7. STORit box software aspects

The software developed for the STORit box can roughly be divided in three layers:

1. User Interface: dealing with what's visible on the TV screen, and the interaction via the remote control.
2. Content Management System: dealing with programme information, EPG and meta data, content on storage volumes.
3. Video handling: the modules that deal with recording and playing back video.

The STORit box was implemented under the Linux operating system because of its superior multi-tasking capabilities, relatively easy device driver development for our custom-made hardware, and easy access to low-level PC internals. These are exactly the features that have enabled us to build a TV Anytime prototype in a relatively short time.
The user interface and content management modules were programmed in Java. The video handling modules were programmed in C, which allowed us to meet the stringent real-time constraints that occur only in this layer. In both cases, portability to other -consumer- platforms is feasible with acceptable effort.

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