Yes I have the same problem too.

Mine ususally drops to 113Kbps and sits there unless I prod it by switching off and on again.

Anyone have any ideas?  

Your data rate on your Aircard is 100% dependent on a number of things:

1.) Strength of the RF link between you and the nearest cell tower - the closer you are to the cell tower, the stronger the link and the faster the speed.

2.) Amount of voice call loading on the cell site. Voice calls get priority and as the number of calls goes up the amount of bandwidth allocated to wireless data access goes down. This is why at peak phone usage time, you'll get low bandwidth.

It does not surprise me that you see what you see. Cellular data cards are never intended to be someone's primary internet connection.

To answer your question: HSDPA which is what AT&T is using for high speed is the highest data rate available right now. HSDAP is capable of download speeds up to about 7 to 8 Mb/sec. But they haven't rolled out the network all that extensively yet - it's in process. It will gradually get better but they may not have every channel or every site in your area up on HSDPA yet.

Slinging with a Slingbox Pro, a Slingbox Solo and a Slingbox Classic. 3 Replay TV units, a Roku HD1000 Photobridge and a Roku M2000 Soundbridge, an AppleTV, a Vudu, and digital cable. www.na9d.net

Reply with quote will quote the post in your reply but it doesn't work with Safari :mad:

Anyhow, you can try messing with the encoding settings but it's really best to just let the Sling Optimizer take care of it. There really isn't a lot you can do, IMHO...

Slinging with a Slingbox Pro, a Slingbox Solo and a Slingbox Classic. 3 Replay TV units, a Roku HD1000 Photobridge and a Roku M2000 Soundbridge, an AppleTV, a Vudu, and digital cable. www.na9d.net

Many factors can contribute to a low stream rate and with it bad quality of picture.

-ISP
-Network Config
-SB Firmware
-SlingPlayer settings

Easiest way to try and tune your picture would be try and set a hard bitrate in the preferences along with picture quality. Upgrading your FW also helps.

After putting up with extremely poor video on my iMac for too many months, I finally decided to experiment with the SlingPlayer Preferences yesterday. It seems that the loss of bandwidth is related to the use of the Optimizer. Or, on the Mac, the DE-Optimizer.

If you turn off the Optimizer, you should see an improvement in bandwidth. Unfortunately, you will need to manually turn off Control Mode every time you change channels. It turns out that Control Mode is linked to the Fast Start option which only functions when you have the Optimizer enabled. However, the improvement in video quality outweighs the annoying need to manually turn off the Control Mode.

In for a penny, in for a pound .... so, I continued to play with the other preferences. When I finished, my bandwidth consistently ran between 2000 and 4000 Kbps. Here are my settings:

General Tab: All warnings turned off. Automatically Reconnect to Last Slingbox: On.

Video Tab: Buffer: Automatic. SlingStream Optimizer: Off. Fast Start: Off. High Quality for LAN: On.

Encoding Tab: Optimize Stream: Manually. Video Bit Rate: 4096. Video Frames: Full Rate. i-Frame Interval: 5. Audio Bit Rate: 32. Video Resolution: 640x480. Video Smoothness: set 1/2 way between the lowest setting (smoother) and the first marker after the lowest setting.

Connection Tab: Untouched (Default Setting).

By the way, my iMac (OS X v10.5.2) is on my local area network and I'm using the ethernet connection not the wireless connection. So, if you're using wireless, you may need to tweak the Video Bit Rate on the Encoding tab slightly. If you do, use small changes +-128 points at a time. Once I found the best bit rate, I improved the quality of the video by adjusting the Video Smoothness.

Good luck with your changes ........

You need to close the connection to your slingbox by clicking the Stop button. Then, you'll have access to the video tab.

i have a mac mini and 3mbps adsl down, and i am pretty sure that
this is a bug with the sling player and we have to sit on our hands
for sling to get around to fixing it.

case in point, right now i am using the pc version with windows xp
connected to a 3g cell phone 400 kbps average and experiencing
no problems what so ever with streaming slowing down

i bet you can prove it to yourself by using boot camp to run the pc version
and the streaming problems will go away, i bet

I have 2 megabits upstream and when I watch my slingplayer remote from my laptop and there are no problems. I usually get 1.3 - 1.5 megabits depending on where I am. Usually hotels have crappy internet and I get 400-750 kb.