Today in TechCES: Orb Networks’ new slogan, “Have Blu-ray, will stream”
Got a Net-connected Blu-ray player or a PlayStation 3? Want to stream videos from YouTube, Hulu, or Comedy Central to your HDTV? Starting next month, all you'll need is a $20 Blu-ray disc and Orb Networks' free streaming software.
Orb announced this week that it will begin shipping its Blu-ray disc—yes, just a disc, not a custom Blu-ray or anything—in late February.
Once you've coughed up $20 for the disc, just insert it into your Blu-ray player and hit play. Instead of seeing a video, you'll be firing up an app running on BD Live, the Net-enabled platform that most recent Blu-ray players (as well as the PlayStation 3) support.
The app will allow you to stream videos from a variety of sources—including Hulu (yep, Hulu), Netflix, ESPN3, Comedy Central, you name it—to your HDTV, so long as you have the free Orb Caster client up and running on a PC or Mac connected to your home network.
I got a brief demo Friday afternoon of Orb's upcoming video-streaming Blu-ray disc on a PS3, and it works pretty much as advertised, with Orb co-founder and CEO Joe Costello controlling the feed using Orb's iPad remote app. (Versions are also available for other iOS and Android devices.)
It was hard to judge video quality due to the crush of Wi-Fi signals in and around the CES convention hall (even the nearby Las Vegas Hilton, where I saw Friday's demo, was seriously Wi-Fi-challenged). But Costello promised that HD video streaming is possible over the Orb software, provided you've got enough bandwidth on your local network.
OK, but how does Orb manage to stream video feeds from the likes of Hulu and Comedy Central without getting blocked? Well, the secret is the Orb Caster software I mentioned a bit earlier, which runs concurrently on your desktop and essentially fools sites like Hulu into thinking that you're watching over a standard Web browser.
Having to fire up the Orb desktop software while watching videos in the living room is a bit of a pain, but Costello enthusiastically noted that he and his team are developing a workaround, hopefully by the end of the year. (Nope, Costello wouldn't reveal any details.)
— Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.
