I should start this out by saying I don’t have HD TV so if the reader is looking for insight into which product handles that better, I don’t know. What I CAN say is that I tried both the Slingbox AV and the Pinnacle PCTV Wireless HD in the exact same environment and for my purpose (which is mostly remote TV viewing) the Slingbox won. It was barely a contest.
I mostly live in Manhattan but if you follow my blog you know I spend about half my time at my place in Barcelona. When I’m in Barcelona I’ve often missed out on some great American TV moments (Superbowls, March Madness, World Series, election day news coverage, good History Channel specials, uhh Southpark) and it really sucked. So I decided to seek a solution and the other day I walked into BestBuy and spent some time talking to the Geek Squad guys to figure out which was the best product. I eventually decided on Pinnacle’s PCTV Wireless HD, paid (which Best Buy requires) and eagerly went home to set it up.
The set-up was easy. I hooked it up, installed the software, configured the device and in no time I was watching real time TV on my computer over my home network. It was beautiful. It synced right up to my cable box and my remote control was perfectly displayed on my screen.
The problem came when I tested the remote viewing. As long as the broadband connection was at 500kbps or greater there were no problems. The picture quality was pretty good. I couldn’t get the device to record the stream while remote viewing. I’m not sure if there’s a way to make that work or not but I would guess not. I didn’t spend too much time fooling around with it because I knew that my broadband connection in Barcelona is only about 300kbps.
One of my New York neighbors (not sure which one) has a wireless router they’ve neglected to encrypt but I figured out a long time ago not to use it because its only got a downstream bandwidth of about 200kbps. When I tried the Pinnacle product on that network there was NO WAY to get it to connect reliably. I could finally get it to connect about once every 30 attempts or so but the stream would always get interrupted and fail and then I’d have to start attempting to connect again. It was a major pain in the ass and I could just see myself in Barcelona getting really frustrated 20 minutes into a program I really wanted to see and not being able to establish a connection.
The next morning I went back to Best Buy and bought the Slingbox AV. It also had a very easy set up process. The main difference between the two products I experienced was that the Slingbox actually worked!! It worked on high bandwidth remote connections and it worked on really crappy connections. I’m in Barcelona now and it’s working just fine.
The only inconvenience is that Slingbox didn’t have my exact model of cable box on their menu so my remote isn’t perfectly synced up but it still works fine.
Other differences I noticed but didn’t really care about in this instance:
The PCTV product was wireless so you didn’t have to plug it into a TV cable box that sits in close proximity to my Internet router. I think you can buy an additional component to the Slingbox to make it wireless. The PCTV product pushes HD signals (maybe that’s why it requires more bandwidth even when the signal isn’t HD). If you want Slingbox to push an HD signal you need the superior product Slingbox Pro and then you have to buy an additional component for another $50. All tolled expect to pay around $300. The PCTV product cost me about $250.
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Mike: I appreciate your personal experience with both products. I am currently living in northern Japan and suffer the same problem starving of American TV. I have been tossing around the prospect of purchasing a PCTV product over the Slingbox. This article helped me make the choise, my friend. Thanks a ton!
Tony