Ahead of Monsoon Multimedia actually shipping the Vulkano “God Box” later this month, their iPhone/iPad client has landed in Apple’s app storefront. Vulkano is the successor to Monsoon’s Slingbox-esque HAVA, and I suspect the new Vulkano Mobile app (v1.2.101) is an enhanced version of HAVA Mobile (v1.1.28) to now support the iPad and iOS4.
While I don’t yet have a Vulkano in my possession, I do have access to a pair of remote units (connected to DISH ViP 211 satellite receivers) for the purposes of testing the iPhone software. Once locked onto a television channel, video quality looked very good… And I enjoyed some arena football from the NFL Network last night, despite a max app resolution of 320×240 (equivalent to Sling’s current solution). However, initial buffering and issuing remote commands seemed quite slow. I had intended to do something of a quantitative comparison between Vulkano Mobile and SlingPlayer Mobile, but my Slingbox was unavailable.
The opaque remote control UI takes over a large chunk of the screen when triggered, which makes navigating the set-top box’s guide a bitch. However, Monsoon provides their own EPG which can be very quickly navigated. Not only can you trigger a channel change, you can also schedule a recording… not to your DVR, but to the Vulkano’s storage device! These recordings can later be transferred to the iPhone for offline viewing (or streamed around the house?). Once I get my hands on Vulkano hardware, I’ll dig deeper into all the new functionality.
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I forgot to mention… the HAVA and Vulkano Mobile apps are still WiFi-only, as opposed to the Slingbox app which now also streams video over 3G. Another point: the Vulkano app is free whereas Sling’s runs $30.
How is the video/audio syncing? Syncing is one of the problems I’ve seen with the Slingbox iPhone player, even over Wifi.
Also how does the frame rate compare to Sling’s 15 fps?
In my limited testing, live audio/video was synced. Granted I watched over a short period of time and these things generally get worse the longer you watch. I did try copying over a recorded clip which was most definitely out of sync – however, since I didn’t record the clip and that particular DISH box was jacked up, I’m refraining from judgement until I get my own test unit (connected to my own DVR) – we’ll see where we land then.
I’m not sure what frame rates I’m getting with either app, but based on a quick comparison this AM, I’d say Vulkano’s video looks better on the iPhone. However, they don’t stretch the 320×240 to fill the screen as Sling does. It’s a cleaner look, but reduces quality. I have confirmed Vulkano is slower in initially bringing up video and channel changes, etc. And Sling does have a more polished translucent UI.
I must say I’m pretty intrigued and very excited about the Vulkano. Can’t wait to read your review!!
Iphone sucks! look at iphone4 a another buggy phone. Has anyone have many drop calls on your junk iphone4??? LOL Bill Gates must be laughing now. Get a windows phone it more reliable and more up to date in technology and no restriction like what iphone 4 has.
It’s a shame. Bought the Hava Titanium in December ’09. Promised upgrades to the WM software which is very buggy. The itouch app is ok. Emailed support on 7/20/2010. Was told to wait for Vulkano apps which would be compatible with Hava Titanium for ipad/itouch/iphone and WM. So here comes the app in the store for the ipad/iphone/itouch and wouldnt’ you know it. They lied. The app “sees” the Hava, but will not work against it. So, thinking that support would be nice and tell me how to adjust some settings or like last december send me an internal build to fix problems; I called. Only to be told that it doesn’t support it. Wont support it. And to “please wait”. Wait for what? How Long? No answer.
Just silence on the phone and then asked if there was anything else.
Hava users it clearly looks like monsoon is leaving us in the dust. My box is not even a year old. The company went dark working on Vulkano not releasing anything or communicating anything and now this. There is no reason NOT to be backward compatible. It clearly CAN work if they wanted it to. Putting us off for 8 months and then NOT deliverying! Trying to force current HAVA users to buy their new Vulkano product line. Not the way to treat your CUSTOMERS who have hung in there with you. I call BS. Just Fix it or I wouldn’t ever buy another Monsoon product and would highly recommend others not to trust them either.
Well the Vulkano Iphone app is free and works with older HAVA units very well. Nice featue is being able to choose SD HD Zoom and really fill out to full screen on the Iphone.
I now have several customers on remote streaming of the Vulkano and they are all very impressed over the current HAVA platinums and sling pros for quality.
The Vulkano is in it’s early stage and yes firmware upgrades will be needed to reach further potential. We have been streaming from Taiwan to USA with really good stable speeds that hover around 1.7mb – 1.9mb on remote with resolution set at 640 x 448. 720 x 480 on remote the speed was less than 1mb so not sure what the issue is there but even so… quality is fantastic.