WillMexicoCity
Feb 4, 2007, 12:46 AM
Post #11 of 12
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FINALLY, someone has posted, 1.) an upload speed that works with slingbox (500 kb/s) and the fact that one gets a good picture and sound quality in Mexico.
What size screen are you watching this on? Are you saying that if this picture were to be displayed on a regular TV, not just a much smaller computer monitor, that the picture quality is the same as you would get from a satellite system or the local cable company?
The reason I keep on questioning folks on this issue is because the techies I talk to, who admittedly are not Slingbox experts, all say that it would take maybe 2,000 to 4,000 kb/sec upload speeds to provide someone with high quality video and sound equivalent to the signal you would see on your say 27 inch TV getting it's signal from a cable company or a satellite system.
For example, I already get most of my Seattle network stations via the Star Choice Satellite system, in fact 3 of them in high definition. Are suggesting that with an upload speed of only 500 kb/sec one can also get a high quality signal?
I would greatly appreciate any comments you might add to this. Understand that I am not challenging you, but trying to better just how good this method of TV programming distribution is.
I mostly watch my on my 21" computer monitor and normally just use about a 25% of my monitor, on the right hand side. The slingplayer software does a good job of resizing the desktop to allow me to continue surfing the web, working or goofing off while I'm watching/listening to tv. I rarely watch in fullscreen mode, but when I do I just back away from the monitor and it is viewable, not perfect. It is not comparable to the quality my DishTV, but for me its not my main source of US TV. On occasion when it rains very hard in Mexico City, I suffer some rain fade on the DishTV and watch the slingplayer. The slingbox solution is by no means perfect, but honestly it is one of the best gadgets that I have bought in many years.
SlingMedia, the maker of the slingbox, has done a really good job with updates and improvements to both the firmware for the slingbox and slingplayer. In the 14 months that I have had mine the picture quality on the player has easily improved by 50%. Some friends also say that the newer sling boxes are even better at "Slinging" better picture quality to the Slingplayer. Keep in mind, processor speed, video card, and installed RAM on your computer also affect the quality of the picture.
I travel extensively for work and have used it with little problems. I have "slung" my US TV as far as Africa and get decent quality. We all complain about Mexico's slow evolution of Highspeed Internet. Try Africa, specifically Nigeria....in comparison Mexico is light years ahead of them. Be thankful! Before Jan 2007, during my commutes to/from work I was watching my slingplayer on Lufthansa Airlines, as they offered Highspeed Internet. Now that was really awesome, and I always received weird looks/questions from people sitting close by as I watched FoxNews Live.
I also have the slingplayer installed on my Windows based Smartphone, it works ok. Nice when you don't want to drag out the laptop for a few minutes of waiting.
I can't wait for the release of the SlingCatcher, which is a cool device that will connect directly to your TV, no PC needed. You will be able to watch remote slingboxes and even use a feature called SlingProjector that will use a program on your PC and project the PC's desktop on to the SlingCatcher connected TV. It is supposed to be sporting an HDMI connector, so I would assume they have included some hardware support for "upsizing" to a large TV (42" or more) similar to some of the new DVD players that upsize the quality of a normal DVD without loosing picture quality.
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