SlingCatcher Now Available for Pre-Order

I was just reviewing the Sling Media site to get a few more details on the upcoming SlingCatcher ($299) and it looks like a pretty interesting device. According to the marketing material on the website, the SlingCatcher provides easy access to digital video from a Slingbox, from the Internet, and from your PC. However, the truth is it really can’t pull content from the Internet and it really doesn’t play video from your PC, as one might expect. You’re saying, Huh? What the SlingCatcher actually does is “projects” content from a “highlighted” area on your PC screen, using a proprietary app, and displays the selected material to the TV — that’s the playing from the Internet bit (more details). As for playing video from your PC… SlingCatcher can playback video, photos, and audio content transferred to an external USB 2.0 hard drive or USB 2.0 memory stick from a PC (more details). It’s all kind of funny. Anyway, I still like the capabilities (would have been nice if it included UPnP support) and the fact that it supports a large variety of media formats (see below - tech specs).

 

• Video: WMV, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, Xvid
• Audio: MP2, MP3, WMA, AAC, AC3
• File Formats: avi, .vob, .ifo, .ps, .ts, .mpg, .wmv, .asf, .mov, .mp4, .m4v, .mp3, .wma, .mp4a, .m4a, .wav

Video Demo from CES 2008