Forum Discussion

ooshwa's avatar
ooshwa
Visitor
15 years ago

Is this possible with Roku?

Our company is considering developing a Roku channel. Per our requirements...

  1. Would it be possible to have a Roku channel download video files from our servers and save them to an external USB drive for playing "offline"?
  2. Does the Roku box have sufficient resources to play these local videos while downloading "the next" videos concurrently?
  3. Is this functionality possible given any potential limits of the development environment?


Thank you for any insight you can provide.
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7 Replies

  • ooshwa's avatar
    ooshwa
    Visitor
    15 years ago
    Does any Roku staff have any insight into these questions?
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Visitor
    15 years ago
    While it is theoretically possible to download a file, writing it to a USB drive and play it back later, this is not recommended for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it will limit your potential audience to owners of the XR or XDS. It also will not allow users to get immediate gratification and stream the content they want to watch instantly. You would also have to manage space on the drive and deal with drives that may not be writable.

    Patrick
  • kbenson's avatar
    kbenson
    Visitor
    15 years ago
    I haven't done anything with the USB support, but I believe nothing you've stated is a problem, except possibly for #2. Using Asynchronous downloading and the normal video playback (which is asynchronous by nature) allows both operations to happen at the same time, but I have no idea if there's enough load generated by doing so to cause a problem playing a video at the same time. I suspect it's not a problem, unless you are using 1080p playback, in which case you may be at the edge of the capabilities of the box and additional load may adversely affect it. I suggest you download the SDK and take a look at the Component Reference for what operations are supported with USB drives, and in general.
  • destruk's avatar
    destruk
    Streaming Star
    15 years ago
    In regard to downloading the next video while the current one is playing, what would happen if the next file isn't downloaded by the time the first file finishes playing? If you're going to be doing this, it'd be easier to simply download all videos to the USB, and then have your channel verify that all required content is available before it is starting the playlist with the .exists method.
  • destruk's avatar
    destruk
    Streaming Star
    15 years ago
    Or perhaps I'm not understanding your question - maybe you don't want to play back the files 'offline' on a roku - if you want to play them back on a pc or mac or something else later, using the roku as a kind of FTP client, then I guess it wouldn't be so much of an issue if you have enough space on the usb device.
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Visitor
    15 years ago
    For commercial, looping applications, you might consider Roku's "sister" company, Brightsign (Brightsign.biz), whose products are designed for that application (and have some technology in common with Roku)

    We're glad to discuss more, feel free and email partners@roku.com