[This post comes from the CrackBerry forums courtesy of Shao128]
Some of you may already be familiar with Orb, its been around for a few years now and works the BlackBerry phones with somewhat mixed results. Orb is an application for your Mac or Windows based computer and allows you to stream your media to web enabled devices (like the PlayBook) over the internet. So no matter where you are as long as your PlayBook has a connection to the internet your media is just at your finger tips. Best of all, it's free!
The first step is to download Orb to your computer. The setup is simple and straight forward, but if you get stuck they have some guides here to help. After you get Orb installed on your computer check out the video above to get up and running on your PlayBook.
Discuss more in the CrackBerry forums
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Stompy Apr 26, 2011 at 1:25 pm
Orb has actually lost me as a (paying) customer. They've ceased support of the blackberry platform and made it pretty clear they're focusing on iOS now. Oh hai, TVersity.
Laserpointer Apr 26, 2011 at 1:31 pm
Excellent post; thanks Shao!
kb2755 Apr 26, 2011 at 2:04 pm
"Your PC running Orb is not connected to the server."
Any solutions for a Mac user? Their support doesn't seem to be Mac friendly (surprising since iOS devices are all over their page).
My icon is black, I've enabled remote sharing, and there's no firewall that I'm aware of.
Marc_Paradise Apr 26, 2011 at 2:05 pm
Doesn't Orb actually stream everything through their own servers?
My understanding is that DLNA support is coming soon to PlayBook, it seems like you'd be much better off (and perhaps a bit safer) running something like Window's built in broadcast service (whatever it's called) or Mediatomb -- both of which are DLNA-compatible.
hellnback76 Apr 26, 2011 at 2:12 pm
tried to play walking dead from my itunes and it played 5 seconds of it and stops.
hellnback76 Apr 26, 2011 at 2:19 pm
and it doesnt stream sirius? or cant, I dont know.
Double_J75 Apr 26, 2011 at 2:31 pm
Orb allowed me to stream mp3's and movies to my playbook. One thing I changed on the settings tab was the speed. I think default was 1500 or so. I changed it to 999999 and the quality of the stream looked noticeably better.
hellnback76 Apr 26, 2011 at 2:43 pm
cant get walking dead to play from itunes, anybody else having trouble or am I just dumb
hellnback76 Apr 26, 2011 at 3:10 pm
video doesnt work, period. ipad here I come.
mikegcox Apr 26, 2011 at 3:30 pm
Orb looks cool, you can do the same thing with Opera desktop browser using Unite. What I want to do is stream to the playbook using my LAN instead of the Internet. Does Orb give you a local address to access the media?
hellnback76 Apr 26, 2011 at 3:41 pm
Orb does give you a local IP address right on your homescreen
Mrosales1122 Apr 26, 2011 at 6:03 pm
I will just stick with Slingplayer, much easier to stream videos to my Blackberry still, and am sure soon they will have the app for Playbook.
mitchsurp Apr 28, 2011 at 2:16 pm
Orb is great -- when it works. I use it to stream episodes of Jeopardy that W7MC records.
It has never worked correctly for me on my BlackBerry. Ever.
It works pretty well on my MyTouch 3G Slide, but all the apps in the Market suck. I just use the mobile interface at mycast.orb.com and select the flash stream. Pair that with Skyfire (or forego the flash stream completely with 3GP), and I can watch Jeopardy, The Soup or any/all of my movies and TV shows on the go.
Big plus: Orb supports W7MC proprietary format of .wtv
Gamesdmc3 Apr 29, 2011 at 2:50 pm
i wonder if i can orb a 9860 in my hands ??? hmmm