Here's an overview of using SlingSync:

1. Install SlingSync on your computer.
2. Gather the drive(s) that contain the A/V content that you want to use with your SlingCatcher. Content can come from the following different sources:
1. Your PC’s internal hard disk drive(s).
2. External hard drives attached to your PC via USB, Firewire/1394, or other means.
3. Network hard drives that are mapped to a drive letter on your PC.
3. If you don't have one already, get a USB 2.0 FAT32-formatted hard drive (or thumb drive) to hold the files that you want to watch using your SlingCatcher. (This disk can be one of the "source" disks in the step above.) SlingSync can be used to transfer your A/V files onto this disk, so you can connect it to your SlingCatcher for viewing. If your hard drive isn't already formatted in the FAT32 file format, SlingSync can format it for you.
4. Launch SlingSync with the source disk (or one of the source disks) connected to your computer, or available on your network.
5. In SlingSync, select the drive with the A/V files on it from the left column, then click Scan Folder. A folder listing appears so that you can select what folder(s) to scan for media files.
6. From the folder list, choose what you'd like to scan: the entire disk drive or only certain folders or files. As SlingSync scans your drive for A/V files, it categorizes them as:
1. Compatible (green dot)
2. Requires conversion (yellow dot)
3. Protected content (red dot).
7. Once the scan is done, select the files that you want to convert and/or transfer to the receiving disk.
1. To select a file, click it.
2. To select a range of files, click the first file, hold down the Shift key, and click the last file in the range.
3. To select a discontinuous group of files, hold down Ctrl and click the files that you want to select.
8. Click the button for the action that you want to take:
1. Click Transfer (or Transfer all, if you've selected multiple files) if your media files are not on the USB drive you plan to plug into SlingCatcher. This copies the selected files to a receiving USB disk (the one that you're going to connect to the SlingCatcher). Incompatible files are automatically converted and transferred to the receiving disk and folder that you've specified. Compatible files need no converstion, so they're just transferred to the disk and folder that you've specified. Note: the original file remains untouched during this process. For file conversions, SlingSync creates a new file; for file transfers of compatible or incompatible files, SlingSync creates a file copy on the receiving disk.
2. Click Convert (or Convert all, if you've selected multiple files) if you already have all the media files you want to play back on a USB hard drive that you plan to plug into SlingCatcher. This converts files of the type "Requires Conversion" (yellow dot) into a format that the SlingCatcher can play back, without transferring files. The Convert or Convert All buttons create a compatible copy of the original file in the same location as the original. Once the conversions are finished, you can move the USB hard drive from your PC to your SlingCatcher.
9. While transfers or conversion are in progress, you’ll see a spinning icon in the left pane. Click Activity Monitor to keep an eye on the progress of the file conversions and/or transfers.
10. If you want to stop conversion and/or transfer, within the Activity Monitor, select the file you don't want to convert/transfer, and click Cancel (or Cancel all if you've selected more than one file).
    The conversion/transfer stops, and the file is removed from the Activity Monitor list.
    NOTE: Doing this does not delete the file itself! It just removes it from the queue to be converted/transferred.
11. When the conversion/transfer process is done, you can quit SlingSync, properly eject the hard disk or thumb drive, and connect it to your SlingCatcher for viewing.

Note: After scanning your files, SlingSync creates simple thumbnail images for each file. These thumbnail JPEG images are stored on the same disk as the file(s). You cannot change or edit these thumbnail images.