Sling Box Pro & Series 3

I don't know much about slingbox but I do know that HDMI and Component are being output at the same time on the S3.

 

It does output to both, but you may have issues watching the slingbox when the TV is off. All channels not marked "copy freely" may fail to display. I got around this by routing one of my slingbox's IR outputs to the TV and programming the TV on/off to it. So I just turn my TV on whenever I want to watch the slingbox. It's not ideal.

 

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It depends on how your cable provider codes it. It will most likely include all premium channels, probably all non-local HD channels, and possibly local HD channels.

 

I'm using a SlingBox Pro with my S3. I watch from work all the time, though mainly (almost exclusively) to watch recorded content.

I just tuned in a couple of my HD channels, they work fine. I do not get any premium channels so I can't check those.

Also I'm only using the S-Video for the connection. I returned the HD connector as I found it to be a waste of money. I couldn't see the difference between the 2 when watching locally.

 

My cable co (TWC NYC) marks pretty much every non-HD channel as copy once, so it won't work on the slingbox with the TV off using HDMI. All of my HD channels work fine, including HBO.

 

You could always try hooking up the S3 to your TV using component and the HD Connect device. Depending on your TV, you will probably not notice any difference in picture quality.

 

I guess you want to use the component input since you bought it, but there's a fair amount of debate on slingcommunity as to what difference it makes on a tivo s3, since the tivo downconverts HD output digitally to 480i internally. The s-video input on the slingbox works great with the S3.

 

You want to expand on that? Do you mean it downconverts to 480i for component output? all the time? only for copyrighted material? only when HDMI is in use? I suspect you're overgeneralizing but I know I get 720p and 1080i from the HDMI output all the time.

 

Slingbox doesn't actually support HD in any form. Using the component plug it downcoverts to 480i and then sends that. The main advantage of the component input on the slingbox pro is that it supports anamorphic video, so no space is wasted on black lines, but the tivo does output downconverted SD anamorphically if you set your TV to 16:9, so there's no advantage there either. Basically the question is which device handles downconversion better; the tivo or the slingbox. I'm going with the tivo.

The component cables are really good if your cable box doesn't output simultaneously to all outputs, or doesn't anamorphically encode the SD outputs, or does a crappy job downconverting HD to SD. None of that applies to the S3. But since you have the component cables, you might as well use them.

 

I've been researching this and pretty much came to the same conclusion. I purchased the Slingbox AV for $125 from Amazon since HD was not an issue. After the fact, I came across Hava at www.snappymultimedia.com and for $125 it has inputs for component cables. They make it sound like theirs is true HD delivered to all stations. But, digging through their own forums, you come to realize it is really only SD as well.