IP Democracy: Sling's Got the PC-to-TV Solution in SlingCatcher

Now the really interesting news is starting to flow from CES and right off the bat one of the most dynamic developments comes from place-shifting pioneer Sling Media. The SlingBox developers are set to unveil a new device called the SlingCatcher that will not only route living room TV signals around the house but also bridge the always-problematic PC-to-TV divide.

The SlingCatcher promises uncompromised PC-based video viewing on TV sets, and, if it lives up to its word, could trump Apple’s iTV unit, rumored to be ready for unveiling at MacWorld on Tuesday. Here’s Sling co-founder Blake Krikorian’s take on the potentially revolutionary impact of the gizmo:

With SlingCatcher you’re able to wirelessly project anything you have on your laptop, any type of media, any Web site, or Web-based video and project it wirelessly at the push of a button onto your television set. I can go to any site, any video content, any formatted content and get it to play on my big screen TV. That’s a huge difference between what we’re doing and what others are doing.

Dave Zatz has a photo of the $200-or-so unit here. Dave also says that Sling has a few other blockbuster applications to announce before mid-year, when the SlingCatchter goes on the market. Maybe Sling has plans to go beyond simply selling devices and will have a few content partnerships to announce.

GigaOm’s Paul Kaputska got an advance look at the unit (which Sling PR Director Brian Jacquet literally handled with cotton gloves). Kaputska says that the Sling people claim that the device works independent of how the video was encoded, which explains how any Internet video can be viewed on TV sets using SlingCatcher. Like Zatz, Kaputska drops the tantalizing hint that Sling has other tricks up its sleeve.

CES is hotter than ever, and Sling’s announcement is just the start of a torrent of interesting developments. IPD insightful contributor Gary Arlen is winging his way to the show right now and will weigh in with some wry reports later this week.

In the meantime, check out Engadget, which seems to be offering minute-by-minute coverage of the announcements, sessions and news bursting forth from the trade show.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on January 7, 2007 12:05 PM to IP Democracy