Forum Discussion

mjbillings's avatar
mjbillings
Visitor
10 years ago

Roku 4 uses of local storage

I've read through SDK documentation but can't confirm it is for the Roku 4 so I wanted to ask what can the local SD/USB storage be used for?

What I would like to do is use it for a cache of some sort. For example, someone brings up my channel and starts streaming a video. They exit and come back and want to play the same video so it pulls it from the cache instead of restreaming. There may have to be some meta data indicating when the cache should expire and the content would ideally be protected so it could not be pirated.

Is this possible?

Thanks,
Michael
Device memory and storage questions
Roku Developer Program

5 Replies

  • RokuJoel's avatar
    RokuJoel
    Binge Watcher
    10 years ago
    Hi, no it isn't possible, it is used to allow the device to store more channels locally, so you can have more installed without the system swapping out the least used channels to make room at launch time.

    - Joel
  • RokuKC's avatar
    RokuKC
    Roku Employee
    10 years ago
    I think Michael might be referring to the regular USB 2.0 port where a regular customer data USB stick can be inserted, rather than the microSD card slot.

    My understanding is that USB sticks are mounted read-only, so your app can read/play media files from it, but can't write to it to use it like a cache.
  • RokuMarkn's avatar
    RokuMarkn
    Visitor
    10 years ago
    The OP mentioned both SD and USB, so just to clarify, what Joel and Kevin said were both correct but apply to the different ports:

    An SD card is not accessible in any way by a channel, and is used only by the firmware to increase channel storage.

    A USB storage device is accessible by a channel via the "ext1:" device, but can only be read, not written.

    --Mark
  • mjbillings's avatar
    mjbillings
    Visitor
    10 years ago
    Thanks for the responses. I didn't know the SD card was only for system storage so I was referring to any storage the user might add to the device.

    Major bummer though.

    Michael