Orb: Slingbox without the box

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Orb: Slingbox without the box

Orb is a free software-based place-shifting service that lets you access your media from anywhere over the internet. Orb runs on computers with Windows XP or XP Media Center and provides streaming access to the audio and video on the computer. It also can stream live TV if you have a tuner attached to your computer, and it provides TV listings and scheduled recordings.

Once your computer is set up to stream, you can get your media streamed in WMV, RealVideo or 3GP. That means in addition to watching your videos on your computer, you can also see them on some PDAs and mobile phones. You can also access your photos and mp3s through the service, in case you're into that sort of thing.

Update Aug 11, 2005: It looks like there's a TiVoToGo plugin that lets you watch your Series 2 TiVo from anywhere, available here. I haven't tested this but if you do please leave a comment saying how you like it!

by George Hotelling August 7, 2005 in Products

Comments

Maybe without the box (the slingbox) but with a TV Tuner card if you want to do TV. Personally, dedicated hardware has always proven better for me. Software solutions can get buggy.

Posted by: Bryan at Aug 7, 2005 7:06:59 AM

How do they make money? Why would they do this for free? Must be some tracking of what programs you watch / audio you listen to / etc.

Posted by: billatrit at Aug 7, 2005 12:14:35 PM

I work at Orb. We will make money by advertising (like most free services) and by providing premium services (beyond the basic Orb service) and premium content. Your privacy rights are respected at Orb.

Posted by: Debbie at Aug 7, 2005 6:54:28 PM

I am a use of Orb and find it very good.
It's one of thoughs products that just work.
I had Joe Harris from Orb on the Windows Media Center Show a few months ago. He expained how it works and the buisness model works.

http://www.thepodcastnetwork.com/mediacenter/2005/05/23/the-media-cente-show-9-joe-harris/

Posted by: Ian at Aug 8, 2005 1:56:21 AM

I was unimpressed by ORB. I downloaded and installed it last week, hoping to watch TY files (First you have to copy them to the PC). and it would work As long as I always wanted to watch the file from the beginning (Seeking, even back 10 seconds, didnt work), and that I didn't want to watch more than one show between shutting orb down, and restarting it (Hardly practical when I'm away from the computer, and the "restart orb" remote function never worked.)

There are better ways to listen to music, and photos remotely.

-Jason

Posted by: JasonR at Aug 8, 2005 7:02:48 AM

Nice app, but it's buggy as hell. Crashes all the time!! Not too sure about having it on my main computer.

Posted by: Orb at Aug 8, 2005 12:28:03 PM

I have used Orb with TivoToGo for about a month. I love this product. As long as you TV tuner card, and video/audio codecs, are installed correctly, Orb works great. I would highly recommend this product.

Posted by: Troy at Aug 8, 2005 3:27:03 PM

Hey Jason - Sorry you didn't have a good TV experience with Orb. Care to work with our tech support folks to figure out what the problem might be? And, what one product DO you like for streaming your audio files and photos from home to any web connected device?

Posted by: Debbie Degutis at Aug 9, 2005 11:22:26 PM

and check THIS out: http://mywebpage.netscape.com/tivoanywhere/

some comedian used that orb api to hook into tivo

will let you know how it works for me

Posted by: mumbles at Aug 10, 2005 11:05:17 AM

I tried out the TiVoToGO thing and it rocks! I did have to upgrade to TiVo desktop 2.1 though, with 2.0 I saw video but no audio. I even streamed a show from my TiVo through my PC to my Mac and was able to watch it in Windows Media Player on the Mac. Sweet!

Orb guys - pay this guy and make it part of the default Orb package. This is HUGE!

Posted by: Tom at Aug 14, 2005 2:34:16 PM

I tried Orb once. It hurt my teeny-weeny sphincter! I recommend you download lube first, then try installing orb. It'll work much better.

Posted by: Fartknocker at Aug 14, 2005 11:31:19 PM

Orb forced me to eat giant turds! They were brown, lumpy, and full of corn! I guess I got my daily serving of vegatables that way. Too bad there weren't any nuts, yum! :)

Posted by: Turdeater at Aug 18, 2005 5:49:38 AM

Orb totally TOTALLY ROCKS! I have a Windows Media Center PC with tons of shows and can access them via my desktop, laptop, and even my PocketPC. I was even able to access it via my cellphone. It is running perfectly. Very VERY happy.

zozohead

Posted by: Zozohead at Aug 24, 2005 7:59:30 PM

Hi, I recently bought a slingbox. I haven't even opened it yet. But I just came across orb. Has orb been tested internationally? The main reason why I purchased the Slingbox was so that I could watch football for the two months I'm in Germany. If Orb can do the same thing, at the same level of quality, and is much cheaper, it seems like common sense to return the slingbox and pick up Orb. But I want to know the quality of Orb's content delivery extended across the globe. Any comments? Please cc to my email address if possible.

Posted by: Bbop at Sep 14, 2005 1:34:16 PM

is orb just a redirection service, does it require your pc to be on?
if so how is it better than say helix universal server?

http://www.realnetworks.com/products/discreteserver/index.html

Posted by: hi at Oct 26, 2005 12:05:57 AM

I have used ORB for a long time. I live in California and spend half of my time is Japan and Korea. ORB works great from every connection I tried in hotels and my ISP at my apartment in Tokyo. I watch live news from anywhere through the TV tuner in my home PC from San Jose and have SnapStream BeyondTV3 on my home PC to record all the weekly shows I watch. Cool product. Works great. Never had a problem. I also have 10,000 audio files on my home PC i can listen to through ORB. ORB has another interesting feature. It tells you your current IP address. So even if you have dynamic IP, you always know what your IP address is. I use this to use my remote VNC that requires the xxx.xxx.xxx ip address. All this works through my LynkSys router with firewall enabled. You can also play tricks and use ORB for remote file transfer access of any file, not just media files. Seems faster than my VNC.

Posted by: KonaGecko at Nov 12, 2005 12:21:04 PM

Why can't I use Orb with my TiVo Series 1 box? Seems to me I should be able to all of the same remote control clicks I would do at home.

Posted by: RobG at Jun 28, 2006 7:07:22 PM

What can I say, Orb worked perfectly for me outa the box. Put media in my Vidio and Audio directory in XP, and boom! There it was on my UTstarcom 6700 phone. Works with my Bell, E815 as well, just slowly, no wifi or Hispeed net on it afterall.

Thankx ORB, now i dont need yet another 4 gig SMC device!

Posted by: Jemmos at Jan 20, 2007 9:02:58 AM

I too had great luck with Orb. Worked out of the box with my Wii.

Posted by: bean at Feb 7, 2007 11:03:00 AM

help.ive installed orb on my pc and also on my phone(3g) on the 3 network when i come to stream on my mobile phone audio or tv it says no compatible codec to stream from your pc,what does this mean and wher can i download the codec,so it works.

Posted by: kelvin mayes at Mar 28, 2007 12:42:07 PM

Orb: Slingbox without the box

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