SlingCatcher: Streaming the Web on TV

SlingCatcher is a difficult device to explain, but when you have one properly hooked up for a while, you'll find it difficult to fathom that you could ever live without it.

SlingCatcher, made by SlingMedia (a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar (SATS Quote)), is kind of a reverse SlingBox, if that helps.

SlingBox is a clever device that attaches between a video source like your cable/satellite receiver box and a high-speed Internet connection (Ethernet or Wi-Fi) and lets you watch and control that video source on a laptop/desktop computer. It allows you to control and view that video from another room, another building, across the street, across the country or around the world.

'Catcher reverses the equation and adds a few twists that make life very interesting. SlingCatcher also connects to your high-speed Internet connection but then attaches to the inputs of your television set. It allows you to stream video from other video sources to your TV. It works with standard definition TVs and all of the new high-def monitors on the market today.

You can watch the output of your SlingBox through your SlingCatcher on your TV. You can also plug in a video source (such as a video disk player, computer or stand-alone hard drive). Or, what really makes SlingCatcher so special, you can access Internet video using a new software program called SlingProjector.

SlingProjector instructs your computer to begin streaming on-screen video through the SlingCatcher to your TV screen. It doesn't matter what Web site you go to (whether it's Sling's new video source Sling.com, or YouTube or even TheStreet.com) the Sling Projector/Catcher combo lets you instantly take video from the Internet and watch and control it from a big TV screen from across the room.