Streaming live TV to the iPhone

It is so geeky cool to watch live TV on the iPhone. Of course, that's just me - I'm sure many will find the concept sad. Maybe even pathetic.

In July 2008 I blogged about the Slingbox - a device which allows streaming live TV via local LAN or through the internet. The Slingbox worked great but was enventually tossed when I switched hardware around and dumped my last cable set-top box. I did miss the ability to watch TV from my Palm TX but not-so-much until baseball season arrived again.* I needed not only an alternative to the Slingbox but I had also sold the Palm TX on eBay after getting an iPhone.

I'm now using Orb to stream live TV to my iPhone. The Orb iPhone app, OrbLive, will automatically use Wi-Fi when the iPhone and the desktop computer are on the same LAN and switch to 3G/Edge when I'm away from home. I don't plan to use the app away from home much because that would require the desktop to be running all the time while I'm away, but the option is there if, for example, I wanted to view local newscasts while out of town (and if I remembered to leave the desktop running).

Unlike the self-contained hardward/firmware of a Slingbox, the use of Orb requires a TV tuner attached to the deskstop for streaming live TV. The desktop Orb account and software are free but the iPhone app is $10. In addition to live TV, Orb allows the streaming of recorded videos, music and photos from the desktop computer and even allows one to record TV shows via the Orb web-based DVR feature for mobile timeshifting.

All the Orb features are also available on the iTouch so long as one stays in Wi-Fi range. And there is speculation that the video streaming will be tuned to the larger screen of the iPad in the near future but currently iPad users complain about video quality when viewed full screen on that device.

*The reason I'm willing to watch tiny baseball remains as was explained in the original Slingbox post. I seldom watch a whole game this way but catch an inning here and there.