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March 23, 2006

Orb Stress Tested at 36,000 Feet

Michael Arrington

33 comments »

Oliver at MobileCrunch has a great writeup on Orb, the free alternative to the $250 Slingbox from Sling Media. Orb allows you to stream live tv, video, audio and pictures from a base computer to any web connected device.

Oliver put Orb through a very high stress test - by streaming the movie Underworld Revolution from his home PC at 36,000 feet using Conexion by Boeing on his way back from a recent trip to Korea. Everything went very well, he said.

Personally I’d just like to have 100 GB of storage on my phone, but given that is currently a non existent product, streaming via Orb may be a good and free way to go.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 23rd, 2006 at 6:11 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. Calvin

    March 23rd, 2006 at 6:36 pm

    Interesting website.

    It was featured on DL.TV a few weeks ago.

    Not sure I want to turn my PC into a server though.

  2. Russell

    March 23rd, 2006 at 7:23 pm

    “To enjoy Orb TV Live, your TV cable needs to be connected to the TV tuner on the back of your Windows XP computer.”

    Since I don’t *have* a Windows XP computer (with a TV tuner), that’s not exactly what I’d call “free”.

  3. Otis Gospodnetic

    March 23rd, 2006 at 8:00 pm

    Considering Samsung’s recent 32GB flash disks, your mobile phone with a 100GB disk is only about 2 years away. Patience.

  4. Saleel

    March 23rd, 2006 at 8:01 pm

    Personally, Mr.Arrington, I have never really understood the appeal of these products. It just seems like a network with connected live TV, and while this last bit is interesting, I still prefer the TiVo for now.

  5. Saul Weiner

    March 23rd, 2006 at 9:29 pm

    I have to agree with Saleel. Seems like overkill to me.

  6. private road construction

    March 23rd, 2006 at 11:59 pm

    You guys are on the cutting edge of technology. I don’t even know what exactly a Tivo is let alone Orb.

  7. Bill Minton

    March 24th, 2006 at 6:13 am

    QUOTE: “Since I don’t *have* a Windows XP computer (with a TV tuner), that’s not exactly what I’d call “free”.”

    And Linux, given the hours of time and pages of documentation to read, “is” what you’d call free?

    Linux is only free if your time has no value my friend.

    I’m not anti-Linux, I’m dual booting XP and Ubuntu on this very laptop, but I’m also realistic, and suggesting you be too. For them to spend the time on development when the return on investment is to satisfy 2% of the community…the same 2% who expect everything on the planet to be free, is asking a bit much.

    For the time being, when you choose Mac or Linux, you choose to be alienated from a LOT of existing and upcoming software. It may not always be this way, but for now it is, and you go into it knowing that. When that occurs, don’t complain, you made the choice.

  8. Bill Minton

    March 24th, 2006 at 6:19 am

    Back on topic…

    I’ve been using Orb for a long time now. Here’s my current setup:

    Content Sources:
    —>DirectTV - Satellite TV Access w/dual inputs (DirecTV Tivo), record two shows at once, etc.

    —>Media Server - All DVD’s ripped to DivX, all music, all pictures, all family videos

    Display Methods:
    —>DirecTV Tivo - Display live tv or pre-recorded shows

    —>XBox Media Center - pulls from media server, allows viewing of all non-Tivo content, also has 120G drive for content portability

    —>Orb - exposes all non-Tivo content to anywhere on the net, allowing sharing of some

    Orb allows my media to be available when visiting family, staying at hotels, etc. If you have small children and movies accessible via Orb, this is invaluable. I just wish I had some way of streaming it into the vehicle for long trips. For now, that duty is satisfied by a 17″ widescreen laptop.

  9. Paul

    March 24th, 2006 at 11:47 am

    Unfortunately, it probably cost him $250 to stream Underworld Revolution to his phone on an airplane.

    Seems kind of stupid when you have a ton of other portable media devices available that wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg for bandwidth.

  10. DaFrench

    March 24th, 2006 at 12:21 pm

    To Bill Minton:
    - You can actually get your TiVo content from Orb — Look for DVRAnywhere on their site
    - I also use Orb in my car, plugged in the DVD system, using my laptop with a Verizon EVDO card. I can watch live TV, recorded shows, and everything else I’m doing with Orb.

    Orb is GREAT!

  11. Bill Minton

    March 24th, 2006 at 2:43 pm

    I’d have to hack a DTivo since it doesn’t have HMO. I don’t know if I’d want to do that or not. I’ve put a larger HD in it, but that’s different than mucking around in the software, etc.

  12. Dave

    March 24th, 2006 at 7:48 pm

    To be able to watch any live TV show, any recorded show, any Tivo recording, any compatible PC media file (music, video, photo), setup recording times for Tivo and Media Center, and all via my Verizon PDA phone from almost anywhere?

    Awesome!

  13. Rob

    March 24th, 2006 at 8:41 pm

    Orb shares what is on your PC. Ideal if you have a media center(which I do). Watch anywhere w/broadband, and works fine on my 8125 as well. Slingbox is more for the Tivo/cable box crowd, but gives you the same options. Plenty of room for both in the market.

  14. drwho

    March 25th, 2006 at 5:13 am

    “Since I don’t *have* a Windows XP computer (with a TV tuner), that’s not exactly what I’d call “free”.”

    You also need a PC and a TV Signal.

    Gawd shut up.

  15. iTech

    March 25th, 2006 at 8:13 am

    To drwho:

    “Gawd shut up”

    Please do. Only because you need a TV tuner and WinXP doesn’t mean it is free.

    Thats like saying that public television is not free only because you do not have a TV in your house.

    “Dawg shut up”

    iTech @ http://itech.webwarp.net

  16. pigonthewing

    March 25th, 2006 at 2:47 pm

    “Since I don’t *have* a Windows XP computer (with a TV tuner), that’s not exactly what I’d call “free”.”

    drwho got it right. are you going to complain about getting a lifetime of free gasoline? because you’re going to need a car, oil changes, new tires every once in a while..

  17. dk

    March 25th, 2006 at 2:57 pm

    iTech…who were you going after with that post?

    You bashed on drwho, then immediately made an analogy which supported his case.

    The simple fact is that, whichever type of DIY TV time-shifting or location-shifting you choose, you’re going to need a computer, along with a TV tuner card (and yes this includes tivo. what do you think a tivo box has in it?).

    If Orb is providing the interface between two points for free, don’t go bitching about it just because you choose to run a different operating system than they designed for.

    If you’re not equipped to take advantage of their service, then ignore it, move on, and keep on living your life like you did yesterday.

  18. JBMarc

    March 28th, 2006 at 4:57 pm

    I have a different application: I need to place a video surveillance system with top image quality at 30 fps into chronically illchildren’s homes unable to afford hospitalization. I need the quality for potential diagnostic purposes.
    My experience is that pretty much everybody in this business blabbers about how good their quality is, leaving it for me mto find out that nothing is true, we see pixelation, frame drops, posterization, yu name it.
    Mpst annoying, we don’t even talke about live stremaing. We talk much of the time about video that is buffered to as much as 10 seconds or more.
    HERE IS MY QUESTION: Has anybody any experience as to quality, frame drops, stutter video, when used in connection with a webcam?

  19. passerby mcgee

    July 6th, 2006 at 9:46 am

    JBMarc wrote:
    ————————-
    I have a different application: I need to place a video surveillance system with top image quality at 30 fps into chronically illchildren’s homes unable to afford hospitalization. I need the quality for potential diagnostic purposes.
    My experience is that pretty much everybody in this business blabbers about how good their quality is, leaving it for me mto find out that nothing is true, we see pixelation, frame drops, posterization, yu name it.
    Mpst annoying, we don’t even talke about live stremaing. We talk much of the time about video that is buffered to as much as 10 seconds or more.
    HERE IS MY QUESTION: Has anybody any experience as to quality, frame drops, stutter video, when used in connection with a webcam?
    ———————-
    JBMarc, What you are looking for does not exist. Not for what you need it for anyway. There are only a few businesses that can offer you the specs that you are describing and the costs are enormous. If you could afford it then you could afford to hospitalize these patients.

    Devices like Slingbox or Orb are for people who want to listen to music at a good quality or watch video at a reasonably decent quality.

    Until internet speeds and reliability increase dramatically then you should not expect non-buffered, uninterrupted, non-posterized, non-pixelated no frame drop, high quality webcam streams. It simply does not exist for those of us who are not millionaires. And even if you are a millionaire then you too should lower your expectations.

  20. lu

    March 9th, 2007 at 11:53 am

    Has anyone tried using a web cam (or digital camera capable of recording video) as a source for a constant video stream to go through orb?
    I am assuming this would work but have not tried it yet.

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