Sling Media announces Slingbox PRO-HD and BlackBerry SlingPlayer
by Brad Linder, posted Jan 4th 2008 10:29AM

The first announcement was kind of predictable: SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry. Sling already has mobile clients for Windows Mobile, Palm, and Symbian phones, so I would have been surprised if we didn't see a BlackBerry client soon. SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry will be available later this year and will set you back the usual $29.99.
The bigger news is that Sling Media is launching a hi-def version of the Slingbox. The Slingbox PRO-HD sports a digital ATSC/QAM tuner, and multiple HD inputs and outputs. It can also stream 1080i video and 5.1 audio over the internet. You're going to need a high speed internet connection in order to get the most out of the PRO-HD. And if you plan to do most of your TV viewing on the go using SlingPlayer Mobile on a device with a low resolution screen, the PRO-HD is probably useless. But if you want the clearest picture on your computer, or if you plan on picking up a SlingCatcher which will let you stream video from one TV to another, the Slingbox PRO-HD's $400 price tag might seem reasonable.
