Is Video Better Locally Stored or Served From The Cloud?
With Orb running up to 5 million users, I wanted to give you an idea of why so many are starting to realize the value in media being served from the cloud, such as Orb does, versus locally stored data. I’ve been an Orb, er, member for a long time, but never quite got it to work. The problem was I was attempting to use AT&T’s EDGE network, which simply isn’t suitable for streaming video content. However, when I got my Nokia N95-3, which supports AT&T’s 3G HSDPA network, I decided to give it another go, and I’m completely floored.
The problem, currently, with locally stored video content, is the need for conversion. An .AVI movie file of say, The Princess Bride, is 713MB. Even if my mobile device was able to play that natively, that’s quite a bit of memory to suck up. So, to play it on my N95, for instance, I would need to convert it using something like Smartmovie or Divx Converter, which shrinks it down to a more manageable 70-80MB, without losing video quality. The problem is that now I have 2 copies of my movie – one for the PC and one for my mobile. I can’t really only convert what I want, when I want it, because that takes time.
This is where services such as Orb really start to shine. I have all of Season 3 of The Office (the U.S. one, sorry Brits). I want the convenience of being able to watch The Office on either my PC, N810 Internet Tablet, or N95, on demand, at any given moment. Even if I’m at home, Orb makes that simple and efficient by converting on the fly.
In fact, I often use Orb to stream video to my N810 while I’m cooking in the kitchen. I have full access to my entire video library, without having to convert anything, or worry about having enough space on my memory card.
The limitations, however, are obviously the internet connection requirement. If I’m disconnected, so is my media. However, as airlines are starting to add WiFi access to their features list, how much longer will there be completely disconnected places?
Are you finding it better to locally store video content on your device, after having converted it, or do you think that soon enough it will all be served from the cloud?
