SlingCatcher box reveals codec support: why hello, XviD

We honestly can't wait for Sling's SlingCatcher media streamer to be released, so we'll take any little scrap of info we can -- and these shots of the box are pretty tasty scraps indeed, because it looks like Sling's latest will have some sweet codec support: WMV, MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264 and XviD in a variety of file formats, including .VOB. Sadly, it looks like output maxes out at 1080i, but that's a small tradeoff for what looks to be one of the most flexible streamers on the market. Hit the read link for two more shots, including the codec list.

[Billy Fiul @ Oct 23rd 2007 5:25PM]

xvid is like totally crap; h.264 FTW.

[Josh Warner @ Oct 23rd 2007 7:06PM]

Why is Billy's comment low ranked, people? He is completely correct; h.264 (and its friendly open source counterpart, x.264) is superior to XviD in every way at equivalent bitrates. With growing h.264 support, either higher quality/resolution video can be had at the same filesize as XviD, or the same quality can be had at significantly lower sizes.

This is why both next-gen DVD formats use a derivation of the h.264 codec for their compression (yes, Blu-ray and HDDVD are both compressed).

My guess is that people voted this down because XviD is a widespread format & they had not heard of h.264. XviD's ubiquity in no way make it the "best" codec.

[culbeda @ Oct 23rd 2007 7:14PM]

@Josh -

Support for all is best. There are wingnuts out there encoding in all sorts of formats. I even saw a Real video file the other day. I almost did a spit take when I saw it.

[geekout2 @ Oct 23rd 2007 7:45PM]

I for one welcome our new H.264 overlords

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Oct 23rd 2007 8:12PM]

Hello! =)

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Oct 23rd 2007 8:13PM]

I'm saying hellp to xvid

[Reikon @ Oct 23rd 2007 9:00PM]

@Josh Warne: x264 is an encoder. h264 and XviD are codecs. At least get your facts right before you criticize others.

[mason g @ Oct 25th 2007 2:49AM]

'matter of fact, xvid has a lot going for it still. Despite the fact that h264 codecs [such as the apple one, or x264] will undoubtedly deliver higher quality at lower bitrates, they take like 2-5 times the time to encode =[, and require a much faster system to play back on. that's really not a problem, but you cant play them at all on that 400mhz in the cupboard.

[Mr.Pete @ Oct 23rd 2007 5:34PM]

But there is a lot of content on a lot of harddrives in the format so it is pretty darn usefull to support it...

[Vagrant @ Oct 23rd 2007 5:36PM]

I'm all over this product when it releases. (Hopefully before I head out of town for several months.) This thing will smoke my original Slingbox.

WTF?! Slingsync? I guess I'm out of the loop, but that feature is fantastic!

Please release this thing before December!

[ScOObyDoo @ Oct 23rd 2007 5:41PM]

I want this. Badly.

I'm gonna kick Santa in the nuts if he doesn't deliver.

[jeff @ Oct 23rd 2007 5:41PM]

where is dixv though?

[Captain Obvious @ Oct 23rd 2007 5:52PM]

Isn't divx just XviD spelled differently?

[theCardinal @ Oct 23rd 2007 5:57PM]

Why would anyone continue to use DivX? I can almost understand people still having some XviDs, but DivX is just too crap and old.

[D.L. @ Oct 23rd 2007 5:48PM]

What's the price?

[Billy Fiul @ Oct 23rd 2007 7:48PM]

your soul

[ryan hoelzer @ Oct 24th 2007 9:13AM]

It was originally announced at under $200. We'll see soon.

[Yoshi Likes Boys @ Oct 23rd 2007 5:53PM]

No MKV, though. Always one step behind! I need to see the interface before I think about ditching my appletv.

[James @ Oct 23rd 2007 6:04PM]

Is there anywhere to get XviD (or DivX) content that doesn't require me to be a thief? Serious quesiton.

[Jeremy K. @ Oct 23rd 2007 11:00PM]

lol... good question. Actually, check out stage6.divx.com. Like YouTube on steroids.

[porath @ Oct 23rd 2007 6:08PM]

@theCardinal: divx is still being updated. at the moment it's superior to xvid in encoding quality per bitrate, however slight it may be.

@everyone: there are several boxes with these capabilities (and more) on the market right now. dvico's tvix, tomacro's limHD, and most importantly syabas' brand new networked media tank, with sigma's latest SMP8635 chipset.

these boxes all support divx, xvid, h264, mpeg2, in avi, mp4, mkv and ogm. the high end boxes from the first two are capable of 1080p output via hdmi, but have a bit of trouble decoding some 1080p h264 content. the networked media tank will supposedly outdo them all when it becomes available on october 30th, by easily decoding 1080p h264 content, and supporting embedded text subtitle formats.

basically, the slingbox has some cool streaming features but if what you want is full support of any type of media, you should be looking at one of the boxes i mentioned.

the networked media tank will be available for purchase via www.popcornhour.com .

[Mark @ Oct 23rd 2007 6:15PM]

wow, I want one...like...now

Now we have to see if this thing will pass-through surround sound/DTS...

[Phillip Black @ Oct 23rd 2007 6:49PM]

Does no one like .avi?

[culbeda @ Oct 23rd 2007 7:25PM]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVI

[ryan hoelzer @ Oct 23rd 2007 7:57PM]

The key to the SlingCatcher is being able to receive a SlingBox stream without a computer.. The media features are a bonus..

[colin @ Oct 23rd 2007 8:05PM]

All along sling said this device would play ANYTHING on your computer screen on your TV. Now it is limited to what it can play. This is bad news

[colin @ Oct 23rd 2007 8:09PM]

I spoke to soon it looks like it will still do that.

[ryan hoelzer @ Oct 23rd 2007 9:27PM]

They called that SlingProjector early on. It was supposed to be like connecting a TV out from the computer. I don't see where it still does that. What do you see?? I'm hoping it's just delayed.

[colin @ Oct 23rd 2007 10:35PM]

Look at the pics on the read link it is on the back of the box

[ryan hoelzer @ Oct 24th 2007 9:13AM]

I don't see anything that mentions the computer desktop or other apps on the TV, just media files.

[MSM @ Oct 23rd 2007 8:21PM]

A lot of focus in getting video from PC or Internet on to TV. What I really want is a very simple way to get TV recordings on to my PC. Simple as in simple enough my 10 year old can do it or ... even simpler so my wife can do it.

Any simple devices for doing this on the horizon? No, I don't want a media center PC.

[ryan hoelzer @ Oct 23rd 2007 9:27PM]

It's called Tivo..

[Robert @ Oct 26th 2007 11:26PM]

if you want to record TV on your PC check out BeyondTV at Snapstream.com - I've been using it to record all my shows and it now converts them to iPod and feeds to iTunes.

[Kyle @ Oct 25th 2007 1:07AM]

i believe the slingbox does exactly that. it came before the slingcatcher.

[TestSubject86 @ Oct 27th 2007 6:21AM]

All of Sling Media's products will let you view TV content on your PC. This is the first product (from them) that will do the opposite.

[Matt @ Oct 23rd 2007 11:18PM]

Its funny now that Josh's comment it higher ranked then Billy's comment.

Overall the box looks pretty sweet.

[Kulvir Bains @ Oct 23rd 2007 11:32PM]

I am yet to see a media streamer as good as XBMC in terms of codec support. I guess I'm still waiting.

[andresalazar @ Oct 24th 2007 1:50AM]

you morons don't get it-

the main point of this thing is to stream your slingbox in one room where your high def cable box is, to another room in your house, so that you don't have to pay the man another 10 bucks a month for a cable box or tivo. as someone very astutely pointed out, the codec support is just an added bonus. yes we all know your hacked up crapbox supports 80 zillion codecs...thats not the point of this device.

[porath @ Oct 24th 2007 12:44PM]

feel free to read my comment above for several far superior alternatives to xbmc. xbmc supports h264, but xbox is not powerful enough to decode even most 720p streams cleanly, so forget about any 1080 streams. no hdmi either.

[porath @ Oct 24th 2007 12:54PM]

@andresalazar

you don't have to be so offensive about asserting your opinions. anyway, not everybody is looking for that functionality, and since engadget wrote about the codec support almost exclusively in the article, i felt like it would be relevant to let people know about alternatives for getting that functionality.

also, if you sling your cable signal to a slingcatcher in another room, aren't you limited to watching the same channel as the one on the main screen? please note this is just a question, i'm not assuming that that is the case at all.

[Steve @ Oct 24th 2007 1:11AM]

Nobody wants to deal with Xvid or Divx because they're the standard for pirated movies and shows. to do so would probably create some kind of epic shitstorm with the MP/RIAA.

[Lonnie McClure @ Oct 24th 2007 7:57PM]

"Sadly, it looks like output maxes out at 1080i,..."

How many people have 1080p sets, and of those that do, have one large enough they can actually see the difference between 1080i and 1080p?

That last time I checked, the bulk of HDTV sets sold were still 720p panels (i.e., 1366 x 768 LCDs).

By the time 1080p output becomes useful to a significant portion of the population, I expect Sling will have released a new version (if this first version is successful).

[Matt @ Nov 24th 2007 10:07AM]

Where the hell is this thing already?