[mythtv-users] New Netflix set top box and MythTV - some musings

[Scott D. Davilla]

A few more specs rolling in from the Roku forums.

The Netflix player can do 480P, 720P, and 1080i, it cannot do 1080P.

Component output is limited to 480p (copy protection).

The Wifi is b/g, no "n"

Box is based on a new chip made by NXP semiconductor. PNX8935 
(http://www.nxp.com/applications/set_top_box/ip_stb/stb225/), this is 
a MIPs processor with dedicated video decode hardware. A 
System-on-Chip. The SoC does support USB and SATA but unless Roko 
brought the pins out, not a change as this is most likely a ball-grid 
chip.

The box has 256MB of DRAM of which, currently, 64MB is used to buffer streams.

And is "Not user expandable" from a Roku Engineer.

Compatibility with HDMI 1.3b.

Netflix makes 4 streams available and the box picks the best one that 
will reliably stream. They are 0.5, 1.0, 1.6, 2.2 mbps VC1 streams. 
There is a link quality indicator on the screen, which is 4 dots.
1 dot is .5Mbps
2 dots is 1Mbps
3 dots 1.6Mbps
4 dots 2.2Mbps

There is some mention of open source software ware being used, 
nothing about Linux, busybox or the usual emmbedded Linux stuff so I 
don't think this thing is running Linux. OpenSSL is mentioned which 
means strong encryption. If they did their software correctly and did 
not leave any holes, then one is not getting into this box by the 
normal tricks. Might be able to re-flash but brick potential would be 
high.