My Slingbox And Slingcatcher Expreince In Thailand

[ScubaBuddha]

I just set up a Slingbox SOLO with HD capability in the US over Christmas. (120usd used on Ebay) It works most the time via laptop here in Thailand as long as sling.com's "watch" feature isn't returning a "502 gateway error" message which has happened a couple time for several hours at a time. The picture occasionally hangs for a few seconds, but that is usually when am controlling it (scrolling the guide, etc) and the connection speed drops drastically as it re-optimizes. It usually streams at 1000 to 1500kbps, which is fairly good from what I hear from other Sling users in Thailand. I am fairly impressed with the picture quality, especially with the HD channels.

I have a 4mb down/1mb up with Maxnet/BBB which I pay 2500 baht (75usd) a month for. At the Slingbox location in the US I have a 30mb down/10mb up cable line with Comcast which I pay 60USD (2000 baht) for. (Yes, US internet is cheaper and 8 times faster and way more reliable. Welcome to Thailand)

Everything stateside was pretty much plug and play, which is good because this was the first time I have ever tried to set up a home network without someone helping me. I was a little worried when my new Comcast DVR cable box wasn't listed on sling's list during setup. I believe this was just to configure the remote control. After trying a couple similar Comcast boxes, I found one with the same remote and it seems to have all the same buttons.

So before I left the states I got everything working well there, including the Slingcatcher (which is designed to play directly on my TV here.) Now, here in Thailand, I can't get the Slingcatcher to work. It appears to connect with Sling servers since I am able to sign in and see my US Slingbox in listed on it, but when I try to connect to the Slingbox in the US it says I can not due to a "network error". It seems there are many people having this problem. I have searched the sling community and other places on the internets and thus far have found some possible solutions, such as opening port 5001, port forwarding, and changing the stream type from SNATT to RELAY or TCP, which I think all require me to be at the Slingbox location and probably have technical skills beyond those I currently possess. As suggested by some, I tried alt-shift-i while streaming in Firefox using the Slingplayer software to see what type of stream I was getting (TCP, RELAY or SNATT) but all that happened is the info bar on the cable box briefly opened at the bottom of the screen. I think all I can do from here to try to solve this problem is have someone reset the Slingbox in the states, which I just did with the same results.

I am really disappointed in this Slingcatcher. It seems Sling released it before it was finished beta-testing it. Any help would be appreciated.

[bkksw]

I've been using my Slingbox Pro here for the last three years.

It's been interesting watching my local ISP go from being able to only get a picture for maybe 15 minutes a day.. to incremental improvements where I can usually get at least some picture 20 hours a day.

I'm not living in the country either.. I'm living right in the middle of a fairly well off area in Bangkok.. yet True says the best they can offer me is the 1mb line.

I wish there was an alternative so I could take advantage of the HD channels and the Tivo like software recorder.. because being 12 hours out of sync with prime time means you miss out on a lot.

At this time I find the marginal picture okay for news shows.. can't wait until I can get all 150 HD channels my sons cable provides.. until them I'll DL torrents for my main tv viewing.

[ScubaBuddha]

Here is a screen capture of MSNBC HD. I don't think it is possible to get a capture of the image during full screen, but it seems just as sharp to me. It only gets this sharp once streaming hits about 1000kbps.

[Langsuan Man]

I don't understand why you are using the SlingCatcher ?

From the Sling media web site:

The SlingCatcher extends your Slingbox experience beyond a computer or mobile phone screen. Now you can watch and control your main TV and DVR on ANY other TV in your house or around the world. The SlingCatcher is great for a room that isn’t wired for cable or satellite. Or, take it on the road to your vacation home.

By using the SlingCatcher here you are just asking for another piece of electronic equipment to fail

I have the Slingbox AV set up in the US, using a private Cable company that uses the same equipment that Comcast does. They also provide me with my 5 MB Internet

The Slingbox AV has two sensors that are placed on the DVR and these are what remotely control the DVR. It has been my experience that I get a clearer "stream" here in Thailand if I use the DVR, rather than watching live. The Slingbox is plugged into my router and this is how my "finder ID" knows where to find it

I have 3 B broadband here in Pattaya and pay for the 5 MB Premier Service and I usually stream in the neighborhood of 450 to 700 kbs (per the Slingplayer screen)

I use the 1.5 version of the SlingPlayer software and the only time I have had trouble with it was when I uplgraded to the 2.0 + version, which is IMHO, pure crap.

The major problem with the Slingbox is that no one is home in the states so if the Slingbox goes down my only recourse is to "pray" for a power outage to reset the Slingbox. Now that I am sure that my router is bullet proof next winter I will install a switch that can be operated via telephone to turn the Slingbox on and off so I no longer have to wait for a power outage to reset the Slingbox unit

[OriginalPoster]

Here is a screen capture of MSNBC HD. I don't think it is possible to get a capture of the image during full screen, but it seems just as sharp to me. It only gets this sharp once streaming hits about 1000kbps.

That screen shot is only 480 x 361 pixels. Is that all that Sling gives you even their "HD" boxes?

[OriginalPoster]

The major problem with the Slingbox is that no one is home in the states so if the Slingbox goes down my only recourse is to "pray" for a power outage to reset the Slingbox. Now that I am sure that my router is bullet proof next winter I will install a switch that can be operated via telephone to turn the Slingbox on and off so I no longer have to wait for a power outage to reset the Slingbox unit

One solution to that would be plug the Slingbox's A/C adapter into an old-fashioned mechanical timer that you'd set to turn off the A/C power at every day at some early morning hour and to turn the power back on a few minutes later. That way you be guaranteed to never have to wait more than 24 hours before a reboot of the Slingbox occurs. Probably you can buy timers like that for almost nothing.

[ScubaBuddha]

I don't understand why you are using the SlingCatcher ?

Because I want to watch it on my HD TV and as well use a real remote control to change channels, program the DVR, or even watch ON DEMAND movies just as if I had the cable box/DVR right here in my house, instead of watching it on my computer screen and using the mouse to manipulate the controls on a virtual remote control on the screen.

[ScubaBuddha]

Here is a screen capture of MSNBC HD. I don't think it is possible to get a capture of the image during full screen, but it seems just as sharp to me. It only gets this sharp once streaming hits about 1000kbps.

That screen shot is only 480 x 361 pixels. Is that all that Sling gives you even their "HD" boxes?

No. There is a full screen feature, but as I mentioned, I can't get my image cature software, Snagit, to capture the entire screen when I am in that mode because AFAIK no other programs are accessible when viewing video in full screen mode. Maybe I will try to take a picture of the screen. The picture sharpens up nicely after a few seconds of optimizing. The real question is how will it all look on an actual TV. It looked indistinguishable from the real thing when I used the Catcher in the states, but that was with a 10mb upload and 30mb download line. Others have said they get good good quality video, others have said not so good. I am hoping that I have the right combination of internet services and Sling products (The SOLO and Catcher are both HD compatible) to make it work, if I can just get past this "network error" problem.

Some more screen grabs:

[genobkk]

I used slingbox last yea. I switched ISP several times, and I like to watch it on the big screen TV not computer so it was so tough to get real good quality. I decided it was way much cheaper to just download the stuff, bought me the new Popcorn hour c-200 and just hooked that to my tv and I get HD shows that do NOT skip and stop all the itme, way way better then the slingbox. I am sure the net is a bit better now then it was last year but still I could never get anything higher then 1 to 1.5 download and it was not stable enough to watch in HD. I am not into sports so maybe that is part of the reason I just gave up on it. the 12 hour thing always sucked to even though I had a DVR from Direct TV it was annoying when I wanted to watch the Discovery Science channel and most others was all advertiseing for hours at a time, so I just went my current way...I get heroes in HD, can download any movie I want and on m 5 MB connection with BBB Maxnet I can download most movies in 30 or 40 min, full HD can take a lot more time if it is a movie. If you do not want to pay the $299 price for the popcorn hour get the W TV box, every Banana IT has them now at only 5,000 THB. I was using the old sling catcher with an Hard drive hookup ot it to watch stuff, but it would not play very many file formats and it was annoying hooking and unhooking the Hard drive to move my files. any how just my 2 cents

[Chicog]

Just a note to say that SlingMedia have excellent online support (kinda like messenger) and they can even (if you let them) remote control your PC and fix any router problems for you.

Give them a try.

[Martian]

The major problem with the Slingbox is that no one is home in the states so if the Slingbox goes down my only recourse is to "pray" for a power outage to reset the Slingbox. Now that I am sure that my router is bullet proof next winter I will install a switch that can be operated via telephone to turn the Slingbox on and off so I no longer have to wait for a power outage to reset the Slingbox unit

One solution to that would be plug the Slingbox's A/C adapter into an old-fashioned mechanical timer that you'd set to turn off the A/C power at every day at some early morning hour and to turn the power back on a few minutes later. That way you be guaranteed to never have to wait more than 24 hours before a reboot of the Slingbox occurs. Probably you can buy timers like that for almost nothing.

This is a really simple low-tech way to resolve the aforementioned problem. The only downside is that ultimately, you can't control the exact time of switching because with a "mechanical" timer switch, if there is a power outage, the time will be offset by the power outage amount of time and that becomes cumulative over the course of time. I see that as the only downside of this suggestion, which is brilliant for the most part! If there is something like this with a battery back-up built-in, it would work practically perfectly.

Regards

[Langsuan Man]

Just a note to say that SlingMedia have excellent online support (kinda like messenger) and they can even (if you let them) remote control your PC and fix any router problems for you.

Give them a try.

Yes, but make sure you have your credit card handy for the $ 29.99 per incident charge and they will not guarantee anything to work if you are not physically at the remote location

[Langsuan Man]

This is a really simple low-tech way to resolve the aforementioned problem. The only downside is that ultimately, you can't control the exact time of switching because with a "mechanical" timer switch, if there is a power outage, the time will be offset by the power outage amount of time and that becomes cumulative over the course of time. I see that as the only downside of this suggestion, which is brilliant for the most part! If there is something like this with a battery back-up built-in, it would work practically perfectly.

Regards

That is why, along with my Majic Jack I can control the switch remotely using an X10 Appliance module and telephone remote to reboot the Slingbox when needed

[mnbcm]

I've strongly considered getting one but it seems like it's too much work and too expensive for as poor quality it sounds. Most of what I want can be downloaded elsewhere, legally of course. I'll stick with that route for now unless it gets a lot better.

[OriginalPoster]

I've strongly considered getting one but it seems like it's too much work and too expensive for as poor quality it sounds. Most of what I want can be downloaded elsewhere, legally of course. I'll stick with that route for now unless it gets a lot better.

I agree with that when it comes to watching televisions shows since most of them are almost immediately available on usenet groups and torrents sites anyway. Where I still find the slingbox to be useful though is to watch certain sporting events and occasionally to watch a local news channel.

[Goattee]

The major problem with the Slingbox is that no one is home in the states so if the Slingbox goes down my only recourse is to "pray" for a power outage to reset the Slingbox. Now that I am sure that my router is bullet proof next winter I will install a switch that can be operated via telephone to turn the Slingbox on and off so I no longer have to wait for a power outage to reset the Slingbox unit

One solution to that would be plug the Slingbox's A/C adapter into an old-fashioned mechanical timer that you'd set to turn off the A/C power at every day at some early morning hour and to turn the power back on a few minutes later. That way you be guaranteed to never have to wait more than 24 hours before a reboot of the Slingbox occurs. Probably you can buy timers like that for almost nothing.

This is a really simple low-tech way to resolve the aforementioned problem. The only downside is that ultimately, you can't control the exact time of switching because with a "mechanical" timer switch...

I had the same issue and solved it with this Woods 59377 timer:

http://www.amazon.com/Woods-59377-Digital-...1669&sr=8-1

• It allows 1-min. off/on cycles
  
• It supports multiple on/off settings (So I have it power cycle the box 4x every day.)
  
• It has a backup battery
  
• I have had it in service for 15 months now
  

[Goattee]

I am really disappointed in this Slingcatcher. It seems Sling released it before it was finished beta-testing it. Any help would be appreciated.

I have been using a Slingcatcher for about 8 months and bought a second one while in the states last month. They lack some of the caching that we take for granted in the Windows slingplayer and as a result tend to be less tolerant of reduced bandwidth and packet loss. I am not sure what would be causing your problems because you seem to have excellent bandwidth-- far better than I have.

My experience is that when the bandwidth is marginal I can finesse the problem with the Windows Slingplayer. I can start the show and pause the cache for a few minutes to build a good sized buffer. But there is no equivalent solution for the Slingcatcher. One thing I have come to love about the catcher is that I can play videos on our TV from mpg and avi files I have on USB drives and elsewhere on my home network. So when bandwidth is awful, I can watch high quality local video.

Feel free to tap me as you troubleshoot your Slingcatcher issues.

We learned recently that we're toward the end of the acceptable distance from the phone switching node. So that makes our DSL performance highly erratic. We're switching to a new ISP soon who's exploiting the fiber running down our soi. (MEA has been on this fiber optic buildout through core sections of Bangkok.) At least this will reduce latency. Now we just have to hope that the international gateway that the new ISP uses has sufficient capacity.

[Goattee]

... such as opening port 5001, port forwarding, and changing the stream type from SNATT to RELAY or TCP, which I think all require me to be at the Slingbox location

First off, it does not make sense to me that you are able to access the Slingbox using either Slingplayers on computers or using the web browser plugin but cannot do so with the Slingcatcher. Slingcatchers use the very same connection mechanism to connect to your Slingbox.

But anyway, it is a very good idea to check whether your router is properly configured.

Changing the router at the Slingbox location can be done with one of these methods:

1. Being connected on the inside of the network in that location. (Usually meaning that you are connected to your router.) Obviously that's not so easy for you to arrange.
   
2. If your router at that location was set to allow remote management, you could connect to it using a web browser from Thailand (or anywhere else for that matter). This is not a default setting-- someone would have had to change that setting.
   

• • If you have someone at the house who can help, you could have them turn on that feature. They would use a web browser in the home to access the router.With most routers this is a fairly simple step of specifying a port to use and then checking a checkbox in the web browser and then restarting the router. If your internet service in the Slingbox home does not have a static address, there are a couple more steps involved. (Contact me if you want to learn more about all of this.)
    

Method #2 would pay off bigtime for you. You could then make incremental changes to fix your problems. So see whether you have someone who could be guided to enable the remote feature.

If you do, let's discuss the details offline about how to proceed. I have private messages enabled. Just click on my nickname in the upper left and choose that option. You might also want to consider enabling private messages for yourself-- I would have sent you a message by now if you had already done that.

[Goattee]

I need to correct one point. It is clearly relevant to your problem.

First off, it does not make sense to me that you are able to access the Slingbox using either Slingplayers on computers or using the web browser plugin but cannot do so with the Slingcatcher. Slingcatchers use the very same connection mechanism to connect to your Slingbox.

I wish I had done an internet search before I made that comment. I found this thread-- which must be where you got your information:

http://www.slingcommunity.com/forum/thread...s-SNATT-stream/

It is more clear than ever that we need to get your port forwarding implemented.

[Goattee]

I'm not living in the country either.. I'm living right in the middle of a fairly well off area in Bangkok.. yet True says the best they can offer me is the 1mb line.

I have learned from experience:

• The biggest enemy of Slingbox users is a high rate of sharing at the ISP's node. The more customers sharing the node = less capacity for you.
  
• True is probably the worst ISP for people like us. They seem to have the highest number of customers per node. And they don't care. They go for volume not quality.
  
• The capacity of the International Gateway matters. As far as I can tell, the three biggest gateways are operated by True, CAT and Jasmine. CAT is the vehicle for many ISP's and seems to have the most capacity. (Of course it also depends on how much demand there is on the gateway.)
  
• My guess is that when we get messages from people in Pattaya and Chiang Mai about how great their bandwidth is, we are seeing evidence that these people have less competition for bandwidth. So the paradox is that living in the most urban parts of Bangkok is actually a disadvantage.
  
• It helps to live closer to the switching center-- unless you have fiber feeding your residence. DSL is very sensitive to distance. My condo is way down the soi and the node is way down the main road. We are on the fringes of what can be achieved with DSL. Let's hope that MEA's deployment of fiber around Bangkok will ultimately help reduce the congestion and improve quality and speed of bandwidth.
  

I wish there was an alternative so I could take advantage of the HD channels and the Tivo like software recorder.. because being 12 hours out of sync with prime time means you miss out on a lot.

You can still watch the HD channels anyhow-- just not in HD resolution.

Unless/until the international gateways from Thailand to the outer world can meet the demand, it's going to be difficult to get the kind of bandwidth you need to stream HD consistently. This requires >= 1M of actual bandwidth.

At this time I find the marginal picture okay for news shows.. can't wait until I can get all 150 HD channels my sons cable provides.. until them I'll DL torrents for my main tv viewing.

I have a Slingbox Classic hooked up to an HD DVR in California. The Classic cannot even output HD resolution. But I can still watch HDnet if I want. Just not at HD resolution. (Considering how bad our bandwidth has been lately, I'd be happy to get full SD resolution! Lately we can't even gwatch a single show without lots of dropouts.)

[ScubaBuddha]

I just figured out how to screen capture when it is on full screen on my laptop. This is from Spike and SciFi channels which are HD. Click to see full size:

[ScubaBuddha]

Just a note to say that SlingMedia have excellent online support (kinda like messenger) and they can even (if you let them) remote control your PC and fix any router problems for you.

Give them a try.

Ok but I doubt they can remotely control the computer my Slingbox is networked to unless there is someone with at least some basic computing knowledge sitting in front of it.

[ScubaBuddha]

... such as opening port 5001, port forwarding, and changing the stream type from SNATT to RELAY or TCP, which I think all require me to be at the Slingbox location

First off, it does not make sense to me that you are able to access the Slingbox using either Slingplayers on computers or using the web browser plugin but cannot do so with the Slingcatcher. Slingcatchers use the very same connection mechanism to connect to your Slingbox.

But anyway, it is a very good idea to check whether your router is properly configured.

Changing the router at the Slingbox location can be done with one of these methods:

1. Being connected on the inside of the network in that location. (Usually meaning that you are connected to your router.) Obviously that's not so easy for you to arrange.
   
2. If your router at that location was set to allow remote management, you could connect to it using a web browser from Thailand (or anywhere else for that matter). This is not a default setting-- someone would have had to change that setting.
   

• • If you have someone at the house who can help, you could have them turn on that feature. They would use a web browser in the home to access the router.With most routers this is a fairly simple step of specifying a port to use and then checking a checkbox in the web browser and then restarting the router. If your internet service in the Slingbox home does not have a static address, there are a couple more steps involved. (Contact me if you want to learn more about all of this.)
    

Method #2 would pay off bigtime for you. You could then make incremental changes to fix your problems. So see whether you have someone who could be guided to enable the remote feature.

If you do, let's discuss the details offline about how to proceed. I have private messages enabled. Just click on my nickname in the upper left and choose that option. You might also want to consider enabling private messages for yourself-- I would have sent you a message by now if you had already done that.

I need to correct one point. It is clearly relevant to your problem.

First off, it does not make sense to me that you are able to access the Slingbox using either Slingplayers on computers or using the web browser plugin but cannot do so with the Slingcatcher. Slingcatchers use the very same connection mechanism to connect to your Slingbox.

I wish I had done an internet search before I made that comment. I found this thread-- which must be where you got your information:

http://www.slingcommunity.com/forum/thread...s-SNATT-stream/

It is more clear than ever that we need to get your port forwarding implemented.

Thanks for the help Goattee. FYI my PM function works fine. Not sure what's going on there.

Yeah if you look at my original post I mentioned the SNATT problem. Since then I noticed that when I click on "support" at the sling website I get a warning that I have not configured my Slingbox for a Slingcatcher yet, which is odd because the catcher worked fine in the states, but that was when it was on the same network as the box.

So my next step is to have my brother install LogMeIn on the remote computer next time he is there, then by contolling that computer from here I should be able to make the adjustments to configure the box to work with the catcher.

[jfchandler]

Thanks for all the reports and experiences above... Very interesting and illuminating....

It's interesting to me that most of the posters above appear to be folks who are running and maintaining their own local hardware sling services based in the U.S. via friends or relatives and such. And that -- not being there and being able to manage/maintain those setups in person -- contributes to a lot of the difficulties.

So it surprises me some that no one above has mentioned using any of the commercial Slingbox services that are available, where the providing company sets up and maintains your U.S. connection to a local cable system or DirecTV feed. I've tested a couple recently, and they worked fine here in BKK, with the usual caveats about international bandwidth issues.

A fuller discussion of this is in this related TVisa thread.... And it includes my reviews of these two commercial Slingbox-based services....

A2BTV.com

USATVAbroad

I know there are some others as well....

[george]

Which speed do you guys normally get via Slingplayer/slingcatcher?

[kudroz]

I have had great times with my Slingbox HD and Slingcatcher from Thailand, now I'm mainly consuming media on my iPad/PS3 using Netflix and Hulu+. You can see some screenshots i took and posted on this thread here.

If anyone is interested, I've got a Slingcatcher collecting dust that I could sell. Just send me a PM

[jfchandler]

Kudroz, I agree with this approach... Between Netflix and Hulu, any person can have on-demand access to more movies and TV series to watch than any reasonably normal person would ever have the time to see... even in Thailand...

Assuming, that is, that they can muster enough of an Internet connection to handle reasonable video streaming.

However, the two things are generally missing from those two sources are live U.S. pro sports and live major networks U.S. news broadcasts. Fortunately, both of those sectors are readily available via video streaming from other sources...

--in the case of U.S. pro sports, either from the major sports themselves (NBA, NFL, MLB) or via P2P or StreamTorrent.

--in the case of major U.S. network news, either via podcasts from the networks themselves or via third-party streaming sources direct off the Internet, as discussed in this related ThaiVisa thread.

...now I'm mainly consuming media on my iPad/PS3 using Netflix and Hulu+

[ScubaBuddha]

An update:

I switched to TOT 2 months ago due to a complete breakdown of any reliable service from TT&T when they switched to 3BB. After 2 months of slow to non-existant speeds with TOT on a 4mb/1mb, countless calls to 1100, 1 visit to office with an appointment made with a technician that never showed, I have no choice but to give up.

Although my test speeds are new showing 1.5-3.5Mbps down from USA, and my connection isn't dropping out and disappearing as it was when I first got TOT, my Slingbox stream speed rarely gets over 100kbps, obviously rendering it useless. (I have a suspicion TOT is traffic shaping)

Also my upload speeds, which are advertised as 1Mbps, are between 20kbps (yes, "twenty" kbps!) and 300kbps making controlling the Slingbox an agonizing task. I am actually missing 3BB now!

Still haven't solved my Slingcatcher issue, but I will be back at the Slingbox location next month and hope to have it sorted then.

[Jingthing]

All this technical stuff is over my head by I have a Sling hosted by a technical friend in the USA and I am getting very good reception on TOT. I lived through some years of really spotty performance, but now am mostly super happy with it. Don't know what changed except for the slingbox software.

[ScubaBuddha]

Just for fun I called 1100 and explained what a Slingbox was and asked them if they do "traffic shaping." First came the reply of "No, we don't do that." But then when I asked if he knew what traffic shaping was, he of course didn't know. I asked to speak to a technician, but he did not have the ability to connect me, nor, he added, did he have a directory so he could tell how to call one.