Qt on Set Top Boxes

Qt is a well known lightweight approach to GUIs for Linux systems. It is used for user interfaces by many Linux programmers and is used on professional user interfaces on the desktop and embedded systems.

Roku used Qt to develop a set-top-box for direct streaming of video content from Netflix and Amazon to consumers' TVs.


Qt seems easy to port and in Rokus case they produce an interface for the PC and for the set top so portability was important.

Another company using Qt is SmartLabs, a Russian company specialising in IPTV. They, like many other IPTV companies, have a unique embedded user interface client. In this case, it is based on Qt. SmartTube, as it is called, is impressively fast.



Qt is aimed at a C++ environment, supports MIPS, ARM and x86 processors and a range of embedded platforms such as embedded Linux, Windows CE, QNX and Linux.