A Look at the Vulkano Lava, the Slingbox’s Erstwhile Competitor

Monsoon Multimedia Logo Monsoon Multimedia has long been Sling Media’s erstwhile competitor. First with their line of HAVA devices, and more recently with the Vulkano lineup. Personally I’ve always felt like their units were the cheaper, less polished offerings. I’ve always preferred Sling’s products, they seem to have a better ‘fit & finish’ – both in hardware and software. But Monsoon keeps at it, and they have always had a few features Sling lacks, which gives them a niche of their own. One of their latest models is the Vulkano Lava, and my colleague Brandon has a review up at Vulkano Community. If you’re interested in place shifting I recommend checking the review out. The Vulkano Lava is getting close to a ‘god box’ – it is like having a Slingbox, SlingCatcher and a basic DVR all in one box. I think Monsoon needs to focus on polishing the software and they could have a really solid competitor to Sling.

About MegaZone

MegaZone is the Editor of Gizmo Lovers and the chief contributor. He's been online since 1989 and active in several generations of 'social media' - mailing lists, USENet groups, web forums, and since 2003, blogging.    MegaZone has a presence on several social platforms: Google+ / Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / LiveJournal / Web.    You can also follow Gizmo Lovers on other sites: Blog / Google+ / Facebook / Twitter.
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  • http://www.xdreamwalker.com/blog xdreamwalker

    My largest complaint with the Vulkano Flow is the software for the remote. There is learning for IR, but you just can’t set some buttons, like LiveTV on a TiVo remote.

    • Anonymous

      Remote software has always been an issue with the Vulkanos and the Slingboxes.
      There are probably over 1,000 user made remotes for the Slingbox by now and the Vulkano has the same issue.
      On yours, are you saying the Live TV button doesn’t work on the virtual remote on the Flow? 
      If so it wouldn’t work on the Lava either since it uses the same Gondar chip.

      I’ll take a look on my Lava and see if it works.

      You are right that if you need to learn just one button you have to learn them all.

      • http://www.xdreamwalker.com/blog xdreamwalker

        Yeah, the Live TV button is grayed out, along with other buttons like replay. After doing a whole heck of a lot of research I think there is a set of buttons that are available and you can learn new ir codes for those, but you cannot teach it new buttons.
        I tried many different remotes, even emailed back and forth a few times with someone at Monsoon. I sort of gave up on it and went back to my Slingbox Classic. I did plug it in to my basic cable so an out of market friend can watch hockey and football live.

        • Brandonc1

          Without going into a lot of technical details the Vulkano Flow and Lava use a remote chip that is limited to the amount of buttons available for programming.

          Apparently they had to decide which ones are most important and program them in and leave the others out.

          Hopefully any newer models will use a different IR chip that allows more commands.

  • Angry

    The Monsoon support SUCKS!!! You are redirect to INDIA where only one person answer. It’s impossible to understand what he says. I bought a Lava box to be set in Brazil… long story short, it doesnt work well and support is useless. You call their phone in CA and nobody answers. It looks like a scam company.

  • Angry

    The Monsoon support SUCKS!!! You are redirect to INDIA where only one person answer. It’s impossible to understand what he says. I bought a Lava box to be set in Brazil… long story short, it doesnt work well and support is useless. You call their phone in CA and nobody answers. It looks like a scam company.