Show HN: hacking our set-top box

[juliennakache]

We're 2 hackers out of NYC and we had tons of fun building Zapkast.com, our take on Social TV.

We played with: - c/c++ for hacking our set top boxes, - ruby/rails for the rest api, - eventmachine/node/erlang for the xmpp api/real time backend, - ios/cocoa for the iPhone app, - redis & mysql for the datastores.

We did everything ourselves, even the logo and UI :) Tell us what you think! http://zapkast.com

[mickeyben]

clickable: http://zapkast.com

[vkdelta]

Would you please explain STB component of the app? I don't see any.

[dahawi]

Basically we have a server connected to STBs running C++ scripts that rotate over every channel (the STBs are operated with an IR blaster) to capture snapshots which are then uploaded to S3 (with a little node.js component) that are fed to the client app via XMPP.

[isalmon]

Very nice idea guys, going to use that.

[mickeyben]

too bad it's limited to the US store

[dahawi]

well, it's not like a lot of people are going to watch live american TV from abroad ;)

[juliennakache]

Let us install a set-top box at your place and you should be good to go ! :)

[lordarf]

i love the screenshot feature

[lithium42]

Great idea, I like it !

[julienhwd]

Nice App!

[patothon]

Nice!