Gracelander Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 Hi.. I know people were raving about the Slingbox a few months back in order to watch Skins games abroad. I'm hoping someone can answer what I might think is a basic question. I went to Best Buy tonight to buy a slingbox, while I was there the guy told me that I would be better off with a Slingcatcher. I bought it, and haven't opened it yet. Do you know if this is the same as a Slingbox? He made it sound like it's an upgrade from the Slingbox, but I want to be able to watch games etc.. from my pc (while I travel) and hopefully get it to work on my phone. Is Slingcatcher able to do this? Thanks Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Guy. Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 the dude fed you a bunch of BS. slingcatcher is only good if you already have a slingbox and want to send that tv signal to another TV somewhere else. It will do nothing on its own and will not send TV to your laptop. Return it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgundy Burner Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 What he said. You need the SlingBox in order to access it through your computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gracelander Posted May 16, 2009 Author Share Posted May 16, 2009 Thanks Guy, you saved me a night of pulling my hair out. Will have to get back to the store tomorrow. Can I ask you, which Slingbox am I looking for? "Sling Media - The Slingbox Solo"? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8548832&st=slingbox&type=product&id=1188561003217 thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Guy. Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 Thanks Guy, you saved me a night of pulling my hair out. Will have to get back to the store tomorrow. Can I ask you, which Slingbox am I looking for? "Sling Media - The Slingbox Solo"?http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8548832&st=slingbox&type=product&id=1188561003217 thanks Well it depends. Do you have an HD set top box? And do you have great upload speeds on your internet? If so then you might consider the HD version of the slingbox. If not, the Solo will do just fine. You just need to have a pretty decent upload speeds to make sure you get decent picture on your laptop. 2mb and up should be okay. You might want to try the Sony LocationFree player... its the same thing as the Solo but cheaper. $70 shipped at amazon.com from one of their partners. http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000I62XHY/ref=dp_olp_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1242446462&sr=8-1 heres a little video I made about my locationfree player. It might help you out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gracelander Posted May 16, 2009 Author Share Posted May 16, 2009 Right now I'm just using a regular digital dvr. I have a decent internet connection, between 3.5 & 4'ish sometimes. Also I ran ethernet cable so I can avoid having to use my wireless connection. Thanks again for your help, you served me much better than the dude at BB.. Let's see how this thing goes tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgundy Burner Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 Well it depends. Do you have an HD set top box? And do you have great upload speeds on your internet? If so then you might consider the HD version of the slingbox. If not, the Solo will do just fine. You just need to have a pretty decent upload speeds to make sure you get decent picture on your laptop. 2mb and up should be okay. You might want to try the Sony LocationFree player... its the same thing as the Solo but cheaper. $70 shipped at amazon.com from one of their partners. http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000I62XHY/ref=dp_olp_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1242446462&sr=8-1 heres a little video I made about my locationfree player. It might help you out. If I could find a wire that is about eighteen feet long (to my TV), then I'm in business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Guy. Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 If I could find a wire that is about eighteen feet long (to my TV), then I'm in business. $5 shipped for 20ft of cat5 cable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgundy Burner Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 $5 shipped for 20ft of cat5 cable And there it is! Thanks for the link. Later this summer, I will probably try this stuff out. Do you think it will look good on a big screen TV? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Guy. Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 And there it is! Thanks for the link.Later this summer, I will probably try this stuff out. Do you think it will look good on a big screen TV? Depends on how far way you sit. At 10-15ft its pretty much the same as SDtv. edit: it depends on other things. is the tv in the same house as the slingbox will be? then you cranck the video quality all the way up and it will look great. if its at another location then you need to make sure the source has good upload speeds... its quite a bit of data its transmitting so that factors in. My locationfree at the highest quality uses 3Mbps upload fwiw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgundy Burner Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 I can always test it before ditching cable. I usually sit about eight to ten feet away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gracelander Posted May 17, 2009 Author Share Posted May 17, 2009 Have you guys ever run into issues installing slingplayer? I returned the catcher and got the solo, I hooked it up and went to get the software but keep getting an install error. It keeps saying "unable to register slingSDK".. I retried installation of the software maybe 10 times now, i've called the sling "help" desk and made sure i have the newest netframe and had to downgrade to IE 7.0 at there request. I tried for almost 9 hours yesterday and i'm just spent on it.. i reset the router as well. When I accidently bought the catcher the other day and hooked it up, the catcher said it saw the network and it was fine, but this slingplayer 2.0 is just giving me grief. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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