http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/ Engadget Comments for SlingCatcher unboxing and hands-on http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/Oct 18th 2008 7:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/
People used to say that about Apple products... sniff.]]>Oct 18th 2008 8:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/
Place your bets.]]>Oct 18th 2008 9:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/Oct 18th 2008 8:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/
AKBlade13]]>Oct 18th 2008 8:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/Oct 18th 2008 8:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/Oct 18th 2008 8:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/If I would've known that nobody had taken some unboxing pics, I would have picked one up early and done it myself.]]>Oct 18th 2008 8:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/Oct 18th 2008 9:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/
It'll be rare to ever see a real product with MKV support that is amazing. Maybe in 5 years when the next better format rolls out.

Don't get me wrong...I have about 1000 mkvs myself, but all of the high quality ones are already converted to AVI (gotta love AllToAVI) cause I'm only gonna watch one audio stream and one subtitle stream at a time.]]>Oct 18th 2008 9:48PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/
http://tomacro.en.ec21.com/product_detail.jsp?group_id=GC02943950&product_id=CA02943952&product_nm=H_264%252FVC1_MKV_High_Definition_HDD_Media_Player]]>Oct 18th 2008 9:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/Oct 19th 2008 10:25AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/Oct 18th 2008 11:33PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/7 reviews so far, all 1 star]]>Oct 19th 2008 11:34AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/Oct 19th 2008 10:17AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/Oct 20th 2008 12:40AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/Oct 19th 2008 2:20PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/
1. h.264 support is limited to 480x320. That's not a typo people. h.264 is the future. They hope to increase this to 640x480. Oooooooooo! Watch out!
2. They expect you to transcode anything that is not natively supported. Have fun with waiting 2 hours to transcode all you h.264 collection.
3. WMV video is limited to a MAX 720/24p. Non of the sample HD video in Microsoft's own site plays on the Slingcatcher! WOW!
4. The only HD resolutions available are in mpeg 2.
5. Did I mention h.264 is decoded in software? YEP. The hardware inside the Slingcatcher was spec'd 2 years ago.
6. sling.com integration is not available....yet
7. Slingsync is not available, Slingmedia is blowing the dust off SNEAKERNET.
8. No wifi, YEP. This thing was spec'd 2 years ago, yet they still didn't include it.
9. No HD streaming from the Slingbox Pro HD. They say this is planned for LAN viewing only.
10. No HD streaming from Slingbox Pro HD for remote viewing EVER.
11. There is a remote viewing bug that drops streaming speeds each time you change the channel. WOOOO!

Since the Slingbox Pro HD uses h.264 for streaming and the catcher is limited to 480x320 (640x480 in the furture) h.264, can you guess why HD isn't planned for remote viewing?

Try waiting for Slingcatcher 2.0 and let the rest of us fan boys beta test this terrible product.

Supported file formats here:
http://www.zatznotfunny.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/catcher-files.doc

Do I sound angry?
]]>Oct 19th 2008 2:33PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/
This product has much potential, but Sling after over 2 years could not seem to deliver! Sling has long been the vaporware kings, and now seems like a one hit wonder. Still no Blackberry SlingPlayer or one for the iPhone. now this terrible product release.

If you read reviews on the Sling Community, the fanboys are all there saying how great the SlingCatcher is, then take a look at the reviews of actual customers on Amazon and see the truth! After all the demand and waiting for SlingCatcher to arrive (why I pre-ordered) it is now already being discounted!!!

My advice, run do not walk from SlingCatcher at least for now. WAIT, and see if it improves, or pay the price in disatisfaction.]]>Oct 19th 2008 3:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/Oct 19th 2008 3:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/
After over 2 years of waiting I would have thought the SlingCatcher would have less problems, but seems it is not so.

This product was given some of the lowest rating I ever saw on Amazon. So I cancelled mine.]]>Oct 19th 2008 3:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/What is up with the lack of AppleMac support. I understand that AT&T doesn't want us iPhone sling users clogging their bandwidth but
if they've Blackberry support why note iPhone? Just don't understand.

F1Mikal in NYC]]>Oct 20th 2008 3:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/18/slingcatcher-unboxing-and-hands-on/Oct 22nd 2008 7:45AM