How's The Pichure Quality On a HTPC via the Sling Adapter?

[hemway]

How's The Picture Quality On a HTPC via the Sling Adapter?

I was all ready to pull the trigger and purchase the Sling Adapter from Dish when I found out that ALL equipment (laptops, PC's HTPC's, smart phones) that you want to use to watch video on that will be pulled from your 722 (via the Sling Adapter) has to connect to the adapter via the Dish site.

That means if you have a PC, laptop, or HTPC on the same internal network segment, instead of pulling the video directly from the 722/Sling Adapter, they have to go out to the Internet to the Dish site, connect to the 722, and request the video (live or recorded). That means the video travels from your 722, up to the Dish site, then back to your home network (all via the Internet) to your device (PC, laptop, or HTPC).

I understand the need to have the Dish site serve as a focal point for requests from outside your home network (smart phone, laptops, computers, etc), but why for devices on the same network the 722 is connected to. Seems like a waste of Internet bandwidth.

With that said, how is the picture quality on a local HDTV that are playing the video via a HTPC (that has HD capability)? Yes I understand that my Internet bandwidth plays a big part in the quality (still think that leaving the local network to retrieve local data is stupid, my HAVA box doesn't have to do it) and my speed tests should support it (average 10mbs down/3mbs up) but I want to know if I'll get full screen HD quality video.

Anyone out there doing this?

 

[TheKrell]

Indeed our Hava boxes can go direct via crossover cable; no "real" network is necessary. That said, there are lots of folks seeing up to 8Mbps on their PC players who do not have that much bandwidth up and down. So it appears the website is needed to set up or authorize, but not to forward the actual data stream. This is still rather lame, but not as lame as you fear.

 

[jporum]

That means if you have a PC, laptop, or HTPC on the same internal network segment, instead of pulling the video directly from the 722/Sling Adapter, they have to go out to the Internet to the Dish site, connect to the 722, and request the video (live or recorded). That means the video travels from your 722, up to the Dish site, then back to your home network (all via the Internet) to your device (PC, laptop, or HTPC).

Not true. When the device you are using is on the same network as the Sling Adapter, this is detected and the video stays on your local network. I can tell this in my setup because when I'm viewing via the Sling Adapater in my house the data rate shown on the Dish Remote Access site is 10 times what it is when I am outside my house, say at Starbucks.

 

[Character Zero]

Yeah inside the network it seems the client and the Sling Adapter negotiate a direct connection. I have an old Macbook Pro hooked up to a TV in the bedroom. It stream HD fine and then picture looks comparable to Hd through the 211 connected to the same TV.

 

[putzer22]

As Krell and the others have mentioned, it is not exactly as it may seem on the surface. My local network streaming on the highest quality setting is around 8 to 8.3Mbps and my internet upload is only 2Mbps. So, although you must use the dish site, the stream appears to be local. The SA has three video quality settings- good, better, and bestHD. On good, mine streams around 2Mbps locally and both of the higher settings seem the same at around 8 depending on content. I really can't notice a difference in the two higher settings as far as picture quality goes. The HD looks very good on my 17 inch laptop and very good on my 46" Sony LCD connected to the laptop via HDMI.

I played around with it a bit just now, switching between my Vip722 and the laptop and the picture quality from the laptop on the big screen is very good. It seems a little bit more grainy from the pc but is quite good, particularly from my normal viewing distance of around 12 or 14 feet. Althouth I didn't purchase the SA for this application, it would seem that connected via HTPC locally you should get very acceptable results.

As an aside, I have used the SA connected remotely and displayed from my laptop on a 37" LCD. In this application, I can only stream at the "good" level because my download speed at the remote location is only 1.5Mbps. The picture is watchable full screen but far from great. A 2-3MB connection, I think, could provide a pretty acceptable viewing experience, though certainly not HD.

 

[hemway]

Last weekend in a Dish Chat I had with someone from the technical department, he said that you 1.) cannot view any video off the 722 (with the Sling Adapter) either locally or remotely without first going to the Dish remote web site first, and 2.) all video is streamed through the web site.

I told the technician that I have a gigabyte home network and wanted to know why when watching something on a local device the stream had to go to the remote site first and he said that was the way the system was designed.

With that said, on my home network I'm running a couple of HTPC's (w/HDMI output) connected to a 32" & 37" 1080p LCD HDTV's. Both systems are running Windows 7 Home Premium. I want to know if I'll get full screen 1080i HD quality video playback on the HTPC systems when watching live or recorded (mostly recorded) video from my 722 if I invest in a Sling Adapter.

 

[invaliduser]

On the same LAN, your HTPC will visit the Dish RA site first to verify your login, display your guide etc. The Dish RA site will then put your HTPC in a direct connection with your sling attached receiver. The actual video/audio stream does not go through dish's site. If you are on the same LAN then you will see the max 8.0-8.5mb/s that everyone else has been reported. If you are not on the same LAN then you will be limited by the upload bandwidth of your Inet connection.

The A/V quality on the HTPC is very good. Just make sure you have the processing and gpu power available if your are wanting to stream HD.

FYI, there is some development on a singplayer XBMC plugin. Just google xbmc slingplayer if you want to follow their progress.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Last weekend in a Dish Chat I had with someone from the technical department, he said that you 1.) cannot view any video off the 722 (with the Sling Adapter) either locally or remotely without first going to the Dish remote web site first, and 2.) all video is streamed through the web site.

He is correct... partially.

You can't play your Sling Adapter through the stand alone Slingplayer software, to watch your Sling Adapter you must go through the DISH Remote Access website.

So when you watch the player is a java flash player which is hosted on the Dish website.

The video however if you are on a local network will remain on your local network and will not be sent out to the internet then back to you in your house.

 

[primetimeguy]

So this seems like a good solution to get HD in another room (aka TV2), assuming you have a HTPC in that other room. Or will we see the 722 capable of sling catching in the future?

 

[TheKrell]

FYI, there is some development on a singplayer XBMC plugin. Just google xbmc slingplayer if you want to follow their progress.

That would be fantastic, but... From my googling, I don't see any evidence that this will ever work with the Sling Adapter. Did you?

 

[hemway]

Thanks everyone for your input. Guess I'll have to get one and see how it looks. What really would be great is if Dish would revisit their plan to develop a card for the PC that interfaced with Windows Media Center much like the Ceton InfiniTV 4 cable tuner card for cable systems.

 

[mike123abc]

It looks good. But, it is not the same as directly connected HDMI. It has definite compression artifacts. It takes about a minute to stablize after tuning a channel. So, if you frequently change channels it is annoying. It slowly sharpens up as the bit rate stablizes after you change channels. It seems to peak at 9k or so data rate max. It bounces around from 2500-9000. It is definitely not sending 1920x1080. It looks more like 1280x720 which could be part of the problem. I am watching on a 1920x1080 monitor an OTA FOX HD football game. The local FOX is full bandwidth without any sub channels. So, the small blocking effect is probably a 1920->1280 conversion.


On the bright side it is correct aspect ratio and is far better than TV2 in SD on the 922 gets. I do not know if the 722k sling adapter would do better.