Slingbox vs Vulkano (I have both)

[jmorton10]

For anyone who is interested, I have both a Slingbox Pro & a Hava/Monsoon/Vulkano Pro.

Both of these devices have Android players available to stream live TV to your phone although the Vulkano app is a free DL & the Sling app is $30 (it should be free)

These two devices are completely different & each has distinct advantages over the other. The Vulkano records to a 1 TB hard drive so it works as a DVR but only at 720p resolution & if you want to watch it on your phone you need to record at an even lower resolution.

The Slingbox has two tuners in it, which is really handy as I can hook my High Def cable box to one tuner & basic cable to the other. I can then watch a different channel on the phone than the home TV is set on. The Slingbox will work fine with no TV connection at all, which is a HUGE advantage over the Vulkano which has no internal tuner at all.

The Vulcano HAS to be hooked to a TV & then it only provides a 720p signal to the TV which is a noticeable downgrade in picture quality on my 50" LCD TV. It does provide really good quality streaming video quality however, better than the Slingbox on the phone.

So basically, the Vulkano gives a better image on your phone, but degrades the image on the TV it's hooked to. The Slingbox doesn't need a TV connection at all, but doesn't record & charges for the software app.

~John

 

[jmorton10]

Forgot to add a rather important part. My Slingbox worked fine with a Cisco/Linksys WRT160N router, but I spent over two hours trying to get the Vulkano to work with it & finally gave up (& I'm an IT guy, I do this sh!t every day).

Despite manually reserving/setting a static IP address & setting up port forwarding (the Vulkano setup is supposed to do this for you, but it didn't work) it still gave me a network error on port 49177.

I saw on a BBS that Linksys routers do not work well with the Vulkano, so I picked up a Netgear 600 Gigabit router & I had that set up & working in 10 minutes.

~John

 

[Technoman]

Forgot to add a rather important part. My Slingbox worked fine with a Cisco/Linksys WRT160N router, but I spent over two hours trying to get the Vulkano to work with it & finally gave up (& I'm an IT guy, I do this sh!t every day).

Despite manually reserving/setting a static IP address & setting up port forwarding (the Vulkano setup is supposed to do this for you, but it didn't work) it still gave me a network error on port 49177.

I saw on a BBS that Linksys routers do not work well with the Vulkano, so I picked up a Netgear 600 Gigabit router & I had that set up & working in 10 minutes.

~John

What settings did you use for the Vulkano? I have a Monsoon HAVA (older Vulkano) and can't seem to get my settings right to get my stream outside my house. Works great on my internal network, and the stream to my phone is great also.

 

[jmorton10]

What settings did you use for the Vulkano? I have a Monsoon HAVA (older Vulkano) and can't seem to get my settings right to get my stream outside my house. Works great on my internal network, and the stream to my phone is great also.

To get it to work outside your LAN, you need to forward port 49177 on TCP & port 56123 on TCP/UDP to your HAVA IP address.

Like I said, even though I did all this it still didn't work with the Linksys router (& I'm an IT guy, I do this kind of stuff all the time at work). I could watch live TV just fine on the phone, but it wouldn't let it remotely switch channels etc. It was always stuck on whatever channel the Vulkano was on.

When I set up the Netgear router, I just let it do the universal P&P thing & it worked fine on the first crack with that setup.

I would say that the Slingbox is WAY WAY easier to setup. It does have a slightly inferior picture on the phone & won't record, but definitely makes up for that stuff in other ways.

~John

 

[Technoman]

What settings did you use for the Vulkano? I have a Monsoon HAVA (older Vulkano) and can't seem to get my settings right to get my stream outside my house. Works great on my internal network, and the stream to my phone is great also.

To get it to work outside your LAN, you need to forward port 49177 on TCP & port 56123 on TCP/UDP to your HAVA IP address.

Like I said, even though I did all this it still didn't work with the Linksys router (& I'm an IT guy, I do this kind of stuff all the time at work). I could watch live TV just fine on the phone, but it wouldn't let it remotely switch channels etc. It was always stuck on whatever channel the Vulkano was on.

When I set up the Netgear router, I just let it do the universal P&P thing & it worked fine on the first crack with that setup.

I would say that the Slingbox is WAY WAY easier to setup. It does have a slightly inferior picture on the phone & won't record, but definitely makes up for that stuff in other ways.

~John

Already have those setup, and I can't get anything on 3g or external WIFI. I will keep trying.

 

[jmorton10]

Which router are you using??

~John

 

[Tiburon]

I'm actually using a Linksys E2000 router with the Vulkano Platinum. Took me 15 minutes to set up. If you need help with setup, I can probably offer some support. One bit of advice--do not install the latest player on your DX--there are known problems with Wifi streaming.

Check out this page for links to the old player and thread over at placeshiftingenthusiasts.

 

[jmorton10]

One bit of advice--do not install the latest player on your DX--there are known problems with Wifi streaming.
.

I am using the latest player in my X & I have no problem whatever using WiFi with my Netgear router.

~John

 

[Technoman]

Which router are you using??

~John

I am using the FIOS supplied router. It is an Actiontec. I have a D-Link N router that I could hook up, but would lose some functionality on my fios TV service.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[Tiburon]

I had the wifi problem. Said "Could not connect to P2P server." Rolled back to old version and *poof* worked like a charm. Either way, the Vulkano is awesome and for the $99 they're selling it for, it is a major win.

Sent from my DROIDX using DroidForums App

 

[jmorton10]

Either way, the Vulkano is awesome

It would be a whole lot more awesome if it actually let through a true high def picture for your TV (720p doesn't cut it on my 50" & 60" TVs).

~John

 

[rlfitz]

I have the cheaper slingbox solo hooked up on my cable DVR box. I love it. It was supposed to set up pretty easily, nut somehow it didnt. When I got their tech support online the set it up after a while. Watching TV anywhere is awesome. Yes the picture isnt the best on my phone but Its still pretty F'n cool.

 

[Tiburon]

Either way, the Vulkano is awesome

It would be a whole lot more awesome if it actually let through a true high def picture for your TV (720p doesn't cut it on my 50" & 60" TVs).

~John

John--On my Vulkano Platinum, when setting up Video Output, I have the option for 720p, 1080i, or 1080p. I'm connected by Component Video INTO the Vulkano and through HDMI out. Maybe the HDMI output is the key, or maybe it's just an updated firmware version. Check both out.

 

[jmorton10]

John--On my Vulkano Platinum, when setting up Video Output, I have the option for 720p, 1080i, or 1080p. .

Thanks, I never saw those options.

I just set it to 1080p (using HDMI out), but the picture on the TV is still a little better running straight off the cable box for some reason.

I like the Vulkano a little better than I used to but it's still kind of a PITA.

I bought the pro that came with the 1TB drive, but after working fine for one week it won't recognize the drive anymore. I'm so sick of messing with the POS I just put in a 32 gig SDHC card & said the hell with it.

MY SB has been pissing me off lately also. It used to work perfectly in my truck while driving, but all of a sudden lately it has been skipping & bufffering so much in the truck it has become totally useless. It does work fine in my LT at work so I guess I'll just use it for that.

~John

 

[Technoman]

I had the wifi problem. Said "Could not connect to P2P server." Rolled back to old version and *poof* worked like a charm. Either way, the Vulkano is awesome and for the $99 they're selling it for, it is a major win.

Sent from my DROIDX using DroidForums App

Where is the Vulkano available for $99 at? Like I said I have the older HAVA device (also made by Monsoon) and would love to upgrade to the newer box.