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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).

14 of 216 comments (clear)

  1. yeah right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    "MUSEUM QUALITY ART"!??!

    Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

    We all know this is going to used exclusively for porn; you aren't fooling anyone.

  2. Why no DVI output? by ethank · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't understand why they would create a system to showcase HDTV sets and not include DVI output on the system? Most, if not all newer HDTV sets include DVI inputs in order to facilitate pixel-perfect representation on the screen.

    I would buy one of these (once I buy my nice little 42" LCD rear-proj from Sony :) ) but with no DVI output I think my other plan of putting my G4 out in the living room seems like a better plan.

    1. 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. 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.

  4. Now all we need.. by Channard · · Score: 5, Interesting

    .. is for some bright spark to add a recorder function/add-on-box to this that will negate the bit that sets HD programs as non recordable.

  5. Xbox? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A modded Xbox can do the same thing (play mpeg2, divx etc.) off dvd-r or streamed off the network with HDTV output up to 1920p. See www.xboxmediacenter.com and www.xbins.org/xbmp.php.

    1. Re:Xbox? by GrassMunk · · Score: 4, Insightful

      key word being *modded* which is grey area at best. This system is legit and requires no modding. Yes i love my XBMP but i would have rather had a system that was just easy and didnt take up more room than my receiver.( the xbox is HUGE ).

  6. Cool another slashdot purchase...... by MegaHamsterX · · Score: 5, Funny

    Where is the slashdot credit card with karma points for every purchase.

    I paid cash for the following, but don't think I wouldn't have used the slashdot card so I could troll more often.

    First it was the netpliance

    Then the apex dvd player that plays mp3s

    then the tivo and tivonet

    now it's a box to display hdtv stuff without a computer

    cool, but I think this has more in common with the netpliance than with the other three which are still used.

    For its price I would expect more, like something to read straight from a dvd, harddrive or something, no wait that would be useful.

  7. XBox by unixbob · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sounds like a modded XBox. XBox media player uses a port of Mplayer to allow the system to play Mpeg's (1 & 2), AVI, DIVX, MP3 as well as browse JPEG's etc. Only thing it can't do is record. It's got quite an active homebrew dev community

    --
    The Romans didn't find algebra very challenging, because X was always 10
  8. I'm confused by arvindn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Something doesn't add up. If linux costs $699, then how can they sell the whole thing for $499?!

  9. Who cares? It's still digital by Namarrgon · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Optical, coaxial - whatever, it's all digital, boys & girls. The ones and zeroes - and therefore the sound quality - is the same.

    The advantage of optical cable is it's immune to RF noise, but you'd have to live in an unusually noisy environment for it to be bad enough to corrupt a relatively low-speed signal like that. I used to run ordinary S/PDIF over 20m of cheap-ass audio cable (computer to receiver's DACs), and couldn't pick the difference between a CD played on the computer to one played on the local CD-player.

    I have a friend with an overpriced stereo system that actually uses fully balanced AES cables to run the digital signal from his CD transport to the DACs, but even he admits that's pure overkill.

    I'd be more concerned about the picture quality loss from using analog component cables - a DVI connector would solve that, as someone else has pointed out.

    --
    Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
  10. "Media" Player? by Dunark · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This thing doesn't have a CD or DVD drive. The last time I checked, Blockbuster wasn't renting movies on memory cards.

    Where exactly is the user supposed to get "media" they can play on this device?

  11. OpenSource beats them to the punch by pridkett · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hmm...that's funny, I could have sworn that MythTV has had this for a while. It's pretty easy, pick up a pcHDTV card for $200 and make sure you've got some significant hard disk space and you should be ready to go.

    Reminds me of Microsoft bragging about their future "Implicit Query" technology when dashboard already has it.

    --
    My Slashdot account is old enough to drink...
  12. 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.