I initially got very excited when they announced the sling catcher. I thought of several ways I could use it But more and more I think about it. I’m not sure anymore
Some of the ideas I thought of but have later shot down
1) Some place in my home where I want a TV set but don’t have a cable run After thought -- for $200 I can run a cable.
2) Share a cable box between 2 different sets. After thought-- it is $7 a month for an extra box, that’s a lot of months to get to $200
3) Give one to the in-laws who are too cheap for cable. After thought-- They already have a nice PC I can’t see the quality on a 32 inch screen being that good over WAN, The sling player is so easy to use on the PC I don’t see much gain with a sling catcher.
The only worth while option I may think about is for my mother who does not have a PC and will never learn one. I could get her DSL for $15 and a sling catcher. (Poor mans cable)
I’m struggling to justify a sling catcher.
Tell us how you plan on using a sling catcher.My biggest use will be in hotels. I watch on my laptop alot but it will be nice just to hook up to the TV..
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ryandh said:My biggest use will be in hotels. I watch on my laptop alot but it will be nice just to hook up to the TV..
2 thoughts about hotels while traveling.
1) do you think the quality will be that good for screen bigger than your laptop over WAN? my upstream is about 350K I can't see it being watchable on a TV set
2) I get into the hotel, get it setup and watch a little at night before I fall a sleep. Next morning I'm in a rush to leave and I forget the sling catcher. may not happen for a year or 2 but at some point I will forget it.
If you're a movie/tv buff, it's all about the download. Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon, etc. all have download svces. Instead of watching on your 16 inch monitor, SCatch it to your 50 in. plasma. If it's released w/ a built in harddrive - it's a virtual TiVo (of sorts) or at least an in home e-library of all your favs.
the marlon ~ the future is now
I was really excited about the slingcatcher because I currently use my laptop to hook up to my tv. Since I live abroad, this is the only way to enjoy American TV on my TV. However, now that slingcatcher is taking so long to come out, I am thinking about spending a couple hundred bucks more and buying a mac mini to permanently sit beside my TV rather than continuously hooking up my laptop.
trashcan740 said2 thoughts about hotels while traveling.
1) do you think the quality will be that good for screen bigger than your laptop over WAN? my upstream is about 350K I can't see it being watchable on a TV set
2) I get into the hotel, get it setup and watch a little at night before I fall a sleep. Next morning I'm in a rush to leave and I forget the sling catcher. may not happen for a year or 2 but at some point I will forget it.
Most of my work travel is driving and I'm in the same place for 3 or 4 days. I used to carry around 2 Tivos so I could record 1 or 2 and watch another.. I was usually so "moved into" my hotel it was hard to forget anything..
It will be interesting to see what the quality is like. I know my desktop with DVI out connected to my 36" is better than I thought it would be..
Slinging Tivo Series 2, Tivo HD, and TW cable from a Pro. Slinging Tivo HD from a Solo, Slinging Humax DRT800, and TW cable from a Classic to Sprint Mogul, AT&T SX66, N62, 8525, and Dell Inspiron 8600 with Sprint EVDO over Windstream DSL.
it will be nice for our family travels as we frequently all get stuck in one room and only the local basic garbage. i had not thought about my netflix downloads till it was brought up above...nice thought...
How's that for a slice of fried gold?
Mr. T said: I was really excited about the slingcatcher because I currently use my laptop to hook up to my tv. Since I live abroad, this is the only way to enjoy American TV on my TV. However, now that slingcatcher is taking so long to come out, I am thinking about spending a couple hundred bucks more and buying a mac mini to permanently sit beside my TV rather than continuously hooking up my laptop.
everybody thanks for all the feedback.
Mr. T how is quality piping laptop output to the TV?
What bit rates are you seeing?
I'm just guessing but, I have about 350kbps upload rate
I think the video quality would look very poor on a set > 32 inches.
ryandh, what bit rates are you seeing when your at a hotel?
I just sent my slingbox down to my brother so I could watch some of his local football this fall. He has cox cable and the quality seems much worse than when I had it connected to my DSL (364k upload) and watching remotely. (when watching using his cox cable service there is great variation from 50kbps to 550kbps. even at the 550kbps I don't think I want to watch football on the big screen TV.
Thanks again for all the feedback I was attempting to start a conversation/buzz on the sling catcher and see what people thought about the bandwidth on a big screen.
Hey Trashcan - I am more than happy with the quality I get on my 32" TV with a 350 kbps upload. For some reason, it was bumped up to 400 - 500 kbps for a couple days (I thought the cable company increased their standard offering but then it went away) and it took a lot less time for the picture to stabilize. The quality was about the same though after it optimized.
I am probably less picky than most people though since I am just happy being able to watch American TV in Germany...no sports, just news programs and old episodes of Columbo.
Mr. T said: I was really excited about the slingcatcher because I currently use my laptop to hook up to my tv. Since I live abroad, this is the only way to enjoy American TV on my TV. However, now that slingcatcher is taking so long to come out, I am thinking about spending a couple hundred bucks more and buying a mac mini to permanently sit beside my TV rather than continuously hooking up my laptop.
I also watch my Slingbox on my TV via my laptops s-video connection. I used to have an upload of 256Kbps (Streams at around 240Kbps) at my house in the US where my Slingbox is located which wasn't the best on a 28" WSTV when viewing remotely, but I have upgraded my cable and now have a 512Kbps (Streams at around 490Kbps) upload and am very impressed with the quality. I have spent a lot of my time in England over the last few years and would find it very hard going without my local news back home.
One thing to remember though is that as per the EULA the person streaming should be the person paying for the cable tv and broadband to legitamately view it remontely (Thiis is the essence of the EULA and not the actual wording).
All the best,
Robert.
We spend about 2 1/2 months in the RV. Two of those months, we have high speed DSL. I plan to use the Sling catcher to pipe our cable and Tivo to the RV. We have enhanced cable internet with close to 4 Mb uplink.
The Slingcatcher caught my eye because I could simply hook it up to the tv and remove the current hassle of using the laptop. The laptop has a s-video output so the quality is pretty good, but I just don't like the hassle of wiring/unwiring. I'm currently in Viet Nam and the broadband offering here, for the most part, is DSL (cable is very limited at the moment) and it is terrible for the complete part. 250kbs download when it's working which is never a given-but hey, whaddya expect for $60/month? The picture is so-so when watching shows, but watching sports-especially football-requires a bit of patience. I can only hope speeds are increased soon as the authorities here continually promise. Since the Slingbox is in the states (connected to a TiVo and my desktop with TiVotoGo running on the desktop) I can transfer recordings to the desktop and then transfer to my laptop here. It's a slow haul, but if it's a movie I want to see, then I'm wiling to wait as the quality is much better. Gawd, I hope I'm not doing anything illegal. At times it seems almost impossible avoiding doing something illegal.
I see 2 great ways I'd use it. 1) my office can not get cable run to it, Comcast wanted to charge A LOT because the cable had never been pulled from the street. 2) a 2nd home where we are out of "G.S. Warriors" territory. So with the Slingcatcher I'd be able to watch games on my tv w/out the hassle of setting up the laptop.
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I can relate to trashcans comments.
I watch a lot of sports and movies in my backyard on the big screen and was constantly bringing my laptop outside. I would connect the laptop to the projector and the spdif port back to my receiver then use slingplayer and a wireless mouse (as my remote).
This solution worked well and I was looking forward to replacing my laptop with the slingcatcher. Due to the delays with slingcatcher and my desire to have High Definition outside I decided to try running a 40 foot component to VGA cable to my projector. My next challenge was to get my remote to work outside. I solved this via Next Generation's remote extender product.
http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/remote-controls/wireless-rf-remote-control-extender/review
The solution works great and eliminates having to bring my laptop outside (i.e. only component outside is the projector). The solution also allows me to display HD outside as well as giving me full control of my receiver which I could not get slingplayer to do.
My other use for slingcatcher would be hotel rooms, but I will probably just continue to use my laptop (i.e. why carry around another item) to do this.
I am interested to hear other slingcatcher uses, but for me personally I am starting to lose interest in the product and would prefer to see Sling concentrating on improving video quality and having the slingbox be multiuser.
I have a cottage in northern Wisconsin, with broadband access.
I'll use Slingcatcher to watch my home-base basic cable, and avoid the monthly fee for Dish or DirecTV. $200 or so will pay for itself pretty quickly.
Anyone heard of an ETA for beta testing?
ryandh said:My biggest use will be in hotels. I watch on my laptop alot but it will be nice just to hook up to the TV..
the problem is that most of the hotel tvs doesn't have inputs :(
though not using a slingcatcher, i have to say i was astounded by the quality of the picture i get on a 27" tube t.v., using my laptop s-vid connection with a basic (read: slow) verizon dsl connection at my vacaton cabin in the adirondacks, fed by my directv/tivo/slingbox av at home just outside nyc. i have fios at home, so the upload is smokin', but the download up north can't be more than 350kbs or so. but seriously, i've see cable reception that looked worse. very, very pleased to not have to pay for cable up there, and even more pleased to be able to access tivo-recorded material. on top of that, my oldy-moldy sony ericsson t68i cellphone in conjunction with my mac laptop running salling clicker via bluetooth gives me a remote as well. slingcatcher would simplify things i guess, but everything works pretty much flawlessly now. however, pump that signal to a big LCD or plasma, and it would look like c-r-a-p.
anyhoo...long live sling, long live apple, long live tivo!
hummer said:ryandh said:My biggest use will be in hotels. I watch on my laptop alot but it will be nice just to hook up to the TV..
the problem is that most of the hotel tvs doesn't have inputs :(
Although it would have been nice to see a coax output, if you're carrying a SC with you, carrying an RF modulator won't be a big deal..
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most of the hotels i've stayed at have the tvs so locked down or made the ports so inaccessible that i can't imagine an easy way to make the hookup. that's the only reason i'd use slingcatcher.
try to be the person your dog thinks you are.
Those plastic thing break off easy, or you can buy the tool for them..
Slinging Tivo Series 2, Tivo HD, and TW cable from a Pro. Slinging Tivo HD from a Solo, Slinging Humax DRT800, and TW cable from a Classic to Sprint Mogul, AT&T SX66, N62, 8525, and Dell Inspiron 8600 with Sprint EVDO over Windstream DSL.
For you guys looking to eliminate having the cable box in another room ($9 a month after taxes for me), help other than sling catcher may be on the way.
http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/529358/221
I am very interested in this product as the sling catcher would not be HD.
Anyone know anything about this product?
PS - I would still consider a sling catcher when the price went down...
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