ORB.com

[hometheaterman]

I saw in the Slingbox review Scott said he had been using ORB.com but it was down 50% of the time. Well is ORB.com free I went to the site and it doesn't list a price anywhere and says you can create a free orb account.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yes Orb is free, to use it you need a PC running Windows Media Server. Its neat because it lets you access al the media on your PC including photos and music plus it lets you watch TV via your Media cetner setup.

The problem with it is about 50% of the time it does not work.

The advantage it has over the slingbox is it works via a web interface, while the Slingbox needs a plaer installed on the PC you want to watch TV on.

 

[hometheaterman]

Darn both my PC's use XP Pro so I guess I can't use it. I want something like the slingbox but don't really think it is worth $250 to me. Especially If I can't record with it.

 

[Stargazer]

Seeing how it works only 50% of the time, do they plan on fixing it via a software upgrade?

 

[thunderlips]

Yes Orb is free, to use it you need a PC running Windows Media Server. Its neat because it lets you access al the media on your PC including photos and music plus it lets you watch TV via your Media cetner setup.

The problem with it is about 50% of the time it does not work.

The advantage it has over the slingbox is it works via a web interface, while the Slingbox needs a plaer installed on the PC you want to watch TV on.

I gotta tell ya, I use it every single day, and it has not once failed to work well. Plus, you CAN use it on XP Pro now too. And the best part is it's FREE! Since I don't have a compatible tuner for live tv, I use windows media encoder scripts to encode from my 510. When my 510 fires up to record King of Queens or whatever, the script fires up and starts recording. As soon as the encode starts, I can start streaming it over the web. Live, but "delayed" for maybe 30 seconds. Just point Orb to a video folder where you are encoding to, and you're all set.

 

[Eva Greczkowski]

Orb has always worked fine for recorded content, the issues I have had is with live television. But now I have the Slingbox to handle this for me.