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

Dying Concept

[nurb432]

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

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

[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

[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

[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

[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.

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.

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.)

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: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: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: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: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?