1. Jpatterson350's Avatar
    Has anyone tried the new Sling Player on the 8900?

    I have tried it on the 8320 Curve and Edge is a little choppy, WIFI is nice. I was wondering if the new 8900 would stream better because of the faster processor and I think I read somewhere that the 8900's Edge is better than the old version.

    I wonder what the new screen looks like with the Sling Player?? I bet it kicks the 8320's ****.

    PS I get my new 8900 on wednesday and as soon as I try the sling software on the 8900 I will report with pics and quality.

    If anyone has tried this on the 8900 please comment or add pics!
    Thanks,
    01-24-09 01:43 PM
  2. NorthStar7's Avatar
    I just installed the beta slingplayer. The install was easy and the it found my linked slingboxes based on my Sling Account. However, the video is choppy even over wifi. I started reading forum posts over at slingcommunity.com but I ran out of steam...I may come back to it later to see if I can tweak something to make it work better.
    01-24-09 01:54 PM
  3. NorthStar7's Avatar
    JPatt- did you have to do anything special to your router settings or 8320 to get a smooth picture in wifi mode?

    I have attached a picture of SPM on the 8900. Not a great example...it's the UPS commercial where the guy demonstrates how your new 8900 arrives before your tracking number is posted on their website
    01-26-09 09:51 PM
  4. Jpatterson350's Avatar
    JPatt- did you have to do anything special to your router settings or 8320 to get a smooth picture in wifi mode?

    I have attached a picture of SPM on the 8900. Not a great example...it's the UPS commercial where the guy demonstrates how your new 8900 arrives before your tracking number is posted on their website
    No I didn't adjust anything on my router when I was on WIFI it worked great and just OK on edge.

    I like the UPS comercial pic, LOL I ordered on Saturday and still not UPS update or anything, oh well.

    How does run over EDGE?
    01-26-09 10:11 PM
  5. NorthStar7's Avatar
    I didn't use it much over EDGE but when I did it was rough. I was out yesterday and forgot to record the NHL All Star game so I muscled through the slowness to get to the guide and record it.

    Given my slowness over wifi, my EDGE experience probably isn't a representative test. I may have something going on with my network (although it works great from my laptop).
    01-26-09 10:29 PM
  6. clarkgriswold's Avatar
    I have had slingplayer mobile on my 8900 since last Thursday and it is money. I had it on my 8320 before that and it worked fine also. It works great on wifi and it works pretty good with a solid EDGE connection.
    01-26-09 10:39 PM
  7. NorthStar7's Avatar
    I have had slingplayer mobile on my 8900 since last Thursday and it is money. I had it on my 8320 before that and it worked fine also. It works great on wifi and it works pretty good with a solid EDGE connection.
    So you're saying there's a chance?

    How is your network setup? Anything special?

    I have a SlingLink carrying the connection from my SlingBox to my G router.

    It works like a champ on my laptop. I am getting over 1,300 Kbps right now over 300 miles from home....so it seems I should get a good connection on my phone when on the same LAN as my SlingBox.
    01-26-09 10:48 PM
  8. Woostar88's Avatar
    So you're saying there's a chance?

    How is your network setup? Anything special?

    I have a SlingLink carrying the connection from my SlingBox to my G router.

    It works like a champ on my laptop. I am getting over 1,300 Kbps right now over 300 miles from home....so it seems I should get a good connection on my phone when on the same LAN as my SlingBox.
    It sounds like a port forwarding problem. Try slingbox forums, they have lots of posts on how to get the devices to work.

    I haven't receive the 8900 yet, but my old curve can display decent quality pictures over wifi. Also EDGE works, but it's like snail crawling on the screen.

    cheers!
    01-26-09 11:15 PM
  9. Jpatterson350's Avatar
    I should have my 8900 today and I will report back with some solid testing on the device, wifi and EDGE.

    In response to NorthStar7 I would agree with wooStar88 it may be a port forwarding issue however if it works on your laptop I duno. It also may be possible that you have a upload limiter set on your home router as well, cant hurt to check out the sling forums when you have a little extra time to kill.
    01-27-09 01:00 AM
  10. Jpatterson350's Avatar
    One word for SlingBox on 8900

    WOW!!!

    The Screen looks amazing running sling. I have tested my home network and edge and let me say WOW.

    The home network is flawless, just a gorgeous picture on the 8900 and very easy to watch on the device.
    When on EDGE with 2 bars of service the picture was still good it did buffer about every 3-5 min but and only for a split second. Overall it blows the the 8320 out of the water.

    To be honest the screen on the 8900 is so nice when I look at my corporate issued 8830 it makes it look like a piece of garbage.

    The screens on all the other blackberries I have used seem to be recessed about a .25 inch on the 8900 it is like a computer screen, its amazing!
    Last edited by JPatterson350; 01-27-09 at 04:10 PM.
    01-27-09 04:08 PM
  11. NorthStar7's Avatar
    Sweet! I can't wait to get my replacement 8900 (orig had a bad trackball) and figure out my network issue.

    Does audio-only ever pause to buffer over EDGE?

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    01-27-09 04:16 PM
  12. Jpatterson350's Avatar
    Sweet! I can't wait to get my replacement 8900 (orig had a bad trackball) and figure out my network issue.

    Does audio-only ever pause to buffer over EDGE?

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    I dont think I have ever heard audio-only ever buffer on edge. If im not mistaken I think it streams at about 15 - 18 kbs.
    01-27-09 10:36 PM
  13. NorthStar7's Avatar
    I finally got my SlingPlayer Mobile over WiFi problems solved. The picture is indeed awesome on the 8900.

    I did three things to get it working well:
    1) Changed my router to broadcast over channel 11 (instead of the default 6)
    2) Assigned my 8900 a static IP address
    3) Connected from my phone to my Slingbox using the SlingBox's IP address rather than the finder id using my sling account.

    I think step #3 alone may have fixed my issue but I am not sure.

    I may be imagining this....but I think changing the router channel may have also helped my general wifi speed. Browsing the net seems a little snappier than before.

    Who needs a plasma....I have my 8900 now ; )
    01-30-09 07:33 PM
  14. aristile's Avatar
    You are probably on to something NorthStar. Channel 6 is generally the default channel that routers and access points use out of the box. Most people never change the channel from 6. If you have other routers or access points in the area around you there definitely could have been interference that was slowing down your wireless network.
    01-30-09 09:48 PM
  15. carios23's Avatar
    I watched over Wi-Fi just fine. However, I have not been able to watch through edge, but that was to be expected it is kinda slow here. I had an issue connecting to my router but I reran the wizard and it configured my router correctly, apparently it was a port forwading issue.

    The watch functionality works fine but there is an option for only listening that does not work. It has interrupts and it is uncomfortable to hear. I would really like to see this work in the final version. For the time being listening while streaming the video would do.

    Also, I have a weird bug, I have an Slingbox Solo plug through the component output in my TiVo HD. If I try to turn on the TiVo from the phone it restarts the phone. But, if the tivo is already on the menu screen, it works fine. I think if the TV is playing something in Standard Definition, it will also reboot the phone.
    02-17-09 05:26 PM
  16. KingofHeart4711's Avatar
    Well I got my Slingbox yesterday in the mail. After hours of trying to get it working the way it should (always something simple, remember that) I finally got everything going. Heres the weird part, I kept trying to connect to my slingbox from my 8900 wifi and kept receiving an error message saying that it could not connect and to check the connection settings on the phone. So this morning on my way to work I decide to give it another shot over EDGE and it worked fine It buffered a bit at first but I only tested it for a minute since I was driving. But im trying to figure out why I cant get it to work over wifi Anyone else encounter this problem??
    02-19-09 08:19 AM
  17. NorthStar7's Avatar
    At first I was always able to connect but my connection would drop. If you take a look at post #13 in this thread I explain what I did to fix it. I also later found out that the firmware on my router was old. After I put the latest firmware everything worked fine...I did not have to connect to my slingbox using IP address anymore. There was an problem with my Linksys firmware and the loopback process Slingplayer uses when watching via the Sling directory.

    I assume you performed all of the Slingbox setup steps such as opening the port it uses on your router? Have you verified that you can watch your slingbox from a laptop via wifi?
    02-19-09 08:37 AM
  18. Jpatterson350's Avatar
    FYI Sling does not work the the Alpha/Beta OS version of 5.0 do not upgrade if you wish to continue using your slingbox.

    I love the high quality setting on the slingplayer mobile fore 8900.. simply amazing to watch Dodgers baseball at work!!
    04-13-09 10:21 PM
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