TVSquad

The other day Sling Media announced the Slingbox Pro-HD, which is capable of streaming HDTV content over the web from your TV, TiVo, or high-def components. Now Sling arch-nemesis Monsoon Multimedia is striking back by announcing the Hava Wireless HD.

As you can probably guess from the name, the Hava Wireless HD not only streams HD video over the internet, but it can connect to your home network over 802.11n WiFi, while the Slingbox Pro-HD requires either an Ethernet cable or a wireless adapter.

The latest Hava box can stream 1080i, 720p, or 480p signals to more than one PC at a time. It also includes an integrated ATSC/NTSC tuner for receiving broadcast signals without a TV set. As with all previous Hava boxes, you can even use the Wireless HD as a networked TV tuner for your Windows Media Center PCs.

But while you can use SlingPlayer software to watch streaming video on devices including Mac and Windows computers, Palm, Symbian, and Windows Mobile phones, you'll need a Windows PC or Windows Mobile device to watch your streaming Hava content.

The Hava Wireless HD is set for a Spring release. No word on the pricing yet.

Although we have yet to meet anyone that actually uses Sony's LocationFree media extenders (as opposed to say, a Slingbox), Sony is continuing to update the product.

The LocationFree Home HD is the first in the line to include support for HDTV with resolutions up to 1080i. The LF-W1HD achieves high def video transmission over 802.11a/b/g wireless networks by using MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 compression technology.

You'll be able to pick up a transmitter and receiver in Japan this December for about ¥50,000 or a bit over $400 US. No word on if and when we'll be seeing this puppy stateside. Or if anyone will notice.

[via Engadget]

With all the talk about Slingbox and Hava, you may have forgotten that Sony was one of the pioneers of the place-shifting revolution (if you can call it a revolution).

Sony's LocationFree boxes, which let you stream content from your TV, PVR, DVD player or other A/V components to any internet-connected PC, Windows Mobile device, or Playstation Portable. But in recent years, Sony's LocationFree line has been operating in the shadow of the more popular Slingbox.

Sony plans to launch the latest member of the LocationFree family under the VAIO name. Not that the move alone is likely to raise much awareness about the product. But Sony also plans to pre-install LocationFree software on VAIO noetobooks. In other words, buy a PC, notice that it has place-shifting software, and maybe you'll go out and buy the hardware to enable it. Maybe.

Mike Garcen of Missing Remote has written up a detailed comparison of three programs that leverage your PC to let you watch live TV from any internet-connected PC.

Orb, WebGuide4 and SageTV Placeshifter are all programs that let you access your home computer to watch and record live TV over the internet. SageTV Placeshifter is designed to work with SageTV, and has an interface that looks just like the desktop application. WebGuide4 works with Windows Media Center, and Orb works with pretty much anything.

We've known Sling Media was working on a (long overdue) version of SlingPlayer Mobile for Palm for a while. And now Sling Media has broken out a public beta of the product.

In case you haven't been keeping track, a slingbox is a device that you plug into your TV, PVR, or any other A/V device in order to stream content from your home to an internet-connected computer, PDA, or mobile phone.

This version of the beta requires a Palm Treo 700p and an NTSC version of the Slingbox. Treo 650 and PAL users are out of luck at the moment. You'll also want a high speed (EV-DO) connection for your Treo, and a a broadband connection at home capable of at sending least 256kbps upstream.

Sling Media's Dave Zatz has a roundup of reviews on his blog.