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Networking at no charge: an update

Ok, just spoke with a friendly Roku salesperson. Apparently, “Networking at no extra charge” means that the new Roku BrightSign HD2000 has features that allow you to point it to a folder on a server over the network (for free) or install and manage Roku’s server software (Windows only) on your server (for free). For a charge (around $250 a year, he wasn’t exactly sure) you can pay to use Roku’s hosted solution, which is much like RedPost except you can set up multiple zones, tickers and do HD video.

Maybe I overreacted yesterday evening to their press release. Maybe it was just confusing, as networking is built-in (for free!) to every PC.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 14th, 2008 @ 6:46 pm on the category Digital Signage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • Ross
    " networking is built-in (for free!) to every PC"

    Well sort of, except not on Windows. They're software may be free but if you're using Windows you can use the IP stack for free, but if you are accessing a CIFS share or a Windows server, then you have to pay a client access license (yes, ridiculous I know). You can of course pay for one of the schemes that essentially gives you unlimited CALS, but it isn't cheap. It gets worse if they use Sql Server, suddenly your free software is far from free.
  • Wait, you have to pay for client licenses to access a file sharing server in Windows? Part of me feels dumb for not knowing this. Part of me is glad I never learned it. I just can't imagine the Microsoft business model is going to survive long term...it still seems to be doing well though, at least, financially for Microsoft. Huh.
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