Roku Developer Program

[greno]

Hi all. Just wanted to let everyone know that I just released a new Android app and Roku channel called Juice for Roku. Basically, it lets you send photos and music directly from your Andorid phone to the Roku without needing any media server or uploading files to a web server. The goal was to give Roku some AirPlay like capabilities.

I don't think there is anything else out there like it, and would appreciate your feedback before I start to really promote it. Just search the Android market for "Juice for Roku". There is a free demo version you can try. It should also prompt you to install the Juice for Roku channel here: https://owner.roku.com/add/juice.

There is also an experimental feature where if you long press a video from the Gallery app, then select Share, pick "Juice for Roku", it will stream the video to the Roku from your phone. However, native Android videos don't work. But if you downloaded MPEG 4 videos to your phone, they should work.

Looking forward to hearing your comments!

-Gregg Reno
Jigawatt Labs
http://jigawattlabs.com

[Taytus]

Wow!!, that's awesome.

Have you plans to make an app for iPhone too?

Congrats.

[greno]

I would like to at some point, but would probably need to partner with someone else since I'm not a iOS developer.

[JRGarmon]

I just bought the app and I think it is awesome. I can not get the streaming video thing to work yet, I have followed the insturctions but it could be something on my side of the app. Have you ever thought about combinding the music and photo slide show together.

[greno]

Glad you like it, and thanks for buying a copy.

I did test having music and photos at the same time. I like the idea of having background music for slideshows. But in my testing on my older Roku, the music would stutter when loading the photos. So I turned it off for now, but I'm not sure how to get around that.

What type of video are you trying to stream? It seems videos taken on an Android device are not compatible with the Roku. But if you download some other MPEG4 videos in the right format, they seem to work fine.
-Gregg

[gonzotek]

"greno" wrote:
I did test having music and photos at the same time. I like the idea of having background music for slideshows. But in my testing on my older Roku, the music would stutter when loading the photos. So I turned it off for now, but I'm not sure how to get around that.
-Gregg

How large are the images you're sending? If they're multi-megapixel, maybe you can resize them on-the-fly on the device before the roku gets them? If the roku has to do the resizing, it's a computationally expensive process, and since they're only going to be used for tv display the max pixels you'd need would be 1920x1080 (~2 megapixels according to google). That may not fix it, it might be that any network activity of enough data will make the audio choppy, but it could be something to try (if you haven't already that is 🙂 ).

[greno]

That's a good idea. I have thought about doing that when sending single images to reduce the transfer time. But with the way I'm architected the app, if someone sends a slideshow with multiple pictures, i would have to scale them all before sending the list of photos to the Roku. Kind of expensive CPU wise and could fill up temporary storage on the phone. But maybe I could do the scaling once the phone gets a request for the next image. I'll have to play with that.

I've been testing with 8 megapixel shots, which are pretty big - maybe 5 mb.

Thanks,
-Gregg

[benneplex]

Great concept. Still can't get the pics or music to work though. Too bad, really was hoping this would work out. Channel took long enough to populate that I couldn't test before the refund window expired. Now I just have a $2.99 remote. Hopefully future releases fix this and I will get the full functionality at some point.

[greno]

benneplex - did you install the juice channel and tune to it before trying to send photos and music? If you haven't added it yet, you can do it by going to https://owner.roku.com/add/juice

I always give refunds to people who have problems making it work. Just drop me an email at gregg@greggreno.com if thats what you want to do.

Also, did you know there is a free version available to test with, and it only has a couple of limitations. I always suggest people try the free one first to make sure it works before buying the full version.

-Gregg

[meaghm00]

Hi,
I installed the demo version of Juice for Roku on my droidX and added the private channel to one of my three rokus. I am streaming Army of Darkness to the roku right now! It did stall once but now seems to be working well. Looked at a photo and that worked fine also. Will try the music feature next. I really think this will be awesome!