I have a Slingbox PRO-HD installed in Taiwan hoping that I can enjoy my hometown TV shows remotely here. However, I am not very pleased with the perform it brings because my PRO HD has been poorly performing with this intermittent 0 Kbps. Obviously the viewing experience is not quite smooth. I wonder what causes this so I searched Google for help. Some of the owners have similar issues but the search result took me to Slingbox’s old community page where it has been renewed to Sling Forum. I couldn’t find a useful page to help me addressing this issue. But I have finally figured it out. If your Slingbox PRO-HD has this sudden 0 Kbps lagging issue, please read on…
My network and equipments
[In Taiwan]
- Standard analog cable TV inputting to PRO-HD’s coaxial port
- Hinet fiber optic Internet connection (3M down/768K up)
- Linksys WRT-54G router with DD-WRT v2.4 pre-SP2-[Beta] build 13064
- Slingbox PRO-HD
[In US]
- Homebrew Windows 2003 Server as an Internet Gateway with routing service
- Dell Studio 15″ laptop
- RCN 20M cable (Queens)
I have researched some forums mentioned it’s RCN to block the Slingbox’s default port 5001, so I tested with a Verizon Business DSL on a Mac Pro. The result was the same, the connection randomly dropped and became 0 Kbps. I figured it shouldn’t be a network issue.
Luckily I had set up remote access to the DD-WRT administration web interface to monitor the traffic status. On the bandwidth monitor view under status tab, you can monitor the traffic in real-time. (Thanks to DD-WRT) I saw a very unstable WAN activities. So it is not the problem with Slingbox either.
Finally, I remotely flashed the DD-WRT firmware to DD-WRT v24-sp1 (07/27/08) std then it took care of everything. I am enjoying a stable 1840Kbps constant streaming with almost no lag. The v24-sp2 pre beta DD-WRT firmware is the cause of the whole problem. Although it is risky to update firmware remotely, if you are experience this issue with same configuration like mine, please check your DD-WRT’s firmware. Sometimes the newer version isn’t the best one to try…
My current bandwidth graph:
DD-WRT Bandwith Graph
The problem is caused by the Slingbox ProHD firmware. You need to revert the firmware to earlier version… such as 1.3.xxx. That is the one I used and have zero problem. If you updated to the latest version… basically anything 1.4 and up to today’s 2.1 firmware, you will have freezing video… unwatchable.