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Quick Review

What is it?

• Slingbox Pro-HD place shifts your television content to where ever you have an Internet connection.

What’s Cool:

• Easy setup if you have the right connections available.
• Stylish device.
• Does what it says it does.

What’s Not:

• HD streaming does not support Mac yet.

The Crux:

• This is a terrific device that works.  The Slingbox Pro-HD may be a little intense for certain people.  Streaming your television around your network or through the Internet is easy thanks to the Slingbox Pro-HD.

Out of the box

Opening up the package, there are several compartments to be opened.  The compartments have small pictures of what is inside of them.  The Pro-HD comes with all the cables you will need to get started. 

Setup

This Slingbox has one standard definition A/V in which works with RCA cables or you can swap out that old yellow cable with S-Video.  You can connect HD sources via component cable.  The Slingbox also acts as a pass through device as the device has outputs for Coax, HD video, and SD video. 

For my tests, the Slingbox Pro-HD was hooked up to a TiVo Series 3 DVR via component cable.  The device was hard wired to my home network.  It was not difficult to hook up, but if your house does not have a network connection near your home entertainment center, you may have to pick up an adapter for network access. 

Since the box is a strange shape, it is probably best if you place the device on the top of all your components or by itself. 

Installing the software is simple. Just make sure your computer is up to snuff.  Check out the requirements below: 

Minimum PC Requirements:
For Standard Definition

• Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows XP SP2
• 1.3 GHz processor
• 1 GB RAM
• 150 MB available disk space for installation, 2 GB for live video buffer
• 24-bit graphics
• 16-bit sound
• Network connectivity

For High Definition
Same as Standard Definition plus:

• 3 GHz processor or 2 GHz dual-core processor
• Display resolution 1280 x 768

Minimum Mac Requirements:
For Standard Definition

• PowerPC G4/G5 800 MHz or Intel processor
• Mac OS X v.10.4 (or higher recommended)
• 1 GB RAM
• 150 MB available disk space for installation
• Network connectivity

For High Definition

• Streaming in HD-resolutions is only available for Windows

Performance

Mac performance was quite good.  While the quality was not in HD, the video was incredibly sharp within the home network.  I have yet to test the Slingbox outside the network.  Wired computers obviously had better video quality than wireless computers in my tests.

The Windows version of the Slingbox Desktop software required the .NET framework to be installed, which is free and is a helpful framework to have since so many other programs take advantage of it.  The HD video via the wired network was great.  The stream I obtained on my network was about 3-6Mbps providing very clear HD video.  To give you an idea of scale, Blu-ray movies are somewhere in the neighborhood of 36 to 48 Mbps.  HD television at its best is 19.3 Mbps. 

I have used the original Slingbox, and the quality of the Pro-HD is an incredible improvement.  Once you get the device set up, you really don’t have to think about it much.  There are occasional firmware upgrades that are easily applied over the network.  Otherwise, it’s just fire up your software and watch your TV anywhere.

Wrap up

The Slingbox Pro-HD is a great device.  The downsides are you cannot watch 1080P content, nor can you use HDMI for your HD components.  However, 720P HD using the component cables gets around any weird HDCP issues and video quality is excellent as long as you have a fast enough network and computer. 

I would love for Slingmedia to partner up with someone like Onkyo to build an A/V receiver with Slingbox hardware built in.  Until that happens, the Slingbox Pro-HD is a simple to use component that is a welcome addition to any tech enthusiast’s home theater system. 

Product Page: [Slingbox Pro-HD]