My Favorite Application of the Year!
There are dozens of videos, hundreds of images, and thousands of songs stored on my home PC. While I can easily transfer a small portion of these files to an SD card and enjoy them on the go, there is no way to store them all on a single card due to current size constraints. So imagine being able to carry all your digital media including your TV and PVR right on the Treo. Sound too good to be true? Not only is it true, it’s free! With Orb, from Orb Networks, you can stream all your digital media including video, images, audio, and even live TV directly to your Treo.
Orb streams media from a Windows XP machine to most web enabled devices including the Treo 700p/w. If the host PC has a TV tuner installed, then Orb can even stream live television broadcasts.
Installation and Setup
Installing Orb is a simple process; just download the application from the Orb Networks website and the installer does most of the work. Once Orb is installed all that is left is selecting video, photo and audio directories to stream. If your computer has a compatible TV tuner card installed you also must setup the TV signal along with the provider and the directory to store recorded TV. While there are a few advanced settings, I have found no need to adjust them. Because Orb uses the processing power of the host PC there is nothing to install on the Treo.
Function
To use Orb you must leave the host computer on and connected to the internet. Accessing your digital media using Orb is as simple as browsing the internet. Simply, point your preferred browser to the MyOrb web portal and logon. Once logged on you will find 6 menus: Home, TV, Video, Photo, Audio, and Add-ons.
Home
The home menu shows an abridged list of files from each of the other menus. The Home menu also lists your User Id and the Date.
TV
From the TV menu you can access both a local TV and internet TV channel listings. From the local TV listing you can choose to either watch a live broadcast, or record a broadcast for later viewing. Internet TV is a list of streaming video feeds from various internet sources. As with local TV you can either choose to watch a stream or record it for later. Orb also delivers basic information about both local and internet TV broadcasts including the start time and date, duration and genre. If there is a local station or internet TV channel you watch often you can even make it a favorite making it easier to find. When recording broadcasts Orb offers a feature called Orb Pass which allows you to setup an automatic recording of future airings or episodes.
Video
The video menu is used to browse video directories stored on the host computer. This is where you find your personal videos. The video menu automatically organizes videos by date, most popular and favorites. Since Orb has no size requirements you can access all your stored videos.
Photo
The Photo menu is also organized by favorite and date. Photos stored on the host computer can be viewed in two ways; manually or in a slideshow. When viewing photos, images are not displayed full screen, instead the images are displayed as they would appear on a webpage.
Audio
The Audio menu sorts audio files by playlists, artists, album, and genre. Besides streaming audio files stored on the host computer, Orb also streams Internet radio stations such as the BBC Radio. Even though Orb has some internet radio stations available by default, it is a very easy process to add your own custom radio stations.
Add-ons
The Add-ons menu allows you to customize those features available through Orb. AccuWeather and Sony Previews are selected by default, but there are many other features available. For instance, you can add a Contacts add-on that synchronizes contacts from various sources such as Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo and several other sources. There is also a File Explorer that allows you to browse non-multimedia files stored on the host computer.
Conclusion
Because the quality of the stream depends on your data speed, the faster the connection the better the quality. I live in an EVDO area I have a very fast connection which made my Orb experience wonderful. Those who can not connect to a high speed connection may have different results. While Orb can stream live TV, there are only a handful of TV tuner cards that have been tested to be compatible with Orb. For my tests I used a Hauppauge WinTV PCI-150, and it works beautifully. One cautionary note, because Orb uses the Treo’s data connection be sure you have an unlimited data plan before using Orb.
I have absolutely no complaints with Orb. In fact, I think Orb is the best application for the Treo 700p/w I have seen this year. The ability to stream all my local TV stations to my Treo, coupled with the ability to remotely record TV, is simply amazing.
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Filed under: Software reviews
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I like the program and the features, but I have yet to get my movies to stream. If I try to stream one, it buffers, says insufficient bandwith, buffers again, then restarts the Treo. So no luck with movies, and bandwith is set on 100kb. Besides that I like what it does.
Me too, streaming moveis has never worked, been trying for over a month….:-(
Faslane
I had trouble with version 2.0 but absolutely no problems with 1.2. If you will post more details I would be glad to try and help.
Post the following:
Treo model
Media player info
type of file you are trying to stream
Seems as if installing Kinoma again fixed the problem.
If anyone is having trouble, make sure you have the right codecs installed. I use ffdshow for Most of mine.
The streaming is choppy, but what can we expect over the air. I bet it does quite well with wi-fi. unfortunately our 700s don’t have wi-fi.
I know people complain about how you don’t need it, but if it can make things like Orb much better, then its worth it until streaming over the phone towers becomes VERY GOOD