Slingbox vs. Roku - I’ve got a Roku, but as we’ve sold Slingboxes before too, I’d love to hear more about them.
Roku and Sling aren’t really in competition with one another, and the offerings here are sort of “opposite” in their intended use. The Rokus are set-top boxes that stream content to your television, and the Slingbox enables remote viewing of your TV (or DVR or whatever) signal over your home network or over the Internet. So, it’s more a matter of what you need than a matter of which is better.
I bought a refurb’d Slingbox (Classic) from Woot over 5 years ago, and I never had a problem. It served me well through a few years of college after I bought it, streaming my dorm cable to me out on campus, or wherever I happened to be.
I’m trying to decide what I should do with it now, since I moved recently and now have digital cable service tuned by an HTPC (and an HDHomerun Prime- thanks woot!). The “Classic” model Slingbox isn’t very well-equipped for this, so I’m thinking about upgrading to the Pro and connecting it to my HTPC.
I own the Roku XD 1080p, and have had since Nov '11, I got on a deal on woot, and LOVE this lil guy. Every once in a blue moon while streaming something, the box will freeze and reboot, but that is few and far in between. I highly suggest this for internet streaming media. We haven’t ‘cut the cord’ to cable yet, but this certainly helps the reasons to.
I heard that SlingMedia charges $30 for customer support after initial 90 days. So to RMA bad item, you have to pay $30 to get the RMA number. But then again, previous reviewer had it for 5 years without any problem…
I’m concern about refurbished product not working after 90 days…
Any one purchased refurbished Sling pro and share their experience?
Damn you, Woot…I had the pages open for the 256GB SSD and this thing, and both sold out literally a few MINUTES before I clicked “I want one!”.
D:
Purchased a Roku 2050X during one of the (too) MANY Roku (Amazon) Woot sales before Mother’s day. It arrived on time to gift to my Mother, but was DOA. $12 of shipping later to Roku and I still have yet to receive the replacement Roku as of today, 8/7/2012.
Contacted Roku and they said they never received my shipment, checked the tracking number and confirmed that they did. I was forwarded to another department and told they would contact me again in a few days. Currently waiting for them to call me back.
The point is, beware when buying refurbished, you may waste a lot of money and time if you’re not lucky.
I wish it were 8 billion and I could have picked up a Roku HD-XR!! 
The best bang for the Buck model here is the HD-XR (new of refurb). That was quick. Wow. They still sold a new unit(!). How many units were available before it sold out…1?
I got a higher priced refurb unit back in 6/26 (as backup for my XDS now in use) at $55 shipped. No regrets though. I love these Rokus. Ditto for the Android remote app.
I haven’t seen an XDS here for a long time…must be sold out, forever.
Wow, the Rokus sold out fast this time. I snagged an HD-XR last Friday. Should be here any day now.
[QUOTE=vwoom, post:9, topic:361922]
The best bang for the Buck model here is the HD-XR
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Agreed - has ALL the different outputs, no special cables/adaptors needed. Not to mention USB as well as ethernet and b/g/n.
There was apparently only one new one. The refurbs were $50 last friday, but only $45 today. I feel like I overpaid, but OTOH I’ll get mine before everybody who wooted one today.
I bought a Roku from Amazon and it is junk. Drops connection all the time. Customer service is nil…Better to watch Netflix etc on Playstation 3 or on a smart TV.
Hi there!
Manufacturers will sometimes sell us an assortment of product that may include very limited stock of a few items. In other cases, we may have a few remaining items from previous sales.
While the quantity is limited, we do still want to pass these deals on to our customers. Plus deals will often have limited quantities so it’s important to watch for them closely.
i have a 1080 roku HD and have consequently “cut the cable” without any regrets. they offer lots of free content and games, and it’s better than the ps3, in my humble opinion.
however, please keep in mind that you probably should have a 802.11n wireless router that can handle HD streaming content, and ideally route signals to channels dedicated to receiving equipment (ps3, roku, laptop, etc.) i’ve found that people complaining about the roku should actually be blaming their sub-par routers.
Why would you send an email that wants to sell you something and show 4-5 items sold out and only one item that is 2-3 time as expensive the only item for sale? I don’t know why you do this but it is frustrating. If it is sold out why put it on the page?
[QUOTE=Michaelingleo, post:15, topic:361922]
Why would you send an email that wants to sell you something and show 4-5 items sold out and only one item that is 2-3 time as expensive the only item for sale? I don’t know why you do this but it is frustrating. If it is sold out why put it on the page?
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Addressed the limited quantity issue above, but it’s likely by the time you got here people jumped on those and they got sold out - hope that helps a little bit.
[QUOTE=jimh1943, post:12, topic:361922]
I bought a Roku from Amazon and it is junk. Drops connection all the time. Customer service is nil…Better to watch Netflix etc on Playstation 3 or on a smart TV.
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If you have these discontinued albeit better featured Roku Series 1 (versus the stripped down/cheapened current model Roku Series 2) with the ethernet connection, then you’ll have no dropped connection issues at all. To me, nothing still beats good old hard wired ethernet. No connection hassles ever, no wasted wayward signals and no hard resets…and yes I still have Wifi at my disposal (for “the rest”).
I employ a set of Zyxel PLA-407 Powerline Adapters from Woot “mothership” Amazon.com as direct ethernet connection to my XDS. Even though I have a somewhat mediocre to most 3.0Mbps DSL, I get full “4 dots” (i.e. Netflix) signal every time and picture is the sharpest for my old school WS/Progressive scan built in EDTV Samsung Tantus running on Y/Pb/Pr component connection.
I’ve got a WD TV Live. With the custom WD TV Live Plus firmware, it’s seriously everything I could possibly need in a media player. It has no problem streaming 1080p, 3D Blu-ray movies over my network. I’m surprised I don’t see this on here!
I’ve got a roku on every tv at this point (4 of them), between netflix and playon media streaming we were able to completely cut the cord. Even got one for my mother.
Woot, how about something useful, my kids are hell on remotes, get roku to send you over a few boxes of the old first gen remotes for cheap and i’d be all over it.
[QUOTE=syninthecity, post:19, topic:361922]
I’ve got a roku on every tv at this point (4 of them), between netflix and playon media streaming we were able to completely cut the cord. Even got one for my mother.
Woot, how about something useful, my kids are hell on remotes, get roku to send you over a few boxes of the old first gen remotes for cheap and i’d be all over it.
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If you have an Android phone, then you can use the Roku app on your phone as your remote.
Or are you one of those weird people that doesn’t buy your kids a smartphone on their 3rd birthday?