Roku OS
Screenshot
Roku OS home screen, TV remote, mobile app
DeveloperRoku Inc
Written inC, BrightScript (scripting language), SceneGraph (object-oriented XML framework)
OS familyLinux on embedded systems
Working stateCurrent
Source modelClosed-source
Released to
manufacturing		2004
Latest release12.5 / October 2023[1]
Marketing targetStreaming television
Update methodOver-the-air update
Package managerropm[2]
PlatformsARM Cortex-A53, ARM Cortex-A55, ARM Cortex-A73, ARM Cortex A35, ARM quad core 1 GHz, ARM dual core 1.2 GHz[3][4]
Kernel typeMonolithic (Linux)
Default
user interface		Graphical (Multi-touch)
LicenseProprietary
Official websitewww.roku.com/how-it-works/roku-os

The Roku OS is an operating system, by Roku Inc., which powers consumer electronics such as smart TVs and streaming devices. Based on Linux, it features a user interface linking into Roku's Channel Store. In 2022, the Roku OS reportedly had 70 million users,[5] leading the U.S. smart TV and streaming device sector.[6][7]

The Roku OS serves as a video streaming platform that hosts both free and paid "channels".[8][9] The operating system initially debuted on Roku's streaming devices in 2004,[10] and expanded to support smart TVs starting in 2016. Additionally, it powers Roku-branded home entertainment devices, such as smart speakers, as of 2023.[9][11]

History

Initial development

In January 2004, Roku's digital media player, called HD1000, was powered by the Roku OS.[10] The Roku OS was reportedly based on Linux with kernel version 2.4.18, and leveraged open-source software, including Samba, Busybox, jpeglib, and zlib. The Roku OS also accompanied a C/C++ based software development kit (SDK), for its media player, to provide a development environment supporting Windows, Mac, or Linux-based hosts.

Support for smart TVs

In October 2015, Roku announced the release of Roku OS 7. This release allowed television viewers using Roku’s streaming devices to "follow" actors, directors, as well as TV shows and films.[12] In June 2016, Roku OS 7.2 was launched which supported Roku's streaming devices as well as Roku-branded TVs.[13] In October 2017, Roku OS 8 was announced. It featured single sign-on for paid TV customers and integration of TV programming from over-the-air TV, among other updates.[14]

Vulnerability reports

In June 2018, WIRED wrote that Roku devices running Roku OS 8.0 or lower were found to be vulnerable to a web attack of type DNS rebinding.[15] The WIRED article also cited Roku as saying that it had created a software patch in response, and was rolling out the patch to its customers.

April 2019 saw the release of Roku OS 9.1 adding "automatic account linking" (sparing users from re-entering login credentials previously entered on a Roku streaming device or TV), genre search, smarter voice control and other features.[16]

In April 2021, Roku announced the release of Roku OS 10, featuring "instant resume" for streaming channels, automatic configuration for gaming consoles, AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support to Roku HD streaming boxes and TVs etc.[17] In May 2021, Engadget reported on an "exploit" which took advantage of two vulnerabilities, in Roku OS versions lower than 10, to enable a "persistent root jailbreak" on Roku devices. The exploit gave users control over what channels they installed. Roku stated in response that it had mitigated the vulnerabilities by updating Roku OS 9.4.[18]

Further releases, reach

In March 2022, Roku announced Roku OS 11, adding new audio options, custom photo screensavers etc.[19]

In March 2023, the Roku OS was reported to have 70 million active accounts[5] and to have led the US smart TV and streaming device sector in 2022.[7][6] In October 2023, Roku announced Roku OS 12.5, focused on sports, live TV, and easier content discovery.[20]

Features

The Roku OS is a Linux-based closed-source streaming platform which runs free channels such as the Roku Channel, ABC, NBC and Pluto TV, and subscription channels such as Netflix, Disney+ and Hulu.[8][9] The operating system powers Roku TVs, streaming devices and smart speakers.[9][11] According to Roku, the operating system is able to run on "low power chips" using small memory footprints.[21] The operating system has been suggested to be not as “flashy” or "eye-catching" as other similar systems, yet offering an easy access to streaming content.[17]

Roku Channel Store

The Roku OS includes the Roku Channel Store, featuring a collection of apps Roku calls "channels".[22] The operating system allows users to browse streaming channels available, displayed in a grid format.[9][23] In 2023, mobile app analytics company "42matters AG" was reported as stating that there were over 26,000 apps available in the Roku Channel Store.[24]

Features for channel viewers

The Roku OS offers content search, voice control, "private listening" (using bluetooth headphones), "continue watching", "screen mirroring" (to mirror a smartphone screen or a computer screen to TV), "guest mode", parental controls and custom photo screensavers.[9][25][26]

Tools for advertisers, developers

Roku says the Roku OS integrates tools which allow Roku's channel publishers and advertisers to measure the effectiveness of online video advertisements delivered by the company.[27] Roku OS 10.5 or higher supports an "independent developer kit" (IDK), built for Roku devices, which Roku says allows developers to create not only streaming channels but also other applications.[28][29]

Compatibility

Consumer products running the Roku OS include:

Version history

In the below table, the information about user features and supported products for Roku OS 7.2 and onwards comes from a Roku Support page.[13] All other information is sourced from a Roku Developer page.[39]

Roku OS version history
Version Release date Supported products New / updated user features New / updated developer features
2.4 December 17, 2009 Roku player Integration of Roku's Channel Store development activities with the Roku SDK.
2.6 June 28, 2010 Roku player XR New user interface for developers on the Channel Store for managing channels
2.7 November 7, 2010 Roku XD, Roku XDS, Roku HD New features to the Roku SDK
2.8 November 18, 2010 Developer-controlled HLS stream switching strategies for improved playback ability
2.9 March 31, 2011 MKV playback on local USB devices, Roku's Channel Store to allow purchasing a “Premium” channel from within a “Lite” channel
3.0 April 18, 2011 Ability to build 2D games for the Roku box
4.1 December 21, 2011 Roku generation 2 streaming players Additional support for Roku's Brightscript language
4.8 July 3, 2011 Roku generation 2 streaming players, Roku streaming stick Internationalization and localization support (Spanish, French and German languages), In-channel purchasing of new content and features
4.9 November 12, 2012 Support for in-app subscription billing
5.0 June 5, 2013 All second and later generation Roku devices Updated layout and feel for home screen for navigating channels, Roku's Channel Store, and settings Memory improvements, improved security
5.1 August 5, 2013 In-stream captions support
5.2 October 8, 2013 New security model for sideloading channels, New authentication method for web interface for Roku devices
5.3 December 17, 2013 User configurable caption settings which allow turning captions on or off at the system level
5.4 April 14, 2014 New data structures for controlling closed captions, bug fixes
6.1 December 4, 2014 Updates to Roku's BrightScript language
6.2 April 9, 2015 Addition of Roku's Advertising Framework to natively integrate advertising capabilities
7.0 November 6, 2015 Roku 4 Streaming Media Player Ability to "follow" a particular search term (a movie, director, or an actor) Addition of Roku's new user interface programming API, called SceneGraph, Additional support for Roku's BrightScript language
7.1 April 5, 2016 BrightScript and BrightScript component improvements
7.2 June 21, 2016
  • Roku Streaming Players: 4400X, 4230X, 4210X, 4200X, 3600X, 3500X, 3420X, 3400X, 3100X, 3050X, 3000X, 2720X, 2710X, 2700X, 2650X, 2600X, 2500X, 2450X, 2400X
  • Roku TV: all models
 Screen mirroring, improved boot time, improved performance and reliability of wireless remote connections, bug fixes A new "text to speech feature" to allow all Roku applications to provide audible spoken versions of the user interface, an option to buffer a video stream without actually playing
7.5 November 1, 2016
  • Roku Streaming Players: 4640X, 4630X, 4620X, all models supported by the preceding release
  • Roku TV: all models
 Live TV pause, "private listening" (via headphones), bug fixes Updates to Roku's SceneGraph and BrightScript languages
7.6 April 11, 2017
  • Roku Streaming Players: same as the preceding release
  • Roku TV: all models
 Closed caption on replay, "favorite" list for broadband channels, custom naming for Roku TVs, faster resume from standby mode
7.7 June 20, 2017
  • Roku Streaming Players: same as the preceding release
  • Roku TV: all models
 Updates and bug fixes Bug fixes and firmware optimizations to increase performance of Roku SceneGraph
8.0 October 2, 2017
  • Roku Streaming Players: 4660X, other models the same as the preceding release
  • Roku TV: all models
 Smart Guide, an electronic program guide for Roku TV models, update to Roku's "4K Spotlight Channel", enhanced voice capabilities Performance and optimization improvements, updates to Roku's SceneGraph language
8.1 May 1, 2018
  • Roku Streaming Players: same as the preceding release
  • Roku TV: all models
 Private listening via a mobile app, update to voice search, bug fixes
8.2 September 26, 2018 Support for Roku's new wireless speakers, Spotify availability Firmware optimizations and bug fixes
9.0 October 23, 2018
  • Roku Streaming Players: 4661X, other models the same as the preceding release
  • Roku TV: all models
 "Automatic Volume Leveling", voice enhancements including “free” genre search, and performance improvements Improvements to the memory footprint and launch times of Roku SceneGraph language, feature additions for Roku's BrightScript language
9.1 April 9, 2019
  • Roku Streaming Players: same as the preceding release
  • Roku TV: all models
 Enhancements to voice capabilities, Guest Mode, Automatic Account Link and other improvements New line-level debugging to the BrightScript Profiler tool, to better pinpoint high memory and CPU usage. Signal beacons for measuring video start time, channel change time, and channel exit times, to verify that a channel's performance
9.2 September 24, 2019
  • Roku Streaming Players: 4670X, 4662X, all models supported by the preceding release except for 2500X, 2450X, 2400X
  • Roku TV: all models
 "Roku Zones", easier discovery of 4K content, a new Roku Tips & Tricks channel etc Media updates to allow optimization of playback and further securing protected content. New APIs to further customize channel UIs.
9.3 April 7, 2020
  • Roku Streaming Players: 9101X, all models supported by the preceding release
  • Roku TV: all models
 Support for Spanish language commands when using Roku Voice, Support for Alexa and Google Assistant Features to enhance the performance of media playback and Roku devices in general, and expand platform support for industry standards covering content and meta-data. Additional facilities to expedite troubleshooting, performance monitoring, automated testing, and debugging of channels.
9.4 September 29, 2020
  • Roku Streaming Players: 9102X, all models supported by the preceding release
  • Roku TV: all models
 Support for Apple AirPlay, addition of audio tones for Theme Packs, updates to the Live TV Channel Guide Formal BrightScript exception handling via TRY/CATCH/THROW statements, new media playback features such as whitelisting/blacklisting of audio and caption tracks for different countries
10.0 April 13, 2021
  • Roku Streaming Players: all models supported by the preceding release
  • Roku TV: all models
 Expanded support for Apple AirPlay 2 and HomeKit, new Live TV Channel Guide controls, automatic game console configuration New command to the debug console that displays the memory and CPU usage of a sideloaded channel, ability to upgrade the keyboards, mini keyboards, PIN pads in channels
10.5 September 20, 2021
  • Roku Streaming Players and Streambars: all models supported by the preceding release
  • Roku TV: all models
 New interactive features, full surround sound capability Enhancements to Roku's SceneGraph language and to Roku Voice
11.0 March 22, 2022
  • Roku streaming players and Streambars: all models supported by the preceding release
  • Roku TV: all models
 New method to view and share personal photos, an modified way to find entertainment with recommendations, additional options to control audio settings, and update to Roku's mobile app SceneGraph standard dialog framework components for adding multi-style text, images and notes; BrightScript optional chaining operators for efficiently accessing possible undefined values; and ChannelStore APIs for displaying a customer's information in the Request for Information (RFI) sign-up screen
11.5 September 12, 2022
  • Roku streaming players and Streambars: all models supported by the preceding release except for the models older than 3600X
  • Roku TV: all models
 "Continue Watching", platform wide "Save List", updates to Live TV New SceneGraph video and content node fields that enhance the trick, play and pause screen experiences during video playback
12.0 March 8, 2023
  • Roku streaming players and Streambars: all models supported by the preceding release
  • Roku TV: all models
 Updates to Live TV, Sports, entertainment discovery, and the Roku mobile App A new BrightScript API for getting localized times and Instant Resume support for channels, new External Control Protocol (ECP) query commands, and support for BrightScript Debug Protocol to add breakpoints while the script is running
12.5 September 12, 2023
  • Roku streaming players and Streambars: all models supported by the preceding release
  • Roku TV: all models
 Updates to features such as What to Watch, Live TV, Sports Experience, Roku Photo Streams New APIs for monitoring the current amount of available memory for a channel and getting the device user agent, features that generally enhance the performance of media playback such as prebuffering for live content, improved closed captioning through ad breaks, and pre-playback audio and subtitle track selection


See also

References

  1. ↑ Archer (2023-10-04). "Roku Unveils Extensive New Platform Update—Including Expert 4K Picture Settings". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  2. ↑ RokuCommunity (September 2023). "A package manager for the Roku platform". Github. Retrieved 2023-10-07.
  3. ↑ Palermo (2021-10-15). "Roku Streaming Stick 4K Review: Midrange, But Definitely Not Middling". Cord Cutters News. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  4. ↑ Palermo (2020-10-15). "Roku Ultra 2020 Review: More Speed, More Features, and a Bit More Ultra". Cord Cutters News. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  5. 1 2 Sarangapurkar, Vishnu (2023-03-09). "Roku is getting a big update, brings its new smart TVs to Best Buy". Android Central. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
  6. 1 2 Lee, Wendy (2022-01-12). "Roku doubles down on L.A. as it makes big programming push". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-11-14.
  7. 1 2 "Android TV, Fire TV grew streaming OS market share with new strategies in 2022". www.spglobal.com. Retrieved 2023-09-30.
  8. 1 2 Price, Dan (2019-12-13). "What's the Best Smart TV Operating System?". MUO. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cohen, Simon (2023-08-04). "What is Roku? The streaming platform fully explained". Digital Trends. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  10. 1 2 LinuxDevices Staff (2004-01-08). "SDK, coding contest launch around Linux-based HDTV media player". linuxdevices.org. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  11. 1 2 3 Jarvey, Natalie (2018-01-03). "CES: Roku Expands Into Audio Devices With Home Entertainment Licensing Program". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  12. ↑ Svetlik, Joe (2015-10-06). "Roku OS 7 coming to all Roku devices this month". Trusted Reviews. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  13. 1 2 "Roku OS software release notes". support.roku.com. 2023-10-05. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  14. ↑ Goode, Lauren (2017-10-02). "Roku rolls out Roku OS 8, refreshes TV hardware with 4K and faster processors". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  15. ↑ Newman, Lily Hay (2018-06-19). "Millions of Streaming Devices Are Vulnerable to a Retro Web Attack". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  16. ↑ Fingas, Jon (2019-04-09). "Roku saves you from signing into accounts on a new device". Engadget. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  17. 1 2 Maring, Joseph (2021-04-14). "Roku OS 10: All The New Features & Upgrades Explained". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
  18. ↑ Lawler, Richard (2021-05-18). "Roku jailbreak gives users control over what channels they install". Engadget. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  19. ↑ Bonifacic, Igor (2022-03-22). "Roku OS 11 adds new audio options, photo screensavers and more". Engadget. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  20. ↑ Welch, Chris (2023-10-04). "Roku's next update focuses on sports, live TV, and easier content discovery". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  21. ↑ Frankellast, Daniel (2020-09-17). "Roku Devices Are 'Much Cheaper to Build' vs. Android TV, CFO Says". NextTV. Retrieved 2023-10-02.
  22. ↑ Krol, Jake (2018-12-23). "Roku Premiere and Premiere+ review: You should consider only one". Mashable. Retrieved 2023-11-15.
  23. ↑ Button, Chris (2022-11-04). "Roku TV finally comes to Australia courtesy of TCL". GadgetGuy. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  24. ↑ Casey, Henry T. (2023-03-23). "Roku Streaming Stick 4K review: The new best streaming device". Tom's Guide. Retrieved 2023-11-15.
  25. ↑ Rahmat, Omid (2023-03-10). "Roku and Google Updated Their TV Apps". displaydaily.com. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  26. ↑ Patterson, Ben (2022-09-12). "Roku OS 11.5 boosts "continue watching" and "save list" features". TechHive. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  27. ↑ Snider, Mike (2015-04-30). "Nielsen teams with Roku to measure Net video viewership". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2023-11-14.
  28. ↑ Keck, Catie (2021-10-29). "Roku launches new personal-use developer kit". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  29. ↑ Siegal, Jacob (2022-02-26). "Roku just added a great new feature that Netflix has had for years". BGR. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  30. ↑ Onawole, Habeeb (2022-09-13). "Roku OS 11.5: All The New Features Coming To Your Roku Device". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
  31. ↑ Spangler, Todd (2023-01-04). "Roku Announces First Smart TVs Designed and Made by the Company". Variety. Retrieved 2023-11-14.
  32. ↑ Hecht, Anna (2020-01-27). "Roku was the top tech stock in 2019; here's how much you'd have if you invested at IPO". CNBC. Retrieved 2023-11-14.
  33. ↑ Baig, Edward C. "First Look: New Roku 4 adds 4K streaming". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2023-11-15.
  34. ↑ Silva, Robert (2020-03-17). "Spotlight on Hitachi 4K Ultra HD TVs with Built-in Roku Streaming". Lifewire. Retrieved 2023-11-14.
  35. ↑ Spangler, Todd (2022-10-13). "Roku Channel Launches in Mexico". Variety. Retrieved 2023-11-14.
  36. ↑ KRIEGER, JÖRN (2022-09-01). "Roku launches Roku TV OS in Germany". Broadband TV News. Retrieved 2023-11-15.
  37. ↑ Archer, John (2023-07-23). "New Roku TVs Launch In UK Courtesy Of Polaroid". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-11-14.
  38. ↑ Willcox, James K. (2022-03-19). "TV Brands Aren't Always What They Seem". Consumer Reports. Retrieved 2023-11-14.
  39. ↑ "Roku OS developer release notes". developer.roku.com. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
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