Sling Media Support - A slow Internet connection at home can affect picture quality when Internet Viewing

A slow Internet connection at home can affect picture quality when Internet Viewing

You need high-speed Internet (broadband) service at home in order to get quality video when Internet Viewing. Upload speed is especially important.

One of the "must-haves" for Internet Viewing is a high-speed Internet connection at home. You need high-speed (broadband) Internet service at home in order to get quality video when you watch remotely.

The typical home broadband service has one "downstream" bandwidth and a different "upstream" bandwidth (Bandwidth refers to the speed and the amount of data being transferred). Usually the downstream bandwidth is faster—often by a big margin—than the upstream bandwidth.

This allows you to quickly download big web sites and large files from the Internet. What you typically upload are much smaller files, such as emails and text documents. Uploading, in most cases, requires much less bandwidth.

When you’re viewing your Slingbox remotely, it’s uploading data, so the faster the upstream rate, the more video data your Slingbox can send out to the Internet. An upstream bandwidth of 256 Kbps (Kilobits per second) or more is recommended. Check with your ISP to find out what your broadband upstream bandwidth is, and to discuss upgrading to a speedier service, if necessary.

SlingPlayer and Watch on Slingbox.com display the upstream bandwidth in the lower right side of their windows (See the screenshots below).

SlingPlayer showing bandwidth

Watch on Slingbox.com showing bandwidth

RELATED INFORMATION

	The Internet Viewing experience Some background about Slingbox Internet Viewing: using your Slingbox to watch your TV anywhere.
	Internet Viewing Picture Quality: Some common reasons for poor picture quality Sometimes when using Internet Viewing, the picture quality might not be as good as you'd like. Why could that be?
	Help setting up Internet Viewing when you have multiple routers Does your home network have more than one router? Here's a how-to for home networks with a little more complexity.