ORBLive is one of the
most useful iPhone TV applications available. It allows you to stream TV, video, music, and webcams from your desktop PC to your iPhone or iPhone 4.
OrbLive works by streaming your media from your PC to your iPhone and iPhone 4 by converting any of the selected video into an iPhone supported video format.
Then it sends this converted file in real time to your iPhone where you can watch live. For this to happen, you need to do the following:
Once those
three things are done, you will be ready to stream video files, music,
and TV on iPhone using the built in iPhone movie player.
Setting up OrbLive on the PC:
The sign up process is simple and free,
and must be done on your
PC
. Then after downloading and installing the
server application on your PC, you will see an icon at the bottom
right of your screen showing that ORB is installed. If this icon is
green, then the server is running without problems. If it is red, then
there is a problem and the server is not running.
When you right click this icon, you get
access to a menu that allows you to enable or disable ORB. You can also
access your media directories by clicking on configuration.
From the configuration window, you can click on the Add button in any of the directories shown below to add folders. Those folders can be iPhone video folders, iPhone Photo folders, iPhone Music folders, or a Document folders.
Add all the video folders, iPhone photo folders, iPhone music folders, and documents
folder you like to access on your iPhone.
All those folders, with their contents will be mirrored to
your OrbLive App for the iPhone and iPhone 4 which is available in the App Store.
Therefore, you will be able to navigate
through all those folders and their contents from your iPhone and play any of the files in
any of those categories no matter what video format it is in one condition:-
Your PC must be able to run
those files first before they can be streamed to your iPhone. The simplest test to
find out if a file can be viewed on the iPhone is to go to the original file on your PC and play it. If it
plays, then it can be streamed to your iPhone without a problem. If it
doesn't play on your PC, then you have to install some helpers or
decoders to play the specific file on the PC.
Usually, most known video formats, photos, and documents format are supported by default.
Running OrbLive on the iPhone:
On
the iPhone side, OrbLive can be downloaded from the App Store and is
available in a free version called "OrbLive free" that allows only a maximum of three files
to be played. The full version which cost $10 gives you full
access to all your media folders that you selected on your PC.
When
you start OrbLive on the iPhone the first time, you will need to enter
your log in and password in settings. To do this, tap on the Settings button at the bottom right.
You can also optimize your stream from this screen
by adjusting the slider to the correct network you are connected to. If
you are on wifi, then slide it to wifi.
However, if the stream breaks too
much, then lower it to 3G or EDGE. The more you move the slider to the
right the better quality stream you will get. When you are done
entering your information, click on connect.
The Restart Orb button above allows you to restart the Orb server running on your PC remotely. You can do this if you run into a connection problem while you are away from your computer.
After
you are connected to the ORB server, you can see the same folders that you set up on the PC side.
At the bottom, you will see five buttons, audio, video, photo, and documents. Those are the same folders we added in the PC configuration menu above.
When you tap on any of those folders, you will
access the files that are mirrored from your PC.
You
can also listen to internet radio from this screen. Click on the Audio button at the bottom, and then the Radios
folder.
Then you can search thousands of live internet radio stations that can stream from your PC to your iPhone.
I entered USA in the search box, and got a big list of FM radio stations.
If you tap the plus button next to any station,
you get the option to record or add the station to your favorites.
If a station is added to
favorites, then you can access it from the favorites folder. If it is
recorded, you will see it in the recorded folder.
Tap the Video button from the bottom to access your Video folders, TV, and Webcams. Tap the TV button, and you will get
three folders. When you tap the Internet TV folder, you can search for
any live TV station you want.
I entered USA to search for US TV stations, and I got a big list. When
you tap on the plus button, you can record, or add the TV station to
your favorites as shown before.
Tap the Favorite Internet TV button to get a list of your favorite stations. Below is my favorite list that I added from different countries. Moreover, tapping Recorded TV will show your recorded TV's that you have
selected to watch later.
Back to the main screen. If you have
a webcam that is connected to your PC, you can set it up using OrbLive. Then, by tapping the Webcams button, you can see a live video of your webcam from
anywhere.
To access your video files, tap on the Folders button and you
will see all the video files and directories that you added to your
media in ORB on the PC configuration window.
Orblive for iPhone allows you to set up an iPhone TV tuner if you have one.
This allows you watch live cable TV directly from your Cable TV.
Tap the Photo button at the bottom to access your Photos stored on your PC.
This
same process of browsing files for Photos and Documents is the same. However, you won't
have favorites, or recorded folders.
You will have a magnifying glass that
allows you to search for a document or a photo in your directory.
Adding Custom Favorites using the Web:
You can do many of the settings of Orb Live on the PC web browser by going to www.mycast.orb.com. After you login, you can Add Custom favorite TV or radio stations manually. Click on Open Applications drop down menu, and then click the Add Custom on the Mycast web page.
Enter the name of the custom channel, and its url or internet address in the Path box as shown below. It will then be added to your Favorite Internet TV, and you will be able to see it in your iPhone TV folder.
Conclusion:
Orblive is one of the most powerful iPhone movie player available in the App Store. It allows you to stream Live internet TV,
internet radio, iPhone photos, iPhone music and documents from your PC to your iPhone
and iPhone 4 and access those files from anywhere in the world.
In order to access any of those files, your PC must be on and ORB must be running and
active. Also visit other iPhone TV options available like AirTV and EyeTV which require an iPhone TV tuner to watch TV on iPhone.
Also, ORBLive support iPhone video out feature which allows you to view your media on an external display using an iPhone video cable. You can use a composite video cable, a component video cable or an iPhone HDMI adapter to display your media on a big screen TV.