How to Use Orb Streaming Media and the PlayBook

It is possible to view  home media on the BlackBerry PlayBook anywhere you go, either sitting at home, waiting for a bus, or on your lunch break with Orb.

Anything on a PC’s hard drive can be accessed on the PlayBook, be it a recorded tv show, movie, picture or movie.    Unlike other tablets, the PlayBook is able to play this media through the web browser, and best of all, it’s free.

This is what is going to be needed to get started:

Mac system requirements:

 OSX 10.5.1 or later

 2.56 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo or faster

 200 MB of available disk space

 1 GB of RAM

 

Windows system requirements

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3

 2.56 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo or faster

200 MB of available disk space and 1 GB of RAM (I suggest a minimum of 3 GB of RAM)

 

Network

Either a wired or wireless 802.11n network with broadband internet connection is required for your Blu Ray player.

Download the Orb Caster to your PC or Mac Here

And of course One BlackBerry PlayBook

Orb Control Panel on Computer

Going through the process of setting up the Orb Caster on a computer is not going to be listed here, but the Orb Caster download instructions are here, and will take less than 20 minutes.  The Orb Caster has a very friendly control panel, but the steps that you are really going to want to pay attention to are the Enable Orb Remote Access for Orb.   Follow the instructions for setting up remote use of Orb, and click the other tablets or mobile devices button.  When this is done, the ability to stream to the PlayBook and other PC’s is enabled.

On the BlackBerry PlayBook, download the free Orb Launcher here.

The Orb Launcher app is a shortcut to the Orb Home screen to launch the Orb website for streaming to ythe PlayBook, nothing more impressive than that.  Downloading the free launcher isn’t neccessary, as access to the Orb account is through the main browser.  The difference is though, the app while running will keep the backlight on, so the screen doesn’t fade out while listening to music or watching video.

When logging into the Orb account on the PlayBook, the first screen that will come up will be all the media that has been  allowed to be accessed from the Orb Control Panel (Orb Caster):

Orb Main Screen

This is because Orb recognizes the PlayBook as a mobile device, while functional, the mobile screen is not very attractive or easy to navigate.  The settings are at the very bottom of this main screen, and layout is one of the first things that may be changed.

Orb Settings – Layout

Changing from Mobile Interface to Home Theatre Interface will give a main screen look such as this:

 

In order to stream cleanly, the speed and the stream must be changed as well.  In settings under speed, always select Use Speed Test and checked off High Speed Test.  During the beginning of a video stream, a little lag or pixelation will be noticed, but will clear up after a couple of minutes of play.  It was noticed that Orb has some problems cleaning up 1080p video, but had no problems with SD or 720p video.

Orb Speed Settings

The final step in settings is to goto Stream, and it MUST be changed to Flash.  This is the beauty of the PlayBook which keeps this whole process free and clear, is that unlike the paid apps on other tablets, is that flash is able to be used without the download of a very expensive app.

Orb Stream

If there are any questions, please feel free to ask or discuss in the forums or send me a tweet at  @Geof_Smith or @BBEmpireCanada on Twitter

Checkout Orb here
Download Orb Caster here
Download Orb Launcher for BlackBerry PlayBook Here
Orb Launcher QR Code
Free Orb Launcher QR Code