Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 Works great with Tivo November 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was at the CES where the SlingCatcher was first announced, and like others have noted here, the wait from launch to release seemed to last forever. However, for what I needed, the wait was worth it.
Background:
I have a Series 3 Tivo in my living room and a second TV in another part of my house. I never wanted to pay for a second cable box or Tivo for the other room, which limited my viewing there to analog cable.
I've also had a Slingbox for a couple of years and have never used it as much as I thought I would. While I enjoyed having access to my TV from anywhere, the upstream on my broadband connection has always been lackluster, which left me with picture quality that was only fair at best. However, the idea of being able to use the Slingbox within my house to extend the Tivo to the second room really appealed to me.
On The Plus Side:
-The SlingCatcher does exactly what I want it to do. Very easy to set up, and the picture quality, with an average 4MB stream, looks great.
-The SlingCatcher remote maps perfectly to the Tivo remote, so much functions (Menu, Guide, Info, Clear, etc. are transparent.
-Many functions of the remote (TV Power, Volume, Input) are programmable, making it an acceptable universal remote.
On The Minus Side:
-Not HD. Even if you pass though the signal, the end result is still SD. Rumor is that will change, but for now, its SD only.
-Quality over the internet is limited by your connection at both ends. Even the most robust consumer services usually have a much lower upstream than downstream, and that leaves most video sent over the net looking very, very compressed.
-SlingProjector software is lousy and crashes my PC. This is the software that lets you watch non-Sling programming over the internet, and its a waste.
In the end, this is first generation technology that isn't everything Sling claims, but if you are using it within your own network to place shift from one TV to another, particularly for Tivo owners, you won't be disappointed.
Much better than I expected November 17, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I'm not a techno geek or anything. I recently moved to Spain from the US and my kids were REALLY sad that they were missing most of their favorite shows (that on top of their old school, friends, etc.) Doing research on how to watch American TV in Europe, I stumbled over the Slingbox (and later the slingcatcher). I pre order it (it IS expensive) and received it with no problems in the US and brought it back in one of my trips.
I was expecting poor image, slow jerky connection, complicated setup. Instead I found a very easy to use system and very decent picture quality. I'm amazed that I'm actually controlling a box that is nine time zones away (I set up the service at a friend's home in Oregon).
Of course is not HD and is a long way even from your regular TV service. But definitively works and rescued me from the disastrous (at least from my perspective) Spanish TV.
I also tried the Sling Projector feature. It works very well with one caveat: You need a pretty fast processor in your computer, otherwise is a disaster.
Slingcatcher 11 08 November 10, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Works Great, bought a RF modulator to enable it to work with an old TV.
 Buggy software, still a BETA product. October 28, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I found so many bug in the software for this product, you should at least wait 6 months from now (Oct 2006) to buy it.
Otherwise you will run into sound sync issues, menu errors, and missing advertised features.
Personally I think it is fraud to release a product that is not finished.
Slingprojector can NOT steam HD-DVDs or Blueray content.
 works great for slingbox-to-catcher... October 27, 2008
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
feels like i waited 2+ years for the slingcatcher. happy to have it in hand. no regrets. has worked flawlessly thus far for my application.
i pre-ordered @ amazon, and have now set it up in california to catch signal from a slingbox pro in asia and another slingbox pro within california.
BUMMER:
-> as other reviewers have noted, no mac os support (yet?) for using your computer as a signal source.
PLEASANT SURPRISES:
-> picture quality is good. other reviewers complaining about picture quality may not have adjusted the "resolution" settings within the menus, i.e. you have the option of specifying the "hoped-for" resolution from your slingbox. my slingcatcher by default set this resolution to a lower quality setting. for now (after i switched the resolution to the higher setting) i feel that the picture quality is essentially on par with the average picture quality i have achieved using the pc and mac os software clients.
-> the learning remote: comes with a basic learning remote (for TV on/off, input select etc.). nice touch.
SUGGESTIONS:
-> wish it were cheaper: $199 or less would be ideal. or add some local, on-board DVR (tivo-like) functionality (fine if you require we add an external HD) and i will gladly pay the $289.
overall, two thumbs earnestly up.
five stars if pricing is revisited (as above) and for incremental UI improvements (current UI is good, not great. granted, it's a difficult challenge. steal what you can from mac os). others: show your support to ensure good tech like this keeps coming.
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