Sling Adaptor Field Reviews

[Character Zero]

So I tested a Zotac Intel Atom based nettop with my sling adapter running 5-8mb/s in HD. It works well. All 4 cores run at 85-90% so I'm thinking this hardware in this config can just barely handle it.
This particular nettop has 2 gig memory, atom 1.66, nvidia ion integrated gpu.

Cool been looking at a Atom 525 system myself (Dual Core 1.8) to put at the bedroom TV. Video and Audio are both good on your system?

So far my Sling Adapter seems to be working fine as far as watching TV goes. I'm able to stream to PCs within the house over our wired network and the video looks pretty damn good. I'm able to watch on my Droid X both on my home wifi and over Verizon's 3g network, and that also seems to work pretty well. Like others have reported already I'm not able to watch recorded shows on my phone...only live TV.

I do have one annoying issue though. After disconnecting from my remote session the DVR resets back into single mode, but all I get on my TV screen is a grey screen. I can still hear audio, and the weirdest thing is that I can still see any graphics displayed by the DVR, such as show information and the guide. I just can't see the actual program.

Is anyone else seeing anything like that? I've actually had to reboot the DVR twice just to get video back.

I haven't been able to do any tests but I am going to put switching the DVR to Dual mode when I think I might use the Sling. Seems that its control of Single->Dual->Single is buggy and it messes up my recordings. Since I am the main user of the TV, switching to Dual won't really affect anyone else in the house (my wife).

 

[Dirtydan]

So far my Sling Adapter seems to be working fine as far as watching TV goes. I'm able to stream to PCs within the house over our wired network and the video looks pretty damn good. I'm able to watch on my Droid X both on my home wifi and over Verizon's 3g network, and that also seems to work pretty well. Like others have reported already I'm not able to watch recorded shows on my phone...only live TV.

I do have one annoying issue though. After disconnecting from my remote session the DVR resets back into single mode, but all I get on my TV screen is a grey screen. I can still hear audio, and the weirdest thing is that I can still see any graphics displayed by the DVR, such as show information and the guide. I just can't see the actual program.

Is anyone else seeing anything like that? I've actually had to reboot the DVR twice just to get video back.

Try hitting the Dual Mode button after closing Dish Remote Assess.
Dan

 

[invaliduser]

Cool been looking at a Atom 525 system myself (Dual Core 1.8) to put at the bedroom TV. Video and Audio are both good on your system?

So.. After leaving it running for a long period (> 2 hours) the audio begins to drift away from the video while running in HD at approx 8mb/sec. Ran for 1 hour in "Better" mode and did not experience the audio drift issue.
Thats in Windows 7 using IE. I'm going to test more tomorrow using firefox and see if its any better.

 

[vicw]

Cool been looking at a Atom 525 system myself (Dual Core 1.8) to put at the bedroom TV. Video and Audio are both good on your system?

So.. After leaving it running for a long period (> 2 hours) the audio begins to drift away from the video while running in HD at approx 8mb/sec. Ran for 1 hour in "Better" mode and did not experience the audio drift issue.
Thats in Windows 7 using IE. I'm going to test more tomorrow using firefox and see if its any better.

I can't quite manage the HD mode in either my laptop or desktop, but Better works for me. I've also had the best speed & success with this app using the IE9 beta.

Firefox tends to run me out if memory (2gb on each), and leave processes open when I exit, that I have to go back and force close before restarting.



Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[TheForce]

Interesting. I'm not experiencing the problem of seeing and opening recordings inside folders, either on my Droid X or laptop. Granted, I only have one folder, with two recordings, since I'm using a replacement 722 that I just installed last week. Also, it's on level L672, which could be the reason for the difference.

As I suspected, this was an issue with the web site bug and has since been corrected. I can now see and play DVR recordings inside the folder. This began working for me later in the day from my post on the 8th.

 

[radiator65]

I want to get the Sling Adaptor, but I want to make sure it will work 1st. I only use my computer for music and the internet so I never worried about having a high powered computer. This is what I have: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+ 2.31 GHz GB Ram. My internet connection is: 7Mb/s download and .50 Mb/s upload. Should this be enough to get it on my iPhone and a SD picture on a laptop?

 

[vicw]

I want to get the Sling Adaptor, but I want to make sure it will work 1st. I only use my computer for music and the internet so I never worried about having a high powered computer. This is what I have: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+ 2.31 GHz GB Ram. My internet connection is: 7Mb/s download and .50 Mb/s upload. Should this be enough to get it on my iPhone and a SD picture on a laptop?

I'm using the Sling Adapter on a comparable desktop, with no problems, but not quite able to run the HD level without loss. The Better mode runs fine, and I'm happy with it.

My current configuration is:

Desktop - AMD Athlon 64 3500+ @ 2.2 GHz
OS - Windows 7 - 32 Bit
Installed Memory - 2.00 GB

I tested the remote laptop operation when my internet connection was at 7Mbps DS and .384Mbps US, and picture on the laptop was watchable, but not perfection. I've since upgraded to 10/.512, but I haven't had a chance to test that out. The Dish spec calls for .600Mbps US, so both of us will probably not get a perfect picture on laptop, remotely, but I'm satisfied. Operation on a mobile is surprisingly good, especially considering the much lower data transfer rate, as long as you have a solid 3G connection.

Also keep in mind that operation of the setup is a bit idiosyncratic, often requiring multiple logins to get everything going on any individual session, but once you get going, it's great to use, and I absolutely don't regret the purchase. I'm looking forward to improved robustness in the software in the days to come.

 

[radiator65]

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Dirtydan]

I have same processor, but 3800, slower dsl then you have, sling adapter works fine on pc and i-Pad.
Dan

 

[Character Zero]

Finally was able to use the Sling how I had envisioned this weekend. I decided I wanted to watch something recorded on my DVR in a different room. First I made sure I wasn't recording anything because I am still apprehensive on using the Sling and it screwing up the recording. So I put the receiver in Dual mode. I went into the room with the TV I was going to watch Sling on. I have it hooked up to a first gen Macbook Pro (1.83 Core Duo, 2 gigs Ram). Hag a little trouble getting it to start, had to restart the browser once but I finally got the video to play, wasn't a huge deal. It was an hour long show. Just used a mouse to get around. When commercials came on I double clicked on the Fullscreen video and then used the buttons on the webpage to skip 30 seconds. Oh and this was all in HD mode. I was expecting the video to crap out when I clicked too many buttons, but it always skipped, no issues. Watched the whole thing, video looked great, audio stayed on sync. I was very happy with the results. I also was able to test watching the DVR programs from the Android app. I haven't been able to watch recorded content, but when I switched the receiver to Dual I was able to watch recorded content. I didn't extensively test it, so it might work on Single too now.

 

[TheKrell]

I have the Zotac HD-ND01-U. Its $261 on Amazon right now. Also does a good job running XBMC.

Based on your recommendation, I just bought a Zotac ZBOX HD-ID11-U from Newegg for $200 - $20 MIR + $39 RAM. I intend to move my Shuttle's 7200RPM disk w/Windows 7 on it to the new box. I am hoping this will work like the Sling Extender that never was.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I am hoping this will work like the Sling Extender that never was.

Ahh but it is... now... final beta is now going on.

 

[TheKrell]

More good news. Thanks Scott! Any peeps on price? I'll bet it will be more than my Zotac.

 

[gatekeeper]

Has anyone tried to wirelessly send tv from say a 722 or 722k to another tv that has wireless capabilities.I was thinking of getting a wireless adapter for my 2nd tv besides getting another receiver.I know tv2 want be in hd .

 

[TheKrell]

This afternoon at work, I located a dual-core 3GHz 64-bit Xeon running XP. It works quite nicely ticking along at about 40% of each core, when set to HD quality. It did this right through our corporate firewall, which normally doesn't let much of anything through. I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[vicw]

Surprised to see 4 days elapse from the lasting posting. I don't know if that's good news, that everyone is happy, or bad news in that too few people are interested in the product. Hope it's the first possibility.

While performance of the Sling Adapter seems to be improving over time, there is still one thing that I experience which is somewhat annoying and time consuming. That is the necessity of multiple logins 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 in order for me to get full functionality and connection to my adapter. Once fully connected, everything is reasonably stable. I would like to hear from others if that is a normal scenario for you, and especially if you NEVER has that problem, and are always successful with your first login. If anyone is that successful, or not, I'd really like to know what kind of setup you have, especially router, wired vs. Wi-Fi and ISP.

In my case, I'm using a Belkin N+ router, with 2 722's, with a single Sling Adapter on one of them. Both 722's are hardwired to the router, and on Reserved IP addresses, and I'm using TWC/Roadrunner.

 

[tpautler]

Surprised to see 4 days elapse from the lasting posting. I don't know if that's good news, that everyone is happy, or bad news in that too few people are interested in the product. Hope it's the first possibility.

While performance of the Sling Adapter seems to be improving over time, there is still one thing that I experience which is somewhat annoying and time consuming. That is the necessity of multiple logins 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 in order for me to get full functionality and connection to my adapter. Once fully connected, everything is reasonably stable. I would like to hear from others if that is a normal scenario for you, and especially if you NEVER has that problem, and are always successful with your first login. If anyone is that successful, or not, I'd really like to know what kind of setup you have, especially router, wired vs. Wi-Fi and ISP.

In my case, I'm using a Belkin N+ router, with 2 722's, with a single Sling Adapter on one of them. Both 722's are hardwired to the router, and on Reserved IP addresses, and I'm using TWC/Roadrunner.

I have only been using my sling Adapter a couple weeks but have not had a login problem, yet. Seems like it might be more a function of the device you are logging in from. On my Desktop, I did have to log in twice one time, but never more than once on the IPad. I have my SA hooked to a 722 that uses a wireless adapter to connect to a Linksys N router to Comcast cable.

 

[vicw]

I have only been using my sling Adapter a couple weeks but have not had a login problem, yet. Seems like it might be more a function of the device you are logging in from. On my Desktop, I did have to log in twice one time, but never more than once on the IPad. I have my SA hooked to a 722 that uses a wireless adapter to connect to a Linksys N router to Comcast cable.

Thanks for that info. I've had the multiple login issue using my Droid X, Laptop, and Desktop, so I may do some comparisons using my old Linksys router.

 

[philiphotog]

I installed my Dish Sling Adaptor today and encountered a couple of problems.

I can watch pre-recorded shows and 'live' TV fine on my iPhone but can only watch 'live' programming on my lap top and computer.

Whenever I login to Dishonline and click a program from my DVR, all I'm showing is 'live' TV, not the pre-recorded show. Seems like a bug.

Anyone else having this issue?

I'm following up on my own post and I have to write that most of my problems have been rectified and I could not be happier. I know the sling products have been around for a while now but the SA really has been a work in progress since it's release this year.

The only issue or possible bug I've had is when setting recordings on my iPhone. It's very glitchy, sometimes it works, sometimes not. I've checked the schedule on the iPhone to confirm recording only to check my DVR after the fact and find out there is no recording.

I might sound like a broken record here and have not checked if there are other threads about this. Please correct me if I'm repeating a well known issue.

 

[TheKrell]

I always have to log in twice using the Android client on my Samsung Behold 2. It also likes to FC on me, so it's hardly stable. I also built myself a HTPC out of a Zotac Zbox and was playing with it this morning. It was streaming well in HD for about 5 minutes and then disconnected me, claiming that my Internet connection was unstable. (This is not true.) Perhaps it would remain stable if I turned it on one channel and let it run awhile. I have never done this, though, and this morning I was channel surfing... Very slowly due to lag.