Roku Developer Program

[streamingguy]

"destruk" wrote:
For all roku 1 users, we still need to have the streams available for HLS in addition to "ism"

Yes. But, will there be any update to ROKU1 boxes with ism support in SDK v5? I read somewhere that, they want to keep all the boxes same by v5.

BTB, is it possible to get the statistics of the different types of ROKU boxes? It will help us to decide whether to support HLS or not.

[tensen]

Does the ism streamformat accept both ism and isml files?

[Anonymous]

1. In case of HLS streams, ROKU buffers certain fragments (I think 10+) before playing the stream. Is this the same for Smooth streaming also? Usually, when we play on PCs, smooth streaming has the fastest start time. This is the main advantage for looking into Smooth streaming.

2. IIS Media services supports composite manifest. When contacted Microsoft, they mentioned that Smooth Streaming Client Porting kit (which ROKU is using) won't support this feature and need to implement on the device using playlist. Is this supported currently on ROKU?

1) We have been making optimizations to HLS throughout development in each firmware release and in 4.7 the initial buffering time seems fairly close across these two formats. We buffer based on bitrate and not segment count.

2) Composite manifests are not supported as Microsoft confirmed currently. You application can read the manifest and play back the individual clips in the playlist automatically, but you will experience a rebuffer event between each clip.

Cheers.

[Anonymous]

We do not currently have plans to back port the Smooth Streaming feature to the older Roku 1 models. This feature will require the newer device models running firmware 4.7 and later.

Cheers.

[Anonymous]

Does the ism streamformat accept both ism and isml files?

Yes, we support both vod and live streaming today.

[streamingguy]

Thank you so much for your detailed reply Jon!

I am able to play smooth streams on ROKU without modifying single line of code (just modified format type and URL in the XML feed). I am testing the stream from past 8 hours and I do not see any issues. Bit rate switching also working fine.

Well done ROKU team!!!

[defconmike]

Hi Streamingguy, I hate to be a total noob, but where exactly are we placing this bit of code. I'm trying to access my Smooth Streaming Feeds, have the SDK downloaded, but unsure of where I should place that bit of code.

Thank you

[streamingguy]

No problem.. I can understand that as ROKU hasn't updated their SDK...

I hope you are using XMLs for feed. If so, you will have <streamFormat>hls</streamFormat>.

Just replace "hls" with "ism" and update the streamURL with something like "http://x.x.x.x/stream.isml/manifest".

Let me know if you have any issues.

[bandal]

Tested and works great with the link above.

[streamingguy]

Hello Bandal,

As you mentioned yesterday (hope you have updated your post), few streams are not working, even though they work fine on Silvelright player.

You can pick the Smooth streaming URLs from Microsoft's channel 9 page. They use Smooth streaming by default when you are on desktops/silverlight.

http://channel9.msdn.com

I think it will be good if ROKU comes up with detailed error message instead of single liners.