We just got an iPad2 16GB here at work and installed a slingbox solo with slingplayer mobile. We purchased the 2GB data plan from AT&T and after approx 2-3 hours of streaming over 3G, we got a message saying our data plan has run out. It was very hard to find any info on just how long you should be able to stream, but from what I could gather, it should have ranged somewhere between 10-40 hours... I know the data plans are kind of a rip off to begin with, but $25 for 3 hours of video seems a bit extreme. Does anyone here have any experience with the slingplayer on the iPad? Or have a more concrete idea of just how long the data plan should last? Thanks!
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPad with 3G & Slingbox, 2GB only lasted 2-3 hours?
- Thread starter antdfsc
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
A data plan will last as long as you need it last.
Seriously, its like asking how long a peice of string is,
I Have a 15gb plan on my iplan(Edit:iPlan ? i meant iPad, should i copyright iPlan before apple does ?), usually i use 2-3 a month, but one day i used 14.5gb in a day (high res streaming, left on , plugged in.)
remember that your data plan is likely outgoing +incoming, and whilst i have no experience of slingbox i do use elgatos eyetv + turbo H264 to stream to my ipad live TV on the go, and it can eat up to 80Kb/s a second off a dataplan if i let it push out at ok quality,
so maths say 80kb/sec x 60 = 4.8mb a minute x 60 = 288mb an hour
if i push up to high quality and max out my outgoing bandwidth (so full 720p) i could eat up 1GB + an hour easily.
check your sling player, if it has the option, drop the outgoing encoding to the lowest you can live with for picture quality, the lower the quality, the less data sent, the longer you will have.
Seriously, its like asking how long a peice of string is,
I Have a 15gb plan on my iplan(Edit:iPlan ? i meant iPad, should i copyright iPlan before apple does ?), usually i use 2-3 a month, but one day i used 14.5gb in a day (high res streaming, left on , plugged in.)
remember that your data plan is likely outgoing +incoming, and whilst i have no experience of slingbox i do use elgatos eyetv + turbo H264 to stream to my ipad live TV on the go, and it can eat up to 80Kb/s a second off a dataplan if i let it push out at ok quality,
so maths say 80kb/sec x 60 = 4.8mb a minute x 60 = 288mb an hour
if i push up to high quality and max out my outgoing bandwidth (so full 720p) i could eat up 1GB + an hour easily.
check your sling player, if it has the option, drop the outgoing encoding to the lowest you can live with for picture quality, the lower the quality, the less data sent, the longer you will have.
Switching to capped data plans now allows the carriers to bill for several times more than an unlimited plan in the next few years as data needs grow. I'm sorry, you just hit the bump before anyone else.
It's a horrible trap that people are caught in because they don't need more than 2-300mb right now.
It's a horrible trap that people are caught in because they don't need more than 2-300mb right now.