Entered CNET Catalog: 04/13/2005
SKU: SERVORB
Manufacturer: ORB Networks Inc.
Product summary
The good: Free; lets you access your photos, videos, TV recordings, and songs from anywhere; displays photos in slide shows; records TV programs remotely.
The bad: Streaming video is choppy on low-bandwidth connections.
The bottom line: If you often wish you had a way to share your photos and home movies while away, Orb might be the perfect solution.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 05/10/2005
What do you do when your media files are on your home computer, but you're not at home? Sure, you could print out your photos, put your videos on a DVD, and transfer your music to a portable player, but that's a lot to carry around. A new, free Internet service called Orb lets you access your digital media from any Net-connected device--even your cell phone. Orb has some steep technical restrictions: it currently works only on PCs running Windows XP Media Center or Windows XP and equipped with broadband connections--but that stands to reason given the nature of the content involved. If you want to stream your media files anywhere, even to your cell phone, we suggest you give Orb a try. First, download the free software, then install Orb. A setup wizard asks you to indicate which files or folders of your photos, songs, videos, and recorded TV shows you want to share. It also asks which television channels you get--broadcast, cable, or satellite--and displays their listings so that you can record current shows.
To access your media files while on the road, you'll need to leave your host (home or office) computer running. Orb doesn't store your files on a central server, so there's no size restriction on how much you can share. When you log in to your account from another computer, handheld, or cell phone, Orb pulls the content from your host computer, adjusts it to the size of your screen and your connection speed, and streams the music or video file to any Web-enabled computer with a media player.
Besides serving media, Orb has a few other tricks up its sleeve. You can access the software remotely to display your local television listings while you are away, then tell Orb to record a particular show. You can also watch the program while it's being recorded. In addition, Orb lets you view your photos as slide shows or share them with other Orb members. If you use Orb's camera application on your cell phone (rather than your phone's built-in camera app), you can send the pictures back to your home PC. Orb works with Pocket PC or Symbian-enabled handhelds (not Palm OS devices, however) and data-enabled cell phones with either RealPlayer or Windows Media Player installed.
In our tests, Orb worked well, though there were a few hiccups. For example, while accessing our content from a remote broadband-connected PC, Orb worked well. But streaming video to a handheld or a cell phone left us frustrated. While Orb streams video content at speeds appropriate for your connection, we were unable to watch more than a minute of video on our PCS cell phone before it had to stop and rebuffer the stream.
Orb's support options are decent, though not generous. Subscribers can access its support pages to read through the knowledge base and forums or send an e-mail request. We received a response to our e-mail request within 24 hours, as promised. Still, we would rather have free phone support.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15out of 15 user reviews
Perfect for tv on xbox 360
Pros: It lets me stream over 1100 channels on my xbox 360
Cons: pc site takes long to load
out of 15 user reviews
Unreliable At Best
Pros: It sometimes works. Most of the time when you are there to monitor it, when your a 1000 miles away, forget it.
Cons: This garbage crashes more often then my 101 year old grandma driving a bumper car.....
Updated on Jun 8, 2009It occasionally works. It will start a movie, them freeze and lose it's server connection. Very Frustrating. No way to contact the staff. Just Knowledge Base, Faqs and a forum. No way to directly voice opinons and concerns to the staff.
Great idea, needs more refinement. Good Luck....
out of 15 user reviews
Forget Windows media center, orb is the way to go
Pros: under five minutes to set up 2 computers, a mac, an xbox 360, and an iphone
Cons: It took me so long to find out about it!
out of 15 user reviews
Not for large-ish libraries
Pros: sort of works
Cons: Random play doesn't work with larger libraries
frequent crashes on the server side are frustrating
out of 15 user reviews
You can't beat free!
Pros: Easy setup, easy connection, make your friends jealous of your awesome computing abilities
Cons: .... I don't think there are any.
out of 15 user reviews
The future.
Pros: Easy, convenient mobile access to all your home PC media and documents. Also, with the right hardware/software, you have access to live streaming TV from your home satelite or cable connection.
Cons: I wish all the answers to technical stumbling blocks were easy to find at Orb.com. Instead, you often have to search through endless and confusing threads in the discussion forums.
out of 15 user reviews
Wow, like a cheap slingbox!
Pros: Only need computer and tuner card... FREE! (so far)
Cons: Need specific tuner cards...
Benefits:
- Don't need any special software on the PC you view the shows on.
- You only access the computer. Slingbox takes over the TV/TIVO it's connected to.
- I can increase HD space for shows, or burn them on the DVD burner on my computer.
- Access to any folders on your home PC (photos, music, videos, etc..).
- Service is free.
Now, my only concern is that this is dumping spyware on my computer, but hopefully, since CNET recommends it, it's okay? Well, poor assumption, but so far so good.
out of 15 user reviews
Great way to access files from anywhere!
Pros: Easy to use, fast, quick set up.
Cons: None for me.
out of 15 user reviews
Orb streaming service
Pros: when it works it GREAT!
Cons: Only works about 40% of the time and difficult to set up
It’s very convenient to access my music and local TV when I’m traveling and have a broadband connection, although, not practical for listening to music when exercising.
http://techguru6969.blogspot.com/
out of 15 user reviews
Cool but frustrating sometimes
Pros: Makes my MediaCenter PC accessible everywhere for FREE!!!!
Cons: Some frustrating experiences--no phone tech support
out of 15 user reviews
WORKS PERFECT once set up correctly
Pros: Watch TV and view photos and pre recorded video anywhere including pocket pc
Cons: Requires specific video cards for your home PC and with slow connections will buffer video causing interupted viewing
Once set up correctly this system works great.
out of 15 user reviews
Works great for TV
Pros: It's free (so far)
Cons: Must have compatible tuner card. Don't know about photos or videos
This is definitely a service that I would pay for. You can watch all of your home cable TV channels anywhere you have a broadband connection. Now if I could just do the same for DirecTV.
out of 15 user reviews
Windows XP Only
Pros: cool idea...
Cons: only runs on Windows XP
out of 15 user reviews
There is a god. ORB is AWESOME!
Pros: Live TV, streaming audio, photos, video, whatever. It's like TIVO for your cell phone, pocket pc, or laptop. WITH MORE FEATURES!
Cons: video streams can sometimes be choppy while watching over a wireless carrier's internet
Don't take it from me, though. Check it out for yourself! It's FREE! What are you waiting for!
out of 15 user reviews
video, tv, music, photos EVERYWHERE!!!
Pros: everything you have on your home computer, everywhere you go
Cons: Slow bandwidth lowers quality
