Guest Paul (MVP) Posted October 16, 2006 Report Posted October 16, 2006 [teaser]So you've switched to a tariff with an unlimited data allowance, and you're wondering what to do with all that bandwidth right? Chances are you've discovered Orb, the excellent free application that lets you stream all of your media from your home PC down to your mobile device. Well, the::unwired are running an article previewing version 2 of the Orb software, including details on how you can sign up to test the Beta version! :rolleyes: You can find the article here, visit the Orb website here, and visit the version 2 Beta signup page here! :) I'm downloading it now :( P[/teaser] Image courtesy of the::unwired
Guest ClintEastman Posted October 16, 2006 Report Posted October 16, 2006 Hmmmmm... Windows XP only. I'm all Vista now so I guess I will have to wait!
Guest Kallisti Posted October 16, 2006 Report Posted October 16, 2006 Well, the::unwired are running an article previewing version 2 of the Orb software, including details on how you can sign up to test the Beta version! :rolleyes: XP Only? Pity, I've had Orb 1 running on my Win2k3 server, which is where all my data files are....
Guest sporkguy Posted October 16, 2006 Report Posted October 16, 2006 Still no Mac support :rolleyes:
Guest Dr Who Posted October 16, 2006 Report Posted October 16, 2006 The real question is will it properly support UK DTV signals? I was due to beta the latest 1.x iteration which is meant to introduce this support but I spent a few days banging my head against a brick wall until I figured out how to do it 'manually' and since then I haven't wanted to touch it! Be nice if it was a bit more stable. I have to frequently reset Orb on my home PC to get it to work properly, by which time I have normally just lost my 3G signal!
Guest Kallisti Posted October 16, 2006 Report Posted October 16, 2006 I just decided to install the beta regardless (of the fact it says XP only). Works fine in w2k3, haven't spotted any real advantages yet, though the PC/web interface is nicer... They've also moved the speed check to a more sensible place (if you try to stream something), but unless I'm missing something, it's even more clicks to actually start seeing anything.
Guest The Doctor Posted October 16, 2006 Report Posted October 16, 2006 Still no Mac support :rolleyes: I feel your pain sporkguy! Mo Mac support is a bummer :( Phil
Guest jcostantino Posted October 16, 2006 Report Posted October 16, 2006 I had read somewhere that this could transcode YouTube videos to WMV for streaming to Windows Media Player - was I mistaken? I have no idea how it might work but I'm pretty sure I had read it somewhere. As it stands, it only allows access to the RSS feed of YouTube and clicking a link in that just makes the flash file open which doesn't work on the PPC. As an unrelated side note, is there any hope of an updated flash plugin?
Guest Fone_Fanatic Posted October 19, 2006 Report Posted October 19, 2006 I had read somewhere that this could transcode YouTube videos to WMV for streaming to Windows Media Player - was I mistaken? I have no idea how it might work but I'm pretty sure I had read it somewhere. Yes it does allow you to stream YouTube videos to your ppc through orb. You have to install a plugin on your browser and you open the Youtube video and click on the plugin "Orb This". I've done this to one video to test it out but i can't successfully stream anything with my US Cingular EDGE connection :rolleyes: I used to use Orbv1.0 on wifi a while ago, but since i only used it in my house i removed it. Now my PPC is confusing my EDGE and WiFi connections. When i figure it out i'll report here.
Guest NikLP Posted October 22, 2006 Report Posted October 22, 2006 This Orb business confused the hell out of me. Do you have to have an enormous codec pack installed on your system for this to work? Mine shows a brief selection of files on my computer but totally fails to stream any video at all, either via 3G or WLAN. It's not all that clear (although much clearer than that shower of an application they call ShaZu).
Guest jcostantino Posted October 22, 2006 Report Posted October 22, 2006 Can you point me to this plugin? I was searching around and couldn't find any mention of this on their forum, YouTube, or out in the wild on Google. Thanks a lot! Yes it does allow you to stream YouTube videos to your ppc through orb. You have to install a plugin on your browser and you open the Youtube video and click on the plugin "Orb This". I've done this to one video to test it out but i can't successfully stream anything with my US Cingular EDGE connection :rolleyes: I used to use Orbv1.0 on wifi a while ago, but since i only used it in my house i removed it. Now my PPC is confusing my EDGE and WiFi connections. When i figure it out i'll report here.
Guest Dr Who Posted October 22, 2006 Report Posted October 22, 2006 This Orb business confused the hell out of me. Do you have to have an enormous codec pack installed on your system for this to work? Mine shows a brief selection of files on my computer but totally fails to stream any video at all, either via 3G or WLAN. It's not all that clear (although much clearer than that shower of an application they call ShaZu). Can you stream back to your own PC?
Guest NikLP Posted October 23, 2006 Report Posted October 23, 2006 Can you stream back to your own PC? Can't get anything to do anything really... Videos will stream to the PPC but I only get audio. Same video does nowt on laptop at home, neither on FF or IE. I've got ZERO codecs installed though, as I've had awful trouble with that over the years, and VLC plays pretty much everything so I've never bothered as yet. Don't really know where to start, although I really ought to, by now.
Guest NikLP Posted October 24, 2006 Report Posted October 24, 2006 Soooooooo... is it codecs that's the issue here, or what?
Guest jcostantino Posted October 24, 2006 Report Posted October 24, 2006 If you can play the video in Windows Media Player, it should stream through ORB. When you use VLC, the codecs are internal to the program and aren't available to the system. I'd expect you would need the latest DIVX codecs for 90% of the video out there. Soooooooo... is it codecs that's the issue here, or what?
Guest NikLP Posted October 25, 2006 Report Posted October 25, 2006 If you can play the video in Windows Media Player, it should stream through ORB. When you use VLC, the codecs are internal to the program and aren't available to the system. I'd expect you would need the latest DIVX codecs for 90% of the video out there. Ok having installed some codecs (finally) I've got video. The quality isn't bad either (3G) but the audio is AWFUL. I have no idea how to set these things up, I assumed most of the codec stuff was self configuring, but I've been presented with a baffling array of controls on installation of FFD. No idea.
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