echostar

Excellent – this is what we want to see – more convergence of media devices. Following the purchase of Sling Media by EchoStar, the 2 have worked together to come up with a Dish Networks receiver that essentially embeds a Slingbox. They’re calling it a SlingLoaded player, but the bottom line is that you now get place-shifting built into your DVR and Satellite TV receiver. Nice.

The 922 is a sleek looking box with a 1 TB drive for up to 1000 hours of storage (in SD), can support 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480i, and 480p formats, and has a new touchpad remote control that has half as many buttons as a standard remote control, and that can function as a universal remote. Of course, it includes all of the SlingBox features and be controlled via the Web using SlingGuide.