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 Slingbox AV Hands-OnTest driving Sling Media's much improved TV streaming device. Price: $179
By Mark Spoonauer 
The company that gave us the coolest innovation in TV since TiVo is at it again, today launching three new Slingbox devices that promise a 300 percent video quality improvement along with a much easier setup. If you like the idea of watching your favorite shows on your laptop or smart phone, and don't want to pay a monthly fee to do it, check out our impressions of this slick gadget.
The Slingbox concept remains brilliant: Watch whatever's on live at home (or recorded on a DVR) right on your PC or smart phone. As long as you have a broadband Internet connection, whether it's Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or 3G cellular, you're good to go. You can watch CNN in the office while you check e-mail, enjoy the big football game while killing time at the airport, or catch up on your Colbert Report TiVo recordings during your daily commute. The Slingbox Tuner ($179) is designed for people who want to simply rebroadcast their analog cable signal. The Slingbox AV ($179) steps it up by including inputs for digital cable and satellite receivers, as well as DVRs like the TiVo. And the Slingbox Pro ($249) offers component connections for those who own HD set-top boxes for the ultimate in performance. We checked out the AV model using a Dell XPS M1210 laptop and a Motorola Q phone. To ensure its customers have a good experience-and all but eliminate product returns--Sling Media has also revamped its customer care, enabling live chats with Sling Media tech support reps during installation as well as the ability to allow that rep to take control of your PC for true real-time assistance. The good news is that you probably won't need any of this extra help. Being thoroughly familiar with the original Slingbox setup, we immediately appreciated how well the company streamlined the whole process. (The Slingbox itself has been streamlined too, with a smaller and sleeker design.) After following the easy setup guide and connecting the AV cables, the IR blaster cables, network cable (which plugs into your router), and AC adapter, we downloaded the installation software. Within about ten minutes we were almost finished. Then the SlingPlayer software failed to automatically configure our Belkin router for remote reviewing. However, once we selected our router from a list, the rest of the process was a cakewalk. This is a vast improvement over the original Slingbox, where some users were forced to dig into their router's settings and make several tweaks in order to get up and running. What about that 300 percent video quality improvement claim? We wouldn't say it's that high, but we enjoyed a much more vibrant picture and smoother action when watching Inside the NFL on our Dell laptop using a Wi-Fi connection. Even more impressive is how much better the viewing experience has become on smart phones. When watching Family Guy on our Motorola Q, we noticed much fewer artifacts. Also, the Slingbox was better able to keep up with our remote control clicks, whether we were changing the channel or fast-forwarding through commercial breaks on TiVo recordings. Since Sling Media has been generous enough to offer many of these enhancements to existing Slinbox owners via software upgrades, we don't think the Slingbox AV is worth upgrading to for that crowd. However, for those who haven't yet jumped on the place-shifting bandwagon, this device is well worth the investment. We'll report back soon with our impressions of the HD-friendly Pro edition. Featured Site Sponsors
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