Sling’s New Sling Catcher Sends PC Video To TVs.

Back in October, Mac360’s diminutive Scotch Puerto Rican Mac writer Kate MacKenzie had an epiphany.

Kate wrote that Sling would aim for Apple’s streaming media territory-- moving video to PCs and Macs. She was half right. No Macs. Yet.

Kate’s in San Francisco today and probably feeling good about the latest Sling product. After all, she was raked over the coals by folks on Digg for comparing Apple’s streaming media device to the Slingbox.

The whole premise of the argument was that Sling’s box (one of many) would take on features of Apple’s streaming media device (I’ll fill in the name as soon as we hear about it).

Kate is now vindicated. Mostly. Sling announced the SlingCatcher, which is mostly opposite the SlingBox. SlingBox? Yes, the streaming media device from Sling which lets you view on your Mac or PC anything that’s on your TV.

See? That’s really the opposite of Apple’s device which is designed to stream media from your Mac or PC to your TV. It’s going to vs. coming from.

Except SlingMedia saw the light of future competition and beget the SlingCatcher which moves video from your PC to your TV. Whoa! Does that sound familiar?

Get ready to add SlingCatcher as a candidate to the Vaporware Awards for 2007, as it isn’t supposed to hit the streets until the middle of 2007.

HDMI, Ethernet, WiFi, and optional hard drive. $200 without the hard drive.

ArsTechnica is reporting that SlingCatcher will be media agnostic and will stream any kind of video from a PC to a TV.

So, the plot thickens. Sling’s various boxes (there are about 29 at a few hundred dollars a box, at last count, but I lost count so that’s a guess) move your TV’s content to a laptop or notebook or a remote PC or Mac.

That’s cool. SlingCatcher, when finally released, goes the other way, moving video from your PC back to your TV. Did I mention you have to buy another box?

This whole living room convergence is becoming a battlefield. Based on the number of Sony PlayStationPro boxes still on retail shelves, maybe we have the first loser.

For now, I can’t really afford all the Sling boxes without another mortgage, so Apple’s streaming media device is looking better all the time.

What do you think? Is SlingCatcher worth $200? Will you buy Apple’s version of a streaming media device for $299? Share your perspective with other Mac360 readers.

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