SlingPlayer choppy

[Nikhil72]

Hey everyone. is anyone else finding the SLingPlayer to be choppy? I have a solid full signal in the NYC area and get around 400 kbps...SlingPlayer only hits 100-150 and averages 9 or 10 fps. My speed on a PC is flawless whether connected remotely or on my home network, so I don't think my uplink speed is a culprit.

[spozzie]

I sure you have already..but if not.

Have you tried out the different Encoding Parameters via the Player Options and then Encoding menu? I had to change some such as the Video FPS (options range from 1-20 to Full rate). Lots of little tweaks thru this menu that may improve your playback performance.

[Kupe]

Originally Posted by Nikhil72

I have a solid full signal in the NYC area and get around 400 kbps...SlingPlayer only hits 100-150 and averages 9 or 10 fps. My speed on a PC is flawless whether connected remotely or on my home network, so I don't think my uplink speed is a culprit.

What is your actual upstream broadcast rate from your home network router? It sounds like it's in the 100-150 kbps. If so, you'll need to manually tune your Slingplayer by going to:
Menu-->Player Options-->Encoding. Turn off "Enable Slipstream" and set the following parameters:
- Video Bitrate: 90
- Video FPS: 20
- I-Frame Interval: 7

This should reduce the choppiness noticeably. From this point, you can play around with the numbers keeping the following in mind:
- Audio will add 20-30 kbps to your stream rate (so far you can't adjust this on the Q). You don't want your Audio + Video to exceed your available total kbps so adjust accordingly
- FPS will directly affect smoothness. Higher "excess" bitrate available will allow higher framrates.
- The I-Frame interval describes the interval between complete video frames in the broadcast. Most video frames consist of only those pixels that appear to have changed between frames. A full frame (I-frame) contains the full resolution of pixels (256x192 on the Q) and requires more bandwidth to pass through. A lower I-Frame number means more frames will have full resolution (with an I-Frame of 1, every frame will be full resolution) and for a fixed bit rate, low I-Frame numbers = lower frame rate. Higher I-Frame numbers will allow higher frame rates, but a "blurrier" or "more ghosted" picture, especially with high action. By playing around with these seetings, you can eventually find the stream quality that suits you.

I have (crappy) Verizon aDSL with an uplink speed of 110 kbps. I run my Slingplayer with 75 kbps video, 20 fps, and an i-Frame rate of 10. At these settings, I get wholly usable video with frame rates of about 14-17 fps (for example, I can easily read the ticker across the bottom of the CNN Headline News broadcast).

On my i730 (for comparison), even with it's 516 MHz processor, I get similar performance (15-19 fps). When I use the wi-fi on the i730, I get a full 30fps using the "Enable Slingstream Optimization" setting for the encoding at 400+kbps.

Hope this helps a little.

[Nikhil72]

Thanks--the odd thing is, my upload speed when I test it is 400+ kbps. I'm using Earthlink Cable provided by Time Warner in the NY area.

I'm actually getting some solid video now, so I think things are clearing up somewhere.

[Kupe]

Originally Posted by Nikhil72

I'm actually getting some solid video now, so I think things are clearing up somewhere.

Bandwidth, especially wireless, is sometimes like the weather - hard to predict, but often changing.