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Inside the Tech of the Roku Netflix Player
MojoKid writes "A little over a week ago Netflix unveiled the Netflix Player, developed by the team at Roku, a set-top box for watching on-demand movies and TV. This interview with Tim Twerdahl, the VP of Consumer Products for Roku, goes into some detail about the guts of the box and the future of the set-top box. Of course the system runs an embedded Linux OS, but interestingly also runs on a Nexperia (Philips) media processor."
I think you mean don't forget to pay Novell the fee.
Wow, that was one of the most in-depth interviews I've ever read. They go really into the details of what makes it run and how the system works. Well worth the read!
This guy's the limit!
Does this mean that Netflix is going to start offering adult videos now?
I mean, it is only logical. I'll be one of the first to see 2 Girls 1 Cup in HD!
My only complaint is that I don't want tons of different boxes. That is part of the reason I stayed away from Tivo and waited for my cable provider to offer DVR in my cable box. I already have on demand movies and TV through my cable box.
I'm not sure why I should purchase a second box to add functionality I already have, despite the fact that this box would presumably offer a much larger library of content.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Roku: Third, we've heard feedback from home theater purists who said that they don't want to hear fan noise.
HotHardware: Is that right?
Tim: Yep. Quite a few people don't want to hear the hum of a fan in the background while watching TV.
can it run MythTV or playback my video collection?
That little array of closely packed output options has this box screaming for a hack.
So the obvious question is, where do I get the source code?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
It's not exactly what you'd call "inside" the tech of the box, here's all you learn:
*It uses a custom-built linux (of which no details are given)
*It has flash memory inside it
*It has an NXP processor
The summary actually contains more technical details about the box than the article itself, purely because it mentions that the NXP is made by Philips.
I know it's Sunday and all, but come on, try harder.
+1 IDisagreeSoHeMustBeATrollOrAnAstroturferOrAShill
jdb2
jdb2
I have searched for an up to date listing of available downloads for this box, and what I have found (http://netflixwatchnow.blogspot.com/) is woefully out of date and not that impressive. I would love a service that does this, but it doesn't seem quite ready for prime time to me...
I'm tempted by one of these, being a Netflix subscriber who doesn't use the streaming service at all (I use Linux and Mac OS X). Since this thing runs Linux, I suspect that Netflix is offering their videos in a different form than the normal desktop version, perhaps even without DRM. It's my understanding that the reason there is no Mac client is because the MS-designed codec/DRM is not available for OS X.
It's also tempting to get one of these for these for what the future might bring. Netflix could up their quality and this device is supposed to theoretically do up to 720p. It doesn't seem unreasonable for them to implement streaming from local sources (especially things like music). Still, I don't want to buy a device and end up disappointed when they don't do anything with the feature set. I've been burned by that before, with an iriver mp3 player a few years back that was supposed to add ID3 database capability to a firmware update. It never came.
The one thing you probably can be guaranteed of is more movies from Netflix. It'd be interesting to know which movies/shows they've tried but have been unable to get the digital rights for. The rate of growth of the movie database will have to slow at some point; let's hope it's not anytime soon.
Before I get this, I need to hook up a Windows computer to my internet connection and see whether I get the "best" video quality from my DSL. The complaints I've seen about Netflix video quality are often due to people not being able to sustain the highest quality download. Since we already seem to be right around the max of DSL/cable modem speeds to get in the realm of DVD 480p quality, any HD movies will likely need some serious caching capability or really nasty compression. I'd rather have low-compression 480p than high-compression 720p, but that's because I don't have an HDTV.
It's too bad the cable and phone companies are competing in the streaming movie segment; it'd be nice to have Netflix mirrors sitting at my ISP, but that doesn't seem too likely. It's also unfortunate that without some sort of net neutrality agreement, my ISP could make Netflix streaming all but useless quite easily.
Still, for $99, it shouldn't be too hard to get your money's worth. They certainly priced it right.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
I'd rather see real competition in network service than some kind of BS regulation for monopoly service. It's fine to require neutrality out of companies that use public servitude lines but it's not OK to limit access to that servitude. A better solution will be open spectrum.
The details of the box are going to be what you expect. A tivo like mix of free and non free code that GPL 3 is designed to bust. I want one of these things like I want a tivo or a paperweight.
Netflix's current streaming video service (on the watch instantly tab) is basically useless to a lot of people because it only works under IE, thereby meaning windows only.
The advent of this technology holds out hope that someday Netflix might also actually support the rest of us customers who would like to watch streaming stuff but aren't using IE and/or Windows.
Netflix provides big publisher movies. They have an exclusive contract to back up a good business model and that's why they have thrived.
They can not possibly hope to compete in the porn market. The porn market is free due to it's mainstream exclusion. It is as close to Adam Smith's capitalist fuck fest that you can hope to find. There are many providers and vendors. If you want porn, you can buy any kind you want right now. Vendors and makers are not likely to sign any kind of exclusive deals with Netflix because they can do better on their own and both will be undercut by independent dealers.
Given the close relationship between Jimmy Swaggart and other moral majority types and porn, you have to wonder about the motivations of the current administration's fight against porn. Are they fighting porn out because they despise human degradation, hate sex or want to help out TW and other big publishers? The constant errsion of rights and approval of torture rules out any humanitarian opposition. The use of words like "penis" on air rules out puritanical motivation, other than callous political means to the end. What we are left with is a favor to MPAA.
I am a name troll of Westlake. Visit my homepage to learn why.
More lawsuits! We don't need a good reason, we don't even need evidence, but we can definitely expect lawsuits. /ban *.lawyer (reason: facilitating embarrassing activity)
One Box To Rule Them All,
One Box To Find Them,
One Box To Bring Them All And In The Darkness Bind Them!
Thats probably right...Mojo_KID_ . You must be a wannabe computer nerd kid if you think the amount of information give in the article is _detailed_. Sheesh.
-AC
Can we hack it? I want a good MythTV front end that can display full HDTV (1080p).
ATM my Via 1.3Ghz box can only support SD via hardware decoding & the cpu is too slow for software decoding MPEG2.
Anybody got anymore details?
-AC
Are you new here? You don't just get modded down for being wrong, you get modded down if someone else doesn't like what you say, particularly if it's true.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Well, call it a hunch, but we're talking about Linux on a "new" CPU and on custom hardware, including no hard drive, flash memory, and special data in and video out circuitry. I suspect there may be a few changes to "standard" Linux. And just as Linksys had to do when they built routers that used GPL code, this project should be required to release the sources. And users shouldn't have to speculate if anything was changed or what was, it should be available as source. They may not want to do that, but it's the price that they agreed to when they chose to build on GPL code rather than go the much more complex route of completely building their own from scratch.
This little Linux box with it's special video hardware could be a very slick platform to build upon. I certainly hope that, if they don't release the sources on their own (and I rather expect that they just might not play nice), they should be made to do so.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
After seeing this article, I hit Netflix to see if they changed it to allow something other than Windows boxes to stream movies and still get the same stupid page:
Instant Watching System Compatibility
Watching instantly on your computer
Sorry, your computer's operating system is not compatible with watching instantly.
You can watch instantly using your Netflix account from any computer meeting the system requirements given below. And, your computer is fully compatible with adding titles to the Instant Queue for later watching on compatible devices.
Complete System Requirements
To watch instantly on your computer, you'll need a PC meeting the following minimum requirements:
* Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or higher, or Windows Vista
* Internet Explorer version 6 or higher
* Windows Media Player version 11 (DRM version 5145) or later
* An active broadband connection to the Internet
* 1.0 GHz processor
* 512 MB RAM
* 3 GB free hard disk drive space
For the best experience, we recommend:
* An active broadband Internet connection of at least 1.5 Mbps
* 1.5 GHz processor
* 1 GB RAM
So they made a Linux-based player but won't let folks with Linux boxes stream. I would like to know just how I can modify my Linux to achieve such a service. They had best get to posting that source!
I don't usually buy something when it first appears but in this case I made an exception. I ordered my ROKU on the day it became available and I received it yesterday (Saturday).
My first impression was positive. The unit is much smaller than I was expecting it to be and it can connect to just about anything. The one shortcoming I found is that the unit ships with only minimal cabling. There was no ethernet cable, s-video cable, or hdmi cable included. The only cable provided (besides the power supply) is a 3-pair RCA composite video/analog stereo sound cable. The unit can use WiFi or hard-wired ethernet and I prefer to use hard-wired when possible. Fortunately I had a cable handy and it took me less than 5 minutes to get the hardware set up.
The unit defaults to DHCP so it had no trouble configuring itself to work on my network. The first thing the unit did was to download a software update and restart. I've got a 15 megabit symetrical fiber connection for my Internet service so this went pretty fast. The picture quality is surpurb and the sound is excellent. The unit takes about 3 seconds to buffer content before it will play and it displays a progress meter while buffering. The user interface is simple and easy to navigate. My only complaint at this point is that you cannot browse all the available content from the TV. With one exception, you must log into your Netflix account via the web and add "watch now" selections to your queue. I'm going to complain about this and I fully expect a future software update to address this shortcoming. The exception mentioned above relates to content with multiple episodes. The unit will allow you to browse and view additional episodes (if any) of the shows in your queue.
All in all this is a cool gadget and definately worth the one hundred dollar price.
--
This space for rent
I live in a mountainous rural area with telco supplied DSL. My family has enjoyed Netflix since its inception. For $100, we decided to check out this box and are delighted. Since we don't use IE, the netflix instant queue didn't work for us, and viewing on the computer just doesn't have the ambience of the family room. The UI and remote are textbook examples of good engineering - it's similar to a DVD controller, but much simpler, and allows a technophobe to enjoy the system without reading a manual. The install was simple and flawless - well within the reach of a civilian consumer. It didn't require a phone call to customer support. The image quality is as good as broadcast TV and the content is much richer. The Out-of-box experience is better than a wireless phone. Oh yeah, and the lack of a fan makes me think that they designed it for video purists like me.
Just the washing instructions on life's rich tapestry
That's funny because my AppleTV is silent. Certainly there's no fan noise so I don't buy that explaination. When you're watching TV or something off of the device you can't hear it because of the TV sound. Even when everything is off it's silent unless you put your head up to it and then you can hear the hard drive a little bit.
How is that? It's Microsoft's DRM. If they really wanted it available on OS X they could port it over.
One review I read said that it was currently just 480i. This seems surprising, if true, since a good DVD player will output 480p, and the bandwidth, for film at least, should not be any higher, since all that is required is to correctly re-interlace the 480i frames. Roku says that the unit can do HD, but it was unclear as to whether that means "HD as soon as Netflix gets around to adding HD content," or "HD maybe someday if typical ISP bandwidth increases." I was disappointed the article did not say how much storage is in the unit, as this would give us a clue as to the bandwidth demands for HD.
Another reservation I have is the lack of DVD special features, although this is less an issue for TV series. I'd also like to have widescreen for shows that are available in this format.
I'm not sure why I should purchase a second box to add functionality I already have, despite the fact that this box would presumably offer a much larger library of content.
Yeah, I'm not sure why I should purchase a car other than to get around. (the catalog depth is the whole point)
Whether you need the whole Voltron series to be available to you on-demand is a separate issue, but you can get that with Netflix.
Also, if the cable bills are anything like what I've seen in some towns, you can get a Netflix box for $9 a month and a satellite dish and spend about half without giving up the on-demand aspect.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)