AfterDawn: News

Roku players rooted, for time being

Roku set-top boxes, popular due to their small size, relatively cheap prices, and access to numerous streaming services like Netflix, Hulu Plus, Vudu, League Pass and many more, have been rooted, at least temporarily.

While the company is open to developers and custom channels, the hardware itself has stayed secure and locked down; at least until this week.



The GTVHacker team known for cracking the Google TV software found a way to root the Roku 2 and Roku 3 and run its own commands as root. The team says they used development password field to get in.

Roku 2 boxes remain rooted even after reboots due to a modification of the initial boot loader. The Roku 3 requires the commands every boot due to having updated software. The Roku 2 will be able to run XBMC once it is ported, which the team expects will be rather soon.



Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 29 Dec 2013 20:47

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• 4 comments

• dEwMe

  My Roku 3 does exactly what I want it to right out of the box. Prob the one thing I have no reason to root. It's not like they are blocking any channels I might want or anything I can think of. What would be the point of this? Because we can?
  
  

  Just my $0.02,
  
  dEwMe

  30.12.2013 08:36 #1

• Bozobub

  Because with this mod, now people can use the Roku 2/3 as a true, inexpensive HTPC and run XBMC, which many are fond of. In other words, now it will be at least as capable as a $70 Android stick PC.
  
  It's the exact same for phones. Yes, it does not make much sense to root a phone, either, if it does everything you want it to do (that the hardware is capable of). But that's often not the case, especially long after the device's release.
  
  Some people demonstrably do need or want this capability.

  31.12.2013 09:17 #2

• Bozobub

  Originally posted by mikealfred16: GSpot can be used to determine the codecs required for a movie to play. AVICodec, despite its name has better MPEG capabilities and thus is reccomended for MPEG files What, exactly, does that have to do with Roku set-top boxes..?

  31.12.2013 11:58 #3

• ddp

  idiot banned & hid
  

  31.12.2013 12:43 #4