# VIP922 streaming video across local network?



## Nethawk

Forgive me if this is answered, I did not find it.

I just had 922 installed, hoping eventually to use this as the solution to one receiver, one DVR in the house. I found a link to download SlingPlayer, which (without updating) allowed me to access live TV but no recorded content. However, when I allowed SlingPlayer to automatically update a message popped up that it was not compatible with the 922, log in to dish.sling.com. Going there I was dismayed to learn, I think, that video is streamed out to the internet and back to my PC. Is there no way of using my local LAN? My DSL internet bandwidth isn't going to cut it, and no way am I going to buy Android app if this is the case.

I almost dropped Dish after 12 years to go with DirecTV whole home DVR solution, but decided to stick around. I may have made the wrong choice, but if local access is not possible Dish can have their 922 back.

Thanks in advance.


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## n0qcu

Go back to the version of slingplayer you were using before and do NOT update it again.


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## Stewart Vernon

Yeah, basically the only approved/supported Sling for the 922 is through the Web site.

At some point they updated the SlingPlayer not to work.

You can, however, use the Slingplayer app on the iPhone with the 922... but I don't know if that uses your local network or not.


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## phrelin

Nethawk said:


> Going there I was dismayed to learn, I think, that video is streamed out to the internet and back to my PC. Is there no way of using my local LAN? My DSL internet bandwidth isn't going to cut it, and no way am I going to buy Android app if this is the case.


Are you sure that the video is streaming out to the internet and back to your PC.

When I first got my Slingbox PRO-HD, I noticed that my internet connection speed was being displayed which dismayed me as I didn't want watching within my home network to be counted against the usage limit Comcast places on my ISP account. I queried the nice folks at Sling Media and they assured me that my viewing was not going across the internet just through my LAN.

I don't have a 922, but I find the idea of simultaneously "uploading" and "downloading" an HD video stream over the internet for an extended period of time through a commonly used household modem not just ludicrous but unworkable.


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## Stewart Vernon

phrelin said:


> I don't have a 922, but I find the idea of simultaneously "uploading" and "downloading" an HD video stream over the internet for an extended period of time through a commonly used household modem not just ludicrous but unworkable.


The problem lies not with the 922 but the supported player software.

Dish/Sling pulled support for the 922 from the SlingPlayer software on PC/Mac operating systems... so the software simply will not try to connect.

This leaves the only way to connect via the Dish Web site and browser plug-in. That is what forces your viewing to go up the internet and then back down to you, thus limiting even your local viewing capability to the upload bandwidth you have through your ISP.

It bites, and is something pretty much everyone with a 922 has been complaining about since launch.

It's a completely unnecessary limitation, and no one is sure why Dish decided to force all the 922 sling-viewing through their Web site.


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## phrelin

Stewart Vernon said:


> The problem lies not with the 922 but the supported player software.
> 
> Dish/Sling pulled support for the 922 from the SlingPlayer software on PC/Mac operating systems... so the software simply will not try to connect.
> 
> This leaves the only way to connect via the Dish Web site and browser plug-in. That is what forces your viewing to go up the internet and then back down to you, thus limiting even your local viewing capability to the upload bandwidth you have through your ISP.
> 
> It bites, and is something pretty much everyone with a 922 has been complaining about since launch.
> 
> It's a completely unnecessary limitation, and no one is sure why Dish decided to force all the 922 sling-viewing through their Web site.


This is really weird.

Using my Slingbox PRO-HD, the Slingplayer software on my Windows 7 PC does require me to go to the Sling web site to _*connect*_. And once I connect it continuously monitors my connection speed. That worried me the first time I used it, so I talked to the folks at Sling media.

The Sling folks assured me that my video stream was not leaving my home network. I have monitored usage now that the nice folks at Comcast provide that service. I don't see any usage level jump that I would expect to see if I were streaming an HD signal up to the Sling site and back down. And the quality on my 25" monitor is superb.

Here's the process in screenshots. First I go to their web site:







I click on "Watch" up at the top and it starts this process:







It then displays my 722's screen (which I can enlarge for full screen viewing of the stream, of course):








The nice tech support folks at Sling Media insisted that at this point the video stream is entirely within my home network even though at the bottom one can see a message "Optimizing 8152 kbps" that varies as my internet connection speed varies. I _inferred_ from what they said that the web signin is necessary to assure security somehow.

Again, I would have expected an increase in monthly Comcast usage that I haven't seen, so I at this point I believe they were telling me the truth.


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## Stewart Vernon

It would appear that the Slingplayer software does something different than the Web interface and the iPhone app.

Some have reported that older Slingplayer software still works with the 922... and in that case, you probably would just be using the local network same as with the Slingbox HD.

Unfortunately, the newer Slingplayer software dropped support for the 922, and Dish won't help you use the older software if you have problems because they don't support it... and going through the Web site or iPhone app definitely routes everything through the internet and back down.

It's a bad decision on Dish's part to have limited the way the 922 Sling features work.


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