Blockbuster's Movie Download Box Runs Linux

DeviceGuru writes "In a better-late-than-never move, Blockbuster has introduced a video-on-demand (VOD) service accompanied by a 'free' set-top box (STB). Like TiVo, Roku's Netflix box, and many other modern Internet-enabled A/V gadgets, Blockbuster's new VOD STB runs Linux. But darn it; when will someone finally offer a reasonably-priced, open-platform STB that serves as an A/V gateway to multiple Internet-based services — one consumer-friendly, environmentally-designed, low-power gadget 'to rule them all,' if you will."

Comments

Boxee

[jmelloy]

Using Boxee on my AppleTV is like living in the future. Seamlessly plays my torrented files and streams hulu (with netflix Coming Real Soon).

It's fantastic.

Re:Boxee

[lupis42]

Is this Apple TV haxored in some way? I still really want an Apple TV that I can attach external drives to, using the USB port that it has, so that I can boot it off of said external drive, and make it run linux, than leave a dvd drive hooked up to it.
Why can't anyone make and sell this kind of nice hardware and let me run whatever the hell I want on it?

Re:Boxee

[Anonymous Coward]

It is open source. They provide the source on the download page. It's based on XBMC which is GPL'd.

Re:Boxee

[jmelloy]

It's haxored. http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/ unlocks the rigorous protections (user: frontrow password: frontrow) and enables SSH. It also installs Boxee.

With SSH it's fairly straightforward to enable USB mass storage, and I currently have an external drive hooked up to the USB port. Making it run Linux is probably easiest by taking it apart and installing off your computer onto the hard drive.

Re:Boxee

[Strep]

Is this not violation of dmca

Re:Boxee

[dubbreak]

Hmm, but it looks like you need to login to view the download page...

The forumns are open for anonymous viewing though. Looks like an interesting project.

Re:Boxee

[houstonbofh]

Is this not violation of dmca

Simply watching a movie might be... You need to ask a lawyer to know for sure.

Re:Boxee

[nabsltd]

Does the hack allow the Apple TV to play HD content?

I know the stock system cannot, but I haven't seen if that is a software or hardware limitation.

Re:Boxee

[clare-ents]

They definitely run linux, and you can install from a USB stick. We know, we've lots and lots of them running as dedicated servers.

http://www.mythic-beasts.com/appletvdedicated.html

Re:Boxee

[bh_doc]

That implies the lawyer knows for sure...

Re:Boxee

[actionbastard]

I'm tellin' Steve!

Re:Boxee

[Anonymous Coward]

atvusb-creator makes the process dead simple. Your mom could do it, it's that easy. Haven't had the time to mess with the ATV innards via SSH, but it appears that ATV is running a variant of MacOS/BSD, so I assume a haxor could make it jump though hoops with the proper motivation.

XBMC and Boxee, both installed with the USB stick, are great programs. Boxee is still in Alpha, so it's a tad unstable (at least on my ATV). It still shows lots of promise and lets the ATV reach its full potential.

Beware that Apple's ATV updates break Boxee, so update with the Apple releases with caution until the devs give the all clear.

Re:Boxee

[synthesizerpatel]

boxee is just repackaged xbmc which has been rocking for many, many years before boxee came along.

xbmc is available for OSX, Linux, Windows, AppleTV and if you still have one thats chipped, original XBOX.

Installing boxee/xbmc on appletv is as simple as building a bootable USB device, and booting off of it -- you don't even need to open the box (or void your warranty..)

Re:Boxee

[X0563511]

1. Yes.
2. Why should I care?

Re:Boxee

[Ihmhi]

2. Stupid federal laws and movie cartels with more than enough money to enforce them?

Re:Boxee

[gnomeza]

1. The hack doesn't improve HD content support.
2. It's a bit of both.

There's the issue of container formats - the Perian plugin doesn't decode Matroska efficiently enough to play 720p. The built-in Quicktime player obviously doesn't support Matroska at all.

The ATV *can* do 720p (in an mp4 container), but not if it's high-profile h.264. That's a hardware limitation.

Of course, since the majority of 720p content on the net seems to be high-profile in Matroska, the ATV falls short.

But if you're willing to transcode (to a lower-profile and switch containers), you can get smooth 720p.

Re:Boxee

[Hurricane78]

Wrong. The media cartels fight so hard, because they have nearly no money left. :)
Wait some years, and they can't afford to enforce anything anymore and have no business left to get new money.

The more it hurts them, the harder they fight, but the quicker they go away too.
And downloading media does not hurt them a bit. Not buying anything from them does "hurt". (In reality it does not hurt too. It just does not make them feel good. :)

Re:Boxee

[Anonymous Coward]

I asked my lawyer, she told me to stop downloading porn. Moral: never date a lawyer

Re:Boxee

[Anonymous Coward]

does that mean we can pop round and turn them off using the apple TV remote control? :-)

Re:Boxee

[skroops]

You're excess bandwidth charge of 0.75 doesn't specify the unit, i.e. per kB or GB. I'd assume its per GB but shouldn't it be specified? Or is it implied?

Re:Boxee

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi..
        There are several options for the combo box to post...
--------------
Gomez
Link Building

Re:Boxee

[houstonbofh]

I asked my lawyer, she told me to stop downloading porn. Moral: never date a lawyer

At least find one that shares your taste in porn!

Re:Boxee

[JJMacey]

I am entertained enough playing Linux games with my Wingman. TV support comes from other places. Why watch so many movies? I guess there are too many lonely people out there...

Dying Concept

[nurb432]

Now that this stuff is practical, our friendly ISPs are throttling/capping our bandwidth.

Re:Dying Concept

[shawn(at)fsu]

That could be good. before the only people who used their bandwidth were "teh evil pirates", now if joe schmoe and his mother are going over their cap maybe they will see that they need to keep pace.

/yes I know wishful thinking.

Re:Dying Concept

[Anonymous Coward]

Where the hell have you been during the whole Net Neutrality debate? This has nothing to do with Net Neutrality, which is about keeping your ISP from charging the websites you visit, when both you and said websites have already paid for service.

Re:Dying Concept

[Gutboy]

And that is exactly why they are doing it. This competes with part of their business model (pay-per-view), and they don't like competition.

Re:Dying Concept

[Anonymous Coward]

Or maybe offering bandwidth costs money.

Re:Dying Concept

[MindlessAutomata]

They always did that. They always had to. Bandwidth is not infinite.

Now, however, they are just telling you what kind of caps they have instead of leaving you to guess. And the caps really aren't that bad; they're more geared to the hoarders and mega-uploaders which cause most of the problems. ...And yes, businesses should not be offering "unlimited" if it is not unlimited.

Re:Dying Concept

[Trahloc]

Or maybe offering bandwidth costs money.

Yup, but not nearly as much as the cable operators want you to think. Unfortunately they have local monopolies and with no need to compete. Well FIOS but I'm a good five years from getting that in my area.

Re:Dying Concept

[pembo13]

I don't think one should make any excuses for them. Unless otherwise _advertised_, customers should have access to x bps at all time.

Re:Dying Concept

[cheater512]

No, because their infrastructure is designed for web pages and email, not video.

Now that video is becoming mainstream they are 'managing' their networks to prevent overload.

What they arent doing is increasing capacity.

Re:Dying Concept

[lysergic.acid]

wow, brilliant deduction! because, up until now we were all expecting to receive internet access for free.

anyone who's looked at broadband costs/availability in different parts of the world knows that ISPs in certain countries have a charge-more-for-less attitude. part of this is due to their being unregulated natural monopolies, thus being able to do whatever they want. part of it is due to pro-business/anti-consumer attitudes that dominate our culture. but at least part of the blame rests on ignorant members of the public who buy the "pirates are stealing your internet speeds!!!!11" BS put out by greedy ISPs, who all the while continue to oversell far beyond their network capacity.

bandwidth isn't a limited natural resource. if public demand for internet bandwidth increases, you just increase the network capacity and make more money. if you want to increase your subscription base, you need to upgrade your network to match the increase traffic load. that's just common sense. but some ISPs seem to want to increase their number of subscribers without matching increases in network capacity. and now they're trying to shift blame for the poor service quality on "power users" for actually using the internet connections they paid for.

so rather than upgrading their networks to conform to changes in internet usage like Japanese, Korean and European ISPs are doing, U.S. ISPs are instead wasting money on traffic monitoring & packet analysis/shaping technology. in other words, rather than increasing network capacity to meet public internet usage, they're trying to manipulate public internet usage to conform to their insufficient network capacity & business model.

it's no wonder many communities are establishing their own municipal WiFi/WiMax networks rather than getting reamed by commercial ISPs for subpar service.

Re:Dying Concept

[Lyrael]

Bandwidth is not infinite, I agree. The problem here is that they aren't limiting *bandwidth*, they are limiting the amount of data you can transfer in a month. Now, whilst this is also not infinite in a technical sense, in practice it is, as there is no way you will be constantly downloading at your bandwidth cap all month long.

Basically, I have no problem with them limiting and throttling bandwidth at peak times when their hardware is actually limited and can't handle everyone's downloading at once. I *do* have a problem with arbitrary caps on data transfers. It costs them no more money whatsoever for you to continue downloading for that month after you hit the cap, so long as you do it off-peak.

Re:Dying Concept

[lysergic.acid]

their infrastructure is designed for binary data--1's and 0's. it doesn't matter whether those 1's and 0's are used to make text or multimedia.

it's not like we're all still using dial-up connections and are expecting to stream HD-video over them. the reason streaming video and other bandwidth-intensive applications have become so popular is because the technology and infrastructure has progressed to the point where these are now practical uses of internet access. aside from rare companies like the BBC, who are early adopters in order to be technological leaders in their industry, most commercial companies aren't going to develop an application that depends on technological infrastructure that isn't widely available yet.

there's a symbiotic relationship between technology/infrastructure and application/usage. it's cutting-edge applications that gain popular usage which drive technological progress and infrastructure upgrades. but at the same time, it's the widespread adoption of new technologies and infrastructure upgrades that stimulate the development of new applications, and change the way people use technology. the public can't make use of technology that isn't available to them.

the reason ISPs in the U.S. are struggling, and their service quality is so poor is because of two things: shortsightedness and greed. greed drove them to oversell their networks by way too much. their shortsightedness caused them to think this business model was sustainable. the Japanese have already begun efforts to make 100 Mbit residential connections a nationwide standard. they saw where technology was headed, and they've been gradually making headway over the years to upgrade their infrastructure to keep up with demand. there's no reason why U.S. ISPs couldn't have done the same. it's because they've gotten used to abusing their monopolies that their networks have become overloaded. and they still think that they should dictate how consumers use their internet access.

Re:Dying Concept

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Where the hell have you been during the whole Net Neutrality debate? This has nothing to do with Net Neutrality, which is about keeping your ISP from charging the websites you visit, when both you and said websites have already paid for service.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but caps are the back-door around network neutrality. You are capped for all of the internet, except the handful of 'partner' websites which don't count against your cap. We aren't there yet, but it is the next logical step. The ISP won't charge youtube anything for its customer's to download content - they will just threaten to cut them off until the next cycle starts which will cause the users to "self-censor" the places they go on the net. It's totally the users' decision, don't you see?

Re:Dying Concept

[Anonymous Coward]

Your syntax elitism seems to be running at full steam.

Re:Dying Concept

[Artifakt]

You know, once you get past 'Libertarianism as taught by Ayn Rand 101', you can stop shrinking complex issues into sound bites. The question here isn't just whether businesses should have a right to charge higher fees based on heavier use. It's also, "Should businesses have the right to charge more for some types of use that create the same load, than for others?", and "Should businesses take money from the government and then still demand a regulation free market?", and particularly, "Should businesses have a right to promise one thing and deliver another?".

Re:Dying Concept

[cdrguru]

The overselling is very understandable when to most users it matters not if their HTML email spam is downloaded from a 1Mb or 20Mb connection. And a 250GB per month cap is meaningless to the users that use only 1GB a month.

Now when you have 1% of the users actually using 20Mb and angry about the 250GB cap, can you understand why the cable company isn't very receptive? Of course, should this reach 5% their system will be unusable. But it has been impossible to justify massive expansion throughout the network when the user community is split like this.

Finally, the biggest problem for most ISPs in the US is still marketshare and penetration. In some affluent areas it is approaching 100%, but throughout most of the country it is far, far less than that. Maybe 10%. Should this change, they might actually be motivated to invest in the kind of massive rebuilding you would like to see. Until then, expect little to happen to benefit 1% of the customer base.

Re:Dying Concept

[ion.simon.c]

*nods*

When I can get 1TB/month from BlueHost for something around $30, you know that something's up. ;)

Re:Dying Concept

[MindlessAutomata]

Well, what, do you want a law passed over it?

Re:Dying Concept

[compro01]

Real competition or real regulation, pick. Also, it would seem incredibly likely that there will not be any real competition in the absence of some regulation to put an end to the regional monopolies that Comcast and the other cable COs frequently have.

Re:Dying Concept

[zmollusc]

So ISPs are guilty of 'shortsightedness and greed'? Is this an objective level of shortsightedness and greed or a comparative level of shortsightedness and greed when viewed against the shortsightedness and greed that has pretty much fscked over all areas of modern life?

Re:Dying Concept

[jonaskoelker]

And the caps really aren't that bad

$ units
you have: 250 gibibytes per month
you want: mebibit per second
0.77878308

"Really not that bad"? It's barely enough just for my porn feed! :(

Re:Dying Concept

[mpe]

Basically, I have no problem with them limiting and throttling bandwidth at peak times when their hardware is actually limited and can't handle everyone's downloading at once.

Often it appears that such throttling is applied depending on what time a clock says it is, rather than actually network capacity issues. If it was applied to network capacity issues it could be applied at any time, but would be unapplied as soon as there was no longer a problem.

*do* have a problem with arbitrary caps on data transfers. It costs them no more money whatsoever for you to continue downloading for that month after you hit the cap,

It actually costs them money to measure data transfer on a per customer basis. Especially if there is any additional complexity such that only some traffic is counted.

so long as you do it off-peak.

Unless the ISP is themselves being charged depending on the time of day the whole on/off "peak" idea isn't that meaningful in the first place.

Re:Dying Concept

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, once you get past 'Libertarianism as taught by Ayn Rand 101', you can stop shrinking complex issues into sound bites.

Point of fact, Ayn Rand vehemently opposed Libertarianism. I hope that doesn't bite into your sound bite. Also most corps will not "demand a regulation free market". More typcially, it is a selective like or dislike of particular regulations. They want rules favorable to themselves and unfavorable to the competition. Free markets are a concept sometimes, but increasingly rarerly, encountered in reality. Will this stop you from aping sound bites you don't understand? Perhaps not as the exchange of information here is relatively free.

Re:Dying Concept

[Anonymous Coward]

Most ISPs say "up to X mbit" in their deals.

Some though guarantee X mbit. Mine currently guarantees I will get 30 mbit downstream and 3mbit upstream. They wont accept more customers into their net than they can guarantee speed for.

Actually cheaper than some of the capped ones even.
But I am in Norway where few if any ISPs cap transfers.

Re:Dying Concept

[Anonymous Coward]

I live in Portugal, and i ALWAYS had caps, around 6 years ago i had an 128/128 kbps connection with 5 gigabytes cap (they done several upgrades since then), now currently with the same ISP at approximately the same price i have a 5mbits/512kbps connection, with 20 gigabytes cap and happy hour from 01:00 to 09:00 (i pay around 25â month).

Personally i prefer to have caps and a stable connection (which my ISP provides around 95% of the time) than "unlimited" traffic which is filtered (as many ispÂs around here do too).

Since iÂm a power user the happy hour is what saves me, i just set crontab to automatically start transmission everyday at 01:00, and i manually shut down the pc when i get up.

I have to rationalize my downloading needs during the regular hours, since iÂm charged 1,75â per each extra 100 megabytes.

It isnÂt perfect, and i hope in a few years to have a truly fast connection without caps, but until then i prefer an honest service that gives me exactly what i pay for.

Re:Dying Concept

[Jeremy Visser]

Cue the "grumble grumble Australia grumble grumble 2GB grumble grumble download quotas" messages.

Re:Dying Concept

[Yfrwlf]

Right, 100% in either direction is not the answer, it's whatever is best for the consumer that should be thought of. Look at the market and ask important questions like why isn't there more competition, why do most consumers only have two choices of broadband, is there anything we can do to make the playing field more level so that startups can get in there and compete too.

History has shown that too much regulation can be bad, and deregulation can lead to less competition and be bad too. In that case obviously neither of those are desirable.

Re:Dying Concept

[Anonymous Coward]

their infrastructure is designed for binary data--1's and 0's. it doesn't matter whether those 1's and 0's are used to make text or multimedia.

Well, I'm looking at Wireshark here and my ones and zeros are "1" and "0" in the stream. So, I guess my bandwidth is text based. So there.

Re:Dying Concept

[Yfrwlf]

That's the way it should be. If ISPs want to charge for so much data or so much speed, that's fine, but there should be no penalties or bonuses for connecting to specific servers.

Re:Dying Concept

[Yfrwlf]

The fact is competition occurs very poorly sometimes without some kind of moderation. Without police officers, without traffic cops, without referees, sometimes businesses will have the balls to take a bat to the knee of their competition. They're called monopolies. It is not fair to call every business tactic fair, but that's what libertarians try to suggest. What ends up happening is these businesses end up increasing the barrier to entry to market so high that no one can even begin to compete unless they pull magic mega money from their ass and create an entire parallel infrastructure. It becomes the rich who are the only ones who can actually do anything, and because of it the rich get richer and poor get poorer.

Re:Dying Concept

[Anonymous Coward]

They can't kill it. I choose my provider based on cap. I have 3 choices and if I do get kicked for downloading Mythbusters etc, then I have 2 other choices to take my business. Choice two offers a business class connection without caps, with 5 static IPs and no ban on servers. Instead of 35+tax US it will run 65+tax US. Fair considering the amount of data I transfer.

Re:Dying Concept

[Anonymous Coward]

It is not fair to call every business tactic fair, but that's what libertarians try to suggest.

No. Your are wrong. Libertarians (libertarians or Libertarians) do not "call every business tactic fair". This isn't true by a long shot. Examples of tactics frowned upon: government granted monopolies (e.g., most utilities - there should be competition), professional licensing, patents, copyrights (often), collusion with regulators, fraud or theft - obviously. This meme that libertarianism = 'anything goes' is bullshit. The people that propagate it are either ignorant or liars. Possibly, they are ignorant liars. One form of regulation most people agree with is the court system. I.e., we need a judicial branch to review and settle disputes. For some reason, yourself and the GGP poster like to defame entities not referenced by the GGGP poster because you have some kind of axe to grind. I'm not bad mouthing homosexual socialists, the least you can do is leave alone political idealogies you are too stupid to read about.

Re:Dying Concept

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't live in the U.S. but what I would suggest is:

1) This argument has been around for as long as the annual "when will the next videogame crash come" discussion has been around.

2) Bandwidth per buck is still increasing at an incredible rate.

3) Demand is limited to the equivalent of one HD-video stream per human being, plus data from a few temporary projects with extreme filtering such as CERN's LHC.

4) Switch to an ISP that gives you a better deal.

Re:Dying Concept

[Golddess]

their infrastructure is designed for web pages and email, not video.

their infrastructure is designed for binary data--1's and 0's. it doesn't matter whether those 1's and 0's are used to make text or multimedia.

These two ideas are not incompatible. GP is merely pointing out that their networks are not built to handle the volume of 1's and 0's required for mainstream use of streaming video.

Re:Dying Concept

[the_B0fh]

100MB? Wasn't there just a /. article about some japanese company offering gigabit over fiber to the house, up and down, with phone service, for just US$60/month?

Re:Dying Concept

[Anonymous Coward]

Or charge more to drive down the demand and drive up profits

Re:Dying Concept

[Anonymous Coward]

It only gets worse. In Australia there are bandwidth caps and this is somewhat tolerable for some time now. But the government has been trying to get a great big firewall up to block specific content from the web, and given that this agenda has been persistently pursued, its only a matter of time before it happens.

Time and persistance is all it takes.

Re:Dying Concept

[lysergic.acid]

i was actually referring to the same story, but i thought it was 100 MB. however, upon some more research it seems that 100MB/sec residential connections have been the norm in Japan for about 4 years now, so 1 Gbps (128 MB/sec) isn't much of an increase. it seems that Koreans are also enjoying residential fibre-optic broadband.

meanwhile, Comcast pompously refers to their 22 Mbps and 50 Mbps (2.75 MB/sec and 6.25 MB/sec) connections as "wideband" internet access. the state of residential internet access in the U.S. is an absolute joke compared to the widespread FttH symmetric broadband services being provided in other countries.

Re:Dying Concept

[mi]

"Should businesses have the right to charge more for some types of use that create the same load, than for others?"

Yes, absolutely. As long as nothing compels you to pay them, they are free to charge, whatever they want to.

"Should businesses take money from the government and then still demand a regulation free market?"

Yes, of course. The right to demand is protected by the First Amendment. That the government chooses to give certain businesses money anyway is the government's problem.

"Should businesses have a right to promise one thing and deliver another?".

No, of course. Contractual obligations must be honored, and seeing to it is one of the (very few) parts of the government's mandate, that Libertarians approve.

Re:Dying Concept

[mi]

but there should be no penalties or bonuses for connecting to specific servers.

Well, not to say, that there should be, but none of this is our business. We aren't running the ISPs, we aren't responsible for them — we are just users, free to switch to another ISP, if its terms are more sensible.

Oh, you say, but there are so few choices of broadband ISPs? Well, that's the direct result of earlier attempts to create artificial monopolies and regulate them. Undoing that damage is what the government should busy itself with, not causing new one.

Re:Dying Concept

[Anonymous Coward]

You ignore the fact that the US has 2000x (un-researched number) the square miles that Japan does. And that Japan's people occupy about 20% of the total square miles of their country.

Talking about how awesome it is Japan "sees where the technology is headed, and gradually make headway" is moot when discussing options in the US. It costs huge dollars to roll out a new infrastructure here because a) the US is huge, and b) we aren't all concentrated into 20% of the area in the country.

Re:Dying Concept

[lysergic.acid]

that doesn't explain why people in Tokyo pay 36% less per month than residents of L.A. or N.Y.C. for broadband service. they pay less than 2/3 the monthly fees for over 9x the bandwidth--and that bandwidth is symmetrical, which in the U.S. would be considered leased lines, or business connections, and cost even more.

the U.S. has a lot of sparsely-populated rural areas, but most people still live in big cities or their surrounding suburbs. it's not like we're Australia, Canada or Russia. and we don't have a nationalized broadband industry where people in the city are subsidizing rural communities. if we were, i could understand the huge disparity in the cost of bandwidth between us and other developed nations (in 2007 Japanese residents were paying $0.36 per Mbps versus the $5.98 per Mbps we pay here in the U.S.).

Re:Dying Concept

[awrowe]

Australia has unique problems though as far as bandwidth is concerned. Geographically, it is awkward. There is only a limited amount of bandwidth travelling on physical links to Australia, which gives the owners of those cables opportunities to charge stupid amounts per MB/GB/TB. That may be changing, but at the moment, there is only a relatively small number of data entry points to the country. Until that number rises or the bandwidth on those cables is increased, caps will remain in place there.

Re:Dying Concept

[Singularitarian2048]

Libertarianism as taught by Ayn Rand offers clear answers to those questions.

1) Yes. They can offer whatever they want, and customers can purchase or not purchase according to their own judgment.

2) The government should not give money to businesses. A business may take government money, just as a student may take government loans, so long as the business continues to advocate regulation free markets.

3) No. Fraud is illegal under the laws Ayn Rand envisioned.

You may call it a sound bite, but "all human interaction should be strictly voluntary" really does go a long way.

Re:Dying Concept

[Yfrwlf]

Wow. Homosexual socialists? I've got an axe to grind? I'm stupid because I haven't taken Proper Libertarianism 101? Not going to even bother responding to all that. I don't give a fuck about which libertarians think what, or which ideas are "proper", because all I'm trying to say is the following:

Some laws are needed, some socialism is needed, that's what the government is is a socialist because it taxes citizens and then distributes that tax to provide services. All I'm saying is that most likely a balance is needed between a total lack of laws and government, and having everything run by the government. Both systems can fail, both have their problems.

Whether or not jobs are being done by businesses or by government boards, the job can either get done or not get done in either case, and there are good and bad things about either case. I would not trust a government to do everything, nor would I trust a corporation to do everything.


P.S., if you didn't get that, no, I don't care to learn about libertarianism, don't care, because the above is what I think, so call that whatever you want, and try to make some sane arguments in return if you care to.

Re:Dying Concept

[Yfrwlf]

"...is a socialist institution" is what I meant to say, sorry. While I do realize that Socialism is a type of government that the US and UK governments, for example, wouldn't officially qualify as, my point is that it is still a part of those governments.

Socialism So"cial*ism, n. [Cf. F. socialisme.] A theory or system of social reform which contemplates a complete reconstruction of society, with a more just and equitable distribution of property and labor.

In other words, any system which distributes wealth via the government is Socialism. The police, fire, and other tax-money-provided services are examples of that. So, most countries are Socialistic to a greater or lesser degree.

Re:Dying Concept

[Yfrwlf]

Or at least that's the Libertarian theory any way. While I do agree with you that there were/are definitely some bad laws that gave/give advantages to monopolies, and those should definitely be done away with, I think a total lack of government regulation will lead to monopolies. Trickle down economics doesn't work. Those companies, groups, and individuals will be the only ones who can afford to implement certain things and they will stay in power. I think government regulation may be needed in some cases to help ensure that competition won't be destroyed by monopolies. I have several reasons for thinking this, one of which is the fact that many monopolies can't wait for deregulation to occur, they want it, and push for it, because they know that without it, they can have more control.

Either way, we both agree, this is what needs to happen: any laws preventing competition need to be removed, any laws that are really needed in order to make sure the competition field is fair and level may be needed.

Where's the Source?

[Anonymous Coward]

Since we know that question is coming...

The box is made by 2Wire and they provide source here:
http://www.2wire.com/index.php?p=437

Re:Where's the Source?

[aisrael]

Since we know that question is coming...

I thought the question was:

Yes, but does it run Linux?

Re:Where's the Source?

[Emperor Zombie]

So now people don't even read the title of the article?

Re:Where's the Source?

[Plutonite]

You've never really slashdotted until you've dived head first into the 5th page of comments on a story whose title you read only half of, and the subject of which does not interest you in the least. Then you will find, as your tired eyes browse, in a lively offtopic thread, surrounded by song and laughter, words to tickle your mind and taunt your intellect. And you will post. And you will say: I have been on slashdot today.

Re:Where's the Source?

[corsec67]

Yes, but does it run Linux?

A legitimate question is:

Can anyone modify the firmware and run the modified firmware on the device, or has it been TiVo'd?

Re:Where's the Source?

[Atti K.]

Then you post this experience on /. and you get modded Insightful.

Re:Where's the Source?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have been on slashdot today

Did somebody say xbox?

[Sj0]

Wow, I could have sworn somebody just mentioned the Xbox. Runs linux, connects to the internet, can run multiple services.

My little beast will have a place next to my TV set for many years.

Re:Did somebody say xbox?

[Bert64]

Yeah, but i want HD so i'm waiting for someone to crack the video limitations on ps3 linux, or to make the xbox 360 run linux...
My old original xbox works well enough, but it won't play high resolution h.264 videos...

Re:Did somebody say xbox?

[Anonymous Coward]

Cracking the DRM and installing Linux yourself is not exactly "consumer-friendly".

Re:Did somebody say xbox?

[Sj0]

It's easier than a lot of stuff out there. For example, when I tried, I couldn't buy "The Daily Show" off of iTunes. By contrast, running a savegame in Splinter Cell was very easy.

Re:Did somebody say xbox?

[Nursie]

Or just use the vanilla Xbox360 to stream video from your linux server by using ushare, mediatomb or gmediastreamer.

Works a charm, even though my linux server is a 266MHz ARM box (NSLU2) with a 320GB disk attached. It can torrent at the same time.

Re:Did somebody say xbox?

[CronoCloud]

While OtherOS on the PS3 has video limitations, GameOS doesn't. So what one could do is use Linux on the PS3 to get the files and store them on an external FAT32 drive (readable in both Linux and GameOS) one ps3-boot-game-os later and you're good to watch them. GameOS is also DLNA compliant and there's always the video for rental and sale on the Playstation Network store.

Re:Did somebody say xbox?

[Anonymous Coward]

You're original xbox won't do HD either (or most xbox360's last I looked)

Re:Did somebody say xbox?

[gwait]

So you can't use a PS3 to watch high def content from a linux (or other open) network disk?
Someone had told me the GameOS supports the "plug and play" network media stuff that Microsoft and other vendors (including Myth TV?) offer.
Does it? If so, what's the best the PS3 can do "off the shelf" ?

I was thinking of picking one up for this feature (to be able to watch up to 1080i analog component served from a linux server, or even downloaded to the PS3 drive)..

Re:Did somebody say xbox?

[CronoCloud]

Someone had told me the GameOS supports the "plug and play" network media stuff that Microsoft and other vendors (including Myth TV?) offer.
Does it? If so, what's the best the PS3 can do "off the shelf" ?

Yep, that plug n' play network stuff is called DLNA, as far as I know if you got the bandwidth you can stream (or copy) 1080p video (in formats the PS3 supports) to the PS3 right out of the box once you enable the functionality.
http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/settings/connectdlna.html

It works with photos and music too.

Re:Did somebody say xbox?

[teh1337striker]

The Xbox 360 doesn't run Linux, at least last time I checked, this is a Microsoft product we are talking about here though...

Re:Did somebody say xbox?

[Nursie]

The Xbox 360 has been able to do HD out of the box, it just doesn't have a media drive for it.

Streaming the content over a network though, that's fine.

Re:Did somebody say xbox?

[Nursie]

I've managed to get it to talk to ushare, though gmediastreamer or mediatomb can transcode and might be better if you have more processing power and RAM than my media server (266MHz/32MB).

Re:Did somebody say xbox?

[splatter]

I love my original Xbox. I can stream mp3s and movies from the computer, or play dvd's via the tray, play legacy arcade & Xbox games, download clips from you tube / yahoo video / & lots of other sights including comedy central & other major broadcasting co's which includes back episodes of shows.

No it doesn't do HD but for a media gateway between the net / computer & tv / stereo I love it.

As far as installation it's really as easy as running the softmod exploit from the console, anyone that can install a factory cd os should have no problem using the softmod.

DP

Re:Did somebody say xbox?

[Yfrwlf]

Yes, and that's an option, or you can not go to the bother of setting up a silly server and just use a device which can connect to your file server. The fact that the 360 only wants "safe" media given to it over a "safe" channel is retarded, and that you have to transcode everything into the few formats it will actually play. The only problem is video playback acceleration. Fortunately, both Nvidia and AMD are finally cranking that out as far as Linux support is concerned whereas of course it's been on Windows for ages.

Re:Did somebody say xbox?

[Anonymous Coward]

XBox runs Windows.

Re:Did somebody say xbox?

[splatter]

Sorry you are incorrect. Stock xbox machines runs ms code, mine runs linux.

Re:Did somebody say xbox?

[Nursie]

Actually, pretty much everything will play just fine on the xbox these days, no transcoding needed. The PS3 is the one that I'm having trouble with.

UPnP is alright for streaming, I quite like it though of course MS has done the old embrace/extend trick.

Re:Did somebody say xbox?

[Yfrwlf]

That's good that it works for you, though neither one worked for us. That's why we'll stick with the electronics which actually lets us do what we want to do, including playing the files we want to play. Shouldn't have to give another computer a big workout just because another piece of electronics is too limited.

Standardization needed

[Perspiring Blood]

If the format that the content is delivered in was standardized it would make hardware production costs dirt cheap since the circuitry could be tailored to the standard. There are plenty of OSS streaming Internet video standards and the extra circuitry could cheaply added to the "standard" DVD player. Then content providers could focus on their business model, pricing, product line and the like, and basically leave the tech to someone else.

Re:Standardization needed

[techno-vampire]

There are plenty of OSS streaming Internet video standards...

Standards are a wonderful thing; there are so many to chose from.

Re:Standardization needed

[cyclomedia]

I've advocated this on slashdot multiple times and have a slashdot journal entry rambling on about it too. Simply put:

"Channel" : An RSS-like feed in a standardised format which can contain:
"Link" : Links to other Channels
"Series" : Fancy name for a link but with more meta data link png title pic
"Video" : Including a PNG title pic, description, link to imdb page and "buy merchandise now" sites, etc. movie in something like H264 (by all means limit your server to serving in real-time but no fancy drm or flash containers)
"Audio" : As above but mp3, links to "Buy concert tickets now" etc.

And that's basically it. You could create your own channels that link to any video/music/slideshow/spoken-audio anywhere on the net, so long as it was in the correct broadcast "format", your player could have a "play channel" mode where you treat it a bit like a playlist (just the media, not folowing links) and suddenly cnbcfoxbros could have their "Saturday Night Action" feed and have every other media item an advert, and have ad breaks in the main media items themselves. If Joe sizpack's set top box plays these as easy as one,two,click then he's not going to mess about with torrents to find the non-ad-embedded-canadian-tv-station-watermark version is he?

google MRSS (IIRC) for some reasearch on the practicalities of this sort of thing but IMO if we build it: they will come.

Re:Standardization needed

[Yfrwlf]

MP3 is horribly outdated and they charge for licenses. OGG is the only way to go, much better quality.

Re:Standardization needed

[Yfrwlf]

Well Theora, Vorbis, and the OGG container are of course totally open and even support for them is being shipped in Firefox 3.1. There are those in the chip industry saying that GPU-based acceleration is going to be a thing of the past though, and GPUs/CPUs will be consolidated into one chip, so I don't think this is going to be a problem anymore and I think the codecs that are royalty-free will be the ones that will get adopted eventually provided they keep up with features. See Larrabee.

And yes, I know Theora video isn't as good as others like H264 and such (though Vorbis is awesome), but that's why Dirac and Snow are coming.

Re:Did you know...

[Anonymous Coward]

So rather than refute my argument, you bolster it. Well played.

Well...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

There is Neuros, whose products fit the description pined for in TFS fairly well. The basic problem, though, is that the various internet video on demand pushers all want DRM which means that, at best, any box they produce will be "open box + big hostile blob" and will more likely be "closed box" or "closed box with API, if we feel generous". Because these guys seem to be shooting for the give them the razor, bleed them for the blades model, I wouldn't expect them to support multiple competing services, and the DRM wrapper will be enough to foil an legal multiservice boxes(and, in practice, make any illicit ones a pain in the ass to keep working).

For the immediately forseeable future, if you want an open, multiple service setup, you want a PC(in the broad sense, including mythTV, WMC, and aTV with Boxee).

Re:Well...

[Simon80]

http://www.neurostechnology.com/neuros-link-technical-specs The above seems to be exactly what the OP is looking for, in a $300 package, complete with 2.8Ghz x86 CPU and supposedly running a respin of Ubuntu 8.10. It's a bit large, though.

Re:Well...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a big hostile blob, you insensitive clod.

Re:Well...

[gwait]

Interesting, unfortunately my old school TV only has component 1080i in, no DVI, no HDMI.. :(

Re:Well...

[Anonymous Coward]

hdmi to component is easy

Re:Well...

[gwait]

Easy to say it's easy.

Details perhaps?

It's a high speed serialized digital stream, in 8b10b format, with HDCP (digital copy protection)
added to make sure it's unusable.

Converting it to analog is NOT EASY. (IE not cheap).

Those cheap "HDMI to Component" adaptors around the net only work if the HDMI plug on your source device already puts out component analog on the HDMI port.

Easy. When investors go for a non-razor model.

[SuperBanana]

But darn it; when will someone finally offer a reasonably-priced, open-platform STB that serves as an A/V gateway to multiple Internet-based services -- one consumer-friendly, environmentally-designed, low-power gadget 'to rule them all,' if you will."

When investors are willing to embrace a model other than "get you on the refills", because the development of these devices (and their after-sale support/warranty) is supported by the revenue generated from the rentals.

My brain is a little fried, but examples that pop to mind immediately: Gillette was the pioneer here for product concept that has jumped product category after product category. Cartridge video games. Printers (first ribbon-based, then inkjet, then laser). iTunes. Xbox Live (a great example: Rock Band.)

open-platform?

[Puffy Director Pants]

I doubt it. How many of them would benefit by making it easier for their competition?

Re:open-platform?

[SanityInAnarchy]

The point isn't that it makes it easier for your competition, it's that it makes it easier for that industry as a whole.

Right now, with the market so fragmented, there's no way I'm buying a set-top box for one of these services -- if anything, I'll buy one I can hack to play my torrents.

If there was one to rule them all, I think a lot more people would consider it.

Re:open-platform?

[Puffy Director Pants]

If there was one to rule them all, I think a lot more people would consider it.

Sssh! don't give the Dark Lord any ideas!

Re:open-platform?

[Skapare]

As long as it is the content distributors making the devices, this is a problem.

What's needed is for a company that focuses on making hardware and software to make such a box that incorporates a DRM that the content distributors can trust. Decrypting and decoding done in a hardware chip could accomplish that. Then they can get a device key that would enable decrypting the key that comes with the content package. There are other ways to do this, such as the content distributor encrypting the content package key with the single device unique public key (every unit has a different one, so the user has to send it to the content distributor as part of the purchase).

All this can be done without the OS itself ever handling any decrypted content. So it would be safe to not only run Linux, but even let users load their own custom OS (not necessarily Linux ... NetBSD might be fun, too). The DRM application would simply feed the keys into the hardware chip, and if the response to that is positive, feed the encrypted A/V stream into the hardware chip.

To be truly open, this device needs to also be able to handle non-DRM content. When in the non-DRM mode the hardware chip would not be doing any decryption. It would only be doing codec decoding. That way you can play your own movies and music, too. In the non-DRM mode, all outputs need to work (DRM protected content may not allow the analog output to work).

A user loadable OS would promote innovation. Geeks can experiment with new ideas. The manufacturer could then adopt them when it's done with GPL software such as Linux, if the creators publish it (since GPL means they have to provide source).

Really good hardware will include algorithms to decode all the major proprietary and non-proprietary formats, including DIRAC, OGG {Theora,Vorbis}, FLAC, MP3, MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264, DVB-{C,S,T}, ATSC, and anything else I didn't think of (there are too many minor ones). The box should also include Firewire {400,800}, USB, and eSATA-II jacks (all with support for flash sticks, hard drives, optical drives, cameras, camcorders, and phones), along with an RJ-45 ethernet 10/100/1000, an SMA wireless antenna jack (B/G/etc), dual antenna jack with built in DVB/ATSC/QAM tuner, cable-card slot, and an RJ-11 phone jack with a modem to dial up to buy authentication keys for those without broadband. The best box will have them all. Better boxes would at least allow all of them as options.

The first hardware manufacturer to do this and make sure it's fully open source, including the driver that passes the key package and content streams to the decoder hardware (the sealed part), would get a LOT of free publicity by the open source community raves. Although a lot of people do hate DRM, a market in transient products (e.g. movie rentals) would not function very well without it. By including such DRM capability, the manufacturer that makes such a device would have market potential for it well beyond just hackers. That would mean lower mass production pricing.

Re:open-platform?

[droopycom]

So basically, you want to have a black-box within the set top box that does the following:
- store some keys
- enforce DRM rules (eg: for online renting) (That would probably include to handle a secure communication channel to a server)
- decrypt the content
- decode content
- output the content through some protected video interface such as HDMI/HDCP (if the content was protected)

Guess whats inside the netflix box: a chip that can do all that, by running an OS, called Linux.

So, whats left to do outside the black box, in the open source part of the box ? Not much. Drivers to handle network connection, storage device and User Interface. When you already have a CPU running linux to do all the black box stuff, you dont want to add cost by adding another CPU when you have one that can do that and is already running linux....

Re:open-platform?

[JohnBailey]

Sssh! don't give the Dark Lord any ideas!

Which one.. Jobs or Ballmer?

Re:open-platform?

[gwait]

They want customer lock in.

In none of the razor/inkjet/etc business models are there any industry "standards" - in fact they all randomly change hardware at almost every new product release to force you to switch to the next gen every so often.

Re:open-platform?

[rdnetto]

Does it matter? They both serve Gates

Re:open-platform?

[boef]

The problem is that everyone wants a box that "does it all" and that you can tweak to your heart's content. What you want is your computer (all sexed-up and shiny looking with a remote of course) with your OS of choice downloading content from something like filmous.com Until of course the phone rings and you it is someone who is paid by the minute to obfuscate english in order to show that you are - as we all suspected - a criminal and a danger to society.

Re:open-platform?

[FourthAge]

So, whats left to do outside the black box, in the open source part of the box ? Not much. Drivers to handle network connection, storage device and User Interface.

Those drivers and the UI are the difficult and expensive bit! The DRM part is actually quite easy. It's a few device drivers, code to move data between them, and something to exchange keys with the server. Of course that could be implemented on top of Linux, but isolation is good, because this part has to be secured against the user. So it should be as small as possible, and protected from kernel bugs or exploits in other programs.

When you already have a CPU running linux to do all the black box stuff, you dont want to add cost by adding another CPU when you have one that can do that and is already running linux....

How about using virtualisation to separate Linux from the black box? Then you have one CPU, but you still have an open system. Use Linux to make the device cheap and user friendly, and use the hypervisor to separate the DRM black box from Linux.

The DRM in the Windows and Mac kernels is doomed due to its lack of isolation from kernel bugs, whether accidental or deliberately introduced. DRM will never work properly in home computers until it is handled in hardware or in a hypervisor, which is of course the solution currently implemented in games consoles. Hypervisor/hardware DRM is actually what we want, because the APIs used to access it can be safely opened for compatibility with free software. Stallman wouldn't approve, of course, but then his computer's CPU has been running non-free microcode for a decade now.

Re:open-platform?

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean like smartcards as used for satelite TV?

I'm running MythTV without any problems here.

Pay the card, pay your monthly subscription, and it works fine...

Re:open-platform?

[droopycom]

And you think Virtualization (of any kind, hardware or software) comes for free ?

As far as the DRM part being easy... you obviously have no idea what kind of crap they put in DRM these days...

Re:open-platform?

[FourthAge]

I'm right, here is why:

Virtualisation is not free. But it's cheaper than adding a second CPU. And it's more secure than attempting to build the required support into a consumer OS. Hence it is a good solution for this problem. As a side effect, it allows the interfaces used for DRM to be opened, so that both free and non-free software can make use of them.

DRM is easy. On PC/Mac, DRM code contains lots of nasty things in order to detect tampering and prevent circumvention of restrictions, but this isn't necessary in the DRM code used on, say, the XBox 360 because the hardware provides the required services. Dedicated hardware or virtualisation make anti-tampering code unnecessary. This is good, because we don't want that sort of kludge in any part of our systems.

Re:Did you know...

[Anonymous Coward]

Get a room, you students.

AV Gateway

[BioNTechKid]

There are alot of products out there that pretty good as an AV Gateway.

There is the Hauppauge MVP that is easy to use and setup, and yes you can put linux on it (if it isnt already).
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_mediamvp.html
It can stream almost anything but HD with an appropriate server.

A suggestion for the Ultimate at home Multimedia machine would be SageTV with its HD extenders that can play HD and almost everything I have found online. http://www.sagetv.com/hd_extender.html
(( Yes is it can play Netflix too !! ))

-BTK
 

Re:AV Gateway

[Ron_Fitzgerald]

The problem here is adding another peripheral to an already saturated software market. Here is a partial list of what types of software Blockbuster could just partner with...

Windows Media Center / Xbox Extender
SageTv
MythTV / MythBuntu
Media-Portal TVersity
LinuxMCE
TVedia
Beyond Media
CTPVR
CTPvr
J River Media Center
MainLobby
Cyberlink PowerCinema
CQC
Welltonway
Sesam TV
Nero Home Media
Intervideo WinDVD Media Center
nStantMedia
Sceneo TV-Central
Xlobby
GBPVR
Got all media
GameEx
Tvoon
Theatre@Home
MyTheatre
DVBViewer
Freevo
GeeBox
VDR
My Media System
LinuxMCE
xHub
Elgato EyeTV
Center Stage Project
iTheatre
MediaCentral
XBMC (formally Xbox Media Center)
Oxylbox
Elisa Media Center (Free)


If blockbuster would just create a plugin for any or all of these systems and use technology that is already around and in peoples homes, I think they would have a better chance at catching Netflix.

(some of this list courtesy of eirikso.com

Re:What the hell?!?!

[Anonymous Coward]

"Remember when Slashdot announced potential changes to the users before they implemented them? UGH. Fix Slashdot please!"

You'll get over it.

-Jeff

Re:Did you know...

[Anonymous Coward]

And you haven't refuted the fact that you're a fag. Fag.

open-platform STB

[CopaceticOpus]

To get an open-platform STB to talk to services such as Netflix, you'd need to meet their DRM requirements. Currently this seems to require Windows/Silverlight, which really limits what can be done.

Is there a way around this? I hope so.

Re:open-platform STB

[Skapare]

The movie distribution services could arrange to develop their own DRM, or choose some other DRM besides the one from Redmond. But corporate executives tend to no like that idea. They just want to buy it from some other corporation. It's that "in the same bed" thing.

Neuros Link

[Wesley Felter]

But darn it; when will someone finally offer a reasonably-priced, open-platform STB that serves as an A/V gateway to multiple Internet-based services â" one consumer-friendly, environmentally-designed, low-power gadget 'to rule them all,' if you will.

http://www.neurostechnology.com/neuros-link

Also runs Linux and a Web browser with Flash so it can access all the TV sites like Hulu.

Is this article a clever plant?

Boxee

[Doodhwala]

For something that works on Ubuntu and Apple TV, you might want to look at Boxee. It is not open source though. Invites from the main site take a while but you can get one faster from Fred Wilson's blog .

Re:What the hell?!?!

[Sj0]

I remember when the Karma Kap was still fresh.

Now we don't even get to see what our Karma is. "Your karma is lightly hazy with a touch of rain in the southern reigons"

Doesn't this violate the

[frednofr]

GPL ?

Re:Doesn't this violate the

[compro01]

Nope, they (The thingy is made by 2wire) release their source. Another guy upthread pointed out the download page.

Re:Did you know...

[Anonymous Coward]

Man, everybody is gay once in awhile!

Re:off topic but...

[onkelonkel]

? So far out of his reach you might just as well be on the far side of the moon??

"to rule them all"

[VGPowerlord]

one consumer-friendly, environmentally-designed, low-power gadget 'to rule them all,' if you will.

..."and" once they patch the firmware to add some sort of DRM, "in the darkness bind them."

PCH

[socsoc]

Isn't Popcorn Hour supposed to be the bee's knees with this stuff? They haven't released a Netflix component yet, but are supposed to be working on it. In the meantime, it seems like it's the best shot at an all-in-one device for the consumer. Plus it beats the pants off of most media players. How many of them can handle x264?

It's gonna be my Christmas present to myself. I am tired of screwing about with Windows Media Center and nix variations of that. A FreeNAS box and this and I will be set. With the way Comcast and AT&T have been acting recently, I don't want to depend on any video on demand type of system anyway. My last Netflix Instant Queue through 360 readjusted itself 3 times in the last 15 minutes. By the time it was done, it was unwatchable, hell the friggin credits were blurry.

Re:PCH

[Anonymous Coward]

One of the best if not the best unit on the market right now - got the A-110 with HDMI 1.3 plays 720p and 1080p content like a champ

Did I mention it is very hackable??

Re:PCH

[grub]

We own two Popcornhour units. Love them! 6x 750 GB drives on a RAID 5 FreeNAS box to feed the house and we get 1080P everywhere. Pretty much everyone who has had an interest in them and seen our setup has ordered one (or two)

Order a couple, you'll be happy you did.

Re:Easy. When investors go for a non-razor model.

[amRadioHed]

You're right, they make money on the refills, but in the case the refills are subscriptions to the service and the razor they give away is the box itself.

If they aren't making any money on the STB sale, wouldn't it make sense for them to allow other hardware makers to do it for them?

Maybe not. I'm no MBA, but it makes sense it my head. I think the DRM is the real reason everyone needs to make their own.

Re:Doesn't this violate the GPL

[Lorens]

Depends on whether they modify the source code and/or release the modifications!

A big French service provider just got sued for providing a box containing GPL'd programs. When the accustions were first made 2 years ago, the service provider in question maintains that the programs are not modified and/or are permitted under GPLv2 (but not GPLv3), and that the accusations were fed by competitors.

http://www.freenews.fr/nat/6369-societe-free-assigne-pour-violation-presumee-de-la-licence-gnu-gpl.html

What for?

[martin-boundary]

But darn it; when will someone finally offer a reasonably-priced, open-platform STB that serves as an A/V gateway to multiple Internet-based services ?

What for? Bittorrent already fills that need quite well...

Re:What for?

[Anonymous Coward]

Azureus + RSS feeds with filters ... best combo ever

Re:What the hell?!?!

[Anonymous Coward]

It was with great pleasure I modded you to troll.

Now piss off and stop bothering the adults.

They already have one.......well..I do anyway.....

[budword]

But darn it; when will someone finally offer a reasonably-priced, open-platform STB that serves as an A/V gateway to multiple Internet-based services -- one consumer-friendly, environmentally-designed, low-power gadget 'to rule them all,' if you will." It's called a laptop logged into the www.piratebay.org ....of course the pirates are the only ones with media that doesn't suck and isn't crippled. Quite up to date too, with a large back catalogue. David

Re:Did you know...

[Anonymous Coward]

When I pee I hold my penis. Am I gay?

Get MythTV - Problem Solved...

[Anonymous Coward]

see above..

"standardized" DRM is possible

[jonwil]

Windows Media Video DRM is standardized (or in theory it was until MS decided to go it alone with the Zune and Zune store).
OMA DRM created by the Open Mobile Aliance is standardized, any mobile phone maker or content provider can sign up to it.
Blu-Ray DRM is standardized, as is CSS on DVDs.
The trick is convincing the content providers (netflix, blockbuster etc) to start using a standardized DRM solution (why would they want to allow you to play the videos back on a device that could also potentially play back content from their competitors)

not too bad

[Anonymous Coward]

so, you're paying 100 bucks for the little linux box with hd and you get 25 movie downloads for free :)

i guess i could do that

Re:off topic but...

[techno-vampire]

If this weren't Slashdot, I'd assume he meant nude, petrified and covered with Hot Grits. In this case, I've no idea what he was looking for.

The box isn't free.

[fuego451]

According to Reuters
it's $99 and movies are $1.99 after the first 25. Also they have a miserable 2000 movies but they are the latest from Hollywood, they say.

Dammit! I wish we could get a 5 minute edit button

[fuego451]

I meant to add that there was no mention of what those first 25 movies would cost.

Good Luck With That

[mpapet]

But darn it; when will someone finally offer a reasonably-priced, open-platform...

News flash, it will never exist. Ever.

Maybe he hasn't heard the media conglomerates controlling distribution want to extract every possible dollar at every possible moment of entertainment.

Oh, and there are probably a dozen boxes already.

Re:Dammit! I wish we could get a 5 minute edit but

[Zerth]

It is in the article, the box is $99 or:

Blockbuster currently is providing its VOD STB (made by 2Wire) free with an advance rental of 25 on-demand movies for $99. Thereafter, VOD titles are available for $1.99 each.

so for a limited time, it is $99 for 25 movies+free box or, equivalently, a $99 box with 25 free movies.

Since that works out to $4/each for the first 25 when they are normally $1.99, it is hardly a special. More like paying double for the first 25 to defray the cost of the box.

But ...

[Anonymous Coward]

... does it run Linux?

Re:What the hell?!?!

[hairyfeet]

Dammit is 4chan down again? Could you 4channers go irritate the users at Digg and Ars or at the very least uphold the high standards of trolling we have here at Slashdot?

You see, we here at Slashdot have a long and distinguished history of being a place where truly great trolls learn how to become legendary. Such past alumni include the GNAA, The Penisbird, and of course that guy that makes ASCII Goatse art. Our trolls then go on to long and rewarding fields in a variety of endeavors, such as upper management at Comcast, making policy at several government organizations like the FCC, and hey, do you know how thought up the "Vista Capable" program that caused countless PC consumers nothing but grief? That's right! A former Slashdot troll!

So in conclusion, please think of the past greats in the history of trolling whose footsteps you are following in before you post. Do you think they would be proud of you screaming "fag" like a 14 year old that just lost a deathmatch in Halo? No, they would hang their heads under their mighty bridges in sadness. Please think before you troll and one day maybe you could join those great trolls and have YOUR picture on the wall at the great trolling hall of fame(which is in the men's john at the Hooters in Newark, NJ). Good luck, and may you have a long and successful career in trolling here at Slashdot.

get a ZvBox

[harshaw]

Ok, so I know it isn't cool to on slashdot to pimp your own products, but you might try getting a ZvBox (http://zeevee.com) if you want to get any content to your TV. This works because it snarfs the your video output and transmits HD quality video to your HDTV. And yes, it requires a PC. And yes, it is expensive (we are working on lowering the price). But, since a PC can play any content it truly is a universal solution.

Re:get a ZvBox

[gwait]

So, you're grabbing the analog VGA and converting it to HDTV broadcast, but you only support windows on the PC. (or Mac OS on Mac)..

WTF?

It "looks" like a hardware solution, why the hell would you care what OS is behind the VGA connector?
Some applet written in a non portable way?

I just want a box that can grab media files off a network server. Interface: Web browser.

Cue southpark sound track: "dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb.."

Re:get a ZvBox

[Anonymous Coward]

You have it: Youtube XD

Re:Did you know...

[Anonymous Coward]

You fuck a mean nigger tho.

If you build it they will come

[chrisboredwithlogins]

design and build the device that can "open-platform STB that serves as an A/V gateway to multiple Internet-based services â" one consumer-friendly, environmentally-designed, low-power gadget"

and if reasonably priced your order books will be full...

How can anyone legalize his movie collection?

[Anonymous Coward]

All commercial services are inferior to what people want and have on-line.

Is there a simple way to pay reasonable price for a movie collection in order to be legal?

I like freedom of Linux world, but would like to support my favorite authors too.

Combo Boxes

[tji]

There are several options for the combo box the post asks about.. Maybe not the ultimate box that will play everything, but there are several that will do multiple sources. What I use is a Mac Mini (Core Duo), to play several types of content:

- DVD's (the new full screen DVD and Front Row in Leopard are nice DVD viewing options).
- Movies, TV, and Music via iTunes.
- Broadcast HDTV via MythTV (running backend and frontend on my Mini running OSX)
- Netflix streaming movies via their Silverlight plugin
- Various video file formats via Front Row.
- There are various other video streaming services available, I don't use any of them at this point.
- Occasional special webcasts - like the NCAA basketball tournament early round games.

It's hard to beat the flexibility of an HTPC. I think the Mac Front Row interface + all the other options is hard to beat. Especially considering the small size of the device, quiet operation, built-in remote control functionality, etc..

Areas for improvement:
- Blue Ray DVD drive would be nice.
- Better Netflix streaming. Silverlight is okay, but could be better.
- Blockbuster, or other video streaming support.

Re:Combo Boxes

[gwait]

Does it do true high def? 1080i or 1080p?

If you're not satisfied with the offerings...

[actionbastard]

1.Download the source.
2.Modify it. (Remember to give back to the community.)
3.Market it.
4.Profit!
Finally, a complete FOSS business plan.

Re:Dammit! I wish we could get a 5 minute edit but

[fuego451]

I stand corrected. I skimmed the Reuters article earlier today on Techdirt and I really should have reread it prior to posting.

Marketing

[NotQuiteReal]

That's a nice list. I have kind of sortof heard of some of them. Every once in a while I think about checking one of them out, but I really just don't care that much.

I have a blue blockbuster card in my car. Maybe I'd get their box if it was cheap enough and guaranteed to work.

Disclaimer: I do use my PC to record TV, using some cheap Hauppauge card. I use TitanTV for the schedule and watch with VLC, where I can skip commercials with a couple of ctrl-arrows. Between that and other avi files of, um, murky provenance, I have little time for buying more hardware. But my point still stands; Don't underestimate the marketing factor of a known brand. For crying out loud, even I say I "Tivo" something, just because everyone knows what that is. I don't say, Yeah, I Hauppagued that on my PC...

PopcornHour?

[FreakinSyco]

Seems a lot of people have over looked the PopCornHour for their media needs. Plays pretty much every media file you can throw at it and also has the ability to go online and steam SOME content and since, yes, it does run Linux, it shouldn't be too difficult to add more sources.

Future Fallout.

[Ostracus]

"But darn it; when will someone finally offer a reasonably-priced, open-platform STB that serves as an A/V gateway to multiple Internet-based services â" one consumer-friendly, environmentally-designed, low-power gadget 'to rule them all,' if you will."

Well if you all can get the media version of Torvalds to get the ball rolling. In ten years there should be plenty of content for your revolution. In the mean time content providers will try to make money and someone else will say "I will not let you".

Environmentally designed?!

[Geofferic]

"Environmentally designed"? PLEASE! Can't we just get something that works before we start whining about how it is killing the planet? Environmentally designed ... lol!

Re:What the hell?!?!

[Anonymous Coward]

Hairyfeet? I guess that makes your boyfriend with a foot fetish a carpet muncher.

Pipe dream

[SeaFox]

But darn it; when will someone finally offer a reasonably-priced, open-platform STB that serves as an A/V gateway to multiple Internet-based services -- one consumer-friendly, environmentally-designed, low-power gadget 'to rule them all,' if you will."

I would say "never".

Any attempt that would satisfy the DRM-requirements for a service to sign off on working with it would not be considered "open" enough by the Free Software fanatics.

Why don't you ask for a CableCard system for MythTV while you're at it? LOL.

Yeah, but...

[Andr T.]

...does it run Linux?

Ops...

Interesting title

[Drakkenmensch]

When browsing through the slashdot main page, I originally misread th earticle title as "Blockbuster's Movie Download Box Ruins Linux"... feel free to interpret that any way you like.

Slashdot Borked

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the most recent article on Slashdot's front page, while Slashdot's RSS shows 6 more recent stories.
Why is Slashdot broken all of a sudden?

Beaglegoard DIY open STB ?

[makapuf]

Sure it's for geeks,but have a look at the ARM BeagleBoard dev kit. If you've got a server/NAS to pull content from (or an ext Hard drive), it seems to be a really interesting platform for a DIY STB for $150. (very power efficient, fanless, runs linux, geek friendly, can be put in a shoe box).

Of course, there's no media center software that I know of, price might not be that different from an appleTV once you add a remote control and some network connectivity, but the geek appeal is great.

I'm currently very near to buying one for christmas.

Other option ? an old PC, if possible SFF case+low fan, remote controller, with tv out. Truly open, supports everything.

it isn't free

[Robocoastie]

bah it's not "free" at all because it has a prepaid 25 movie rental requirement. Netflix service has a subscription that grants us physical dvd's for an unlimited time and as many movie downloads as we want at no extra cost. That is not surprising though as Blockbuster has a history of fine print and outright hostility to its customers.

there was a big solar craze in the '70's

[Anonymous Coward]

it was tariffed into history then too? those wind farms are just like big fans as well, right? keep us cool as we warm. linux is part of how we may escape the softwar hostage/ransom scenario.

No different than Apple TV

[Anonymous Coward]

And that's why it won't work. I use my PS3 for renting movies now and the XBox360 does the same thing. That's why Microsoft got into the video game console business and why Sony has been pushing the PS3 more as an HD TV accessory than a video game console. It's kind of like computers - most people get Windows machines because even if they don't play games, the kids do, and you might as well kill two birds with one stone. The same will apply to the PS3/360 - when compared to Apple TV or Blockbuster's device, whether people play games or not, they might as well get the PS3 and get Blu-ray taken care of. I don't mean to talk up the consoles too much (the main reason I hope the PS3 succeeds is so Microsoft won't rule digital content), but compared to the PS3 and 360, these other boxes are just niche markets. It's just like Apple computers, without the high profit margins. Apple can deal with niche but it seems to be hurting Blockbuster - just look how many times they've changed their business model in the last eight years. Gamestop hasn't changed their business model since it came together in the 80s and they've experienced nothing but explosive growth for twenty years. More and more space in Blockbuster gets devoted to video games - rentals and sales - and I expect this is where they will go. They'll compete with Gamestop until Sony and Microsoft pull the rug out from under them both by offering all games as downloads. If they ever get the bandwidth and cheap enough storage, that is.

Just an AC's 2 cents.

Maybe...but Redbox runs Windows

[gexen]

Proof is in the pudding:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/willplatnick/334265255/

Tell that to Bell Canada/Sympatico users

[yabos]

They are imposing a 60GB cap on all their users AND will be forcing a 60GB cap on any users of their network including those through 3rd party ISPs that pay Bell to pass traffic over their network. 60GB in 2008 is pathetic and luckily I'm still on a grandfathered unlimited data plan.

Re:What the hell?!?!

[Anonymous Coward]

I dont agree with [url=http://sexparnuha.ru/]you![/url]

Re:What the hell?!?!

[Anonymous Coward]

>Do you think they would be proud of you screaming "fag" like a 14 year old that just lost a deathmatch in Halo?

YES!!!! SLASHDOT TROLS ARE 14 YEAR OLD IN HALOS!!! PERFECT!!!!!
PS I EAT AT HOTTERS./