Blockbuster's Movie Download Box Runs Linux 194
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."
Boxee (Score:2, Informative)
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.
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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 (Score:4, Informative)
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.
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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 (Score:5, Funny)
Is this not violation of dmca
Simply watching a movie might be... You need to ask a lawyer to know for sure.
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1. Yes.
2. Why should I care?
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2. Stupid federal laws and movie cartels with more than enough money to enforce them?
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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 (Score:5, Informative)
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 [mythic-beasts.com]
Re:Boxee (Score:5, Funny)
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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..)
Dying Concept (Score:5, Insightful)
Now that this stuff is practical, our friendly ISPs are throttling/capping our bandwidth.
Re:Dying Concept (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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Re:Dying Concept (Score:5, Interesting)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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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 (Score:5, Informative)
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.
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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 netw
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*nods*
When I can get 1TB/month from BlueHost for something around $30, you know that something's up. ;)
Re:Dying Concept (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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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
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Well, what, do you want a law passed over it?
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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.
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History has shown that too much regulation can be bad, and deregulation can lead to less competition and be bad too. In that case o
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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 trans
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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! :(
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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 (Score:5, Insightful)
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?
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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 hav
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Where's the Source? (Score:5, Informative)
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 [2wire.com]
Re:Where's the Source? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Where's the Source? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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Re:Where's the Source? (Score:5, Insightful)
A legitimate question is:
Can anyone modify the firmware and run the modified firmware on the device, or has it been TiVo'd?
Did somebody say xbox? (Score:4, Informative)
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.
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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)..
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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 [playstation.net]
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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).
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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.
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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
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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.
Standardization needed (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
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Standards are a wonderful thing; there are so many to chose from.
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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 flas
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And yes, I kn
Well... (Score:5, Informative)
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).
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Interesting, unfortunately my old school TV only has component 1080i in, no DVI, no HDMI.. :(
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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. (Score:3, Insightful)
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.)
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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.
open-platform? (Score:2, Informative)
I doubt it. How many of them would benefit by making it easier for their competition?
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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.
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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? (Score:4, Funny)
Sssh! don't give the Dark Lord any ideas!
Which one.. Jobs or Ballmer?
Re:open-platform? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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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 blac
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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
AV Gateway (Score:2, Informative)
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 [hauppauge.com]
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 [sagetv.com]
(( Yes is it can
Re:AV Gateway (Score:4, Insightful)
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 [eirikso.com]
Marketing (Score:2)
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, mur
open-platform STB (Score:2)
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.
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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 (Score:5, Informative)
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 [neurostechnology.com]
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 (Score:3, Informative)
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The forumns are open for anonymous viewing though. Looks like an interesting project.
PCH (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
What for? (Score:2)
What for? Bittorrent already fills that need quite well...
They already have one.......well..I do anyway..... (Score:2)
"standardized" DRM is possible (Score:2)
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 ba
The box isn't free. (Score:2)
According to Reuters [reuters.com]
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 (Score:2)
I meant to add that there was no mention of what those first 25 movies would cost.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It is in the article, the box is $99 or:
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.
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I stand corrected. I skimmed the Reuters article earlier today on Techdirt and I really should have reread it prior to posting.
get a ZvBox (Score:2)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
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.."
Combo Boxes (Score:3, Interesting)
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: (Score:2)
Does it do true high def? 1080i or 1080p?
If you're not satisfied with the offerings... (Score:2)
2.Modify it. (Remember to give back to the community.)
3.Market it.
4.Profit!
Finally, a complete FOSS business plan.
Future Fallout. (Score:2)
"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".
Pipe dream (Score:2)
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... (Score:2)
Ops...
Interesting title (Score:2)
Beaglegoard DIY open STB ? (Score:2)
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
it isn't free (Score:2)
Re:What the hell?!?! (Score:4, Interesting)
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"
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Nope, they (The thingy is made by 2wire) release their source. Another guy upthread [slashdot.org] pointed out the download page.