Roku Developer Program

[Twitch247]

Hey guys,
Long time Lurker, first time poster here. Got my roku DVP now streaming my local media that has been encoded to mp4, but I am still chomping at the bit to have transcoding so I don't have to "pre" convert the rest of my files. I noticed that soon they will support HTTP live streaming, and that got me thinking......
This (http://www.inmethod.com/air-video/index.html) is an application that runs on both windows and mac, and can transcode any Video Format into a Iphone compatible format AND live stream it to the phone on the FLY, as in NO NEED TO ENCODE BEFORE PLAYING. My question is, couldn't this style of program be used to real time encode and stream to the roku DVP?

[Twitch247]

Maybe even just figure out what port the server is outputing to and hijack the stream?

[mdweaver7485]

I emailed InMethod and asked if they have any plans of putting out a channel for Roku or if not if they'd consider putting out an API/SDK. As best I can figure it runs some sort of a basic HTTP server and messaging system to handle requests and track playback position. I'd love to a Roku and a WM7 client to come out of this to sync a long movie/tv show between my TV and my Laptop and my phone.

[Twitch247]

Wow, awesome initiative. Yeah I thought that this is one of the best implementations of this I have seen. And having a synced library, ala netflix resume play, for my home media would be amazing.

[mpmchugh]

"mdweaver7485" wrote:
I emailed InMethod and asked if they have any plans of putting out a channel for Roku or if not if they'd consider putting out an API/SDK. As best I can figure it runs some sort of a basic HTTP server and messaging system to handle requests and track playback position. I'd love to a Roku and a WM7 client to come out of this to sync a long movie/tv show between my TV and my Laptop and my phone.

Did you ever hear back from InMethod? I've emailed them and posted in their forum on the same topic, and have not gotten a response. I think they'd have a nice additional customer base with Roku users if they are interested.

-mpm

[-LD]

Air Video is quite nice. I use it on my iPad and iPhone streaming from my Mac Mini. It's exactly the type of thing Roku needs to allow users to stream their local media. It can live transcode or you can remotely tell it to pre-transcode a video. Imagine the possibilities with Roku. I could have a server set up in my house and have my parents hook up a Roku at their house. Then they could stream videos and potentially pics of my kid or whatever.

[hammerpocket]

I agree; Air Video looks like a great model for streaming to Roku. One possible glitch is that InMethod seems to be outside the U.S. The screen shots for Air Video on the app store show Orange as the phone carrier. (I noticed because some idiot wrote a review saying how terrible it was that the developer was using a jailbroken iPhone!) AFAIK the Roku isn't available in Europe, so that probably means InMethod doesn't have much interest in - or even awareness of - the Roku DVP.

On the other hand, reading some of the forum posts, it appears Air Video uses ffmpeg and HTTP Live Streaming on the server side, so I don't see any reason that an interested developer couldn't get the same thing working and then write a client app for the channel store.

[mpmchugh]

Sadly, there seems no interest in this from either side. I've tried getting the Air Video folk to respond to the suggestion of a channel, but no luck.

You'd think Roku would see this as an opportunity to partner with them and build such a channel. With them both supporting the same streaming specs, it seems the heavy lifting is done, and it would be a great addition to the Roku bag of tricks, making it an even more compelling purchase.

I use Air Video all the time with my iPad, and it's yet to choke on any video file/format I've thrown at it.

I suspect Roku is doing this development themselves, based on the presence of the USB port and the survey they did a while back about streaming local media, but it seems like they could save a lot of time by partnering with a proven streaming server that already works.

-mpm

[shshchch]

orrrrrr tversity

[scyber]

"shshchch" wrote:
orrrrrr tversity

Yep the latest version of TVersity does support HLS, unfortunately while I can get the media browsing functionality to work, i can't get the HLS to work correctly. TVersity will generate the m3u8 file, but the roku doesn't seem to like it("Unknown event: 20 msg:" is the message in the debug screen). I'm currently trying to figure out why.