Sling Media's new SlingCatcher
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Jan 7th 2007 12:12AM
posted Jan 7th 2007 12:12AM
Although Sling Media's first CES announcements aren't until Sunday night, thanks to GigaOm we have a few details of Sling's latest product: the SlingCatcher. This is another device designed to bring more media to your TV; not only will it allow you to view content from your Slingbox like you can with your PC, but it also will allow you to view whatever is on your PCs screen, on your boob tube. The box is about half the size of a Slingbox Tuner and includes S-Video, Component, HDMI and a couple USB ports. It also includes a hard drive -- a first for Sling -- this will allow you to eventually buy content from Sling, although they haven't announced any deals with content providers just yet. Also, the device doesn't include WiFi, but it is capable, making it the first Sling product with wireless connectivity. We'll keep you updated as we learn more and of course a few pics when we get 'em.Update: According to Dave Zatz the SlingCatcher will be released mid-2007 with a MSRP of less than $200. Contrary to our earlier reports the device will include Integrated WiFi and an optional Hard Drive.
Read Sling to Debut PC-to-TV Box at CES [GigaOM]
Read SlingCatcher Is Real! [Zatznotfunny.com]
I'm failing to see the point of this device... Can someone give me an example of how this is significant and/or useful?
"..., but it also will allow you to view whatever is on your PCs screen, on your boob tube".
I would call that useful, since I do something like that in a more limited fashion with my Hauppauge MediaMVP.
If you don't see it as significant and/or useful, I expect you don't see the point in Apple's iTV unit, either. :)
From what I've gathered, the iTV doesn't show what's on your computer's screen. That would be nice additional feature, but its main purpose is to provide an interface to media content stored on your computer, similar to FrontRow. The SlingCather just sounds like video out, which doesn't have much of a point unless the wireless connectivity is built in.
You can currently do this with your home PC and the X-Box360 using the Zune software. I doubt I would pay for something like this unless I could stream avi's and divx media.
Read the two linked articles, and you'll have a better idea of what the SlingCatcher is about.
FYI, the correction notes WiFi is included, as do the two linked articles.
If the SlingCatcher were "like video out", there would be little need for an optional hard drive.
Speaking of video out, my PC is about 50 feet and a few rooms away from my TV. Compared to running a S-video cable of that length, and a couple of cables for stereo audio, running a Cat5e cable was a breeze, and the resulting video from my MediaMVP has no interference issues. Also, simple video out would provide no means for remote control, which is vital for such PC-video-on-TV applications.
I expect SlingCatcher to bring more to the table, as lower priced network-capable media players with optional hard drives (such as the MediaGate MG-35) already exist. Given that the SlingCatcher sports HDMI, I expect it offers up some HD or at least upscaling goodness.
HJ, Check out http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/index.php?
There is an entire forum on media extenders. Many of which don't work the way members would like.
I hope this product turns out better than the D-Link Link Theater and the Hauppauge MediaMVP I've tried. They both suck either in inteface or reliability or both. The only product that came close to making my Home Theater wireless and digital was Microsoft's Media Center, which allowed me to archive my DVDs to a hard drive and browse my entire DVD collection from the storage unit. I hope SlingCatcher resolves this so that I do not need a HTPC set up to do this anymore. It better be 1) reliable with no skipping, crashing, lock-ups, crappy decoding or jumpy FF/REW (prefer to have a method like th TiVo's jump), 2) an interface that is slick and responsive, and 3) it better play every d*mn format of video and audio that my computer can play!
What people may not realize is that this will not Sling HD content in HD. The Slingbox PRO accepts HD signals, but it only sends 640x480 max (even with the connection adapter).
I've had one of these for almost over a year now...
A softmodded XBox with XBox Media Center and an old Linksys WRT54G v.3 turned into a wireless bridge. Granted it only works with iTunes 6, but it works very well with Windows file sharing.