VIDEO: SlingMedia Sling Catcher

Comments

• Compressed HD video is about 13 to 14 Mbps, depending on your cable / satellite provider, and OTA HD is about 19.3 Mbps. So your Internet connection won’t be able to download HD video, as most providers max out at 10 Mbps.
  
  I tried the SlingCatcher, although on a local home network. The SlingCatcher was only connected to a 20″ non-HD TV. No frames were dropped when I streamed it over the home network. I used D-Link’s Powerline connectors to connect the SlingCatcher to my router over my home electrical network, while I had a direct connection between my SlingBox Pro HD and the router.
  
  But the picture did look grainy at times. For instance, when watching the Tonight Show wtih Jay Leno last night, Leno’s suit was pixelated beyond belief. But other parts of the set were fine, and when other things were shown in the same broadcast, everything looked great. The Headlines segment was fine, and even the text in the articles could be read as it was clear. Commercials also looked non-grainy during Leno. So basically it was only Leno’s suit that looked bad.
  
  The overall picture is a bit softer than my cable source on the same TV, but it still looks very good when there are no artifacts introduced.
  
  I’m not sure if I’m going to keep everything at this point. It is nice to have my satellite box accessible upstairs without running RG-6 cable throughout the house, but this isn’t a cheap setup, and I’m not sure how HD will look on a home network if I do upgrade my TV upstairs to HD.
  Posted by Fred, USA