Orb TV breaks onto the digital TV scene

How it works and why the CEO says it can't be shut down by TV networks

Bummed because you can’t actually watch anything on Google TV now that all of the major networks have pulled out?  Answer: Orb TV.  Or, at least, it’s an answer for now, until Google gets its act together.

The simple $100 plug-in, which resembles a hockey puck, streams content from Hulu and was purposely designed to be as easy for the non-tech-savvy as possible.  The set-up process is fairly painless.  First, you download the Orb Caster software onto your computer (the software can be used on a Mac or a PC), which will connect to your Orb via your Wi-Fi connection.  Then you plug your hockey puck into your TV using standard cables that you would use for any TV set-top box.  And then you finish the process off by downloading a free app on your iPhone or Android device (currently, Orb TV only supports iOS and Android), which then turns your phone into a remote control.

It’s this simplicity that Orb CEO Joe Costello believes will set Orb TV apart from other players in the crowded Web/TV space.  “We’ve created a great user experience with the smartphone and we think this really separates Orb TV from the others in the space like Roku and Google TV,” Costello told the New York Times. “This is key for simplicity as most devices in the living room are in an awkward phase right now — almost like an awkward teenage phase — but we’re finally figuring it out.”

Additionally, unlike other competitors, Orb will feature content from Hulu, along with video from YouTube, Netflix, Comedy Central, and ESPN3.  The increasingly nebulous Google TV lineup may include Hulu’s premium subscription service, Hulu Plus (which recently launched, cutting its price from $10 a month to $8 a month), Viacom, Lifetime, and the CW.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Joe Costello explained why Orb will not fall victim to the same fate as Google TV, Boxee, and all the other digital TV platforms that have struggled to get off the ground.

“They can’t shut us down,” said Costello of TV networks. “This goes into our underlying technology that we’ve developed for the last six years. You need one computer on a network with a Web browser and our software and a wireless connection. As long as there is a computer there, you can’t stop it from receiving the Internet.  The problem with Boxee and Google TV is those specialized boxes are trying to receive directly so they can be shut down. They don’t have normal Web browsers so it enables (content providers) to shut down those devices.”

Image source: New York Times