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I have the Pro HD. It is pretty nice. If you are watching outside of home there is little reason to upgrade. If you are planning on streaming within your home I would get the pro hd. Who are you kidding? If you plan on having two slingboxes and a slingcatcher chances are you are a little sling obsessed. You might as well. I am interested in the slingcatcher as well. I don't think you would get the black bars. If you are hooking it up through hdmi or component, there shouldnt be any bars.
Hi, I'm really stoked about buying a SlingCatcher but have a few questions before jumping in!
- Right now I have a Slingbox AV. Will the picture look any worse on the SlingCatcher than what I currently see on my Slingplayer on my PC? I'm happy with the quality thus far off the Slingplayer.
- In one room of my house I have a mac mini connected to a Dell 22" widescreen LCD. This is how I watch tv in that room by firing off the slingplayer from the mac mini. I would like to get rid of the mac mini and replace it with the slingcatcher. The slingbox AV I have is connected to a Directv HD DVR. Right now I can watch HD shows without black bars on the Dell widescreen LCD (although of course, the quality is not HD). With the SlingCatcher, would I now see the black bars on the sides or would it work like my mac mini with the slingplayer setup?
- Final question! I plan to buy another slingbox in the future for use with the Slingcatcher. Any reaons why I should look at the PRO HD model over the Solo?
February 8, 2009 11:29 AM
February 8, 2009 12:18 PM
thejesus said: I have the Pro HD. It is pretty nice. If you are watching outside of home there is little reason to upgrade. If you are planning on streaming within your home I would get the pro hd. Who are you kidding? If you plan on having two slingboxes and a slingcatcher chances are you are a little sling obsessed. You might as well. I am interested in the slingcatcher as well. I don't think you would get the black bars. If you are hooking it up through hdmi or component, there shouldnt be any bars.
I am really thinking of getting the Pro HD. I do most of my watching in the house in areas where I don't have my cable tv hooked up. Seems like the pro hd is the way to go.
With the slingcatcher, I'm just want to know if I stream 16:9 content from my slingbox av to the slingcatcher that it will still preserve the 16:9 picture and not chop it down to 4:3.
February 9, 2009 5:30 AM
I had almost the same setup as you - Slingbox AV connected to Satellite set-top-box (although used a PC running slingplayer connected to an LCD).
The picture quality is pretty much identical. The catcher is receiving the 16:9 picture from the slingbox as 16:9 (in fact - I don't think you can set the Slingcatcher to 4:3 - 16:9 is the only option in the relevant options menu). Usability is so much better - remote control rather than keyboard! Also the fan in my PC was noisy - so silence of the slingcatcher is great. Wife much prefers the set up.
As I'm running this on my home network (over Homeplug AV) - I'm intending on upgrading to Slingbox Pro HD when its available in the UK, because I would assume the picture quality (while not 'proper' HD) will be better.
February 9, 2009 11:15 AM
By the way KBlue, how did you hook the SlingCatcher to you LCD? Do you have HDMI inputs?
February 9, 2009 11:25 AM
I'm using an old (Dell) LCD that only has DVI inputs - so I've used an HDMI-DVI lead to connect them.
This one in fact.
February 10, 2009 11:28 AM
Thanks man! You know what, I just found a component to VGA adapter lying around. I think I'll give that a shot! If that doesn't work, I'll get what you got.
February 11, 2009 3:18 PM
Agree with the previous posts. Slingcatcher picture is quite good connected to Slingbox. I have one to Slingbox Pro HD, one to Slingbox Classic, and one to a Slingbox Tuner. Within the LAN, the Pro HD makes a significant difference. However, if viewing remotely, it really does not. All three are pretty similar remotely.
February 19, 2009 12:16 PM
Hey KBlue,
How do you control the volume when watching with the slingcatcher since you are connected to an LCD? Is there a separate volume meter on the slingcatcher?
February 20, 2009 5:59 AM
My LCD doesn't have speakers, so I've got the catcher connected to an old amp - the amp is IR controllable - and have taught the catcher remote the IR commands. I actually have the amp hidden under a chest of drawers, and the IR signal seems to reach it fine.
February 20, 2009 9:29 AM
Ok, so it looks like that I do need some type of amplified source to control volume with the remote. I will be using my Dell LCD and wanted to use some desktop speakers, but it sounds like I will not be able to control the volume unless I have an amp similar to what you have.
February 21, 2009 7:14 PM
Hey kblue, finally got my slingcatcher, hooked it up and went through the installation process. Everything was fine until the slingcatcher restarted after a software update. Now nothing shows on my lcd monitor (HDMI to DVI). I then hooked it up to a tv and of course, I see a picture. Customer support was pretty much no help. Any ideas?
February 21, 2009 9:58 PM
Scratch that, solved the problem. I changed the video resolution to 720p on the sling catcher when I hooked it up to my tv. I then unplugged the slingcatcher and hooked it back up to my lcd monitor. That did the trick!
Only bad part is that on Full Screen, which seems to be the best video output, I still get some thin bars around the picture. Any idea how I can get rid of that?
February 23, 2009 2:45 PM
glad you managed to sort that out. I had to play with the monitor settings a bit to get the picture to fit exactly. I did have bars top and bottom (fixed) but left and right sides are fine.
February 24, 2009 12:17 PM
If outside my network, say 100 miles away, I view my SlingBox on my PC, can I expected similar quality and performance if instead I purchased a SlingCatcher and attach it to the TV there?
The TV there is a nothing 26 inch Panasonic.
February 24, 2009 12:22 PM
azmerf said: If outside my network, say 100 miles away, I view my SlingBox on my PC, can I expected similar quality and performance if instead I purchased a SlingCatcher and attach it to the TV there? The TV there is a nothing 26 inch Panasonic.
All depends on your upload speed from home. I have a pretty good upload speed and think the picture remotely is fine... not like on my LAN at home, but still good.
February 24, 2009 12:25 PM
burnside said:Thanks. So if I see a good picture on my PC, I should expect to see the same picture on the TV with a SlingCatcher?azmerf said: If outside my network, say 100 miles away, I view my SlingBox on my PC, can I expected similar quality and performance if instead I purchased a SlingCatcher and attach it to the TV there? The TV there is a nothing 26 inch Panasonic.All depends on your upload speed from home. I have a pretty good upload speed and think the picture remotely is fine... not like on my LAN at home, but still good.
February 24, 2009 12:28 PM
Yeah, if you're watching off your PC at that remote location where you want to hook up your slingcatcher, then you should see pretty much the same picture. One difference I do notice is that when you change channels or send any remote command to the slingbox, you'll notice a longer delay using the slingcatcher than the slingplayer on your pc.
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