWC DVR) and my TV and just basically passes the signal through. My DVR is currently connected to my TV via HDMI (and I want to keep it that way) but if the Slingbox Solo only has component ins and outs is this going to mean that I'd have to downgrade the connection to component?

Assuming the Slingbox hooks up the way I think it does I only see one way around this and that's if my TWC box can simultaneously output via HDMI and component but I'm pretty sure that's not possible, correct me if I'm wrong.

9/19/2011 6:09:18 PM

http://www.amazon.com/Avertv-Definition-Analog-Capture-MTVHDDVRR/dp/B002SQE1O0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1316487112&sr=8-3

I put this in a PC and use the component output of the directv reciever. Running flash media live encoder you can stream video to a flash media server. wowza is the flash media server. works decent but my PC is so crappy I can only do 480p . you can change channels on a directv reciever remotely with any webpage.

9/19/2011 10:54:04 PM

^^ Most boxes, such as TWC and U-Verse, will output standard definition to the analog jacks simultaneously while outputting high definition to HDMI. They do this so someone somewhere can still use record to their VCR. But it also means any slingbox will work, such as the slingbox classic I have for sale for $60.

9/20/2011 12:59:49 AM

So apparently the Slingbox Pro HD doesn't even have an HDMI In/Out, if you want to use it to stream HD you have to downgrade the connection from your cable box to your TV to component......what kinda crap is that?

9/20/2011 11:56:01 PM

Blame the HDMI people. Slingmedia tried to get permission to use the HDMI standard but was turned down flat, as a slingbox itself is technically a form of piracy.

9/21/2011 3:07:36 PM