Configuring the SlingCatcher
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: SlingCatcher, video, television | Themes: Digital Entertainment
3. Configuring the SlingCatcher
Connect the SlingCatcher to your TV, work out how to switch to the right source input and the SlingCatcher welcome message shows up. You need to pick the resolution of your television, which can be anything up to 1080i (your up-to-date 1080p-capable set will do you no good here) ; if you know this, setup is very simple; if not, the instructions are in the skimpy manual for cycling between resolutions, but they’re not as clear as they could be.
The SlingCatcher will find your network and Slingbox automatically, but it will also need to update itself (to avoid conflicts with network software like Linksys EasyLink Advisor, which can stop the SlingCatcher streaming video at full speed) ; depending on your Internet connection this can take five or fifteen minutes, after which the SlingCatcher reboots and asks you to accept a license. All in all, it’s no more complicated than setting up a new TV.
Once the SlingCatcher is set up, you won’t need to go through all this again, even if you turn it off and connect it to another TV. You can change all the settings through the SlingCatcher interface, but you can also change between full screen, pillar-box, native resolution and 2x zoom by pressing the MODE key on the remote, and you can set the SlingCatcher back to its standard resolution by pressing the Up and OK buttons together, so you should always be able to get back to a view that works on your TV. Again, this is easier to do than it seems from the manual.
You have to type in a password to access your Slingbox, which you can do by scrolling up and down through the alphabet or using the number buttons like a phone keypad. If you’ve set a long, secure password because you’ve been using the SlingPlayer on your PC where the keyboard makes that easy, this quickly becomes tedious, so you’ll want to create a SlingAccount from the Slingbox. This can store the details for multiple Slingboxes, and although you may need to type in the password more than once when you’re getting things set up, it will connect you automatically in the future.
The SlingCatcher can access any Slingbox you set up on SlingAccounts, but only one client can access a Slingbox at once, so you can’twatch on a TV and a PC at the same time. And as with the Slingbox, if youchange channel, anyone watching the original TV sees the new channel too.
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I'd love a SlingCatcher but it's a bit too pricey at $300. I love my little $100 Netflix/Roku box and it seems like the SlingCatcher is a slightly more sophisticated version of it. So I'd expect the Sling to be around $150.....
Also, if the Roku/Netflix can do *pretty* good video over WiFi, I can't see why the Sling doesn't support it -- even at a lower resolution. It makes the unit much less attractive.
I have a SlingCatcher on a bedroom TV which USED to have a subscription cable box and at home it works GREAT...and will indeed pay for itself eventually. I travel alot though and my original intent was to take it on the road. One thing people seem to forget (Sling included) is that you almost always have to click through an I-WILL-NOT-ABUSE-YOUR-NETWORK agreement on hotel networks before being allowed to access the internet. The SlingCatcher gives you no way of doing this so there's no way to get a useable IP address assigned to it from most hotels. Mini-browser please!