I have DirecTV HD. In my spare bedroom, I have an SD box that I never used. I thought this would be a better hookup since it wouldn't interfere with any of the other TVs.

I have a few questions that I have been unable to find answers to in searching the threads:

1. Any new information about Slingbox streaming HD content over the net (so I can view the HD content on my HD laptop anywhere around the world)?

2. If the content, whether HD or SD, is viewed in SD on my laptop, is there an improvement when the source is HD vs SD? I assume I could update my DirecTV DVR to an HD DVR even if I don't upgrade the TV to HD. Any advice?

3. Finally, if I have a DirecTV HD Satellite set-top box, can I have HDMI to my TV or receiver, and then component to the Slingbox SOLO/PRO? or does the signal have to run through the Slingbox?

Thanks so much!

Unfortunately, I received no replies to my post.
But fortunately....I now have a new HDTV in my spare bedroom with a DirecTV HR-21 HD-DVR.

Now I need help with the setup of this system specifically.

From my HR-21, I have HDMI out to my TV.
If I hook up component out to a Slingbox PRO-HD, will that work or does the DirecTV box only output one or the other? In other words, are out all outputs active on the DirecTV?

Thanks.

I wish someone would respond to your questions. I have these same questions myself!

Unfortunately, I received no replies to my post.
But fortunately....I now have a new HDTV in my spare bedroom with a DirecTV HR-21 HD-DVR.

Now I need help with the setup of this system specifically.

From my HR-21, I have HDMI out to my TV.
If I hook up component out to a Slingbox PRO-HD, will that work or does the DirecTV box only output one or the other? In other words, are out all outputs active on the DirecTV?

Thanks.

All of the outputs from the Directv DVR active at the same time.

Initial information indicates that slingbox pro-hd will be able to stream HD over the internet as long as you have a 1.5mbps or better upload internet connection from the home as well as a 1.5mbps download connection at the receiving end.

Keep in mind that most hotels, hotspots, etc, will throttle your connection to well under 1.5mbps which will render the HD features unavailable although as time goes on connection speeds will improve.

Unfortunately the pro-hd does not have hdmi input/output which would have greatly reduced cable clutter and simplified moving the device around in the home.

I am still considering one as it would allow me to stream HD over my local LAN so that I can watch my Tivo programs in my workout room, of course this is also going to require me to buy a slingcatcher, which will start shipping next month.

Initial information indicates that slingbox pro-hd will be able to stream HD over the internet as long as you have a 1.5mbps or better upload internet connection from the home as well as a 1.5mbps download connection at the receiving end.

Keep in mind that most hotels, hotspots, etc, will throttle your connection to well under 1.5mbps which will render the HD features unavailable although as time goes on connection speeds will improve.

Unfortunately the pro-hd does not have hdmi input/output which would have greatly reduced cable clutter and simplified moving the device around in the home.

I am still considering one as it would allow me to stream HD over my local LAN so that I can watch my Tivo programs in my workout room, of course this is also going to require me to buy a slingcatcher, which will start shipping next month.


Despite what the docs say, you can stream HD channels over lesser bandwidth. With my slingbox solo I can stream HD channels over a 750K stream. Is it optimal? No, Does it actually work? Yes

Sean

Despite what the docs say, you can stream HD channels over lesser bandwidth. With my slingbox solo I can stream HD channels over a 750K stream. Is it optimal? No, Does it actually work? Yes

Sean

Yes, but 750K is still more than you are going to get in most hotspots, hotels, etc. Which is really the limiting factor once you are wanting to stream while on the road.

Personally the single thing holding up Slingbox adoption by me is a Sling application for the iPhone/iPod.

When they release that, I will get a Slingbox and Slingcatcher.

My upload speed limits me. I think it is around 512K. I just want the PRO-HD to work. It may not be exactly HD, but if it could be somewhere in between 480 and 1080, I'd be happy. I just don't want it skipping in the middle of programs when watching on my laptop.

My upload speed limits me. I think it is around 512K. I just want the PRO-HD to work. It may not be exactly HD, but if it could be somewhere in between 480 and 1080, I'd be happy. I just don't want it skipping in the middle of programs when watching on my laptop.

Slingbox tests and calibrates based on your upload speed to the client in question, the output is then buffered before playback begins. Quality will be based on connection speed.

At 512kbps upload you will get quality below that of regular 480i SD broadcast, which would require around 1mbps to achieve. You will still get watchable video at 512kbps, but it will have some pixelation, etc.

The only thing that's going to cause you to have stuttering, etc, during playback is if the upload bandwidth is suddenly compromised by other activity on your network connection either at the Slingbox side or the receive side.

For my own purposes one of the nice things about the slingbox pro-hd is that I would be able to sling video from Tivo HD to various places in the home at full HD quality. Sling catchers, which hopefully will get cheaper over time, will allow the sharing of a Tivo in the bedroom to other places in the house such as the work out room, formal living room, etc.

Thank you. I greatly appreciate your detailed response.
I like the in home streaming too, but I've already dished out money on DVRs for each room. 99% of my usage would be over the internet outside my home.

Slingbox tests and calibrates based on your upload speed to the client in question, the output is then buffered before playback begins. Quality will be based on connection speed.

At 512kbps upload you will get quality below that of regular 480i SD broadcast, which would require around 1mbps to achieve. You will still get watchable video at 512kbps, but it will have some pixelation, etc.

The only thing that's going to cause you to have stuttering, etc, during playback is if the upload bandwidth is suddenly compromised by other activity on your network connection either at the Slingbox side or the receive side.

For my own purposes one of the nice things about the slingbox pro-hd is that I would be able to sling video from Tivo HD to various places in the home at full HD quality. Sling catchers, which hopefully will get cheaper over time, will allow the sharing of a Tivo in the bedroom to other places in the house such as the work out room, formal living room, etc.

Thank you. I greatly appreciate your detailed response.
I like the in home streaming too, but I've already dished out money on DVRs for each room. 99% of my usage would be over the internet outside my home.

Unfortunately the price is too high to make it practical, but if Slingcatcher gets cheaper it would make sense for some people to use it to replace an HD cable box or DVR that they spend $8-$12 a month renting.

For us a Comcast HD DVR is $12 a month. So at that price the Sling setup would take about four years to pay for itself compared to the cost of renting a set top box.

If the Sling Pro-HD and SlingCatcher each dropped to $199 though we would have justified the purchase in a mere 30 months.

Yes, I think 199 and possibly even 149 will come sooner rather than later.

Just got my Slingbox Pro-HD last week. I also intend to get the SlingCatcher so I can stream HD between my two houses. In general, it about 90% of the way there.

My setup: Where the slingbox is located, Comcast Blast Internet 16/3. I am using the Turbo-Link for the network because my router and Comcast DVR are on different floors. Ran SlingPlayer 2.0, worked great. Found my Slingbox, my Comcast 6412 DVR, and my router.

Remote location, used my Laptop (More on this later) to run SlingPlayer. I have DSL Plus 6/0.7.

The results: (Incomplete). The Slingplayer is showing between 2000 and 2500 kbps at the remote location, so I have the required bandwidth. My laptop, although it is new, does not have the specs to run HD content. The video card is especially slow. As I said I am waiting for the Slingcatcher, but I wanted to do some initial testing.

On normal shows (Talking Heads, Dexter, etc) the Picture was 9/10 compared to straight from my TV, just slightly soft. Since I did connect my laptop to my Sony XBR4 with the PC connection, I was getting the 3/2 pulldown effect. When the network would occasionally dip below 1500 kbps, the picture would block, as you would expect.

Motion sports was a problem, not in the quality of the picture, but the video card would fall behind for a few seconds and lose frames. I did retest using my desktop PC at home (With a 5.5 Vista rating), and the motion problems went away.

Summary: I think this has real potential. The remote HD picture is just sligtly softer than the live one, but good enough (and I am one of those picky types). Will report back when I get the Slingcatcher.

Well, right now the Slingcatcher also doesn't support HD resolution, we are being told it will be coming in a future update.

Which means it could be implemented in the next month or so or it could take until the end of next year.

One problem with Slingcatcher is that it has been painfully slow to be released, it was supposed to be out 12 months ago!

Thanks for the initial review (and future ones), KPG55.

Correction. The Slingcatcher does, but the SlingPlayer in the SlingCatcher right now only does 640X480 max. Avoid until it does.

Correction. The Slingcatcher does, but the SlingPlayer in the SlingCatcher right now only does 640X480 max. Avoid until it does.

Yep.

It's a real kick in the teeth that even though development went well over a year past the promised date the Slingcatcher can't even support HD resolutions yet.... not to mention that they eliminated the integrated wi-fi (which would have been very useful for taking it on the road and using it in hotels, etc, for SD stuff) and still stuck it with a $299 price tag.

As soon as I can get both the Pro-HD and the Catcher for $499 for the pair and have HD fully supported between the two I will probably bite.

Coming late to this discussion. I have the exact setup with DirecTV HD DVR and Slingbox HD. I don't watch the TV outside of the house, I set it up so I can work on my computer in my office and still watch TV on the side.

I used to have Tivo based DirecTV DVR (HR-10?) and it did not provide simultaneous video out from both HDMI and Component. However, when I upgraded to the HR-21 HD-DVR, I can see both on my TV and at my PC simultaneously. However, I noticed that the lag between the TV and the PC is longer with the new DVR than the old DVR.

I found the video image from this set up to be adequate and I am getting about 4000kbps on the average, sometimes as low as 2000kbps. I would like it a bit sharper but overall it's not too bad. I have only lost video due to network congestion a few times in the past year or two. The audio will continue but the video would blank out for a few seconds for the buffer to refill.

I am considering the Slingbox pro-HD in the near future to see if the true HD signal would make a difference. I will keep you posted.

I am pleased to see the price dropping fairly quickly on Amazon. $200 by Christmas may be a reality.

The Slingcatcher is really bombing in reviews on Amazon and elsewhere. I could see a price of $179 on it by next summer.

Hopefully the Slingbox PRO-HD will come down too....quickly.

Well, it's already down to $244.99 on Amazon with free shipping. That's pretty damn good considering that the previous version Slingbox HD never got much under $200 and didn't have the capabilities of the HD-Pro, although admittedly it had two component inputs.

Are there any Slingbox PRO-HD owners threads?

I'm really surprised more people don't have a Slingbox.

Not sure why everyone is complaining about the Slingcatcher. I've used it cross country and with an HD source and at its current supported highest resolution 640x480(DVD quality) it looks fine. Would I like to see it support higher resolutions? Absolutely but that will mean higher upload bandwith at the source. Based on my experience it requires ~1Mbps upload at the source Slingbox for smooth DVD quality picture. I would like to see them add greater configuration options for optimizing picture quality based on bandwith available similar to what currently exists in the Slingplayer software. Even if this doesn't happen soon, if you have sufficient internet speed, the Slingcatch is a totally viable option for watching a sporting event outside of your region sans PC.

People are complaining because the Slingcatcher;

1. Costs $100 more than they said it would.
2. Has no wireless support. Many hotels have wireless but no wired ethernet. A bridge costs another $80.
3. Has no HD support.
4. Has buggy software.

I'm sure that if Sling put a basic Slingcatcher on the market that cost $149 and didn't offer HD but had an integrated wi-fi connection that it would sell like gangbusters.

Unfortunately they've come up a year late and $100 overpriced on it.

Unless you like complaining, if you need wireless now and want to save money why not just get a Hava and move on? Ranting anonymously on an internet forum when you don't even own the device will have little effect on any company. I agree the Slingcatcher and new Slingbox Pro-HD are overpriced for the masses but that's their choice. Unfortunately there is not a lot of competition in the marketplace for standalone place shifting devices. I already stated above that I too would like it to see it support HD resolutions however being practical, this just isn't a reality unless one has a significant upload bandwith at the source Slingbox, which at this time is a small percentage of people. The picture quality with sufficient bandwith is DVD quality and looks good, which you would know if you had actually used one.

Unless you like complaining, if you need wireless now and want to save money why not just get a Hava and move on? Ranting anonymously on an internet forum when you don't even own the device will have little effect on any company. I agree the Slingcatcher and new Slingbox Pro-HD are overpriced for the masses but that's their choice. Unfortunately there is not a lot of competition in the marketplace for standalone place shifting devices. I already stated above that I too would like it to see it support HD resolutions however being practical, this just isn't a reality unless one has a significant upload bandwith at the source Slingbox, which at this time is a small percentage of people. The picture quality with sufficient bandwith is DVD quality and looks good, which you would know if you had actually used one.

I'm entitled to my opinion the same as anybody else. I've read all of the reviews and watched plenty of demo videos of the Slingcatcher. Overwhelming consensus is that the Slingcatcher is seriously overpriced for what it does. For $100 more you can get a PS3 that can display streamed video, has a hard drive, blu-ray player, plays games, has integrated wi-fi, etc.

The Slingcatcher is probably not a bad 1st effort for those who really really want to watch their slingboxes on other TVs in their home or on the road. I have a feeling though that sales will be very sluggish until they enhance the software and reduce the MSRP by $100.

Does anyone from Sling Media join the Sling discussions here? I have noticed the folks from Slim Devices have been relatively active in the forums.

Don't have slingbox, and I got the dma1100p, and it's been great. Managed to get it off of newegg with rebates and the powerline was $30 off, and the dma was $50 off. Got the whole thing for $150 and it's been sweet. Heck, I don't have to deal with crappy wireless anymore either. Oh! it doesn't do place shifting, but I'm stoked that I can stream stuff around the house, and with some luck even stream stuff from online.

Don't mean to hijack thread, but I was reading about the cost of the slingbox and thought I'd drop my $0.02.

Don't have slingbox, and I got the dma1100p, and it's been great. Managed to get it off of newegg with rebates and the powerline was $30 off, and the dma was $50 off. Got the whole thing for $150 and it's been sweet. Heck, I don't have to deal with crappy wireless anymore either. Oh! it doesn't do place shifting, but I'm stoked that I can stream stuff around the house, and with some luck even stream stuff from online.

Don't mean to hijack thread, but I was reading about the cost of the slingbox and thought I'd drop my $0.02.

Well, if it can't let me watch my Tivo and all the shows recorded on it then it doesn't do what a Sling can do or meet the needs of myself or the millions of other Slingbox users out there who need a device that can actually control and encode the audio/video from a home theater component.

Streaming your downloaded crap is all well and good but I would much rather be able to stream live TV without having to go through the hassle of setting up a PC with a tuner card and using something that has to pull a feed off of a computer.

I don't know about Tivo crap, never used it, don't intend to. This serves my purpose and seems to do HD pretty well too.

I just hooked up the gadget to a Tversity Media server and it appears to work.

Good luck with the Tivo.

Iphone application for slingbox has been submitted to apple. May see it in the app store soon....

Iphone application for slingbox has been submitted to apple. May see it in the app store soon....

Hopefully so. I know they have been working on it.

Iphone application for slingbox has been submitted to apple. May see it in the app store soon....
From what my buddy in Sling QA told me, the app store price will be $39.95. I've been beta-testing the app--PQ is pretty good over 3G, as long as you're getting a strong 3G signal; I've been using it to access my Slingbox Solo which is connected to my DirecTV HD DVR. Unfortunately, the app will not support video out at this time--I was hoping that it would be allowed/enable, as it would allow me to connect my iPhone to my in-car video monitors for in-vehicle viewing.

From what my buddy in Sling QA told me, the app store price will be $39.95. I've been beta-testing the app--PQ is pretty good over 3G, as long as you're getting a strong 3G signal; I've been using it to access my Slingbox Solo which is connected to my DirecTV HD DVR. Unfortunately, the app will not support video out at this time--I was hoping that it would be allowed/enable, as it would allow me to connect my iPhone to my in-car video monitors for in-vehicle viewing.

This is good info as there has been some speculation that it would only sling over wi-fi networks.

The fact that you can sling over 3G is good to hear.

Hopefully the application gets approved in the next week or two.

Just wondering .. Did anyone here buy the iPhone Slingplayer app? I'm interested in what people think of it.

Just wondering .. Did anyone here buy the iPhone Slingplayer app? I'm interested in what people think of it.

I couldn't justify it - at least yet - but you can get plenty of opinions over at the Sling Community forum (http://www.slingcommunity.com/forums/61/SlingPlayer-iPhone-iPod-Touch/threads).