Football Channel (Read Soccer Channel for some)

I was trying a few weeks ago using a URL grabber, and also the Activity Monitor in Safari to figure out how the ESPN3 stream works... I haven't yet figured out what the URL is for the actual FLV file, so I can't tell the format of the video, if it is H.264 or not.

For a real soccer channel, we need to figure out how to do an http request for both ESPN3 and Univision's live streams... ESPN3 is free stream for all AT&T DSL users, then to figure out if the roku can even play the video, then there is the issue of building the Roku App.

- Joel

ESPN3 is not an option since they re-send their feeds in flash and Roku's Player does not support flash as of present. You will not have free access to the ESPN3 feeds so until Disney corp is changing how ESPN3 is broadcasting it is a waste of time.

Aren't most flash videos just AVIs encapsulated? My (mis?)understanding was that if the encoder was h.264 you could play .flv files on the roku.

I don't know a huge amount about video formats, but I do know there are codecs that do the actual encoding and containers, which specifies and contains both the audio and video file format(codecs) and contain extra information, such as subtitles (if supported). h.264 is a codec, avi, mp4, wmv and flv are containers.

The Roku can play h.264 encoded files, at least if encoded to specific specs (I don't have details on that, but check this forum), but it can only stream from certain containers. The definitive list is in the SDK docs.

What I understand about flash is that it can play whatever container/codec combinations are supported by the flash binary. Adobe would have the definitive list. Wikipedia does have a nice table though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... er_formats

The Roku box does not officially support the Flash .flv container....

--Kevin

Hmm... a lot could be read into that statement! :mrgreen:

-JT

Just to clarify, my flash comment. ESPN3 (or at least their contractor) is using Flash Media Server to send so you will get their content with Adobe's RTMP which is meant for a flash player/container and I understand the Roku box does not support this... officially, I guess. 😄

"jbrave" wrote:
I was trying a few weeks ago using a URL grabber, and also the Activity Monitor in Safari to figure out how the ESPN3 stream works... I haven't yet figured out what the URL is for the actual FLV file, so I can't tell the format of the video, if it is H.264 or not.

Nothing in this reply is real nor intended to be because I do not know. As I am watching a movie, I am just thinking out loud and you should think of it as a good bedtime story-star wars style.

E3 worked with their Media consultant {MM} for "hours" and dizzed the other M network as other sport content owners did. In the current year, E3 snuggled up good with MM to introduce a new and owned-built player for the World Cup in Soccer with Great features using the flash platform. E is good good at getting steams from other providers which MM will re-encode for E3's users.

The E3 player in the browser talks to the FMS beast to discover the content and find the stream on a load balanced server network through the bigger M brother's network after finger-printing you, your browser, and ISP. This finger-print allows access to the event that you may have clicked on. They will give a Smile xml to E3 and everyone is happy.

R2D2 lives...

"kbenson" wrote:
The Roku can play h.264 encoded files

Correct, the Philips chip can play alot of things like divx etc but this is not currently available through the Roku framework.

"jbrave" wrote:
Aren't most flash videos just AVIs encapsulated? My (mis?)understanding was that if the encoder was h.264 you could play .flv files on the roku.

Not all of them. Like Youtube. They stream the videos in either FLV or MP4 format, and the Youtube channel that nowhereman created is actually letting you view the MP4 videos. That's how we are able to watch Youtube videos on the Roku in HD. So if you can find a site that also offers video that plays in MP4 format and the audio format meets Roku's standards, then you can possibly make a channel out of it.