Company's SlingCatcher Box Now Available in US, Canada, UK
Public Beta of SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry Announced
TV place-shifting company, Sling Media (note: the company is a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corp.), has launched a broadband video entertainment site, called Sling.com. The site features clips, TV shows, movies, news and sports programming from around 90 content providers, spanning 150 content brands (including such high-profile brands as Discovery, Hulu and Bloomberg). Among other things, it offers blogs, playlists and clip collections assembled by an in-house editorial team; social TV features that allow users to subscribe to specific channels, shows or users in order to create a feed of programming and activity that reflects their interests; and the ability for users to access their home television service and DVR via the Web, thus making their Slingboxes available without a software client download. "Sling.com is a wonderful combination of premium video content, television viewing, robust editorial and consumer-friendly access and socialization features," Jason Hirschhorn, president of the Sling Media Entertainment Group and Sling Media's content point man, said in a prepared statement. "Users will have a blast watching great clips, full-length shows and movies while customizing the viewing experience to their liking." Added Sling Media co-founder and CEO, Blake Krikorian: "Our mission from day one was to enable access to content regardless of screen or source. Sling Media will continue to link and meld video solutions from the television, computer and mobile devices to create seamless experiences for consumers."
In other Sling Media news:
1)The company says that its long-awaited SlingCatcher box is now available for purchase from bricks-and-mortar and online retailers in the US, Canada and the UK. The box is billed as allowing end-users to watch broadband video from any popular site on the Internet--such as, for example, ABC.com, Hulu.com, CollegeHumor.com, and YouTube.com, or Netflix' recently launched online movie rental service. It includes a remote control and, Sling Media says, also allows customers to access and control any device connected to its flagship Slingbox--for example, a DVR or a cable or satellite set-top box--located in another room in the house or in a remote location. In addition, the company claims, it can be connected to a standard USB hard drive or flash drive, in order to play back on the TV personal media stored on those devices, including home movies, personal videos, and Internet video downloads. "Customers have been waiting with anticipation for this product since we announced it, and I'm very pleased to say to them that the SlingCatcher has arrived," Sling Media's Blake Krikorian said in a prepared statement. "Thousands of video programs are available for viewing online for free, but until now there hasn't been an easy way to watch them on a screen larger than your laptop computer. In addition, SlingCatcher will give Slingbox customers the ability to watch their home TV on another TV, something they have been asking for since we first introduced the original Slingbox in 2005."
According to Sling Media, SlingCatcher comes with three built-in applications:
- SlingPlayer for TV, which enables end-users to watch and control their living room TV on another TV in the home or on a TV in a remote location, without using a PC or custom cabling.
- SlingProjector, which allows end-users to project streaming video from the Internet on their TV via the SlingCatcher. Sling Media claims that the software supports virtually any video-streaming Web site, media player and Internet video player, and is designed to give the end-user control over how the video is projected to the TV: it lets the end-user select a specific video playing within a Web site or media player, the company says, projecting just the video and not the entire PC screen--thus making for a much more enjoyable experience.
- My Media, which Sling Media says gives end-users the ability to play back on their TV a range of media files from a variety of sources, including camcorders, digital cameras, personal DVD recordings and Internet video downloads. According to the company, the software lets end-users play videos from their own personal media libraries using an external USB hard drive or flash drive that they connect to one of the SlingCatcher's two USB ports.
Sling Media says that the SlingCatcher supports a variety of native media formats, including WMV, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264 and Xvid, as well as a number of file formats, including .avi, .vob, .ifo, .mpg, 
.mov, and .wma. Because of the large number of media file formats currently available in the market, Sling Media has created--and is currently testing--a conversion utility called SlingSync, which it says will convert incompatible files into a format that can be played back on TV via the SlingCatcher and will also pre-scan a media library, in order to determine which files are compatible at the outset. Other SlingCatcher features include SD and HD outputs to connect to a TV, including HDMI, component video, S-Video and composite video; analog and digital audio connectors; and a standard Ethernet jack to connect to the home network either directly or via SlingLink powerline Ethernet adapters. The new box has an MSRP of $299.99.
2) The company says that SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry smartphones will be available for download as part of a public beta, beginning December 30th. It will initially be offered in the US, Canada and the UK, and will be available as a free download during the public beta period. The following BlackBerry smartphones will be supported at launch (note: SlingPlayer Mobile requires BlackBerry device software 4.5 or greater): BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Curve 8900, BlackBerry 8820, BlackBerry Curve 8320, BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220, and BlackBerry Pearl 8120.
