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Live TV and Recorded TV on Surface Book with Slingbox

sharpuser

Administrator
Staff member
I have tested Slingbox with DirecTV and Xfinity using a Surface Book i7/512 and a Surface Pro 3 i7/512 under Windows 10. (This thread could be posted under Windows 10, Surface Pro 3, or Surface Book. Best performance was with the Surface Book, so I will post there.)

My Slingbox produces excellent live TV performance on the Surface Book with Windows 10, and with some delay when changing channels, good performance. The Surface devices were tested using WiFi connections of the Slingbox to a 5GHz home network, and WiFi to the Surface both from home, and from a public WiFi at a café. Slingbox software can choose the best resolution for the particular connection on-the-fly.

There are other options besides Slingbox for live TV from primary satellite and cable providers. Slingbox lets me play back all content, channels and recordings, as if I was at home. The hardware box connects to the set-top box at home, and essentially provides an uplink for all your home TV content. Especially good for watching my favorite shows that were recorded at home, or recorded sports.

At the time of this posting, Slingbox player does not work with Edge (ActiveX not yet supported), but does work with Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox. The Hub player app ("Metro" app) was buggy with Windows 8, but has been significantly improved with Windows 10. The television window can be sized at will, including full screen.

An ideal touch-screen application

The Surface touch screen is ideal for using a realistic on-screen remote control, just as a smartphone would provide. Slingbox provides the remote control image to match my set top box.

Slingbox performance on a smartphone performance is generallybetter than Surface performance, since the smaller screen size requires less data throughput.

Slingbox with Internet Explorer. Touch screen works great with on-screen remote, which can be toggled on and off, or moved around. The remote can be a bit small for your finger with Internet Explorer, but the mouse can be used also.
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Windows 10 native Hub (Metro) app. Remote control nice and large to use with your finger, but in a fixed position over the video.
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Windows 10 native Hub (Metro) app. Remote control nice and large.
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Full screen mode with Windows 10 native Hub (Metro) Slingplayer app.
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Full screen mode showing options and remote with Windows 10 native (Metro) Slingplayer app.

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OP
sharpuser

sharpuser

Administrator
Staff member
Check your Power Management Setting:
Start, Edit Power Plan, Change advanced power settings, Display, Enable adaptive brightness, off

You may have to Display Adapter Properties to get the settings to take. Sometimes shrinking the player window to an icon then restoring back out does it, too.

Note: This setting must be changed on all the devices which sync your Windows 10 / Microsoft account. Otherwise, settings from other computers may override.

Intel and Microsoft are likely to be working out this display driver issue soon.

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one028

New Member
its the Adaptive contrast enhancement that I have to disable...how do you do that?

Video flickering with Watch on Windows computers
Having a problem with the video flickering when using Watch on Slingbox.com on your Windows computer? If you have an Intel video card, or even if you have a hybrid system that uses ATI or NVIDIA, here is one suggestion for you to try.


In the Intel® Graphics and Media Control Panel under your computer's Control Panel, go to the Image Enhancement settings and deselect Adaptive contrast enhancement to prevent the contrast from constantly changing on the video.

If this doesn't fix your video flickering, please contact us for help.
 
OP
sharpuser

sharpuser

Administrator
Staff member
Follow the instructions I posted previously. In Windows 10, the term is "Adaptive brightness".
At the present time, Intel has built these options into Windows 10.
 
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