On what may be the eve of Apple shipping the Apple TV, I thought I might share this info on Sling Media’s forthcoming SlingCatcher that was announced at CES 2007. The SlingCatcher is poised to ship in mid 2007 and will allow Slingbox owners to “sling” or stream their live TV to regular television sets either in your home or remotely over the Internet instead of only PCs, Macs, and mobile phones.

The SlingCatcher (proposed price under $200 US) like the Apple TV will have HDMI and component outputs to connect to your TV. But the SlingCatcher also will have composite and S-video outputs as well (Apple TV lacks these and can not support older TVs). SlingCatcher will be able to show in conjunction with a Slingbox, all your TV channels using built-in SlingPlayer for TV software. This will allow watching your “off-air” TV, cable TV (including digital cable and FiOS TV), satellite TV, and other devices like DVD players, etc. on any TV in your home or using the Internet any remote place. Just simply connect the SlingCatcher to the TV and you will be up and running. SlingCatcher will be able to work wired (using the built-in Ethernet port or wirelessly using its integrated wireless bridge.

Adding the additional software, SlingProjector to your PC and you will be able to “project” any media playing on your computer to SlingCatcher to your TV, no matter what format it is. You will be able to view any web content on your computer on a TV and this will probably include iTunes content. This is where SlingCatcher somewhat competes with Apple TV. PowerPoint presentations on a remote TV may also be possible.

SlingCatcher has several USB ports for connecting a hard drive. It’s currently unknown what flexibilities the hard drive will provide, if it could make it possible to load up your SlingCatcher with your favorite TV content and play it back offline from a remote location. These feature have not been announced as of yet.

As a happy Slingbox owner, I will be happy to get one of these. Could be a great way to add digital cable or satellite TV in that extra room were you did not rent a set top box from your provider!

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