First impressions: Sling Media SlingCatcher

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET)

Last week, the folks from Sling Media stopped by to give us a hands-on look at the SlingCatcher. Originally due in 2007, the long-delayed product looks to be finally ready to ship this fall. (The video below is Molly Wood's preview of the SlingCatcher when it was reintroduced in January 2008.)

As the name suggests, the SlingCatcher is a hardware version of the SlingPlayer software that's available for various devices. Connect the SlingCatcher to your bedroom TV, for instance, and you can access the live TV and recorded programs from your living room DVR (which, in turn, is connected to a Slingbox).

So, instead of being limited to the small-ish screens of a laptop (or even a mobile phone), you're back to watching TV on...a TV.

The SlingCatcher can access any Slingbox that you've added to your Sling.com account, but the same caveats apply to it as with the software SlingPlayers. Most notably, only one client can access a given Slingbox at a time.

Bandwidth constraints apply (streaming within a home network generally looks great, but remote Slingbox resolution will be limited by upstream bandwidth at the source location). And the Slingbox monopolizes the AV source to which its connected (if you log in to your DVR and start playing Desperate Housewives while somebody's in the living room watching football, they'll suddenly see Eva Longoria instead of Eli Manning.

During Sling's demo, we accessed both a SlingPlayer Pro-HD setup on our internal network, as well as a live satellite box feed from across the country. The HD source (a football game playing back on a TiVo HD) looked stunning, since it was able to use the full bandwidth of a wired network connection without traveling over the outside Internet. The remote feed, a daytime talk show, was traveling thousands of miles and compressed almost 10 times as much. As a result, it exhibited considerably more jaggies and looked like a YouTube video maximized to full screen--but it was certainly watchable. The included SlingCatcher remote was mapped to the source box, so we could change channels, access the DVR listing, play/pause and rewind--albeit all with a delay, as the signals were transmitted across the long distance.

The SlingCatcher's ability to be a Sling viewer is certainly cool, but that's a niche feature, to be sure. Thankfully, the box offers two other features: playback of all sorts of digital media (via the USB input) and the ability to mirror anything on a PC screen. On the media playback front, the box offers compatibility with a laundry list of non-DRM'd codecs and file formats--WMV, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, Xvid, MP2, MP3, WMA, AAC, AC3, avi, .vob, .ifo, .ps, .ts, .mpg, .wmv, .asf, .mov, .mp4,.m4v, .mp3, .wma, .mp4a, .m4a, and .wav. Drag and drop your files onto a USB storage device (hard drive, flash drive, what have you), plug it in to the Catcher, and you can use the remote to navigate to whatever file name you'd like and play it at the click of a button. (Files can also be automatically synced across the network to the attached storage device, using a method called SlingSync.)

What about those DRM files or Flash videos available on Web sites like Hulu, ABC.com, and YouTube? That's where the SlingProjector software comes in. Run the SlingProjector software (currently Windows only), and your PC screen--or whatever portion of the screen you specify--is immediately mirrored on your TV through the SlingCatcher. On the surface, it's a somewhat kludgy solution--you'll pretty much need to keep a laptop on the coffee table for quick and easy access--but in practice, it worked surprisingly well.

We noted a lip-sync issue with a Hulu video, but this was, after all, a beta version of the software. On the bright side, it's very straightforward: if you can see it on your screen, you can Sling it to your TV. That includes video from any source (including iTunes, Netflix, or anything else), photos, PowerPoint presentations--the works.

All in all, the SlingCatcher was looking smoother and more polished than the early build we'd seen at CES in January. The "compass" interface was gone, but the new menu system was straightforward and easy to navigate. It looks to be most useful for in-house access to other SlingPlayers, and as a makeshift universal media player. It may still be a bit too niche-y for mass market appeal, but--after spending less than an hour with it--we'd much rather be watching Hulu on a $300 SlingCatcher than, say, a $500 ZvBox.

We'll have a full review (with additional photos and video) later this fall, once we get a production version of the SlingCatcher. In the meantime: do you have any interest in the SlingCatcher? If not, is there a missing "killer app" that you'd like to see added? Share your thoughts below.

Editors' note: Sling Media and CBS (the parent company of CNET) are working together on Sling's Clip-n-Sling project and CBS' Interactive Audience Network.

[broadscaler]

For the precise reasons cited above, bandwidth limitation and annoying my 'wife' for changing channels while I'm traveling I've started using this new service that hosts my box for me. http://parkmytv.com and I was lucky enough to get in on their early beta, it's a bit pricey but I'm sure will come down over time as they build out more parkmytv installations...

[Rlwhite5]

How can I contact parkmytv. The site has no info only home and pay page .What do get?? How much??

[rfurnish]

I have used a Slingbox on a daily basis for about 2 years now. I broadcast my brother's TV so that I can catch all of my local sports & I save on the cable bill while I am in grad school. The SlingCatcher looks fabulous, however, the price somehow jumped from $200 to $300. The Wifi feature was removed at the same time. That does not make much sense to me. As much as I would enjoy the convienance of bypassing my laptop, I do not think that it is worth $300.

[Wannabe Actuary]

I've been waiting for the SlingCatcher for a long time. Not only does it bypass the computer/tv connection, it allows users to build a device into their setup. I can't wait to add this and program it into my Harmony remote control. I figure by adding the SlingCatcher to my setup, upgrading my offsite Slingbox Solo to a Slingbox Pro-HD and using a fios connection (10mbps upload), I should vastly improve the video quality to the point where watching sports on a big screen in NJ from an HD cable box in CT is actually possible. For now, I stick to watching on the PC because even when trying to use one of my dual 22" widescreens to watch I can't go full screen without too much lose in quality.

[jakebala]

I would love a slingcatcher. the only problem is that i don't have a slingbox. so half of the reason to get it is lost right there. it would be nice to watch internet stuff on my tv, but i don't do that much, and if i did i would try on my ps3 or 360 and if that didn't work then whatever i'll just watch it on the computer.

what i would truly truly love is that since i live in boston but originally from philly i kind of miss all of the local sports games (eagles anyone). and so if my house in philly had a slingbox i would totally get a slingcatcher, no questions asked. but until then no sling in my future (although the slingbox is awesome and great for travelers).

[eric_programmer]

So basically I can pay $300 to connect my laptop to my TV. Or buy a $5 (or less) wire. Sure the Slingy thing would be wireless but for a $300ish dollar price difference I can live with the wire. Especially since it seems that your everything has to be wired anyway to get optimal viewing.

[StamosD]

I have two SlingBox Pro HD and a Sling box. All work well.
At home with a streaming speed of 2Mbps+ Quality is excellent, HD is not full HD but visibly much better than SD TV.
Probably about as good as an upscaled DVD played locally.
With a tested upload speed of 1 Mbit+ (Be broadband) quality is very good within UK. SD quality doesn't drop, HD is SD but a little sharper. Internationally speeds tend to be 300 - 700kbit. 600-700k gives good solid fullscreen results, good enough for normal TV screen sizes. Nearly as good as antenna reception, but not as good as Satellite. 300 - 450 kbit and you really want to decrease the screen size.
The SlingBox is a beautiful match with Sky+ and Sky+ HD, you can record, play back and watch from any where in the world.
The SlingCatcher will allow me to extend my satellite viewing to other rooms in the house. It will allow me, and more importantly my wife (who is not computer literate) to watch UK TV from our vacation home AND vice-versa.
They are probably wise to remove Wi-Fi as streaming quality is far too variable and not very good at best when not in the same room.
I can't stress the importance of either using a wired network at home, or installing a Home-Plug network using mains plugs. the 100Mbit units from Devolo or Devolo derived like Zyxel are nice.
I have four on SlingCatchers on order and look forward to installing them.