Product Slingbox Solo
Website Slingmedia.com
System Requirements PC: Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 1.3 GHz processor, 1 RAM - Vista, 512 RAM - XP, 150 MB HDD space, Graphics card (24-bit colour), Sound card (16-bit), Network connectivity. Mac Requirements: PowerPC G4/G5 800 MHz processor, OS X v.10.3.9, 512 RAM, 150 MB HDD, Network connectivity. Cable or DSL Modem. Connections: high definition (HD) component, S-video or composite video source.
Price £129.99, $179.99

NOW ENTERING its third generation, Sling Media has created a new entry level Slingbox model named Solo. This adds High Definition to all the usual place-shifting aspects from previous lineage.

Launched at the same time as the larger unit the Pro – which has a built in Terrestrial Digital Television receiver – the Solo ships without such luxuries. It takes just a single or Solo digital input, then transmits or place-shifts it over the LAN or WAN to its software video player. The current platforms supported for receiving the data stream are Windows, Macs, Windows Mobile devices and a few Symbian products. All of these clients are free to download, with the mobile software running in at a one-off chargeable fee.

Slingbox Solo

The design of the Solo hasn’t strayed a great deal from Slingboxes of before. There’s now a sleek glossy black finish with greater solid ventilation over its housing. The latter comes in the form of a mesh-frame covering the entire ceiling of the unit. This is necessary as the heat output while dormant was clear and present, and during prolonged activity extremely noticeable inot really a danger.

In terms of the input signals, composite, s-video and HD component are all present and correct for providing the necessary feed. Although advertised as High Definition, component is the only variation offered, and throughout the whole series.

If you look at the higher module it does have an HDMI slot, but the adaptor used only provides connections for HD component. They go some way to explain away that it’s not capable or designed for full HD delivery and receiving within that quality. What it can do is take a high-def input, if available, then use that signal to provide a greater picture quality in comparison to a composite signal.

Slingbox Solo – Rear

Making an appearance for the first time in the entry-level Slingbox are pass-thru sockets for the related input feed. This was only available in the Slingbox Pro which debuted late 2006 and could be a useful addition here. In saying that, this is where our second problem comes within the Solo – lack of cables. To effectively use the pass-thru ability a second missing set of cables is needed, with the appropriate terminator. The only cables supplied are of the regular composite variety, coupled with L & R audio leads and a SCART adaptor/terminator. What’s needed is a similar set of cables exactly mirroring the identical signal inputs. We’ll explain how we came to this later in our test setup.

One of the irks that bothered us is the sole delivery method for content. Just as in previous units the only option is a 10/100 Ethernet port, with no Wi-Fi availability built-in. It’s starting to get on our nerves that companies (including the Vole, with the Xbox 360) believe that Ethernet is more prevalent around the home than wireless. Sling Media does offer a HomePlug 1.1 variant as a consolation, but we chose to go with NETGEAR Powerline XE103 and XE104 as we had access to them.

There's currently a non-functioning USB port to the rear, slated as “reserved for future use”. Possible thoughts floating around the Slingbox community and forum posts relate to an external storage use. Sadly, no time scales have been provided for the inclusion/activation of this feature. After we set-up the Solo for the very first time a whole bunch of firmware updates were automatically pulled down, so we’re expecting to see the port activated sooner rather than later judging by the amount of updates we saw.

Slingbox Solo – multitude of updates

In our test set-up we used the Virgin Media V+ digital cable box, based on the Scientific Atlantic Explorer 8300DVB. Here we hit our third troubling issue, which related back to the second – we’ll come to all that later. We used the composite cables to SCART adaptor/terminator to provide the signal feed for the Solo. On the standard Virgin Media V+ box, we took the feed from the secondary SCART socket as that seemed obvious.

The physical set-up on the box is fairly straightforward; the input feed is inputted the antenna-type IR blaster is fitted for providing/mimicing the remote control – the Ethernet is then connected for delivery. Apart from ensuring it’s powered on, that’s all that needs to be ever done at the box end – everything else is software driven.

At the PC end we downloaded the Windows client and Windows SmartPhone client, for use on the HTC Touch on a 30-day trial. The PC client installed well and then moved on to the set-up of the Solo – from here, input signal is chosen and then the remote control for the device. Our device wasn’t exactly listed as it’s recently undergone a rebranding, but the same device was there under a previous name. There’s a list of over 5,000 devices which we put to the test with some random hardware, a DVD by Panasonic and a Media Player by Iomega – all of which worked well.

Slingbox Solo – Inputs

It’s here we hit the third problem mentioned earlier, which relates to the second. We couldn’t control the Virgin Media V+ completely via the software remote control, even though it appeared to be working well. After some thorough investigation it came to light the secondary SCART doesn’t show everything displayed, it’s just used for an output recording and therefore suppresses any OSD (On Screen Display) messages.

Sling Media had no info on this, only a community forum site had a solution buried away in its depths. As there is really only Virgin Media on digital cable in the UK we would have thought a note would have been attached or a solution provided in a more obvious way. The more obvious way, would be to take the primary SCART signal and then pass-thru back to the television. This is where we hit the second problem again, lack of cables. What’s needed for full use of the Slingbox Solo and the Virgin Media V+ is the same cables, all over again. We’ve been informed at the time of going to press that the SKY equivalent to the Virgin box doesn’t have the same problem with the primary and secondary SCART.

Over the wired LAN we saw peaks over 3450 Kbps throughput from the Solo, an average of 2500, with 650 at the lowest. The SlingPlayer software can be fine tuned for various types of motion coming from the Solo if needed; with Low, Medium and High being available. The highest of them really being used for Sports, High Octane movies and similar fast screen changes. A full range of screen sizes are possible, depending on the signal – from 4:3 to 16:9 and now with full VGA (640x480) being the base. You can see from the screen shot below we received 3150 Kbps on the high setting, even though with this latest range 8Mbps transmitting is possible – we never saw that or really needed to with the composite input. The image we found was clear, fairly flicker free and very watchable over the proprietary Slingstream automatically-adjusting video quality technology.

Slingbox Solo screen shot

To receive a signal outside the home, some minor router configuration is needed enabling port 5001 to be aimed at the Solo IP which defaults to 192.168.0.237. We tried the Sling Player software from the labs at the office and received close to the max upstream of our home pipe, all with good results. The Windows Mobile version of the Sling Player worked well too on our HTC Touch. We did find it to be a little jerky on a 2.5G connection, but bearable to watch once adjusted properly.

We would have hoped to have seen recording possible by now from the Slingbox, it’s a shame it’s not here. In saying that, it’s just been confirmed that this is on the cards in their roadmap.

Just for kicks, we added an Iomega Screen Play Pro full of pictures connected to the s-video port whilst the Virgin Media V+ was still connected up. We wanted to see if a second PC/Mobile device could be used to see the Solo s-video port whilst another was configured elsewhere. All this was to see if it could be more useful than just a singularly focused product. Unfortunately it couldn’t, one use and one use only – also, the pictures were received over the LAN at the same Kbps as the video oddly enough.

We were informed in our press briefing on the Solo that it’s set to replace is their very first device – The Classic, which actually had a terrestrial television receiver built-in. We’re under the impression that it’s more likely to be the successor of their Slingbox AV – as seen in the images below. Who are we to disagree with the company that created and manufactured them anyway.

Slingbox Classic

Slingbox AV

Hardcore users of the Slingbox products refer to themselves as “Slingers”. It’s a phrase we’re not entirely comfortable with so we haven’t used it here, seeing as it sounds like a fetish that has gone unchecked by the authorities so far.

In Short
Despite its few kinks, the Solo is good, solid and affordable enough to extend the usefulness of your existing digital terrestrial, cable, satellite or miscellaneous media. This is either in the home or outside – especially seeing as the average person commutes more hours a week than is fair, you can use them to view on the move. Just don’t buy it expecting to see HD content on the PC, just as you would on an HD screen attached directly to the main device whence the signal flows.

The Good
Streams existing media elsewhere, HD input

The Bad
Not true HD, Mobile software only a trial, possibly the price

The Ugly
Lack of necessary cables

Bartender's Verdict