Sling Media, Inc. just issued a press release regarding their latest product, the SlingCatcher. Scheduled to be unveiled at the upcoming International Consumer Electronics Show, the SlingCatcher is just one of a growing group of devices aimed at bringing Internet streaming media into our living rooms.
Company CEO and co-founder Blake Krikorian declined to give an actual release date for the SlingCatcher, nor did he reveal a suggested retail price. He did say however, that the company anticipates having the cousin of the Slingbox in stores by mid-2007, at a price �under $200.�
The new set-top box, which will echo the trapezoidal shapes of its Slingbox cousins, will send multimedia content of any format from the Web to a TV. That content could be a slideshow from a photo-sharing site, clips from a video sharing site, or even films downloaded from an online movie service.
The SlingCatcher hooks up to a TV and must be linked with a home computer network. It works with the free SlingPlayer media software that has to be installed on a laptop or desktop computer to help convert digital media formats into video and audio playable on televisions.
“It’s your full-blown Web experience on your TV,” Krikorian said.
But one drawback of the technology � at least with its initial product debut � will be that users would have to control what they’re watching on the big screen through the computer and not the TV.
Sling Media said it will introduce later this year an update to its SlingPlayer software so owners of a Slingbox would be able to wirelessly deliver their cable, digital video recorder or satellite TV content onto any other television in the home that is hooked to a SlingCatcher.
In further developments along the Internet Entertainment hardware front, Apple Computer and Netgear, Inc. are looking to offer similar �bridge products� between PCs and TVs.
Netgear’s new Digital Entertainer HD, also unveiled at the Las Vegas trade show, can take high-definition movies, television shows or songs that are stored on a home network and stream the content to a home entertainment center.
