Slingbox vs. Orb - Why one or the other

Michael Gartenberg | June 30, 2005, 08:02 PM

While I'm waiting for mine to get here, I've been reading some of the slingbox reviews in the Journal and PC Mag. So far, it seems pretty positive although both talk about potential router issues. (my guess is that they're using UPnP and if your router doesn't support it, you'll have to manually open the ports to the outside, not for the novice user at all). Orb by contrast doesn't require you to do anything to your router, it just works which is much more user friendly.

So why consider a slingbox (as many of you emailed me today)? Well, for one if you're interested in live mobile video and don't have a Media Center PC or a PC with a TV tuner in it and you want to watch TV on your Windows PC. Compared to a location free TV from sonny or the TV2ME service, it's a much better bet.

If you do have one or are interested in your music, pictures and other video content from your Windows XP PC, Orb is a better choice (It's not clear to me if the Slingbox will support an MCE remotely. When I spoke with their CEO he assured me it would but I don't know if it made it into the final release yet.) Orb also support a lot more mobile platforms at the moment so if you're on the road with a Windows Smartphone, PocketPC, Macintosh or any device with a web browser and either Windows Media or REAL, you can connect.

Either way, both these services take the concept of place shifting and make it real for the first time. Toto, we're not in the 21st century anymore.