Channel Issues & Questions

[Grandpa]

PBS:
Washington Week played fine.
The recitals from Carnegie Hall had sound drop outs.
CNN:
Amanpour played fine.
360 played with no problems.
Fox:
All played OK but not much content, 1 to 3 min. shows.

[TucsonTumblewee]

I hope that even though Nowwhereman's channels codes are available without a donation that folks are still donating. I see that the other private channel maker (supersecretusername) has already received $200-700 for each channel.

I also wanted to second the request for This American Life and Science Friday (NPR) despite the fact that they are audio only.

[JoshuaMarc1234]

"TucsonTumbleweed" wrote:
I hope that even though Nowwhereman's channels codes are available without a donation that folks are still donating. I see that the other private channel maker (supersecretusername) has already received $200-700 for each channel.

I also wanted to second the request for This American Life and Science Friday (NPR) despite the fact that they are audio only.

While I would have to agree with you on rewarding both channel developers on effort, I don't find any of the content very compelling for either developer's channels and hence didn't donate - no disrespect to either developers efforts. Just some honest feedback that hopefully will be taken as useful and not mean spirited.

I actually appreciated not having to donate to NWM's channels to check them out. Though I could tell from the YouTube video clips that I wasn't interested in the Erotic TV gentleman's content either, so that worked as well, as far as previewing.

While I certainly think it's fair that they request some compensation for their efforts, I'm finding that all the additional channels, Roku Store and Private, to NF and Amazon are just taking up space in my channel queue, which is really speaking only to my taste/interests.

I'm really looking forward to seeing if any of the new channel development will bring 1st Run/Premium or more interesting content.

If not, I'm going to switch to Boxee Box when it comes out, if only for the UI and TV content.

[terryowen]

"JoshuaMarc1234" wrote:

While I would have to agree with you on rewarding both channel developers on effort, I don't find any of the content very compelling for either developer's channels and hence didn't donate - no disrespect to either developers efforts. Just some honest feedback that hopefully will be taken as useful and not mean spirited.

I'm finding that all the additional channels, Roku sanctioned and Private, to NF and Amazon are just taking up space in my channel queue, which is really speaking only to my taste/interests.

I'm really looking forward to seeing if any of the new channel development will bring 1st Run/Premium or more interesting content.

If not, I'm going to switch to Boxee Box when it comes out, if only for the UI and TV content.

I live in an area where the digital tv reception is terrible and channel selection is limited to the major network affiliates and one independent, so I've been slowly readjusting the way I watch media - because my local cable company is a monopoly and I'm tired of paying more and more for less and less.

Since my ultimate goal is dumping my cable company, the mini channels on the Roku seem to fill the need to channel surf just as well as the 300 digital channels that no one ever watches. Traditional viewing might not be very well supported yet (other than Netflix) but if there was a premium channel for Hulu or even tv.com, that would be all I'd need to cut the cable bill out. I have a Tivo, so that could go, too. I never get a chance to watch live anymore, anyway.

I'm thinking about Boxee, too but since I already had 2 Roku boxes I'm going to get my money's worth out of them. And even if I do end up with a different media server source, the Rokus will still get used, if only relegated to bedrooms, so more choice is always welcome.

Terry

[terryowen]

"KennyJ" wrote:

"terryowen" wrote:

"KennyJ" wrote:


TV.com and Hulu content is in Flash format. The Roku firmware doesn't currently support Flash.

Interesting... because my G1 phone didn't support flash until I modded to 2.1 last week, so the app for tv.com must have bypassed it somehow.

I think with all the iPhone apps and upcoming iPad talk, more sites will be friendlier to non-flash applications. Hope so, anyway.

Terry

Is it an official App? Flash is the front-end, but they may have h.264 videos stored securely on their servers that they can deliver through their phone App. But it would likely be impossible to access this without their permission.

I think it probably is an official app but the content is more limited than the regular website. There is still a lot of full length content, though. Not that I'm going to watch a full length episode of Y&R, Numb3rs or Beauty and the Beast on my phone (there are better sources for those) the best bits of Letterman and Ferguson are cool.

Maybe they could be persuaded to create a Roku channel similar to the phone app if they had enough requests.

Terry

[RokuMarkn]

"nowhereman" wrote:

"hucfinn" wrote:
NBC shows like olberman and maddow start an infinite loop at 14 minutes in. I'm guessing it's an NBC thing. Maybe switching streams. Also happens on Mediafly. Does anyone know the reason as this could be a major flaw to many streams in the future.

I've noticed things like this too. And not only with NBC content. These shows play fine in iTunes or on an iPod, but on those devices, the entire file is downloaded before playback. Maybe the streaming nature of the box is just not conducive to playing podcasts. Perhaps the box is overly picky about how the file was encoded. Or maybe there's an issue with the box's playback logic. I'd be interested to hear what the Roku guys have to say about these issues.

The problem with NBC shows going into a rebuffer loop at 14 minutes is due to a known problem in the firmware which will be fixed in an upcoming release. Technically, it's because the audio/video interleave is too large for the player to handle.

--Mark

[robertm]

"JoshuaMarc1234" wrote:

While I would have to agree with you on rewarding both channel developers on effort, I don't find any of the content very compelling for either developer's channels and hence didn't donate - no disrespect to either developers efforts. Just some honest feedback that hopefully will be taken as useful and not mean spirited.

That is not the point. The point is that if a developer can make some money off of it they will be more interested in adding more channels.

NWM's streaming tracking site is worth a donation all by itself.

[silentprey1968]

Great job NWM! I see your working on a MLB channel. Any chance you could do something with the NHL? The work your putting into this is appreciated. Thank you!

[JoshuaMarc1234]

"robertm" wrote:

"JoshuaMarc1234" wrote:

While I would have to agree with you on rewarding both channel developers on effort, I don't find any of the content very compelling for either developer's channels and hence didn't donate - no disrespect to either developers efforts. Just some honest feedback that hopefully will be taken as useful and not mean spirited.

That is not the point. The point is that if a developer can make some money off of it they will be more interested in adding more channels.

NWM's streaming tracking site is worth a donation all by itself.

My only point Robert is that more channels, both Roku Store and Private, have not provided anything that I watch, so additional channels, Roku Store or otherwise, of similar content don't excite me. Which is why I'm beginning to think that the Boxee Box will be a better fit for me with it's TV offerings and more navigable/robust UI.

I bring all this up because I think there are valid issues here that Roku is going to have to contend with in competing with the Boxee Box, when it comes out.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Roku but it has it's limitations as regards content beyond NF and Amazon - for my viewing tastes that is.

Great point on NWM's streaming tracker's value, thanks.

[mforan]

Great channels, nice interface, setup was pretty easy. I like it all EXCEPT I get frequent re-buffering, about every 15 seconds. My ISP d/l speed is 10mb/s. Debug reports I'm streaming the NASA channel at 1.5mb/s on my 9.5mb/s network. I've set the Roku to its fastest speed rather than leave it on auto, but still the same result. Back in the Amazon beta days a lot of folks had this same problem, but gradually fixes on the Amazon end solved the problem. So, perhaps its on the servers generating the signal now?