Roku Developer Program

[Arwen]

Recently I started playing with Amazon's Cloud Player channel. I don't have many songs
installed, but I have bought all my MP3s from them, (as Amazon does not have as many
problems using non-Amazon players that a certain other source does have.) It even
allowed me to play songs from a CD I bought from Amazon.

Well that got me thinking, (I know, always a bad sign :). I also have a few books in my
Kindle Reader application on my non-Amazon tablet. It works good, though my tablet is
not one of the paperwhite ones, so it's hard to read at times, like it bright sunshine.

But, what about a Kindle Reader channel for the Roku?

It would not be hard, as the eBooks are already available on the network at
Amazon. Here is what I think would work;

• The remote server does most of the real work making pictures of the pages, based
  on the Roku's set video resultion. Perhaps limiting the channel to 720p and 1080p so
  that the words are clear enough.


• If the user changes fonts or font sizes, then the remote Amazon server re-creates
  the eBook's page pictures and then downloads them to the Roku.


• On the Roku side, the channel / application would simply allow scrolling through the
  pages.


• Certain Kindle features may have to be supported oddly. For example, annotations
  or book marks may be stored on the individual Roku. So that if you have 2 Rokus, they
  would not be shared. Or perhaps they can be stored at Amazon.


• Last, if the eBook is large, (or perhaps this should be for every book anyway), only
  the current pages and near by pages are downloaded. Meaning if you are on page
  100, then perhaps pages 90 through 120 would be on the Roku.

If Roku developers can't give me a good technical reason why such a channel
won't work, then I will likely suggest it to Amazon in their forums.

[thetick]

You can use your PC. See
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000426311

And well Amazon really should be working on an android player for their Instant Prime Videos... seriously I can't believe that does not currently exist.

[Arwen]

I vaguely remember seeing something about a Kindle app for PCs. I also seem to
recall a web reader, (or was that a web song player for my MP3s?).

My point was simply to point out we have these nice LCD, LED or Plasma screens
and unless you have a PC wired to one, you can't use it to read eBooks.

[thetick]

After more searching there is an ebook reader for Roku. It's a private channel and I have not tried it, so idea if works.
See viewtopic.php?f=28&t=54807

Also there is libravox which is mention in the link above.
See http://librivox.org and https://owner.roku.com/add/Q4DSY

[TheEndless]

Kindle books are protected with DRM, so you can't just read them from the cloud. You'd need to either first de-DRM them (there are third party tools for that), or you'd need Amazon's certificates, which would obviously require Amazon's participation.

[jbrave]

I'm working on a couple of things in this regard,

1. an Ebook publishing system for reading on Roku
2. a Roku front end for Calibre (which is like Plex for books). Maybe I'll integrate 1+2

You may have seen the published, public channel roku book: "The Holy Bible, King James Edition", which was my second experiment in this direction,

The first was a private channel, Makers by Corey Doctorow

- Joel

[Arwen]

"TheEndless" wrote:
Kindle books are protected with DRM, so you can't just read them from the cloud. You'd need to either first de-DRM them (there are third party tools for that), or you'd need Amazon's certificates, which would obviously require Amazon's participation.

Yes, I'd say any Kindle book viewing application would have to be Amazon blessed or written.

[Allureana]

I've been pestering Amazon and Roku and Samsung (smart tv) for ebook readers annually since 2012. They aren't interested. Amazon's Cloud Kindle only recognizes 4 web browsers and that doesn't even include Microsoft Edge.
For a workaround, I have hooked up a $35 Raspberry Pi computer, loaded it with the standard Raspbian OS (Linux) and added Iceweasel (Firefox for Linux). Using Iceweasel, you can log into your Cloud Kindle account (https://read.amazon.com) and read your ebook in the browser. If you want, you can even download the entire book you're currently reading and set the browser to NOT clear data when you log out.
Then, when you reboot the Pi and restart Iceweasel, you can use "Work offline" mode (maybe while traveling away from your last wi-fi access) and continue reading your ebook right where you left off. Note: reading the books this way does not require either a Kindle or iOS device or a ROKU.
The Raspberry Pi computer, itself, is only $35, but to make it useful, you need some extra things. You can buy "Starter kits" with all the extra things (HDMI cable, mouse & keyboard, SD card with OS, power supply, etc) for prices from $59 on up, depending on what extras you want. You will need to supply your own monitor. Still worth it. The latest model Raspberry Pi 3 has a 1.2GHz quad core CPU and 1GB ram and can accept a 32GB SDcard and can output 1080P, 30fps videos just fine through it's HDMI connector.
I've hooked one onto our 50" LED TV in the living room to work around the fact that the TV manufacturers just don't want to bother with ebooks on their TV's. I can also use it to do anything else a basic computer can do, except for power gaming.
The Raspberry Pi's can also be used to run KODI, either by swapping out the SDcard or you can install KODI on top of Raspbian.

Meanwhile, in the years since we got our 2012 Samsung Smart TV, Amazon has only added their music store. Amazon videos can only be watched if you have the Amazon prime account.
I use the Raspberry Pi's and KODI and watch any darn thing I please. CoolReader and Calibre also can be run on the Raspberry Pi's and used with your ebooks directly.
Calibre on your PC can be used with add-ons to remove DRM from Kindle books you purchased legally and convert them to EPUB format you can then put on your Raspberry Pi and read with either CoolReader or Calibre.

[jlsoaz]

I'd like to see a kindle reading and purchasing capability via Roku, just as we have Amazon video viewing and purchasing ability via Roku.

I'd also like to have the same capability with audible books.

[Steve43]

The best solutions I've found are these, I use mirroring on my Galaxy Note to my ROKU-TV then open the Kindle app on my phone. Works great. Another way that works, I connect my Asus ChromeBook Flip to my ROKU-TV using a very long Micro HDMI to HDMI cable I bought from Amazon then open the Kindle app on the laptop.That keeps my phone free for other things. Hope this helps.