Shared Knowledge

"Slingbox Pro SB200-100 With HD Cable - User Review"

11 February 2010

Summary - Works for 3 video inputs but add-on HD cable is one clumsy way to get high definition and then it is only component and not HDMI. Just buy SB300-100.

Have had 2 Slingbox AV (SB240-100) boxes for couple of years and have been happy with them. A Slingbox AV supports one composite or one S video input. They were easy to set up when I bought them and has been very cool watching DVD's streaming off one of my home servers or my local cable box in Europe or else where. Always amazed me that Slingbox never advertises on television.

But times, things, change and with a recent upgrade to high definition (HD) cable and the desire to have home interior video surveillance, needed more Slingbox inputs than my old AV's support and wanted at least one input to support HD. No problem, right? Just buy a Slingbox HD. BUT quickly learned that the current Slingbox HD sells for something like $350 while there is an older Slingbox Pro (SB200-100) that will support HD with an add-on breakout cable. Cost of the older SB200-100? About $170 to include HD cable. Ok, and the differences between the SB200-100 and the SB300-100 are? Nothing other than the SB200-100 requires the special HD component cable and the SB300-100 does not. For a price difference from $130 to $180, I could deal with a breakout cable or so I thought and bought a SB200-100 with HD cable off eBay.

Now to make it clear, my SB200-100 does work. I have component (Red, Green and Blue) from my cable set top box routed to the input side of the HD component cable and then the outputs of the HD cable connected to my audio\video receiver. I also have a S video cable and audio cables routed from my old, non-HD Series II Tivo output directly into the SB200-100 and finally a video camera composite (audio red and white and video (yellow)) routed directly into the SB200-100. On the output side of the SB200-100, Tivo is routed to my audio\video receive.

And it all works BUT the HD cable is totally, physically, mechanically, wrong. I use pro quality component cables. I.E. large, heavy and when installed on the input and output side of the HD cable, they literally pull the cable's HDMI-like connector out of the Slingbox and then try to pull the Slingbox off the stereo cabinet it is sitting on. The only way I could get the HD cable to stay attached to the Slingbox and the Slingbox to stay put on top of my stereo cabinet was to cable strap the HD cable to the back of my cabinet. Not a cool arrangement at all.

So although the SB200-100 works with the HD cable, I am ditching it for a used SB300-100 and direct cable input into the Slingbox.

Oh, and as for set up? The SB200-100 is as easy to configure as my old SB240-100, single input AV units.