Roku Developer Program

[Kev]

One word... AudioBooks; I have many, and I like the convenience of listening to them via Roku... except for the fact that if I don't listen to the entire recording in one sitting, I am stuck starting the file from the beginning each time - very annoying.
I've been searching for a Roku app with the "remember/resume", "fast-forward", and "fast-reverse" features for audio streams for some time without success. I am a retired IT professional so I downloaded the SDK and am considering building the app myself. I've been scouring the forum and, unless I'm missing something, have not found any discussions on the topic. I've run across the iTunes m4b format in my search - is this what I'm looking for or do I need to cobble together my own solution?
My vision is for a selection apart from Music, Video, and Photos called "Audio/Other" which would support the aforementioned enhancements and could be used for audio books, recorded radio broadcasts, taped lectures, etc. I would like to write/store the "bookmark" information to persistent storage on my laptop, making it available to any Roku device running the app on the network _unless_ that capability can be had by storing on the Roku itself.
I thought (PC+web server <-> Roku) may be viable as a personal channel solution.

Thanks in advance for any and all advice,
~Kev

[TheEndless]

There's a reason you can't find any channels that do what you're wanting. The Roku SDK doesn't provide any method for seeking to a specific point in an MP3 file, hence the lack of a resume feature for audio in most channels.

[destruk]

Yeah, the best we've ever come up with for this is to either overlay the audio onto a static frame image and use videoplayer. The other option for podcasts that are 3+ hours long is to split the mp3 into sections of 30 minutes each, and then use a playlist and then you can resume from the last 'half hour block' that was played, skip to the next block, or rewind to the previous block, with buffering in between each change. The Component Reference does say there is a seek() function for the audio player, but it doesn't do anything...soo........

[Kev]

"TheEndless" wrote:
There's a reason you can't find any channels that do what you're wanting. The Roku SDK doesn't provide any method for seeking to a specific point in an MP3 file, hence the lack of a resume feature for audio in most channels.

"destruk" wrote:
... The Component Reference does say there is a seek() function for the audio player, but it doesn't do anything...soo........

Arrrrhg... Please post if you see the need for this functionality that I do. Maybe a show of hands will make a difference in the next release of the SDK. Perhaps it's already being considered? Could some from Roku comment on that please?

Thanks,
~K

[gonzotek]

"Kev" wrote:

"TheEndless" wrote:
There's a reason you can't find any channels that do what you're wanting. The Roku SDK doesn't provide any method for seeking to a specific point in an MP3 file, hence the lack of a resume feature for audio in most channels.

"destruk" wrote:
... The Component Reference does say there is a seek() function for the audio player, but it doesn't do anything...soo........

Arrrrhg... Please post if you see the need for this functionality that I do. Maybe a show of hands will make a difference in the next release of the SDK. Perhaps it's already being considered? Could some from Roku comment on that please?

Thanks,
~K

+1 🙂

[RokuJoel]

A developer came up with a method using roVideoScreen to bookmark mp3's, I haven't tested, but he claims it works:

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=39272&p=303484&hilit=roaudioplayer+seek%5D#p303484

Joel

[destruk]

quoted from linked thread:
My last option was to switch to a roVideoScreen just to play mp3 files. Unfortunately I discovered some of the same issues with roVideoScreen. While it did provide the playback position notification and eliminated the need to use roTimespan/wait I still couldn't resume at a specific position. Calling Seek() prior to or after calling Show() had no effect, calling Seek() from the isStreamStarted() notification had no effect, and the PlayStart and StreamStartTimeOffset meta-data attributes were ignored for mp3 files. The ONLY way I was able to resume playback at a specific position was with the code below.

       resume = 100
       currentpos = 0
       isResumed = false
       while true
          msg = wait(0, port)
          if type(msg) = "roVideoScreenEvent" then
             if msg.isPlaybackPosition() then
                currentpos = msg.GetIndex()
                print "playback position: "; currentpos
                if not isResumed and resume > 0 then
                   isResumed = true
                   player.Seek((resume + 1) * 1000)
                endif
             endif
          endif
       end while

So to use this, I supposed the resume variable at the top is the number of seconds in to resume, and then you need to hope that an mp3 file will play with no video data available in the stream using the roVideoScreen component.
I haven't tried this. Can anyone confirm it does work on roku1 and roku2?

[TheEndless]

"destruk" wrote:
So to use this, I supposed the resume variable at the top is the number of seconds in to resume, and then you need to hope that an mp3 file will play with no video data available in the stream using the roVideoScreen component.
I haven't tried this. Can anyone confirm it does work on roku1 and roku2?

He's using an roVideoScreen, which means he's blocking all UI execution with a black video screen while he's playing his audio. I'd be very interested in knowing if this works with the roVideoPlayer component as well, which could be hidden during playback.

Bizarre that Seek() would only work after receiving an isPlaybackPosition() event. Maybe by then, it's had time to calculate the stream length, so it has enough information to guess at the offset, whereas prior to play it doesn't. If that's the case, maybe delaying the seek until after playback starts would also work with the roAudioPlayer.

[renojim]

"TheEndless" wrote:
If that's the case, maybe delaying the seek until after playback starts would also work with the roAudioPlayer.

I seem to recall trying to use the FF button to move forward 10 seconds a click after playback started when seek first appeared and it didn't work. If I remember correctly, it did move, but a random amount. Of course that was long ago and I may not be remembering everything correctly.

-JT

[greubel]

Give Chaneru Rev2 or 2.0 version 2.0.13 a look. If you are on 5.x Roku release and use mp3 files, you can pause and resume.
Chaneru should keep track of where you are and you could actually switch to a different Roku box.