Q: How do I know if my video and audio files will play on SlingCatcher?
A: SlingCatcher supports a wide variety of video and audio formats. There are two ways that you can play audio and video files with your SlingCatcher:
- Use natively-supported formats. Your SlingCatcher can play some audio and video files natively, without any conversion. For a detailed listing of these types of files, see the table titled SlingCatcher Media Format Support Detail, below. Or, just try playing the file with your SlingCatcher. It'll say SlingCatcher is unable to play this file if the file isn't natively-supported. If that's the case, you can ...
- Convert non-native files using SlingSync. The SlingSync software installs on your PC. Take the USB drive (with your audio and video files on it) and connect it to your PC. SlingSync scans the USB drive and determines which of the files SlingCatcher can play. If you wish, SlingSync converts files as needed into a format SlingCatcher can play. (And if it can't do that, it tells you.) Once that's done, you can connect the USB drive directly to your SlingCatcher for viewing.
For more information on SlingSync, see Related Information, below.
Q: What should I do if my video/audio file(s) are not supported by SlingCatcher?
A: You can use SlingSync to convert your files.
SlingCatcher Media Format Support Detail
For your information, this table lists the codecs, file formats, resolutions, bit rates, and other details of files that can be played back natively on SlingCatcher using a USB hard disk drive. Click this table to enlarge it.
Q: What is the difference between a codec (such as WMV, MPEG-4, etc.) and a file format (.mp4, .mov, .wmv, etc.)?
A: The codec refers to the compression format used. These can be internationally recognized standards such as MPEG-2 or MPEG-4, or can also be proprietary formats that are commonly used such as Windows Media (WMV). The file format is the container that the compressed audio or video is wrapped in, such as .mp4 or .ts; it does not indicate necessarily what video compression format is inside. For example, the .mp4 file format could serve as a container for MPEG-4 video or H.264. So it is not possible to determine if a file is playable on SlingCatcher just by looking at the file format or codec or bitrate or resolution; you must know the combination of these, which is listed in the table. |
