Sling Media SlingCatcher

>> John: I'm John Falcone from CNET.com and we're taking an in-depth look at the Sling Media Sling Catcher. ^M00:00:06 [ Music ] ^M00:00:13 >> John: Unlike most digital media adapters the Sling Catcher has 3 distinct ways it can deliver digital video to your TV. The first is via a hard drive use the included Sling Sync Software to convert and copy your digital videos to a USB hard drive or flash drive and then you can watch them on your big-screen TV. That includes a wide variety of media formats including ripped DVD's. The Future Firmware update will also allow you to access files on a network attached storage drive without the need to plug in any USB drive. The second thing the Sling Catcher can do is access video from a Sling Box. The Sling Box can be attached to a DVR, cable or satellite box anywhere in the world. Accessing a remote Sling Box over the Internet will generally result in choppy, YouTube style video, however, accessing a Sling Box located elsewhere in your home can deliver a superb picture that's nearly indistinguishable from the original HD programming. You can even use the Sling Catcher remote to change the channel and control a DVR, that means you can begin watching the movie in the living room then move to a Sling Catcher equipped bedroom to finish viewing it remotely. The third and most intriguing feature the Sling Catcher uses screen scraping technology to mirror anything on your PC screen over to your TV, that means you can go to any video website things like Hulu, TV.com and ABC.com and watch those videos on your TV just use the included Sling Projector Software. To select which portion of your computer screen you want to send to your TV. The Sling Projector can also send anything else things like PowerPoint slides, photos or whatever else you've got. While it's got all the AV outputs we'd expect including HDMI there's no built-in WiFi so you're limited to wired network connections. The Sling Sync and Sling Projector Software is currently Windows only so the product isn't fully useful for MAC users. And unlike the Roku Digital Video Player there's currently no third party video on demand support from providers like Amazon or Netflix on the box itself. You can access them but you'll need to fall back on the Sling Projector method. Still the Sling Catcher does deliver a unique approach to getting digital video on your TV. We're hoping for additional improvements via firmware updates but now the price has been cut to $200 the Sling Catcher is a good option for fans of online video. I'm John Falcone for CNET and this is the Sling Media Sling Catcher. ^M00:02:46 [ Music ]