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Products

Introduction

Setup

Features & Specifications

System Requirements

Frequently Asked Questions

For Game Developers

System Requirements

Physical Connectivity

You must be able to connect the Spawn HD-720 to both: (a) your game console(s) using A/V cables and a USB cable; and (b) your broadband network using an Ethernet cable. If you cannot physically connect the Spawn HD-720 to both of these resources at the same time, it will not work.

Also, the Spawn HD-720 accepts component/composite video and composite audio inputs to capture the A/V signal from your game console. So you will either need to:

1. Connect your game console output jacks to the Spawn HD-720 input jacks using component video cables, and then connect the Spawn HD-720 output jacks to your TV input jacks using an additional set of component video cables. This enables pass-through, so you can play either on your console and TV, or remotely from the Spawn Player, in both cases using component video connectors, and without the need to re-wire when changing between local and remote play.
   -OR-
2. If it is very important to you to use HDMI from your game console to your TV for native console gaming, then you can purchase an HDMI splitter/converter from us. In this case you would take the HDMI output from your game console and plug that cable into the splitter converter. You would then take another HDMI cable out from the splitter/converter and into your TV. And you would take a set of component video and composite audio cables out from the splitter converter and into the Spawn HD-720. (Please note that we are currently finishing integration/certification work with this HDMI accessory, so it is not yet available for sale on our storefront page.)

Network Bandwidth

Remote play in standard definition requires a minimum bandwidth of approx. 500kbps per remote player, and a recommended bandwidth of 1Mbps per remote player. In our experience, you will need Internet service that is marketed by your service provider of 1.5Mbps to really get sustained bandwidth of 1Mbps.

Remote play in high definition requires bandwidth of 3 to 5Mbps per remote player.

Any decent home router will support these bandwidth requirements for play around the home – including 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n. That said, 802.11n provides the best possible range, and as you get further out toward the edges of wireless networks, streaming video performance will suffer earlier than, for example, simple web page browsing.

For remote play across the Internet, the uplink bandwidth of the network to which the Spawn HD-720 is attached is key. For consumers, this would be your home broadband service provided by AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner, etc. Be sure you have enough uplink bandwidth to support your intended use. If you are not sure what the uplink bandwidth of your home network is, we suggest you go to www.speedtest.net and run a test from a computer on your home network. This will report both your downlink and uplink bandwidth rates. We suggest that you take whatever number you get from speedtest.net and reduce it by approx. 25% to get a good estimate of the bandwidth rate you can sustain for an extended period of time.

Spawn Player

Currently the Spawn Player is only available for the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. It is not yet available for the Mac (although if you are running Windows in a virtual machine on your Mac, that will work).

To play games remotely in high definition 720p video, the computer running the Spawn Player should have a dual core processor. To play remotely in standard definition, any reasonably modern processor should work.