Roku Developer Program

[lewashby]

Hi, hew here to the developer forum. For a while I was trying to use a Plex Media server running on TerraMaster, to save time I won't go into the reasons I want to replace Plex for my personal media, but I am looking to replace it. Although I was able to us Roku's My Media and it was able to stream the videos from my TerraMaster Plex server I wasn't able to pause, or rewind, or both, I can't remember for sure, but I would also prefer my own interface that works with the Roku remote. I would like to create my own Roku app that can serve up m own videos, images, music on an interface of my design. I'm currently a php developer and although I'm no expert with htmls/css/javascript I can usually get by. I would like some advice and feedback on getting started and what I'm looking at. How big of a project this will be. Thanks.

[TwitchBronBron]

That's a pretty big project! I did this exact thing for a while, but it got to be too much. Scraping media metadata and integrating with imdb/tmdb/tvdb is a pain. Writing a Roku app from scratch and integrating with your custom php backend is also a decent lift. 

I would recommend giving Jellyfin a try. Their entire codebase is open source. So it's easy to submit big fixes or new features. They have a pretty decent server plugin system. And if you really need to deviate outside of that, you could just fork it and publish your own versions of the server or Roku app. 

[renojim]

I agree with @TwitchBronBron  - that's a huge project, especially for your first one.  Keep in mind that Roku devices can only play back a limited number of formats and there's no way to add any.  If you couldn't pause or rewind or whatever, I assume your Plex server was transcoding your media into something Roku could use.  The Plex channel/app on Roku may work better for you than whatever you were using.

[lewashby]

renojim

Thanks, I was using the Plex app on my Roku and connecting to my Plex server on my TerraMaster. Both the server and the app say that they're up to date but the back also will no longer connect to the server on the TerraMaster claiming that the server is out of date. But I wanted to ditch Plex for several other reasons as well.

[lewashby]

TwitchBronBron

Thanks. So will the jellyfin interface/GUI be visible from my Roku TV and I'll be able to use the Roku remote for navigation?

[TwitchBronBron]

That is correct. Think of Jellyfin as an alternative to Plex. You run the Jellyfin server app on the computer that holds your media. Then you install the Jellyfin Roku app to consume the media on your Roku, using your Roku remote. 

But unlike Plex, it's all open source.