Sling Media SlingCatcher user reviews

Pros Great concept

Cons This is VERY important - This product does not ship with Sling Player 2.0, which means you can't stream high-def from your house to your remote location! Resolution is limited to 640x480

Summary What's the point of streaming hi-def from your originating video system if you can't see it in hi-def at your destination?

A giant black eye for Sling Media! This product should NOT have been released without sling player 2.0

Pros Nothing about this product is positive.

Cons Does not work. Poorly designed, made with bad materials.

Summary Got the Sling Catcher delievered the day it came out on 10/09/08, was waiting for it since they announced it and it wasn't even a good paper weight. It does not work, with flash drives; connected via a sling turbo port; with a linksys wireless N bridge; or work connected directly via a router with an Ethernet cable. It streamed 800kbps with the sling port, then froze with 253 kbps, to get it to sync again with the computer I had to power cycle it (every time it froze), and then with further tests and using other methods to connect I had to do a factory reset (not just a reset found in the options menu) and the unit failed to process the information and would die after a couple of minutes. They have you update the firmware (auto update) when you get it connected to your network, my only question is why they have an update on the day of release? This is the worst product that I have ever bought, belongs in the trash. I spent hundreds just to try to get this thing to work and it ended up a complete waste of time and money. I have seen some plants in the blogs on websites, my catcher didn't work after days and days of trouble shooting; with their technicians and with others (searching for some sort of solution). Their tech tried to make some statements, but immediately stopped after I interrupted them and said I had a P4 extreme fully loaded with everything that can be put into a computer (graphics card with plenty of GPU power and dedicated ram, Max out memory for any 32 bit os can handle, so on and on). Not to mention, I tried it with 2 other computers, a standard sized ethernet cable, their ethernet cable, because he started asking about the length of my ethernet cables that it may have issues if it was over a certain length (which was not my case); I used a few cables, supplied by sling media actually, and a brand new one that was supplied by linksys and so on and on. The tech was actually trying to make me switch my RCA cables (I wasn't going to use their cheap RCA cables), well if I m getting everything displayed on the tv, I just can't get anything streamed with any stability,or the flash port to even work (it recognized my drive but would not recognize anything on it). This device is also designed very poorly made with very cheap materials and does not look good like their other devices, like the sling box for instance. And, when I first called their technical support they suggested I buy the WGA 600n by Linksys as a solution (which I mentioned above as not working, the bridge worked, the catcher did not work)!!!!
I felt bad about returning the wireless bridge, because it actually worked, but I would have felt dumb if I kept it, since the computer I am on right now is next to the router and doesn't require a $100 wireless bridge being less than 2ft away from the router. I did test the bridge and I was getting super fast speeds on it consistently, with no slugishness of interruptions....

No issues with my router, I have a top of the line linksys, which works perfectly wired and with my wireless connections throughout the house and incredible speeds, I have super fast ethernet cards and computers with everything loaded in them. Nothing preventing this product from working, wait for further updates if you must tryit for yourself, but I would just stay away from this product all together, I was suspicious of why they were not releasing it on time and why there were such delays,and no announcements, but now I know why. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!!!! I really wanted something that would allow me to watch internet based TV on the TV. The flash port capability is nill as well. Watch out for those false blogs!!!!!! TRY IT AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!

Updated on Oct 17, 2008

Also, I have an 1080i Sony HD TV, listed in my products on CNET, take a look, ....
Just adding this here, so there won't be any guessing about my equipment as not being modern. I just watched the reviewer from CNET say she hasn't tested the main reason why anyone would buy a catcher, BUYER BEWARE! I know you are not looking for a product that will stream from one TV to another TV (or another sling box), and I know you might have been waiting for this catcher, but it is not the solution. Unless you are fond about taking $300 (plus tax and shipping where applicable) and setting it on fire, then this product is not for you.

Updated on Aug 19, 2009

Making this short and sweet. The Sling Catcher never worked, the network bridges fried my network, and the Sling Catcher was fried. When I got it working, it worked for up to 1 min and then froze, because it could not handle the streams and would freeze. It cannot handle HD quality, it cannot stream in low quality, or any quality for that matter. I tried it on a couple of computers, via different connections, even ran a wire, which sort of defeats the purpoe of a wireless device, and nothing worked.
Response to 3rd reply, my tv is bigger than yours, and you are lying. That is nice that you have a 52 inch hd 1080p. The sling brdige connecters just fried everything, including my linksys cable modem, even wiped its info and knocked it off the net! My brand new Linksys router (top of the line) was also knocked down with those crappy bridges. The direct connect didn't work at all, and the stream was unstable and froze, dont lie, I have never encountered such garbage before.

Updated on Aug 19, 2009

I find it necessary to add more. I have a top of the line Sony HD tv, with the top of the line goodies to found in a Sony that is actually made in Japan, which is what you get when you pay the extra bucks, sort of like the old saying, you get what you pay for.... The sling catcher is a cheap POS that does not work. My internet connection is the highest speed grade cable you can get. It couldn't handle a stream let alone anything as high as 800kbps!!! I read a review on here that you need more than one 1mbit, what bs! And, a newer tv, that does what? Has it's own device that can capture streams? Than what is the sling catcher for???? All the new Sony LCDs have stream catchers built in, this sling catcher is already obsolete before it even became functional! While Sling took two years to release this garabge, tv manufacturers already started releasing tvs with the capabilty installed. AVOID THIS TRASH. Also, it cannot stream in any quality or resolution!!!!

Pros Great idea

Cons Won't work with wireless ... Requires minimum of 1 megabit UPload internet access ... requires newer model television

Summary I was looking forward to the introduction of the Slingcatcher and was one of the first to purchase, online, through Walmart.com. On delivery, I determined it would not work with wireless so I re-hooked my network in order to set up with ethernet access. I then found that it would not work at all from my laptop on wireless so I had to re-hook it up via ethernet. It "kind of" worked but the picture was pixelated and the sound was slightly out of sync.

From there, I called Tech Support. One hour later, speaking with someone who was VERY difficult to understand, I was told that

1. The Slingcatcher requires a minimum of 1 Megabyte UPload capability as a minimum (I have 6 meg download but my speedtest.net upload speed was 450kb).

2. The picture quality on a television with 480i or 480p is "always going to be pixelated." You must have a 1081i set in order to have it work properly.

Neither of these issues is mentioned in their advertising ... in fact, the advertising specifically indicates that it works with wireless. Nothing is mentioned that you must have lightspeed UPload capability.

The slingcatcher is a great idea whose technology just simply isn't ready.

At least Walmart gives full refunds on these products including shipping.

Pros Relatively cheap
Plays practically every file
Simple to set up and use
Works great with NAS

Cons Rewind and fast forward are buggy and don't always work
Not great for music, no "shuffle" mode or continuous play

Summary I use the SlingCatcher to stream video files from my Network Attached Storage Drive to my TV in the bedroom. I bought it during a flash sale on Amazon.com for $99, which is a steal compared to any other device that would perform the same task. I've been using the device for about 3 months now and am happy with the purchase. Set up was quick and simple and it has played every file I've thrown at it so far. My only disappointment is that the fast forward and rewind features don't seem to function properly and if I try to use them, it starts my video from the beginning.