Orb for Mac finally arrives, streams media from OS X to any internet-connected device
By Darren Murph 
posted November 6th 2009 8:43AM
posted November 6th 2009 8:43AM
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posted November 6th 2009 8:43AM
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PS3?
Gamecube with a 56k modem?
Yes, it'll stream to the PS3, XBOX and Wii as well using UPNP over your home LAN.
ah yes.. welcome back to the old n95 days...
PS3 Media Server works way better at streaming to the PS3. Orb greatly reduces quality during transcoding, PS3 MS does not. In fact, I can't perceive a difference in quality when I stream a HD .mkv file to the PS3 with it. PS3 PS3 PS3...sorry
Also, the app for the iPhone sucks. I used to love Orb, but I'm getting tired of the lackluster performance. Of course its free, so I sound like an asshole, but I want reliable streaming to anywhere on anything dammit!
I haven't tried Orb since I moved from DSL to Comcast. Should be interesting.
I switched from comcast to dsl 6.0. 6 and 1/2 dozen. The bottleneck is my AT&T cellular network.
Is there a media server which lists the contents rather than playing (streaming) from the PC/Mac ?
I have a media box which can play all types of content, but the server softwares I used do the list some file typles..
Media center does not list directories which contain VOB files
TonkyMedia does not show directories for a lot of file types
Tvarsity lists everything but it streams from the PC rather than sharing the file.
When you say "lists instead of streams", do you just want to download the file to your remote machine and play it natively? If so, there are a number of non-media centric remote access solutions, from setting up a simple FTP server, to Remote Desktop or VNC which will allow you to move the files around.
Though I haven't used Orb in a while (since switching to a WHS and Windows 7 which has native Orb-like functionality), Orb will play .VOB files and just about anything else...
http://support.orb.com/kb/entry/321/
I've tried TVersity before, but liked Orb better, as it didn't dig into your system so much, and the install was much easier.
In my setup (a Vista media box, with a Acer Easystore WHS in the closet as media server), Orb was running on my Vista machine and had no problem picking up on the media shares set up on the WHS.
The live TV streaming works like a charm too, even allowing you to schedule recordings right from your phone's browser. Even though I love the native streaming in Windows 7, I may re-install Orb just for the scheduling
Nice, you copied the ps3.
Good job.
Orb Live for the iPhone is my favorite app. Don't run it on a Mac, but with a PC and USB tuner, I can watch live tv on my iPhone and various laptops. Great and free.
I was thinking the same, streaming to my iPhone. I gotta check it out.
Get ready to pay $9.99 Rick.
Yeah, 10 bucks for the iPhone/iPod Touch app is a joke. I've been using Orb for years now on several Windows Mobile phones and even a few non-smartphones and my total out of pocket expense has been zip. I guess they feel they can sucker $10 out of the same suckers that Apple has been bending over for years.
Orb is one of the most useful programs I have found for bringing my productivity at work to a screeching halt. Ive been using it for years on various devices. It's free, so I can't complain too much about all the vairous bugs/lack of customer service.
Wish ORB could stream non iTunes content like .AVI files from my Finder....
It can. You just need to install a decoder to transcode it. Eats up the system resources though.
Or you could transcode the svi to a different container format. It's quite likely that the codec inside the avi is just an mp4 stream.
If it is the transcode process will be quick and not recompress the file protecting the quality.
Since you say finder, I'd recommend streamclip, it's a technical process though, be advised if you need advising.
INTEL only. Damn. I really need to upgrade.
So it can support ancient pc's but not ancient macs? sucks to be a fanboy.
if he were a "fanboy," wouldn't he have upgraded already? it's been like five years.
You'll be blown away. I'm running a Dual G5 2.0 at work and it's unbelievable how much slower it is than my quad 2.66 Intel box at home. I know it's old tech, but really, the system is only about a year older than my Mac Pro which still feels brand new in terms of speed.
And yeah, I do find it a bit of a bummer than the PPCs were left out in the cold for SL; part of the reason I think my G5 is so slow is that it's running Leopard; I skipped from Tiger to SL at home because I didn't want Leopard slowly my machine down. Anyway the PPC is a 'late 2005', the last PPC revision of the Power Mac. So while most PPC Macs are fairly ancient, this particular one was only 4 years old when SL dropped.
Its good to see companies like Orb moving to platforms other than Windows but I seriously wish either Orb or TVersity would FINALLY release a Linux version! I seriously doubt I am in the minority using a Linux distribution for my home media server. It runs a lot better than trying to use a GUI based OS for grunt work like transcoding video.
I know there are a couple programs like Twonky and Jinzora that can be used to get your media out and about but they just aren't as well rounded from a feature standpoint as the more commercial apps like Orb and TVersity.
Come on guys, throw us Linux users a bone here!
The company says they're working on a Linux version.
If the Linux version is as buggy as the Mac version, don't bother. Even over my WLAN, Orb stops streaming videos about 5 seconds in and goes to the next video, regardless of the bandwidth setting.
The nice thing is that, if you install Perian, you can stream pretty much ANY type of video including MKVs.
Trying it out, but can't reach the login server... anybody else having issues?
Yeah can't seem to create an account to log in, even try from the website but it just times out, or says can't connect to page, when trying from the orb application it ask if I'm connected to the internet. Obviously my net works, guess I'll try later.
Same problem here
Ditto. You think they would have been prepared for the onslaught.
That's the problem with a proprietary system. It may be free, but it's not open-source, and you still have to log into a commercial server that can be yanked at any time.
Could I stream video podcasts from my iBook to my Samsung LCD HDTV via the wireless network linkstick??
iBooks didn't come with Intel processors so it looks like the answer is no.
My grandma's PC has windows ME. Bizzare coincident.
It keeps hanging when I go to create an account : (
I'm having the same problem. I think their servers must be getting hit pretty hard.
How about TV's with built in internet connections like Viera Cast?
TVs
This is Awesome.. i'm using it right now At work - Streaming my Audio and i just watched a film on my iPhone! :D) FREE!
I'm assuming this is WIFI only streaming to your iPhone?
apples gonna reject this in 3,2,1.
I read this last night directly off their site and I distinctly remember reading no live TV support for mac
Windows 7 does this WITHOUT the use of a middle man.
Mine 'unexpectedly' quits whilst initialising the indexing of my content, every time. Can't get any further than that, have tried unticking all of the directories to scan in, still crashes. Any ideas?
Has anyone found the TV tuner support? I couldn't spot it in the control panel (or the docs for that matter).
Did anyone else notice that the iSight camera turns on for a few seconds during setup? I have a strange feeling that they took a picture of me and sent it off somewhere.