The makers of the popular Slingbox have been promising the SlingCatcher for almost a year and half now. And once again, the projected release date will come and go quietly.

The device was originally introduced at CES 2007, and shown again at CES 2008, which was when Sling was floating the Q2 time frame.

Sling Catcher delayed again. This time, they're crossing their fingers for a release date sometime before the end of this year.

The SlingCatcher is a set-top box, separate from the Slingbox, that brings video content from a Slingbox to another TV in a house, or from an external hard drive. The SlingCatcher also lets users project Web content to a TV screen, either wired or wirelessly, through an application called SlingProjector.

Gregg Wilkes, vice president of sales for Sling Media–which is now owned by EchoStar Communications–told a frustrated customer in an e-mail that the goal to release the device during the second quarter of this year will not be met.

(Credit:
Sling Media)

This is just getting silly.

Wilkes writes: “Will the catcher ship in Q2? No. We are upgrading the user experience and making enhancements to the feature set. These may or may not all ship at the same time. Will the Catcher ship in ‘08? All indications point to this happening in 2008.”