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Re-activateStreaming Web videos to your big-screen TV has been made a bit easier by the likes of set-top boxes such as Boxee, Roku, and the recently revamped Apple TV. Joining these boxes is another called Orb TV.
Like other streaming media devices, the $99 Orb TV uses your wireless home broadband network connection to help bring digital online content to your HDTV. But unlike AppleTV and other set-top boxes, the hockey puck-shaped device takes bridging the gap between the Web and your TV a few steps further.
First, since Orb TV works wirelessly with your laptop or other home computer, practically anything you can stream on your PC—Netflix, Hulu, YouTube videos and even your own digital media files—can be streamed to your TV.
Secondly, Orb Caster and Orb Controller (software for your PC and smart phone, respectively) allow users to manage and direct content as needed. From the Orb Controller on your iPhone, you can tell Orb Caster on your PC to send a Netflix movie to the Orb TV puck on your living room TV, while your spouse simultaneously uses her Droid smart phone to direct the same PC to stream the latest episode of "30 Rock" from Hulu to the Orb TV-equipped TV in the bedroom.
But according to others, Orb TV does seems to have some shortcomings. For one, the home computer running the Orb Caster software has to be left powered on the entire time the household is using the Orb TV setup. But the biggest drawback: Orb TV doesn't yet display anything in high-definition video quality.
Orb TV is the $99 video streamer that will do Netflix and Hulu, but not HD [Engadget]
—Paul Eng
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