I should have mentioned. I have gone into advanced and have it set to "HD". The stream is still as above, but now I've upgraded my internet service to 15MB upload at SlingBox and 15MB Download at SlingCatcher. Frustrating!

Any other ideas?

Tivo Series 3, Slingbox PRO-HD, SlingCatcher

Did you do any customizing of the SlingBox or SlingCatcher? Or the QOS, or anything else on the routers on either side? I tried giving my SlingCatcher a static IP address, but that was the only suggestion from SlingMedia customer service. No help there.

Anything would be great. It's annoying that I can't even watch HD when I have up to 15MB of possibility.

Tivo Series 3, Slingbox PRO-HD, SlingCatcher

I am talking about remote viewing. I'm in Japan, SlingBox is in Portland Oregon. I know the SlingBox router has QOS. It's the router that Verizon gives out with their FiOS service.

On my side I have a Belkin N router. It is fairly new (1 year old) and I'd assume the CPU would be able to handle the stream. When I use Hulu and the SlingProjector, it's gotten 4000-6000 and looks really good, even on a 54" plasma.

The other issue may be with FiOS. I'm having that worked on as well. If I get a solution I'll let everyone know. Thanks for your help!

BTW-- Is there a place to request that Manual Rate be built into the next SlingCatcher? It seems crazy that you can do it with the Free SlingPlayer, but not the Catcher, which cost money!?

Tivo Series 3, Slingbox PRO-HD, SlingCatcher

So, If I were to test the speed on the LAN, is that telling me that ROUTER's CPU is sufficient?  For example, if the LAN give me 6000kbps, is that telling me the router is capable of streaming 6000kbps to a remote location as well (as long as my ISP allows me that bandwidth?)  

Am I getting that right?

NA9D said: The SlingCatcher does not have a manual bandwidth adjustment. Your stream rate will vary depending on what is being streamed, etc. But you can't really control it in either the Slingbox itself or the SlingCatcher. The best thing you can do is look at your router and settings. Streaming video is a lot different than doing a speed test. Video streaming sucks up a ton of router CPU time as it's constant over a long period of time. Here's some options to think about: - Use QoS on both sides of the equation - need QoS at the Slingbox upload side and on the SlingCatcher download side. Most new routers have some sort of prioritization that you can do or it may be automatic, etc. But having traffic management is crucial - Your router if older, just may not have the CPU horsepower to stream video constantly at 3 or 4 Mb/sec. Most consumer grade routers (at least the older ones) aren't designed to necessarily handle high data rate streaming. That's all I can think of really. You should try running the Slingbox and Catcher on the same LAN segment and see how fast you can get over a 100 Mb/sec LAN. It should top out around 6 Mb/sec or so. If that works good, then you know that you just need to tweak your other network settings in your routers.

Tivo Series 3, Slingbox PRO-HD, SlingCatcher

NA9D said: Not necessarily. The function of the LAN portion of the router is only acting as a switch - directing the traffic from one port to another as appropriate. When traversing the router interface, much more happens and the performance of the router can have an effect. Thinking about this some more, since you can stream faster on your laptop than on the SlingCatcher, it looks like it's not a router problem since both Catcher and Laptop use the same router. What sort of network connection does the SlingCatcher use? Try streaming with your laptop plugged into that network connection (ie: take the network cable from the Catcher and plug it into your laptop). See what you get there. I've seen issues with cables before. Now, if you don't manually set your laptop speed settings, what do you get? I'm wondering if what you are seeing has to do with how Sling addresses optimization and buffering. If you get 3 Mb/sec speeds with your laptop, maybe those are more like peak speeds and you have a lot of ups and downs in speed while streaming. Maybe the SlingCatcher optimization routine is a little different in that it tries to minimize both peaks and dips. You end up with a lower peak speed, but your stream quality may be more consistent and less prone to network hiccups. I don't know much of anything about the optimization algorithms and how they are implemented in each product. I'm just trying to make some educated guesses as to what might be happening. Other than that, I just don't know. The Catcher is designed to be a simple to use appliance and that's it. I doubt we'll see many more additional features or improvements offered to the platform.

Now that you ask, I have paid more attention.  The computer set at manual streams give me up to 2800, but gives a lot of network "hiccups" so it is pretty choppy.  I'm sure it's just optimizing to prevent that.  When I let it automatically optimize, it gives about the same as the SlingCatcher and it is much more smooth!

 I'm still wondering if it may be an issue with the SlingBox router or with Verizon itself at the Slingbox location.  Additional speed test have given  as slow as 1MB upload and 2-3MB upload speeds.  The best has been 18MB, but it should be much more consistant.  I'm still waiting for my brother-in-law to call Verizon and chat with one of their network specialists so see if there's a problem with Verizon.  Then I may want to try a new router.  Any recommendations for routers?  He has the Westell 9100 EM (http://www.westell.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=952&... And more about that series (http://www.westell.com/broadband-home-networking/ultraline-series3.html). It looks plenty robust to take care of a Slingbox.  I kind of doubt its the router.  

When I chat online with Sling, or when my brother watches the Slingbox, he gets about the same.  Nothing like the 3.5 to 4 MB that I was hoping for.  Any other suggestions?  If something comes of him calling Verizon, I'll definitely post it!

 As far as connections:  Everything is set up with Wired connections.  The ones that came in the boxes.  Should I order a CAT6 wire and see if that helps?  I'm really out of ideas and don't understand why I'm getting 1.4-1.9MB/sec when I have so much more available (it would seem).  

Tivo Series 3, Slingbox PRO-HD, SlingCatcher

It's getting too busy if I try to reply....

So, to complicate things worse, it's not just the hops from Portland to Japan. My ISP (Americable) is based out of London. I did speed tests from Portland to London (4MB DL) and from London to Tokyo (10MB DL). I can't force the upload to go through London. I could see that being the bottleneck though.

The TV looks very good for regular programming and pretty bad for sports. I'm willing to put in the work up front since I'll be in Japan for 3 years on these orders, then maybe Europe after. If I can get it working better, I'd love to do it.

CAT6 wires worthwhile?

Tivo Series 3, Slingbox PRO-HD, SlingCatcher