Forum Discussion

cbrakhage's avatar
cbrakhage
Visitor
14 years ago

SMIL file support

Hello,

I have a quick question concerned SMIL files and Amazon Web Services (specifically S3 and CloudFront).

I'm delivering SMIL files through a web service hosted on my website (say http://www.website.com/services/smil.php?id=1).

1) We only want to support RTMP streaming, and from my understanding the Roku only likes HLS. Will a SMIL work with this if the contents of the SMIL are using a RTMP base?

2) Does Roku require you to use a m3u8 for HLS?

I'm fairly new to BrightScript, so if it would be easier to parse the XML myself, and create the metadata, then I can, but it would be super simple if this was supported. 🙂

Thanks!

Chris
Roku Developer Program

5 Replies

  • RokuChris's avatar
    RokuChris
    Roku Employee
    14 years ago
    There is no built in support for SMIL. You can parse the SMIL in BrightScript and extract the necessary data, but your SMIL will still need to contain a reference to a compatible stream. RTMP won't work.
  • RokuJoel's avatar
    RokuJoel
    Binge Watcher
    14 years ago
    typically, you would use RTMP to push your stream to a server that would deliver that stream as HLS to roku devices, typically that would be a Wowza or FMS server, but there are a few other options. The .SMIL file goes on the server and is typically used in multibitrate streaming scenarios. There is an option to run wowza on Amazon:

    http://www.wowza.com/pricing/ec2-streaming

    Yes you would use an m3u8 for HLS, although it may not be necessary that the file have the .m3u8 extension.

    IOS compatible two bitrate smil with 64k audio stream file might look like:

    <smil>
            <head>
            </head>
            <body>
                    <switch>
                            <video src="feed003" system-bitrate="64000">
                                    <param name="audioOnly" value="TRUE" valuetype="data"/>
                            </video>
                                    <video src="feed003" system-bitrate="564000"/>
                                    <video src="feed004" system-bitrate="1064000"/>
                    </switch>
            </body>
    </smil>


    and the url might look like:

    http://website.com/services/_definst_/video/my.smil/playlist.m3u8


    Hope that helps.

    - Joel
  • cbrakhage's avatar
    cbrakhage
    Visitor
    14 years ago
    Would setting up a HTTP stream on amazon work just as well?

    Also, I'm guessing the Roku doesn't support DRM?
  • RokuJoel's avatar
    RokuJoel
    Binge Watcher
    14 years ago
    You don't need a smil file, but some services use them.

    We don't currently support any flavors of DRM but there are numerous ways to secure your content on Roku.

    - Joel