Possibly found a fix for Slingbox on the Mogul!
 

So, as many are well aware, slingbox on the mobile is not an optimal experience due to the mogul's directdraw issues. It's okay in when it's non-full screen, but in full screen mode it's borderline unwatchable--lots of frame stutterring, very choppy video, bad audio sync. SlingMedia promised to look for a fix about 2 months ago but there's still no news.

A few weeks ago I installed vTap, which seemed like a great program. However, I was disappointed to see that it suffered from the same exact directdraw issues as slingplayer, and its video was almost unwatchable on my mogul. Well, people complained, but this time the company actually listened!! About 2 weeks ago they released an updated player that played things almost perfectly, though the videos still had audio sync issues (which seem to be another mogul-wide problem).

My initial reaction that I was happy vTap came out with an updated client that quickly, and i wished slingmedia would do the same. However, ever since I installed the new vTap client, my slingplayer performance seems to have improved DRAMATICALLY. I can watch in full screen now with smooth, stutter free video (although of course the audio still gets thrown out of sync at times.) I'm pretty sure this isn't just in my head, as it was pretty bad in full screen before and now it's nearly flawless.

So my guess is that the new vtap client modified something with the mogul that as a byproduct resolved the same issues that were affecting the slingplayer. I know there are vTap employees that check this board, maybe they can confirm or deny this fix?? Or at the very least, explain what they did to resolve it with their player so we can tell SlingMedia how to fix their own program!

Those that can, give it a try and let me know what you think!

I gotta be honest, I'm yet to see this Slingbox issue. I watch my Slinger everyday in full screen. I mostly watch CNN, BBC America and MTV Jamz and videos always play smoothly. Sound is great and no audiosync issues. My Mogul connects at 600kb/s on average here in Atlanta,GA.

Try setting your Slingplayer to action in the encoding menu.

No issues on my Alltel 6800 either. Works well, connecting anywhere from 200 kbps to 900 kbps.

trust me, i've used every setting imaginable before this. high action, medium action, slingstream on, slingstream off, diff stream rates, everything. i was hoping i'd be one of the lucky ones that had no problem watching sling on the mogul but i did have problems and i'm not alone. there's a long thread on slingmedia's forums from mogul users complaining about slingplayer problems. but anyway, for those who do have issues, try this and let me know how it goes.

I just got a Slingbox yesterday and I had problems with SlingPlayer on my Mogul right away. Video is choppy and skips, and audio is almost always out of sync. I checked out the thread at slingcommunity.com and played with the settings as recommended... no help. I installed vTap but I don't think there's any difference. Did you do anything other than install the program? Was there any configuring involved?

can you link me to the version i should download? thanks. i've been going insane with the slingplayer problems. i downloaded win pro 6 mobile version but i'm not sure if it is the vesion they fixed for the mogul.

wait, do yall experience this choppyness even over wifi? I was upgraded to the 6800 the otherday from the 6700 due to problems with the phone and good insurence lol and i noticed a lil frame rate hick up here and there but over all my experience has been watch able... i wish i still had my 6700 to compare... but if my memory serves me correctly it did play noticebly smoother on the 6700... you say its direct draw issues... i just remember the 6700 would slow down the video and audio in the beginning a bit to sync up everything and afterthat the video would play as smooth as your connection would allow... livein in the tri-state area i usually had a good connection.

This was the version of vTap I just installed.

http://www.soft32.com/download_210546.html

I just got my Slingbox so it's not like I can compare how it runs to a different device, 6700, Q, Treo, etc. I heard about how great the mobile clients played and thought it would be much better. Even on Wifi it's pretty bad. It's watchable when not in full screen but it gets really annoying if I set to full screen. It seems that some people say it works fine, some can't stand the choppiness and sync issues. I'm wondering if it's really behaving differently for some people, or we all just have different expectations of how it should look.

There have been a couple of firmware updates to the slingbox. You need to download the desktop version to install the firmware.

I set the Slingbox up on Wednesday, and installed the software from the website rather than the CD. I also updated the firmware. I have the latest versions of both SlingPlayers and firmware. It looks great on my PC, mediocre at best on my Mogul.

can more then 1 person login and watch 1 slingbox?

The Slingbox firmware update procedure is a bit wonky. I downloaded what I thought was an updated firmware for my AV. The dates and such on the file indicated it was newer than what I had. I ran it and it said the firmware would be upgraded the next time I ran the player.

It doesn't upgrade. Only after reading into an XML file contained in the installer did I notice that the AV firmware appears to be a version or two behind and the file dates / version revs do not appear to be in sync.

I didn't further investigate.

I'm also hoping for a viable Mogul fix soon.

Do we know if the Alltel 6800 has the same problems when Slinging?

I'm using DCD's clean rom to build off of.

I also had the issue with the Slingplayer stuttering on full screen mode. No other video player on the Mogul has this issue. I was really disappointed, it even did it with the WLAN connection, so I know it wasn't a signal issue. After messing with it and messing with it, I figured out it plays flawlessly if I put in full screen and then tap the very bottom of the screen to make the little grey bar come up. Plays perfect. No stuttering at all.

I do have one question though, have you folks been able to get the Mogul to go over 450kbps? Mine tops out at the speed in Slingplayer even if I'm on the WLAN.

Lovin' the slingbox now!

Hmm, interesting Digiblur. How is the audio sync?
Can anybody else confirm this? My trial has expired and I have no interest in buying it until it works.

I am still waiting for the sling box fix but for the mean time I have figured out a temporary solution that seems to work fine until a fix is released. In the player options try setting the optimization to medium and make sure your resolution is fixed at 320X240 always. This helps alot apparently. Give it a try and post your results.

My main question is why is not a universal issue. I just reviewed the Slingbox for WMexperts with my Mogul and I have never experienced any issues. It will stutter for the first 30 seconds or so and then be nothing but extremely smooth and clear.

I think the issues described here are more a fact of a slow upload speed versus any problem with the Mogul. My 6700 was crappy with Sling with 128 up. I upgraded to 756 and it works perfectly.

I don't think it's the case at all. Plenty of people have described going from a 6700 to Mogul and had the quality drop. This is with the same ISP, same upload and download speeds, same everything other than the device. I know when I'm connected to my home LAN via wifi and test the SlingBox it plays like crap on my Mogul. In fact I can tether with my laptop and it looks fine, so that's using the same upstream from my ISP and downstream from Sprint. It's gotta be the Mogul.

If you've ever used the slingplayer on the ppc-6700, you'd see the difference.

Slingplayer mobile on the ppc-6800 is ok.. but it was really really good on the ppc-6700...

-mark

It runs better on my mogul than it did on my moto-Q. I get some stuttering when I am in a bad signal area, but when I have a good signal it runs smooth. Sounds about right to me.

I still believe the problem is DirectDraw. First, I have a business connection which has great upload speed, so that's not it. I've been in hotel rooms with wifi and a laptop halfway around the world and gotten a great picture with no problems. Second, I had an MDA when I was with T-Mobile and despite their pathetic EDGE speed, I still got a good picture when it wasn't stopped to buffer. There's a difference between that and the "jerkiness" of the Mogul. Finally, playing a video using WMP shows the exact same problem as does TCPMP when in DirectDraw mode. If I put TCPMP into either GDI or Raw Framebuffer mode and play the same video, it plays exactly like you'd expect it to, so it's not a problem with the hardware. The last update didn't even acknowledge a problem so I'm not holding my breath for it to ever be fixed by Microsoft/HTC/Sprint. Maybe Sling Media but it's not really their problem so I'm not expecting anything from them.

One last thing...the problem is only evident to me when there's a lot of action. I was using it to watch baseball, for example, and during the long shots of the pitcher, batter and general area, there was very little action. That is, there weren't many pixels being pushed around. But when the camera followed the ball out of the field, into the stands, past lots of people and back into the field, there was lots of action and that's when the stuttering became very evident. I could actually see a split down the screen with two different images on each side. The left, for example, might still be green from the field while the right side had people's heads zipping by. WMP and TCPMP in DirectDraw do exactly the same thing in exactly the same circumstances.

Everyone in this thread is correct in stating that its a direct draw issue. Those of you who "don't have any problems" haven't seen Slingbox in all its glory (the Q wasn't good either, qwho!).
All media apps suffer from it with the new Qualcomm chipset (Touch, titan, tilt, etc), so its not a slingplayer problem either.
Luckily some programs like TCPMP let u manually fix it by circumventing the DirectDraw rendering. Most apps don't have options like that.

But if you're never compared it to an older device with working DirectDraw, you might never know anything is wrong. Its still good, just not as good as it should be.

yeah... seems eveyones haveing different experiences... in my experience slingbox works fine... sometimes it takes a sec for the audio to sync but it did that on my 6700 too... maybe its the edvo signal in your area, or maybe you need to update your desktop and mobile software.... maybe its direct draw...i donno but Ill say after a month of slingbox on the mogul i can verify.... it works fine for me in the nj tri-state area. its very watchable by my standards.... and beats sprint tv, mobitv if u ask me.

I have always known it to be a direct draw issue. either HTC/ Sprint need to release a patch fix or updated Direct Draw driver or slingmedia has to enable their software to use GDI or Raw Frambuffer with offset like tcpmp does. How can we complain about this so it is brought to the attention of the people responsible so that something is done about it asap. Seems like they become aware of bluetooth and lag issues, why aren't they aware of Video issues??? we must do something about. who do we contact?

I know for certain that Sling Media is aware of it. I don't know if they're doing anything about it, but they do know about it. But it doesn't strike me as their problem. The player works fine on all these phones, it doesn't work quite right on this one and anything else that uses DirectDraw doesn't work quite right in the same way. Quick, where does the problem probably lie? I believe they also list the mogul as "incompatible" or something like that. "May have problems...". I would venture to guess that the people that need to hear complaints are HTC. As usual.

All that having been said, I agree that, at least for me and dishe, it doesn't make it unwatchable. Doesn't really take much of anything away from it, really.

To be honest, I've installed Orb because I can play it with TCPMP using raw framebuffer or GDI and it does play noticably better than the Slingplayer. The reason I still have the Slingplayer hooked up is because it changes channels better (Orb didn't have IR codes for a Comcast DVR...how do you not have that?!), it does an excellent job at adjusting for bandwidth availability, it's stand-alone hardware that doesn't require a computer and it's *much* easier to control the DVR. MUCH easier. But there are times I've fired up the Slingplayer, changed the channel, killed it and went to Orb to actually watch.

For what it's worth I just set the player to fixed 320x240 and it seems to have made a significant difference. It's still not as good as I have seen on other devices, but it's at least watchable for me now.
Thanks for the tip.

Your Welcome kosh56

Where did you change that setting?

I'm starting to second guess my original statement. Now that I watched some sports center on it, I notice some serious issues.

I find it hard to believe that with all of the hacks, custom programs, etc. that have been developed for the Mogul, we still can't get this issue fixed. I know everyone says that it's a DirectDraw issue but is that something that can be fixed with an updated driver or is it something more than that? Does the Touch have this problem? If not, can we use the driver from the Touch on our Moguls?