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Inside the Tech of the Roku Netflix Player

Posted by kdawson on from the no-disks-please-we're-videophiles dept.

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."

4 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. The sad truth... by neokushan · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

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  2. Re:Of course the system runs an embedded Linux OS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    TFA states they use a custom built Linux but that doesn't mean they've altered any source code. Custom built can mean they've changed a few config files or rolled their own "distro" (for lack of a better term).

    That's nice, but the GPL says if YOU distribute binaries then YOU have to offer source to the recipients. Saying "you can get it the same place we did" doesn't satisfy the requirements.
  3. Re:interesting for firefox & linux users by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Informative

    Umm. IETab doesn't "fool" anybody. It just embeds an actual IE rendered page into a FF tab as a matter of convenience. Other than the UI convenience, there is no difference between IETab and IE. IETab is about as useless on Linux or Mac as a Vista DVD with "Fedora" written on it in white-out.

  4. Re:Of course the system runs an embedded Linux OS by MojoStan · · Score: 5, Informative

    Subject: Of course the system runs an embedded Linux OS

    So the obvious question is, where do I get the source code?

    Matt Lee of the Free Software Foundation asked essentially the same question on the day Roku's Netflix Player was launched (May 20). One Roku guy answered (on May 20): "Our GPL Source has not been posted yet, but it will be in the next small number of days." Another Roku guy answered: "We will post the source code just as soon as humanly possible. As you can imagine things are pretty busy around here..." (Don't read the whole forum thread. Your brain will shrink.)

    AFAIK, the source code hasn't been posted yet. When it does get posted, "Netflix Player" will probably get its own tab here.

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