Stream Media Anywhere with ORB

Normally if you want to see any kind of video, photos, or music on your Pocket PC you have to transfer those files to your storage card or main memory. In most cases, and especially with video, you have to go through a number of lengthy conversions in order to get the right file format for mobile viewing. With a Media Center 2005 PC and a Windows Mobile device with Media Player 10, this process can be set up to run automatically. But you still only have a finite amount of space on your Pocket PC for such entertainment. That's changing now, thanks in large part to Orb.

Stream personal content over the Internet

Orb is a new online service that lets you stream the digital media content from your personal computer to virtually any Internet-connected device. Here's how it works.

When you sign up for the Orb service, you install a server application on your personal PC (running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 installed) or Media Center PC. This server application links your PC with the My.Orb Web-based portal, which lets you stream the content you select over the Internet to any Web-enabled device. Of course, you can only view the content if you have Windows Media Player or Real Player on your playback device. Since Orb makes a direct connection between your PC and your client device (in my case an i-mate JAM Pocket PC Phone), your PC must also be turned on and have an active Internet connection. It's also important that you have a decent upload rate. The bandwidth of both your personal PC and Pocket PC greatly affect the quality of the streaming content on Orb.

Note: All of the features described in this article should work with a PC running Windows XP. However, some people have reported problems with Orb and Windows XP, especially when using TV tuner cards. I tested Orb with a Media Center PC and had no problems. I think it's probably easier to get Media Center PC-compatible TV tuner cards to work with the Orb server software.

Television

You access all content through a menu on your personal page on the Orb Web site (Fig. 1). For example, tap on "TV" to view television shows (Fig. 2). If you have a TV tuner card installed on your XP or Media Center PC and if your PC is connected to cable or some other content service, then you can access available TV channels live from your Pocket PC (Fig. 3). You can also access Internet TV and any recorded TV shows on your PC. Tapping on the Local TV link gives you a listing of all your channels and what's currently playing. The "Get Channel" field is a quick way of jumping to a specific channel. You can also record TV programs from this page, however there's no way to quickly jump to a specific day and time. Tapping on a channel brings up more info along with a number of icons at the top. Two blue icons in the upper right allow you to record or play the selected program.

When you play live TV on your Pocket PC, the Orb server software on your PC streams content from your TV Tuner. This means that your TV tuner is unavailable to the PC for other uses. For example, if you're watching live TV on your Pocket PC and another program is scheduled to be recorded at home, the recording will be cancelled. Recent versions of the Orb software did add a feature that tells you when your PC is currently busy doing other tasks which may interfere with your Orb usage.

Fig. 1: Your Orb Personal Page.

Fig. 2: Orb's TV page lets you view live or recorded television.

Fig. 3: Orb lets you access live television from a PC equipped with a TV tuner card.

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