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A Hackable Media Player For HDTV

Posted by timothy on from the lacks-tuner-and-hard-drive dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Embedded Linux and an open, hacker-friendly architecture power the world's first high definition media player, the $499 Roku HD1000. The brainchild of ReplayTV inventor Anthony Wood, the device could touch off a cottage industry of third-party applications and media packs that work with its Linux-based OS and user-friendly media APIs. Out of the box, the HD1000 can stream MPEG and MPEG2, play music, loop JPEGs, and more to an HDTV -- all at the same time. Roku is selling "Art Packs" of everything from museum-quality art to hot-rod cars as memory cards that work with the device. And, the company will release a C/C++ SDK for the HD1000 before 2004. Finally, there's something to actually show on your $5,000 54-inch plasma TV or 37-inch LCD TV." (Roku is also one of the companies mentioned in an earlier posting about using hi-def displays as digital art galleries).

3 of 216 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Storage capacity? by Y2K+is+bogus · · Score: 5, Informative

    Broadcast HDTV is allocated 19.2Mbps for 1080i (1920 x 1080 x 60Hz interlaced)
    The speeds go up in 40Mbps, 200Mbps, and 1.5Gbps quality steps depending on the
    edit level (contributor, studio, and raw).

    To store broadcast 1080i, you'd need 19.2Mbps. DVD is around 9Mbps.
    19.2Mbps * 60s = 1152Gbpm or 140MB/min or around 8.2GB per hour.

  2. Re:Why no DVI output? by Babbster · · Score: 5, Informative
    The most obvious explanation is maximum compatibility using the least space and hardware. Looking at the picture of the back panel, it's pretty crowded and a solid 99% of HDTV sets with DVI (typically only one) in also have component in (typically two or more). There is also the fact that the DVI standard on HDTV sets is designed to accommodate HDCP (the evil anti-copying flags), so a consumer is most likely to use their DVI input for their HDTV set-top box/tuner while using the component inputs for other devices (particularly consoles and devices like the one in this article).

    Finally, you should be aware that the DVI inputs on HDTV sets will not necessarily accept PC/Mac DVI signals, so keep this in mind (and try before buying) if you're looking for an HDTV to interface with your G4.

  3. From the horses mouth. by pellis23 · · Score: 5, Informative

    We didn't choose to add DVI because of the additional cost and complexity. We felt that customers would overall be well served with component and and vga. Of course, DVI is being considered for future products.

    -Patrick
    -Sr. Software Engineer, Roku.