TV place-shifting company, Sling Media (note: the company is a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corp.; for more news on the latter, see article in this issue), last week launched a new version of its flagship Slingbox product that is capable of "slinging" both standard- and high-definition streams. Dubbed Slingbox PRO-HD and priced at $299.99, the new box can stream HD content from multiple home television sources, including over-the-air HD digital signals (ATSC), digital cable channels (Clear QAM), HDTV cable set-top boxes, HDTV satellite receivers, and HD DVR's, to a laptop or desktop computer in and around the house. In addition, if a broadband connection of 1.5Mbps or higher is available, it can stream HDTV signals over the Internet to any computer that also has a broadband Internet connection. The new box replaces the Slingbox PRO at the top end of the Slingbox product line.
Slingbox PRO-HD features version 2.0 of Sling Media's proprietary SlingStream technology. According to the company, SlingStream 2.0 allows the device to adaptively stream high-quality TV content across "virtually any" network connection, and improves audiovisual quality for remote clients operating in both high and low bitrate environments, including high-definition players on a home network. Other features of the new box, according to Sling Media, include support for standard (4:3) and widescreen (16:9) video formats; multiple integrated sets of audio-video inputs and outputs; and integrated looping outputs for each input.
Sling Media says it has also updated its SlingPlayer for Windows software for PC's running Windows XP or Windows Vista. According to the company, SlingPlayer 2.0 for Windows, which can be downloaded from the Sling Media Web site, features a live video buffer that allows users to pause and rewind a live video stream for easy navigation within a program. It also includes an EPG that makes it unnecessary for users to bring up an on-screen guide on their home set-top box; and incorporates a single sign-on feature called Sling Accounts, which Sling Media says keeps key personal Slingbox information, including finder ID's, favorite channels, and programming guide information, and makes them accessible on any PC running SlingPlayer 2.0 for Windows.
