Sling Media is gearing up for what will undoubtedly be an exciting string of announcements and demonstrations at the upcoming 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The CES site itself has even highlighted Sling as a featured exhibitor the last few days, indicating they're going to have lots of new technologies and innovations in store for consumers in 2008.

Of course, we don't know everything that will be announced or demonstrated at the show yet, we have confirmed at least two new products that will be there.

SlingPlayer 2.0

According to the information presented on the CES website the SlingPlayer™ 2.0 connects you to your Slingbox and allows you to remotely control your home entertainment system as you would from your own living room... no surprise there.

However, the latest 2.0 version improves upon the software's original by adding several new place-shifting friendly features, including access to Sling Media's newest initiative, Clip+Sling™, which lets you create clips of your favorite shows and instantly share them with friends and family on the public Sling™ portal. Clip+Sling was first announced at last year's Consumer Electronics Show, and looks to be finally making its appearance in the next-gen version of the SlingPlayer software.

Tighter integration with Sling Accounts also seems to be on the list of new enhancements, which will be used to store your personal Slingbox settings and preferences, as well as information about clips you have created. The software can be used with any Windows-based PC or laptop.

David Pogue's recent writeup in the New York Times mentions an update coming that will add time-shifting features to the SlingPlayer like pausing, fast-forwarding, and rewinding of the incoming video stream. Given the buffer requirements to run Clip+Sling, it's likely these features will be included in the 2.0 version of the software.

"We're psyched about some of the enhanced functionalities we're bringing to the table in SlingPlayer 2.0," says Dave Zatz of Sling Media, who has confirmed SlingPlayer 2.0 will be on display at the show. "Many of these new features and enhancements are based on customer feedback."

A screenshot or two of SlingPlayer 2.0 (like the one below) have surfaced in recent months. Dave has verified the screenshot is legit, but says it's "from a very early build." In other words, you should expect the finished version to look a lot different.

SlingCatcher

Dave has also confirmed that the highly anticipated (and now overdue) SlingCatcher will be present and on display, and is also a CES Innovations 2008 Awards winner.

Much information about the SlingCatcher is available, but based on the announcement from the 2007 CES, SlingCatcher is a set-top box that is bundled with two applications, SlingPlayer for TV and SlingProjector, to seamlessly deliver broadcast, broadband and digital media files to your TV.

When paired with a Slingbox, SlingPlayer for TV lets you watch your home TV on another TV in the home or in a remote location by connecting to and streaming from the Slingbox on a LAN or WAN.

SlingProjector lets you stream Internet and PC-based digital audio/video content—whether downloaded movies, TV shows, home movies, photo slideshows or YouTube videos—from PC to TV for a "lean back" viewing experience. SlingProjector supports the most popular web sites, media players and Internet video players and will automatically find compatible video players to stream content to the TV.

SlingCatcher also gives users the ability to sync video files stored on the PC with an optional external hard drive on the SlingCatcher for play back of your favorite content on demand on your TV. The SlingCatcher will feature a desktop syncing application that will easily allow you to manage your digital content files from your PC, giving you the ability to watch that content on your TV via the SlingCatcher at your convenience.

Possibly Coming to a Show Near You?

No other announcements or demonstrations have been confirmed at the present time, but based on the news from the year, we imagine there will be a lot more in store for 2008. What we could only guess, but I'm hoping to see more on SlingPlayer for Blackberry (or actually see a Blackberry run SlingPlayer), which has had me intrigued since the confirmation it was in the works months back.

I would also expect some joint announcements and initiatives between Sling and other companies. Last year they announced Clip+Sling along side CBS, so if they're going to partner up with someone it could be just about anyone. Perhaps we'll see something happen between Dish Network and Sling now that Sling and Dish are under the same family?

We've got a little over a month to go until the show, but stay tuned to the SlingCommunity for the latest.

co-written by Matt Whitlock and Brandon C.

Read More In: News, Rumors and Gossip SlingPlayer PC Clip+Sling and Online Video