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Sling Media will release its promised SlingCatcher 'Sling Player for TVs' device in the US by the end of the year, the company said yesterday. It'll arrive in the UK in Q1 2008, it told Register Hardware.

SlingCatcher was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January this year. Then, Sling Media said the device would ship around the middle of the year.

Sling's SlingCatcher: coming soon to a TV near you?

That launch window has come and gone, with no sign of the SlingCatcher but a possible appearance on the US Federal Communications Commission website in August.

SlingCatcher is designed to pick up the video stream sent out from a Slingbox and display it on a TV or monitor - essentially what the SlingPlayer software does on PCs, Macs and a variety of mobile phones. The gadget turns Sling's hardware into an effective multi-room TV streaming system.

However, Stuart Collingwood, Sling's head of European operations, yesterday confirmed the device is on track for release in the US by the end of this year and in Europe early next. He would neither confirm nor deny whether the gadget on the FCC site was the SlingCatcher or another Slingbox. The presence of an analogue tuner suggests it wasn't the SlingCatcher or the Slingbox Solo, which was announced last night.

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