DVD navigation will be coming in a future update...keep the suggestions coming!

Hmm, should we started a "SlingCatcher Suggestions" thread to sticky at the top of the board? (Of course, people would have to behave and not thread drift to other things...)

-MegaZone, GizmoLovers.com
Slingbox PRO-HD w/TiVo Series3, Slingbox SOLO w/TiVo Pioneer DVR-810H, SPM Treo 680, SP WinXP
(Former Sling Media Beta Program Manager.)

My SlingCatcher arrived today. Overall, I've been impressed, however, I'm having some difficulty making HDMI audio work properly. I've tried 720i/p and 1080i/p, and whenever I play standard DVD video directly from USB Mass Storage attached to the SlingCatcher, the audio "pulses", and is just slightly slower. The video looks fine and the Audio and Video are in sync, but the audio is messed-up. I tried using fast Flash memory and a USB-based hard-drive with no change. I managed to get the SlingCatcher switched over to S-Video and when I use the exact same DVD media files with either Flash or Hard Drive, everything worked very well - no audio or video issues. After switching back to HDMI, however, the audio problem returned. The SlingCatcher is playing the VOB's as expected (no errors), it's just not playing them well - it almost looks like a bandwidth problem (processor speed, not network - I'm NOT using SlingProjector...)

If needed, I can record a sample of what the audio sounds like.

Again, this is a brand-new Slingcatcher with the latest firmware available, trying to play a FAT32-based "USB Disk" consisting of standard production DVD video files via HDMI. The same USB setup and DVD files work fine when viewed via S-Video from the Slingcatcher.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

OK...I'm new to the world of ripping. What do I need to backup my DVDs that I own to a hard drive in order to play them on my soon to be purchased catcher? I have both a Mac Laptop and Vista desktop...

Thank you,
RJL

Testing complete. Here are my component results: PASS

Every mode supported by my Samsung TV worked fine in component mode. I successfully tested Audio and Video in the following modes:

480i
480p
720p 60Hz
1080i/1080p 60Hz

The following modes weren't supported by my TV, so I couldn't test them:

576i
576p
720p 50Hz
1080i/1080p 50Hz

Since component worked OK, I believe this might have something to do with the fact that HDMI is transporting audio as well as video. Again, this "sounds" like a bandwidth issue.

NA9D said: Sonar Tech - Do you have another HDMI capable TV at either your house or a friend's house that you could try the Catcher with. I have done extensive testing and work with the MyMedia section and specifically with DVD playback. In all cases, I have not at all seen what you describe. The audio on my end plays great. What is your audio output setting on the Catcher - DD5.1 or Stereo? Try swapping it? If you run right into your TV, you may get no audio if you select DD5.1 but it would be worth seeing what you are using. If you run right into a TV, the setting probably should be set to "stereo." There should be no issue with the Catcher playing DVD rips over HDMI. I also thought it might be your TV but it looks like it works fine with other media like projecting.

My friend has a different TV with an HDMI input, so we'll haul it over to his house and give it a try there.  I have tried both audio types available (Stereo/DD5.1) but they both did the same thing.  I agree that there shouldn't be any issues, but clearly something's amiss.  And yes, projecting works fine.  The exact same VIDEO_TS, when played through Media Player plays fine to the same TV.  This problem is limited to DVD playback from USB-based media sent over HDMI.  We normally use the HDMI on the TV for the Comcast DVR box, and we've not had any issues with that.  I did also buy a different HDMI cable today -- I'm 99.9% sure that's not the problem in this scenario, but I want to eliminate it nonetheless.

NA9D said: Stupid question, but is the Drive a USB 2.0 drive? Also, if you play non-DVD files like MPEG-2 or WMV files, is the audio OK then?

NA9D said: Stupid question, but is the Drive a USB 2.0 drive? Also, if you play non-DVD files like MPEG-2 or WMV files, is the audio OK then?

As I stated earlier, the playback works fine from component in high def using the same devices, video files and TV, so this is a problem is apparently limited to HDMI audio.  And yes, these are USB 2.0 devices, although that shouldn't matter much if USB wasn't such a CPU-intensive technology (shame on Intel).  USB 1.1 "Full Speed" can provide "up to 12Mbit/s", and DVD MPEG-2 video+audio typically peaks at no more than 10Mbit/s.  Anyway, I haven't yet had a chance to try additional media files beyond the DVD so far.  I'll work on that Sunday (today).

In other news, we took the Catcher downstairs to the Sony projector for a spin; it worked very well.  Unfortunately, the projector doesn't eat HDMI audio, so we couldn't test that part.  However, we did run 1080i, and we used digital CoAx for audio, and everything worked perfect.  No "flickering" audio issue at all, again pointing to an HDMI-only problem. 

We did notice that when using the projector software to project a large viewing window, it will slow-down audio ever so slightly when streaming and then slowly "catch up".  We had the PC playing XM Radio and streamed the XM Control through the video.  When we defined the projection initial window, audio slowed down a noticeable amount, and then slowly caught up to normal speed.  Took about ~4 minutes to attain "normality".  Overall, it worked very well, and the speed transition was very well hidden.  We were very impressed -- So impressed, that my friend logged-on to Newegg and placed an order for his own SlingCatcher at my house, 10 minutes after seeing it work...

Well, like I had mentioned, my buddy purchased one last night, so we'll have an additional one in a few days.  I still have some additional testing to do before I can make the determination that the HDMI port's bad on my unit, and if I can identify at least 1 scenario where HDMI audio works OK, we'll definitely know this is a SlingCatcher issue... or perhaps I found a genuine incompatibility with this Samsung display?  I dunno.  I would have a difficult time believing HMDI video works just fine but HDMI audio is broken.  If it was a bad HDMI port, it would have to be bad silicon, because there IS descernable audio, it's just not good quality.  Since it's digital going through the cable, it'll either work or it won't.

Well, anyway, no need to speculate.  I'll get some additional testing done today that should definitively point to the culprit.  Here's the plan using the same USB device and A/V files:

1. Try a different brand of TV and see if the HDMI audio is still corrupted.  If it isn't bad, then I found a Samsung bug, or bad HMDI hardware on my Samsung TV.
2. Try a different cable (hardly a likely suspect, but part of the test anyway...)
3. Try different media types.  If at least one format can be found where the HDMI audio works OK on the Samsung TV, this is a SlingCatcher issue (especially given the fact that Digital CoAx audio works fine from the same box).

I think that's the Meat'n'Taters of this issue.  Tomorrow, I'll take this unit to work with me and we'll excercise it on one of the largest corporate network environments on the planet  :-)

I also just noticed that USB is staying powered-up even if the SlingCatcher's powered-OFF (soft off). Was that intentional or just lazy? If this came through my hardware testing lab, I'd have classed that as a design bug. I can't think of any reason at all why you'd want to leave USB powered-up when the device is "off".