Roku Developer Program

[greubel]

While trying to get PlayOn videos working with my channel, I ran across this:
I was setting the local network "maxbandwidth" and the "stream.bitrate" to an arbitrary value of 2000. This had always worked in the past but with PlayOn, he is setting the BANDWIDTH parameter in the video's M3U8 file to 2192000. I believe this comes from his initial testing of the local environment.

I have five Roku boxes to test for each of the platforms (no TV). They all worked using the hard coded value of 2000 BUT the Roku2 XS, it crashes at the start of loading the video ????

So I put in code to extract the BANDWIDTH value from the initial M3U8 file and use it for the "maxbandwidth" and "stream.bitrate" video parameters and now ALL the boxes work.

Roku(6.1 5500) Model 3100X

[TheEndless]

If you're streaming HLS, you should be using a stream bitrate of 0. Why are you setting it to 2000 in the first place? Also, if you set the maxbandwidth to 2000, that means it will never play a stream with a bitrate higher than 2mbps, which seems awfully limiting, especially for an app that is primarily for streaming local content. Why are you setting it at all?

[greubel]

I have yet to see any local DLNA server use multiple bitrates. I'm setting non-adaptive. And as far as setting the maxbandwidth to anything on a local network, I've yet to see any result except the number of dots displayed while loading. The Roku will gobble up the data as fas as possible until it runs out of buffers, irregardless of what we say.

The point of this post was to log the bug of "maxbandwidth" being lower than the BANDWIDTH value causes the Roku2 XS to crash and reboot.

I've worked on operating systems for a very looong time and it is just NOT acceptable for a user program to be able to crash the system.
Or does Roku follow the Microsoft model ?

[destruk]

I thought Roku followed the "Lizard Squad" model. 🙂

[EnTerr]

"greubel" wrote:
The point of this post was to log the bug of "maxbandwidth" being lower than the BANDWIDTH value causes the Roku2 XS to crash and reboot.

I've worked on operating systems for a very looong time and it is just NOT acceptable for a user program to be able to crash the system.
Or does Roku follow the Microsoft model ?

This is so curious - why is it that "Roku 2 XS" in particular seems to be the one plagued by crashes?
Have you tried on other models of the same platform - say Roku 2 HD, Roku 2 XD, Roku LT 2400, HDMI or MHL Stück?
Logically, they should also be prone to that crash.

On a side note, nowadays Microsoft does not seem to be plagued by the problems from Windows 95 yore, when carpy 3rd party drivers were thrashing memory and causing kernel panics. On the contrary, recently i grabbed a Nokia Lumia 635 to explore what Windows Phone is about and i have to say it is a nice and reliable platform. Better than Android in fact (yes, i was surprised too). And it can miracast to Roku no problem. A ~$100 no-contract phone mirrors to Roku, today. Ditto for Windows tablets in the same price range. I had sent feedback for the compatibility list, requesting the Co. to extend the list with affordable/popular devices, not only flagships. CSR reply was that the listed "represent the overall most popular devices". Uhuh, "most popular" - my mule. Lower tier Windows phones and tablets are outselling by magnitudes the $600 Lumia 1520 and $1000 Surface 3 Pros - plus MS was (figuratively) giving them away around Christmas.

[TheEndless]

"greubel" wrote:
I have yet to see any local DLNA server use multiple bitrates. I'm setting non-adaptive. And as far as setting the maxbandwidth to anything on a local network, I've yet to see any result except the number of dots displayed while loading. The Roku will gobble up the data as fas as possible until it runs out of buffers, irregardless of what we say.

The point of this post was to log the bug of "maxbandwidth" being lower than the BANDWIDTH value causes the Roku2 XS to crash and reboot.

I've worked on operating systems for a very looong time and it is just NOT acceptable for a user program to be able to crash the system.
Or does Roku follow the Microsoft model ?

I understand, and obviously the crash is worth reporting, but setting the explicit bitrate is what determines if dots should be shown. The MinBandwidth and MaxBandwidth settings are used to box the stream in (I never understood why they used "Bandwidth" instead of "Bitrate" for these), so that the player doesn't attempt to play any bitrates lower or higher than those settings. Unless you have a specific reason to cap the bitrates used, you shouldn't be setting the MaxBandwidth setting. If you set the MaxBandwidth lower than the available bitrates, then the stream will fail to play... it certainly shouldn't crash the box, but it also shouldn't play.

[greubel]

Ok, like I said, having the "maxbandwidth" set to 2000 and the files BANDWIDTH parameter set to 2192000, caused the the Roku 2XS to crash and burn.

If you set the MaxBandwidth lower than the available bitrates, then the stream will fail to play

All the other players worked fine.

1. HD N1000
2. XDS 2100X  
3. Roku 2XS 3100X  <- failed badly !
4. Roku 3 4200X
5. Roku Stick 3500

[TheEndless]

"greubel" wrote:
Ok, like I said, having the "maxbandwidth" set to 2000 and the files BANDWIDTH parameter set to 2192000, caused the the Roku 2XS to crash and burn.

If you set the MaxBandwidth lower than the available bitrates, then the stream will fail to play

All the other players worked fine.

1. HD N1000
2. XDS 2100X  
3. Roku 2XS 3100X  <- failed badly !
4. Roku 3 4200X
5. Roku Stick 3500

If it's working on any of the models, that's also a bug... Per the documentation:

MaxBandwidth - Integer - roVideoPlayer or roVideoScreen: Will only select variant streams with a bandwidth less than this maximum bandwidth. Units are kbps.

Its counterpart, MinBandwidth, is most often used to prevent the player from playing the low bitrate, audio-only streams. The bug(s) are definitely worth reporting, but it still stands that you're using the attribute incorrectly.

[firedup]

Now I am sure Putin has a Roku 2 XS.

[EnTerr]

"firedup" wrote:
Now I am sure Putin has a Roku 2 XS.

Gotta love drive-by shooters like @firedup and @kc8pql. Leaves me startled and wondering: is this about Putin's imagined role as enem* of the U of A? Is watching sitcoms mandatory? etc

And let me raise an eyebrow at TheEndless: you did not equate a bug of player crash&burn to the behavior of "won't play a stream", did you? 😉