The announcement of the Belkin @TV took me a little by surprise earlier this year after all, this is a market dominated by Sling Media and (with a much smaller amount), Monsoon with their Vulkano Lineup.Packaging:
The box itself is quite attractive much smaller than the flat and long Vulkano, and more square than the Sling. It sits nicely on top of my Tivo Premier Elite. In the box is the unit itself, power, ethernet, IR blaster and video cables.
Winners:There is no clear winner here between Vulkano, Sling or @TV they all come with what you need.
Inputs/outputs:
Immediately, you notice a problem as the @TV only connects to Component or composite. You'd better have those, or you'll be out of luck. Disappointingly, the unit lacks HDMI in OR out.
Winners: The Vulkano Lava and Blast win here as they have HDMI out. You can go Component IN and HDMI out. Only the Slingbox Pro has HDMI, but only with an expensive add-on. That said, if you have a decent cable box or TiVo, you'll be able to do HDMI out to your TV and Component out at the same time.
Installation:
The @TV lacks included software, and the download is a whopping 250MB. This is also where you learn a dirty little secret the @TV is actually just a rebranded Monsoon Vulkano device, in a smaller box. You learn this by peeking inside the software (or if you have ever used one, you'll see that it is nearly identical).
I had the @TV up and running in about 5 minutes the procedure was less choppy than with Sling. You do need to assign the unit a name, but thankfully they use a new naming system, so previously used Vulkano names are available to pick.
Winners: Large download with @TV, CD is included with Sling, but I ran into no issues, so @TV is definitely a breeze to setup.
Software (Desktop):
The @TV software has it all decent EPG, well laid out remote (at least with my TiVo) and quick startup. From launch till menu is about 5 seconds, and another 6 to start streaming. Double click launches full screen, EPG is well designed and switches to a side bar showing the channel preview. The @TV does do something Sling can't multiple LOCAL clients can connect at the same time.
Winner: No clear winner Sling, Vulkano and @TV all have a similar layout.
Software (Mobile):
This is an odd one. The @TV software is free for tablets, but costs $9.99 for phones. At least, that is what they tell you. I found the @TV player for FREE in the Amazon app store. Sling has always been a real pain with mobile apps $29.99 EACH for tablet or phone. If you have an iPod touch, iPad and Android, this could cost you $90. They did recently lower prices by $10, but that is still too much.
The software I tested was on my tablet(s) (Nexus 7 and Transformer Infinity) and on my phone (Galaxy SIII). It works perfectly. On 3G, streams start in about 15 seconds. On Wi-Fi, it takes about 10 seconds.
Winner: Definitely the @TV thanks to its 100% free apps.
Picture/streaming quality:
Side by side, a Vulkano Deluxe Pro, @TV and Slingbox Solo shows slightly better picture quality from the @TV. My Vulkano Deluxe is a few years old, and Sling hasn't updated the Solo in over 5 years. There is less aliasing and artifacting on the @TV.
All units stream at 720 locally, and lower for remote viewing outside the home.
Winner: by a slim marging, the @TV, followed by the Vulkano, then the Slingbox
Bonus features:
The @TV does local placeshifting, which means you can pause live TV which is buffered on your desktop PC. You can then browse back and forth through your recording. Unlike with the Vulkano Deluxe Pro, you can't schedule recordings with the @TV. You CAN record live to a mobile device, but the process is a bit clumsy and could interfere with your home DVR.
Winner: Vulkano Deluxe Pro
Prices:
The Slingbox Solo is usually just $129, but Sling has some major quality issues. Recent reviews of the unit have been very poor, and there are a lot of refurb units being sold by companies like Woot. At $179, the @TV is a little cheaper than the top of the line Vulkano, but more than the lowest end Vulkano which does a lot of the same things.
Bottom line:
You simply cant' go wrong with the @TV. Build quality is good, the software is very mature (Vulkano had three years to perfect it) and picture quality is the best of any placeshifter I have tested here. I find the price a little too high and would have been happier to see it at $149, but I feel the quality and free mobile apps make up for that.
Even if I had to repurchase all three of my devices, I'd pick the @TV over the other options. Belkin did a good thing by picking Monsoon, and I hope their partnership helps boost Monsoon into the popularity they deserve. Sling has mostly abandoned the market, so there is a definite place for a new winner.
I was eventually connected to my savior, Ron, in the Philippines. Thank you, Ron! He was incredibly patient, and stayed with me for nearly 2 (yes, 2!) hours while we tried a multitude of different combinations with the wires. We eventually diagnosed a faulty A/V wire. Luckily, my husband has lots of old wires in the drawers under the TV and I had a replacement. We plugged it in and it worked! I followed the rest of the online set up from my PC. I downloaded the free iPad App from iTunes, and I am now watching the Olympics wirelessly on my iPad in my bedroom. The features seem pretty cool. Anything I can do on the remote, I can now do on my iPad. It's a little slow changing channels and getting the program guide, but that is probably a factor of my crummy internet connection.
I was surprised that the iPhone app cost $12.99. I doubt I will watch TV on my phone so I am not downloading it yet. The TV on my iPad is not crystal clear, but again, that is probably my poor internet connection. I would certainly give Ron 5 stars, and the product truly does what it is supposed to do, but the faulty A/V wire, unclear set up diagram and the less than perfect picture will bring my review down to 4 stars. I will update my review when I take this baby on the road.
Buy Belkin @TV Plus - Mobile Television Anywhere Now
UPDATE 10/5/12: In Mexico for work and everything is working great! So happy to have my Directv channels in my hotel room. Using my laptop wired to internet and hdmi to the tv. Picture looks great can't complain and no choppy lag whatsoever. Settings gives you options to maximize picture based on connection speed. Love it!I just received this to set up with my directv receiver, hoping to get to watch all my fall shows and football games while working out of country.
SET UP:
Set up was a breeze (I am typically good with electronics) and I have never used any equipment similar to this or slingbox etc. Just connect the cables from the @TV to your receiver as shown in the diagram, then the IR blasters sit in front of the receiver where the remote sensor is. This @TV is capable of working on wifi, but my router is near my receiver so I went with the wire connection with supplied Ethernet cable. I then downloaded the software program to my laptop. Install and open the program, to initially set up the equipment you must run through some prompts.
FIRMWARE UPDATE: When running the initial set up it told me a firmware update was found. But you have to have your laptop/PC connected to the same home network and WIRED. My laptop was on wireless and it kept failing, until I switched to wired to the router. Then all went smooth and completed initial set up.
USE ON LAPTOP:
I got on my wifi network at home to try it out. Streaming was super easy, there is a full size image of the directv remote on screen that I can interact with. There is a small lag delay when pressing buttons, but I can get over that. Make sure to set your receiver settings to auto detect the channel's resolution. If the channel is SD you will see a 480i output, and when a channel is HD your receiver should always adjust to 720p or 1080i. The @TV program easily reflected this also. It was a notceable difference in an SD and HD source, and the window size adjusts wider for HD channels. Now, on your PC you will NOT see true HD as clean as you would on your actual TV. You are at the mercy of the component cables and your connection. But it does look very clean! I am impressed!
USE ON IPAD:
Using wifi at home. The app is free as stated, then you just log in. Works the same as the PC program, but you won't see a full size remote. However the interactive remote it shows is easy to use and navigate to do all the functions you would on PC. I think quality looked even better on the ipad because of the smaller screen size. HD shows looked awesome.
Notes: Your TV at home does not need to be on when using streaming remotely. But the receiver will power on whenever you are watching remotely. That makes sense, but I didn't realize it had to be on at first and couldn't get a picture. So I brought up the interactive remote on my laptop screen and hit the power button and there was the picture. I even had a friend across state dl the program and log in and he said it worked great.
WHAT I LIKE:
-Ease of use
-Interactive controls are just like being home using the remote.
-Clean set up.
-Nice picture
-I can access my DVR list of shows.
-I can record shows to my PC or iPad.
WHAT I DON'T LIKE:
-short lag when pressing remote buttons on the software, but it isn't horrible.
-not much else yet.
Will see how it looks and operates with a worse connection when I am out of country. Right now I am just on wifi at home and it is a pretty fast connection. Will report back later once I test our of country. But so far I am very pleased! I did lots of research and this exceeded my expectations. I highly recommend.
Read Best Reviews of Belkin @TV Plus - Mobile Television Anywhere Here
This device works well over wireless networks. I couldn't get it working over the 4G network. I kept getting an error message saying that the Belkin @TV device was not communicatingPort 49177 error. I called Belkin for support. They bounced me around after a few calls. Finally got a call from a higher level tech support person 2 weeks later. They could not solve the problem and told me to contact AT&T support. AT&T high level support charges $49 to get this working. So just be aware that you may be adding another $50 to the purchase price because Belkin support wasn't motivated enough to walk through the issue from start to finish.Want Belkin @TV Plus - Mobile Television Anywhere Discount?
The Belkin "@TV Plus Mobile Television Anywhere" allows remote viewing of a video source (typically a cable box) and it works amazingly well! We are away from home quite a bit and often miss our "regular" shows if we forget to set our DVR, but that is now less of an issue since this device allows us to watch on the android Belkin @TV for Android Free app or on my PC by downloading the "@TV Player" program from the Belkin web site (the URL is in the "Quick Install Guide"). Here are my observations:What's Included -
@TV Unit; main device
Power Adapter; typical "wall wart" design
Component Cable
Composite Cable
IR Blaster Cable; connects to the @TV Unit and sends remote signal to the cable box
Ethernet Cable
Quick Install Guide
Pros -
+ Easy Physical Setup; this took me less than 10 minutes to get in place
+ Easy Software Installation; downloading the required PC software (I'm using a Windows 7 laptop) from the Belkin website was straight forward and it installed smoothly, even detecting and updating the device firmware with minimal effort
+ Easy PC Software Setup; the setup wizard detected the @TV device, select an account name/password, and then started a walk-through to identify my cable box (Comcast), my region and location, and presented a virtual version of the remote control that, using the IR Blaster Cable, lets me access all of the functions remotely
+ PC Viewing; has an intuitive interface and works very well, I like that the virtual remote can be kept on screen and used to access all of the function on my cable box (see my screenshot in "Customer Images"), including my device DVR (handy for starting recordings at home)
+ Android Viewing; using the free app, this installed cleanly on my Kindle Fire and HTC EVO 4G and provides similar controls as the PC software
+ Multiple Clients; we were able to connect two remote android devices at the same time (need to set the device output from "Default" to "Medium" or "High")
+ Supports Wired Ethernet and Wireless Networking; this is very convenient since my router is not physically near my entertainment center, but you do need to connect the @TV device to the wired Ethernet and run the PC setup before the wireless can be configured
Cons -
No HDMI Support; only allows Composite or Component video in and out, this was not a big issue for us since my cable box keeps both the HDMI and Component video sources active
iPod/iPhone App; while there are free versions of the @TV app for Android devices/smartphones and for the iPad, the iPod/iPhone app is not free (at least I couldn't find one in iTunes, please leave me comment if you find one)
Misc -
* There is roughly a 5-second delay between the "live" TV image and what is shown on the remote PC/Android, which is just an observation and not an issue (unless you are watching the New Years Eve Countdown :)
* Configuring for remote viewing over the Internet required me to open ports on my home router (likely because it is older and didn't respond to the UPnP setup), but the Belkin PC software provided the necessary steps for me to manually enter the "Port Forwarding"
I am very pleased with the ease of use, functionality, and picture quality using the @TV Plus device! It should be noted that my wife commented that the installation and testing went so smoothly that she noticed I wasn't muttering under my breath and didn't need to call tech support a dozen times.
Highly Recommended!
CFH
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