When it comes to cool factor, OrbLive has to be one of the coolest native application for the iPhone.
Orb Networks has just released a native Orb client making it possible for you to watch live TV, Internet TV, and webcams on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
We no longer need to wait for a native client of Sling Media for the iPhone.
Orb provides users the ability to access photos, music, videos, live television, and other digital content on their home PC at anytime and from their mobile device anywhere.
We no longer need to wait for a native client of Sling Media for the iPhone as Orb Networks have just released a native iPhone application for the iPhone called OrbLive making it possible for iPhone users to watch live TV on your iPhone or iPod Touch from anywhere.
You can checkout the impressive You Tube video of OrbLive in action below:
If you want to check it out, here are the instructions you need to follow:
- Install the free Orb streaming application on your PC.
- Create your login and password for MyCast.
- To watch live TV or a webcam you will need a TV turner card or webcam attached to your PC.
- Leave your PC on and connected to the Internet so it can stream stuff to your iPhone or iPod Touch.
- On your jailbroken iPhone, install the native iPhone application OrbLive via the Installer App under the Multimedia category. (If you don't have the Installer app installed on your iPhone then check out jailbreaking iPhone software such as: ZiPhone 3.0 or iLiberty which will install the Installer app as part of the Jailbreaking process.)
- Once installed, just launch OrbLive from your iPhone's home screen.
- Enter the login and password you created when you installed Orb on your PC to enjoy the live TV, Internet TV, and webcams on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
Apparently the Orb streaming application on your PC transcodes the video stream quite nicely for even iPhone's Edge networks. You also might want to checkout the privacy options and set them appropriately.
Orb streaming application is currently only available for Windows user.
I haven't tried this one out yet as i don't have a TV Tuner card, but plan to check it out pretty soon.
Thanks Judson for the news tip and Ron from Orb Networks for informing us about OrbLive for the iPhone (you have a winner).
Folks, drop us a line – we’d love to know what you think about OrbLive.
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Friggin awesome! Can't wait to get home and update Orb
Thank you thank you thank you
Does anyone know if this works with EyeTV for the Mac? Or is it Windows tuners only?
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Unfortunately, it wont work standalone (eg you have to go thru their servers, as opposed to streaming directly from your own network), and it wont work without Windows.
A better solution would be to use vlc to tune your source, and then have it convert to h264 to stream on the phone/pod. No proprietary OS required, nor webservice from any specific company.
Hey there.
Yes it is true. This software will have to stream the video through Orb's servers, so the quality of your connection will probably depend upon where abouts those servers exist.
Another thought…what do you think would happen if you were connected through WIFI behind a coffee shop or university firewall which had certain ports blocked? I would not imagine that all the video is streamed though port 80, but I do stand to be corrected. Perhaps one could install a command-line port streamer for the iphone. Has anyone tried this application out?? Thoughts anyone??
Hey there.
Yes it is true. This software will have to stream the video through Orb's servers, so the quality of your connection will probably depend upon where abouts those servers exist.
Another thought…what do you think would happen if you were connected through WIFI behind a coffee shop or university firewall which had certain ports blocked? I would not imagine that all the video is streamed though port 80, but I do stand to be corrected. Perhaps one could install a command-line port streamer for the iphone. Has anyone tried this application out?? Thoughts anyone??
This is a killer app. I've been an orb user since it's launch and downloaded this app as soon as it appeared in installer. It works GREAT with my streaming satellite TV connection, plus it streams a variety of other formats from my home pc (video and music). I now have a DIVX player for my iPhone! A couple of bugs in this first version – for instance, when I mount a folder with DiVX avi files, they are not recognized when I browser folders from my iPhone, but they are listed and sorted under Date category (plus they Shuffle). Other minor inconveniences when I am watching a DivX movie- you can't fast forward/search, and sometimes the audio starts to go out of sync, but for a first release – this app is the bomb! Also, they haven't limited it to a WiFi connection only, so when a 3G iPhone comes out, this app is enough of a justification for me to upgrade.
BTW – I don't agree that a better solution is use VLC – the orb environment offers so much more internet radio, online videos, photo albums – and plus you get a complete program guide interface for seeing what is playing and selecting live television programs. Another benefit of going through Orb servers is that they can calculate the speeds between your home pc and you iphone connection and throttle/encode your media for optimal viewing experience.
i have been waiting for this sense i got the iphone.. just tryed it and it works great that was one thing i missed about my windows mobile phone.. great job..
This program sucks but I do like the idea of it but it's just badly done. First it should allow local server support, why should I waste my upload bandwidth when I'm 20 feet from my computer. Second I have been fighting all day with trying to get my tuner to even work, it won't complete the guide setup and without the guide you get no TV. They should have a bypass for the guide setup, channel up and down would be just fine for me. Third problem is quality even thou it's only a 3.5" screen the picture looks like crap even YouTube looks better and they are the king of crappy video quality. Fourth problem is with privacy with uploading streams to the site whats to say they are not selling data on what we are watching that does not sit well with me.
for all those people saying about bandwidth or local connections, the orb servers know when the request (from your iPhone/touch) and the media (your pc) come from the same public ip address, such as when you're on your home wifi. In these instances, the orb server on your pc just streams it over the local network, hence not using any of your ISP bandwidth or having any Internet latency issues.
can you watch tv on your ipod touch if you dont have a tv tuner but you have a webcam? please let me know
does anyone know if there is a 3g (2.0.1) version of orblive? This must be one of the best apps going for iPhone, shame mycast site doesn't steam video to iPhone
OrbLive is available on appstore now.
Orblive ( for iPhone 2.x software ) has been released on App Store.
check out the following link.
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=290195003mt=8
You can also use websites like http://3click.tv to stream tv episodes to your iPhone, and its better than paying 1.99 per episode. They have something like 12,000 ad free episodes you can watch on the iPhone without downloading- works on my desktop too!
enjoy