[buzzinhornets]

got Slingbox Solo, plays fine, but then pause, "Optimizing", resumes after 1 min

Hi, I know that there's been some stuff posted where bad capacitors make your Slingbox drop the connection... but I'm not sure I have the same issue. Just got a Solo... When I watch a show via SlingPlayer for Windows, everything is fine for a few minutes, then the SlingPlayer screen pauses (the PVR continues to play mind you), it says Optimizing for about a minute, then SlingPlayer continues playing... but I've missed that 1 min of the show.

Is there something in the settings I could do to fix this? bitrate? Buffer?

 

[hugh]

Does it work fine after that?

 

[buzzinhornets]

yep, it'll play for another, say 3 - 5 min, then pause... optimizing... then about 1 min later resumes playing, but I missed that spot of the show.

 

[hugh]

It's likely an issue with your connection rather than the Slingbox itself. It typically optimizes when the connection speed changes.

Try setting it at the lowest settings to see if you can get it working and find out if your connection is problematic.

 

[buzzinhornets]

hmm... ok. just read another post that maybe my utorrent client could be doing something... although there's not much seeding or d/l-ing going on... also, I'll try with my laptop sitting about a foot from my wifi router to see if signal is an issue... may I need a range extender/repeater....

 

[hugh]

utorrent likely has a lot to do with it.

Stop all activity on the network and plug your laptop into your router via an Ethernet Cable, then test it out.

If it works fine, then you know that its a connection issue.

 

[WestCDA]

Network performance is critical of course, but the other factor that will affect playback peformance is your hardware - processor, memory, and video. If you continue to have problems, check and see what kind of hit your system is taking in task manager, and what processes are the big users for CPU and memory.

I'm running the Slingbox client at full screen in HD on a 24 monitor (on a three screen system). Not much else running, other than some services.

The picture is excellent quality HD, and never skips, stutters or slows down for optimizing. It's streaming at over 8100 kbps, memory usage is 2.11 GB out of 12 GB physical, and CPU usage is varying between 4 and 6 percent. This is with an i7-920 CPU.

 

[buzzinhornets]

First, recall that I have a SOLO, so no HD streaming just regular def.

Hmm... I think it must be my network. My laptop is an Acer AO752 dual core celeron netboook i think and seems pretty zippy. Yesterday I attached the laptop directly to the router with a CAT5e... I didn't notice any pauses or optimizing. So i guess that rules out the SlingLinks as the bottle neck and points the finger at the wifi... :-(

Not sure what to do here. I have a mix of G and N devices on my network. my router is "Linksys WRT54GX2 Wireless-G router with SRX200". My house is a side-split with many levels and walls. I also have a Patriot Box Office and I noticed when I transfer files wirelessly to the Patriot's HDD, I only get like 700kbps. Mind you, when I stream SD Xvid Movies, my TV shows that the Patriot is streaming at 4000kbps.

But based on the 'moving file' number, I think my network is working sub-par, right? A couple options I was thinking of was a) new N-router or, b) range extender/repeater

With option A, I've read that unless everything is N, there might not be an increase in speed, range.

With option B, if there's already a slow wifi coming from the router will the repeater just improve the range of the slow network?

 

[hugh]

Now that you know its not the Slingbox.

Did you try Wifi with torrents turned off. G should be okay if you have not Torrent traffic or other heavy wireless traffic but you'll have to try it to see.