Vudu HD STB Teardown
October 12th, 2007Received the Vudu box earlier today! After a quick power-on to ensure functionality, we did what we do best - tear it apart!
Rear-panel connectors: Component, Composite, S-Video, HDMI, Digital Coax/SPDIF, Analog L/R, 10/100 Ethernet, USB, Power, and Antenna.
Remote Control: RF Wireless, Scroll-wheel
Internal Component Identification:
- SoC: Broadcom BCM7401
- Flash: SST 39VF020
- RAM: Nanya NT5DS16M16CS x 4
- Hard Drive: 250GB 7200 RPM SATA
… and that’s pretty much it in terms of major components.
Security appears to be handled by a front-loadable smartcard. I’m not sure exactly what purpose it serves - could be movie decryption related, or user identification.
Hard drive analysis:
- 11 partitions?!
- Linux OS confirmed
- Most partitions appear to be encrypted, will check in detail shortly
- Because of the above, mount attempts on a Linux machine failed
Notable mentions:
The boot flash sits in a PLCC socket. Most EE’s should be able to easily dump the contents using an inexpensive reader. For legal reasons, I will not post any information contained in this chip should I ever decide to poke around.
The board appears to have an exposed JTAG port! I haven’t tried probing it yet to confirm connectivity, but who knows… it may be open!
A few blurry pics for now, but check back later for more!