Boxee integration with Roku?

[mstar]

While most likely a pipe-dream, and since the Netflix API only does so much, Boxxee would truly become the killer app if somehow it could bridge the gap between Apple TV and the Roku (Netflix player).

However, since the only outputs from the Roku are RCA jacks, S-video, component video, HDMI, and optical audio and you would also need to interact with the box I don't see how this could work...

But, you never know what some enterprising software/hardware hacker will come up with... so I'm posting it anyway.

[iBog]

What do you mean exactly? Play netflix content?

[OctopusInc]

Roku specializes in network streaming devices. They extend the main media center into other rooms with things like the SoundBridge and the other thing he was talking about. This is all done with open source protocols that the Boxee team could probably gain access to and then afford the awesomeness of the program to hundreds of compatible devices.

[marcel]

would be nice to have..:)

[dthomasson]

Now that Roku has introduced channels, being able to add a Boxee channel, that provides local and streaming networked content, would seem like a smooth way to get that content onto a TV.

Not being able to do the programming myself to get this to work, does anyone know why this would/would not work?

[larrydavis]

I'm really not sure what is it people are thinking Boxee would/could do with Roku. Can anyone elaborate?

Roku (video player) is a box. It plays Netflix and soon Amazon VOD. It has a frontend, it doesn't need Boxee. Likewise, Boxee is a frontend that can work on lots of devices, though I highly doubt they'd get access to the Roku hardware because, like I said, they have a frontend.

More importantly, the Roku has very little internal memory for firmware and only buffers 64MB of video.

What sort of channel could possibly be created that has Boxee in the equation? They are releasing an SDK sometime later this year but I am guessing it's for content providers, which Boxee is not. Boxee and Roku are competitors.

[lesmikesell]

I'm really not sure what is it people are thinking Boxee would/could do with Roku. Can anyone elaborate?

Roku (video player) is a box. It plays Netflix and soon Amazon VOD. It has a frontend, it doesn't need Boxee.


It would be nice to be able to run boxee on a headless server with lots of disk space, or just in the background on a desktop PC and be able to display the output on any number of networked roku boxes connected to TV's. You can hardly buy a decent display card for that price and it would eliminate the problem of running a big noisy server next to the TV.


More importantly, the Roku has very little internal memory for firmware and only buffers 64MB of video.

Which is why it should be a display interface device.


Boxee and Roku are competitors.
Maybe, when Boxee runs on something that costs $99 with HDMI out...

[larrydavis]

Still not seeing the appeal or the logic of Roku letting this happen. They are competing products.

The concept of Roku is that it is a frontend to Internet based media (potentially someone could expand this to UPNP). Other than the social aspects, what is the need to have Boxee? Why would Roku want/allow this?

[lesmikesell]

Still not seeing the appeal or the logic of Roku letting this happen. They are competing products.

The concept of Roku is that it is a frontend to Internet based media (potentially someone could expand this to UPNP). Other than the social aspects, what is the need to have Boxee? Why would Roku want/allow this?

Roku is selling hardware. Unless their business model depends on kickbacks from content providers, it is in their interest to sell as many devices as possible. But, their hardware is basically ethernet->video. Boxee does more but doesn't really compete in the same space until someone makes a $99 device (including OS w/netflix support) with hi-def output. The ideal scenario would be to have boxee able to generate network streams besides/instead of its local display and have other devices (or other boxee instances) able to display the same output and feed back remote control. The roku side would only have to support the remote display part. Then you could run boxee on any computer in the house, not necessarily even connected to a good video screen, and for $99/connection, show it on any TV in the house.

[larrydavis]

I get what you are saying, but you've turned Boxee into an entirely different product, now becoming a server to stream Internet video. Isn't that what the, um, Internet does? I mean, Hulu provides the servers. Why make it go through a third party? Netflix provides the servers, why make it go through a third party? Etc, etc.

The only skin Boxee brings to that game is their social features.

[lesmikesell]

I get what you are saying, but you've turned Boxee into an entirely different product, now becoming a server to stream Internet video.

Agreed, boxee isn't quite what I want, but at the moment neither is anything else. I'd like to have something more like vlc in its ability to both play locally and stream to peers but with a nicer user interface. And I'd like to be able to use a really minimal piece of hardware (like the roku) for the HD TV connection with any DVD, hard drive storage, or extensive CPU power needed for decrypting or transcoding on a computer elsewhere. Think of it like playing to a slingbox and watching on slingplayer elsewhere except I'd also like to have multicast to more than one instance.

[larrydavis]

Then you want a SageTV HD Theater combined with PlayOn.

[lesmikesell]

Then you want a SageTV HD Theater combined with PlayOn.

Looks considerably more expensive than roku + boxee, though - if boxee could do dlna output like playon. Having the option of using a PS3 as the output device would be nice too, to eliminate the rat's nest of cables and switches you need to play games, blu-ray, and network content.

[wizzle]

It's also unlikely that the Roku has enough juice to run Boxee anyway. I'm not 100% on this, but I think it uses the same Sigma decoder chip that the Popcorn Hour and all the other media streamers use. You'd see Boxee on the PS3 before any of these devices.

On a side note, my experience with PlayOn was very poor. I'm surprised they're even able to charge for the software.