Ever since the original Slingbox appeared on the scene in 2005, TV junkies have been using it and its various descendants to place-shift television. All Slingboxes to date have offered a compelling combination of a clear picture, easy setup, and no monthly fees, with the later versions delivering improved video quality. The latest model, the SlingPlayer SOLO, gives you the Slingbox Pro's HD compatibility, but with a single input, like the classic Slingbox. That's actually plenty if you have a digital video recorder (DVR), since you can watch live television channels and recorded content through the same unit, although it works with regular and HD cable boxes, too. In early 2007, Sling Media also released a new Mac version of its SlingPlayer software. The Slingbox SOLO is another winner—just don't expect to watch high-definition-quality video remotely.

The SOLO is an attractive piece of gear. Like the original Slingbox, it has a trapezoid shape. But this one is smaller, measuring 4.0 by 8.5 by 1.9 inches (HWD), and it's clad in black metal and glossy plastic with bright red accents. The front panel is blank save for Power and Ethernet LEDs, and a logo that lights up when video is actively streaming. The rear of the unit contains everything else. From left to right, there's an AC power jack, an Ethernet port, a USB connector, and two identical rows of RCA, S-Video, and component inputs and outputs. There's also a jack to connect the included IR receiver. Alas, there's no HDMI port.

In addition to cable and DVR boxes, you can connect the SOLO to a DVD player, but that's of dubious value unless you have a 200-disc changer. ("Honey, I'm in a hotel in Memphis. Can you pop in the Knocked Up DVD so I can watch it from my laptop?") The Slingbox SOLO requires a broadband Internet connection, a home network router, and a Windows or Macintosh PC. Sling Media lets you install the SlingPlayer client on an unlimited number of computers simultaneously; the catch is that you can watch it on only one at a time.

To hook up the SOLO to my HD cable box, I connected the included component video cables to the Slingbox component inputs, then connected the stereo (red and white) audio cables to the audio inputs on the Slingbox. I repeated the process on the other end for the cable box. The result looked like this: Cable box > Slingbox > TV. Next I plugged in the IR receiver cable and stuck the IR receiver on the cable box such that it pointed at the remote IR sensor.

The Slingbox plugs into your home network router via an included—but at 6 feet, very short—Ethernet cable. My wireless router is nowhere near my cable box, but I happened to have a longer cable handy and used that. Unfortunately, the Slingbox SOLO isn't Wi-Fi capable out of the box. You can, however, connect it to your home wireless network using optional SlingLink Turbo Ethernet bridges ($150 for the SlingLink Turbo 4-Port, $80 for the one-port model).

When I finished connecting everything, I downloaded and installed SlingPlayer for Mac OS X on a Core 2 Duo iMac. My HD cable box wasn't listed in SlingPlayer's catalog of devices, but I tried its first manual option (called Code 1) and was off and running: I could shut off and turn on the cable box from the computer. When finishing the install, I copied down the Slingbox ID—which I needed to watch the box remotely, but not on the home network—and set up a remote log-in.

On my tests at home, SlingPlayer delivered excellent picture quality to the iMac with both standard and high-definition TV channels. Stereo audio was also crisp and clear. The iMac displayed the actual cable feed on about a 5- or 6-second delay. When the Slingbox SOLO was paired with an Apple AirPort Extreme with Gigabit Ethernet router, the SlingPlayer software achieved average speeds of 6,300 to 6,400 kilobits per second (Kbps) while streaming video. For HD sources in particular, this delivered a sharp, full-screen picture with some visible noise. It wasn't quite high-definition quality, but it still looked impressive.

SlingPlayer was a cinch to use, even in its latest OS X incarnation. For example, to add favorite channels, I clicked the Plus icon at the bottom of the screen, chose each channel from the available icons (most common network logos are represented), and entered the appropriate channel number. Then whenever I clicked on the network logo for the desired channel, the Slingbox changed the cable box's channel a few seconds later. The software also lets you set the aspect ratio to 4:3, 16:9, Letterbox, Pillarbox, or Windowbox. I used Pillarbox when watching standard-definition channels over HD because it strips the unnecessary vertical pillars while maintaining the correct aspect ratio.

The Slingbox SOLO worked well on my home network, but what about over the Internet? To find out, I installed SlingPlayer on a MacBook Pro laptop headed over to the local Starbucks, and signed on to its T-Mobile Wi-Fi hot spot. Using my Sling Media log-in, password, and Slingbox SOLO ID, I brought up the TV signal on the first try. Here, my Wi-Fi connection hovered at around 380 Kbps. As a result, I was able to view only a 4-inch window before a CNN news crawl became unreadable (video quality in a larger window is poor because of the slow connection).

The optional $29 SlingPlayer Mobile software lets you watch your Slingbox from your cell phone. Since I last reviewed SlingPlayer Mobile, the company has added Symbian compatibility in addition to Windows Mobile and Palm OS. SlingPlayer Mobile requires a 3G cellular data connection or Wi-Fi capability. On my Verizon Motorola Q I saw test speeds averaging 240 Kbps during the review period, which was enough for about 15 to 25 frames per second.

I'd like to see Sling Media add Wi-Fi capability, if only to simplify logistics when setting the device up the first time. Even so, of the available Slingboxes, the SOLO is the box to get if you want to watch live cable HDTV or your DVR's recorded programs. Unless you need to switch among multiple sources, the Slingbox SOLO makes a lot of sense, given its low price and lack of monthly fees.

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