Monsoon Multimedia has recently released a new product called the Vulkano. This new device has been called everything from the “God Box” to a “SlingBox Killer“.
Although we doubt it is either one of those if you are looking into a place shifting device you should take the time to look into the new Vulkano before deciding on what to invest in.
Both the Slingbox and the Vulkano have their plusses and minuses. For instance the Slingbox HD can give you up to a 1920×540 HD stream, the Vulkano can do up to 720×480 resolution, or as they say a near HD experience, but it offers a recording option and other things that the Slingbox doesn’t.
This does make it hard to decide what to buy. They both offer the ability to place shift to your mobile device but depending on what your mobile device actually is you may get better results from one device over the other
To help you decide what place shifting device you should invest in you need to first figure out what you really need from it. Do you need to record something for playback later or do you already have TiVo or DVR that does it for you? Is there a particular place or device you want to place shift your TV to? Then which box does that the best?
This is where we can help. Between the Place Shifting Enthusiast members and the Monsoon Multimedia Community you can do your research and get the answers you need.
If looking into a Slingbox and have questions on it then jump into our forums here and ask away. If you have questions regarding the Monsoon Multimedia Vulkano then you can ask about it in the Community forum here.
Like we said both the Slingbox and the Vulkano have their plusses and minuses but before you buy either of them we recommend you first figure out what you really need in a place shifting device, ask about your needs and see what the actual users of these devices can tell you about their experiences.
If you do decide to purchase either a Slingbox or a Vulkano we would love to hear why you picked one over the other. Everyone has different needs when it comes to Place Shifting. What is yours?
Well sling media seem to be having so many issues with their servers, nearly 3 weeks down in August and another 31 August notice with more connection issues. Many people are still having connection issues from teh 03 August crash. I would advise anyone looking into a sling to wait and see to make sure the server issues are fully sorted, as they certainly now are not.
The Vulkano is really a product full of promise but doesn’t yet have all the firmware for the capabilities listed yet. A few issues need to be sorted with firmware upgrades so still too early to say how good the Vulkano will finally be.
I can say the Vulkano streaming on the Iphone leaves everything else ( HAVA and slings looking sad ) I get constant wireless streams of over 1mb and today peaked at 1340kpbs on the Iphone. Doesn’t make the picture any better than 1mb though.
But as far as remote streaming to a PC or a Macbookpro, the Vulkano blitzes even the sling pro HD even though the Vulkano has less resolution. Its not only the resolution setting that makes a difference but the difference in chipsets as well. On LAN the sling Pro HD for HD is perhaps the better product until we see further firmware upgrades for the Vulkano.
Slings are great when they run well but the reliablity seems to be getting worse and worse and tech support costs too much (US$30) for the constant problems people are having. Monsoons HAVA Platinum are solid streaming with slightly better pics than the sling pros both remote streams but on LAN the HAVA is clearly far better with 720 x 576 PAL or 720 x 640 NTSC res. Monsoon support is free. Sling phone and other apps US$30… Monsoon Vukano apps are free.
Sling software has faster response but thats due to the different way the buffering works with the slings. New Vulkano software is markedly improved over the HAVA PC player software.
Several things to consider, how much it all costs to get the hardware and apps, and the money you pay for tech support.
Firmware upgrades that actually make an improvement to the devices. Sling you cannot rollback and this has always been an issue if the new firmware doesnt work well. Monsoons firmware can be rolled back using the wizard.
For most of my clients thos hardcare MAC users not willing to use bootcamp they went with slings before. Those who were happy with Windows chose the HAVA as RECORDING to the PC was always a key in their decisions.
Vulkano now has MAC and Windows and recording but too early to say how good a product it is. I do now have several customers who will be on Vulkano’s by the end of this week after testing them first.