Hacking ORB (your media on Wii)

[LightyKD]

I'm wondering how many of you guys use Orb (http://www.orb.com) to stream your Media from your PC to your Wii. I think the app is PERFECT... well almost. Currently Ive been adding TV channel streams to my Orb account so that I can watch TV channels from my system. I'm planning on creating an Orb server but I need an old (not too old) PC and a bigger or multiple hard drive(s) so I can put my media on it and dedicate it to streaming. I've tred the whole sharing Orb accounts between multiple Wiis thing and it works almost flawlessly. If I can get the things I need there won't be a need for anyone to ever go to the video store, rent a movie or buy cable

lol. I know that some will complain that this is Piracy "en masse" but I just want to test out a theory. Maybe a few of us can create orb related servers and share the accounts, giving us all cool things to watch

Anywho, what do you guys thinl about the idea. And for those of you already using ORB I'll be posting up my Channels (links) soon for you to add to your accounts. If you have channels that you think people might like. Feel free to enter them in this thread.

 

[Zeek03]

Orb? Never heard of that... Can you go into a bit more detail on how I might do this? Sounds very Interesting...

 

[LightyKD]

Basically, you go to orb.com and download their software onto your PC. Installation is super easy and after that, you (from your Wii's Internet Channel) go to mycast.orb.com. If you have your folders set up the right way, you will be able to access your media from your PC and stream it to your Wii. For me, the video quality is almost perfect and I love the ability to also be able to access my PC's disc drive for my multiple DVD data disc full of episodes

 

[jumpman17]

I use Winamp Remote which uses Orb.

 

[telefunkin]

i tried it once, didn't really like it. It doesn't stream media from your pc to the wii, it instead streams the media from your PC to the orb servers and then your wii streams it back from there. Always seemed like a waste of bandwidth to me.

 

[Slimmmmmm]

Orb is ok imo, I've used it a lot before.

If you have your own server you can make things like this (I've kinda half done that for my LAN).

I've not tried any official alternatives to this yet, but I believe there are a few.

One bad point of orb is that sometimes (rarely) they seem to have a high server load, apart from that very n00b friendly and takes 5 minutes to set up. No space required on the Wii except for taking up 1 favourite slot in your internet favourites if you decide.
The pc software runs on pretty much every pc these days too.

 

[20clarky08]

so i take it you havent taken to using TVersity yet??

basically all the features of Orb, which is actually a rip-off of TVersity but the data is all transferred internally so you get a better stream rate and your media never leaves your LAN.

just start TVersity, point Opera to YourIP:41952/flashlib

and your away

jus a thought

 

[noONE]

I've tried ORB a couple of times since i found it over a year ago, never been able to get the videos working.. they just go black, sometimes i get the first frame.. Images and such works nice though.. but for video i just use my PC, or MPlayer or something similar.

 

[thewiiman]

How is the quality of the videos on TVersity? Any lag?

I was looking at the website and it talks about needing to convert to show the media, is that true?

 

[djdynamite123]

quality on video through Opera browser ORB is pathetic, music is ok, video not good, use mplayerwii

 

[Sawman]

I don't like orb because I don't like streaming my Video and then worry about disconnecting from it and plus you get about 75% quality of the video.

Thanks to Wii MPlayer I can played my Movies/Anime directly from the Wii and Direct is the best way to go when playing Videos

 

[20clarky08]

quality can ofcourse be a issue and TVersity converts your media to FLV on the fly.

i mean if your looking for 1080 or suttin lol then obviously go for direct, to be honest my main 52" screen is hooked up to my PC so i jus play back my media direct from my system, but for wireless, ease of use and convience, TVersity is alot better than Orb, i've even streamed to my iPhone and PSP with it in the past with no issues..

but ofcourse personal choice is the main thing here.

 

[Nuke85]

Eh..I'll just stick with my mplayerwii

 

[djtaz]

I tried them both before - was impressed with the concept but the quality means its really only a proof of concept for now - if someone can improve the quality im sure it would be a great idea.

 

[Slimmmmmm]

I tried them both before - was impressed with the concept but the quality means its really only a proof of concept for now - if someone can improve the quality im sure it would be a great idea.

Agree 100%... concept is great, but quality and loading is a PITA next to mplayer etc.

It is a good alternative for people that have no SD card, and some other rare situations.

 

[telefunkin]

has anyone tried X-ooM media center?

 

[djdynamite123]

has anyone tried X-ooM media center?

yeah i have....pants
anything using Opera browser is shit

 

[IronMask]

Nevermind.

 

[LightyKD]

I dunno about the quality issues but I don't have any gripes. All of my episodes of Enterprise are DVD rips and they look almost perfect when I watch then through Orb. There's a bit of artifacting because of streaming but it can barely be seen.

 

[LightyKD]

OK I'm back. I figured it was time for another proof of concept...test. I just set up one of my Hard Drives for Orb usage and could use some "helpers". I just want random people to log on using the following account and just have fun. Watch a movie, listen to some music. Just tell me how your experience was. Hopefully if all goes well, I can turn this into something bigger and have a whole PC dedicated to media sharing. I'm not going to have this HDD up for long and probably switch my drive sometime tomorrow after work so I can get back to my other projects but I really want to know what you people think. Also...I'm still setting up folders -n- stuff so don't be freaked out if you see something change while file browsing

YOU MUST USE YOUR WII OPERA BROWSER!!!

To log in, go to http://mycast.orb.com

login: wiimovies
Password: nintendo