Roku Developer Program

[hiker1000]

Is anybody thinking about a mini video pane with listings to the right or left. This means someone could select the next video while one is playing. This is similar to Youtube with the video in the center and listings on the right. There would be an option for full screen.
Can the Roku SDK do this?
Would this not be beneficial to Roku since they could run ads on the side?

[kbenson]

I believe the customvideoplayer example does something very similar.

[hiker1000]

Can this work with existing channels like RateRix, or is this something I have to develop for any new channels?
Is this something I add through private channels?

[kbenson]

Sorry, I misread the original post. I thought you were asking as a developer how to do that.

It seems like it shouldn't be too much of a problem to do so, and I think I would try something similar to what you are suggesting if I was doing a video channel, but my focus lies elsewhere...

It's a valid question. I've often wondered why more developers don't take advantage of the video overlay capabilities.

[hiker1000]

Thanks. I am wondering the exact same thing myself. Every non-Netflix channel has the same format with icons representing videos and you scroll horizontally to select them. They can only be played in full screen. For me this is fine for Revision 3 tech shows, but for youtube or raterix, I would much prefer a video pane with the option for a full screen. Some of these youtube videos do not look great on full screen. Plus you can select a similar video, while the current one is playing.
So bottom line, the Roku is capable of doing it.

[calverst]

What will be the possible use case for such feature? something like you watch video in the full screen, then press some button and see related videos? At least user firstly should know about such possibility since it is not obvious. Any ways, the idea is good...

[TheEndless]

"kbenson" wrote:
I've often wondered why more developers don't take advantage of the video overlay capabilities.

I imagine it's because it requires the UI to be completely custom drawn, even down to the buffering bar. The Crackle channel does that, as does my Jewelry TV channel, and, of course Hulu Plus, but it's an awful lot of extra work for very little additional utility. It also presents a foreign UI to the end user, which may or may not be desirable from a support perspective.

[retrotom]

"TheEndless" wrote:

"kbenson" wrote:
I've often wondered why more developers don't take advantage of the video overlay capabilities.

I imagine it's because it requires the UI to be completely custom drawn, even down to the buffering bar. The Crackle channel does that, as does my Jewelry TV channel, and, of course Hulu Plus, but it's an awful lot of extra work for very little additional utility. It also presents a foreign UI to the end user, which may or may not be desirable from a support perspective.

I would agree with TheEndless here. We are/were doing this in Gabby. Using roVideoPlayer has its challenges. You will have to reinvent everything that the SDK gives you with roVideoScreen. You will lose (potentially) critical time just to create a buffering/loading screen. We still don't have a screen overlay for seeking. The tiniest things that are part of the user experience will cost you time better spent on other features. If you can avoid it, do so.

[kbenson]

"retrotom" wrote:

"TheEndless" wrote:

I imagine it's because it requires the UI to be completely custom drawn, even down to the buffering bar. The Crackle channel does that, as does my Jewelry TV channel, and, of course Hulu Plus, but it's an awful lot of extra work for very little additional utility. It also presents a foreign UI to the end user, which may or may not be desirable from a support perspective.

I would agree with TheEndless here. We are/were doing this in Gabby. Using roVideoPlayer has its challenges. You will have to reinvent everything that the SDK gives you with roVideoScreen. You will lose (potentially) critical time just to create a buffering/loading screen. We still don't have a screen overlay for seeking. The tiniest things that are part of the user experience will cost you time better spent on other features. If you can avoid it, do so.

I was thinking more from the point of view of doing it well once, and reusing the code elsewhere. If done right, it could add quite a bit of polish to a channel, and really differentiate it from the rest. Then again, I have little to no experience with video channels, so all I can do is imagine. 😉

[retrotom]

"kbenson" wrote:

I was thinking more from the point of view of doing it well once, and reusing the code elsewhere. If done right, it could add quite a bit of polish to a channel, and really differentiate it from the rest. Then again, I have little to no experience with video channels, so all I can do is imagine. 😉

Yeah, if there was strong "crowd-sourcing" effort -- that'd make sense. But with a single developer or two out there -- it doesn't make sense to me. With enough time it could be done right. And if done right...it would be awesome. Navigations sounds..."animations"...all that will take time. Let me know when y'all finish :D.