Roku Developer Program

[Shlepzig]

It is clear from reading the documentation and reviewing the discussion groups that developing a package which will allow people to stream from a local source will take a lot of doing.

Is there any desire to organize among the members of this group to develop a usable open package to stream local content? A usable package for the Roku side and the Server side that moderately technical people can use is likely more than a one man job.

A solution to stream locally stored content through the Roku has been a frequent request on the boards for a long time. Lets collectively put our desires into action and develop this.

-Shlep'

[bcl]

I actually don't see it as being that hard. The biggest hurdle I've run into is the video format accepted by the Roku. It doesn't appear to work with just any mp4 stream, and so far I haven't figured out the right incantations to make it work.

Brian

[wiztard]

Great idea!

I don't have the technical chops to contribute confidently, but I can help with managing.

Shlepzig (and anyone else), feel free to reach out to me to discuss strategies for pulling people together and create a structure that allows multiple to contribute code and test.

Meanwhile, if you are interested in helping, please respond here with your skill set and/or interests.

Thanks!
Jeremy

[bbefilms]

"Shlepzig" wrote:
A solution to stream locally stored content through the Roku has been a frequent request on the boards for a long time. Lets collectively put our desires into action and develop this.

I agree with BCL that streaming locally isn't that difficult at all by simple mods of the SDK example code. For those with the more recent version of the player, I'd bet the farm that the USB included on the device is for doing just this, a la WD Live and other recent media boxes.

[dnelms]

I do think a group project would be the best way to go. Like any group project, I think each member has strengths that collectively can form a good product.

IMO, a local content solution would need some sort of editor as a standalone part to organize the videos. There are others out there such as My Movies that would be good examples. Even better would be if the XML files for Roku could read a My Movies database, you'd save yourself some time.

[Shlepzig]

I agree with BCL that it isn't super hard in itself to get a video to play. That is if you are willing to learn how to set up a web-server and deal with a bunch of individual edits. For a person that has a some web-knowledge already, or is willing to dive into the world of server structure it can be achieved with a little pain and suffering.

Mere mortals however, may feel a bit intimidated setting up a web-server to stream the files, and then adding new files to stream is also a bit of a chore. Linking to an online database that can pick up images and other information is also not really hard, but it's a chore. Nothing is going to be completely easy to use, but it can be made fairly simple.

Building a tool that packages that all together and is straightforward to use, is a complicated project. I expect that I am not alone that I spend most of my time working for someone else and have a limited amount of time to develop a really good package. There are some pretty smart cookies on this board that can probably pull their collective cookies together and put together a nice package for the rest of the world.

-Shlep

I think more than one person around here recalls DVArchive that was built for the old Replay TV DVR system. That was a nice package that was fairly easy to use, and did a lot of the same kinds of things. OK it was the work of one guy, who made a tremendous effort over the course of years.

[nowhereman]

Seems to me that It shouldn't be necessary to develop yet another media server for this idea to work. The ideal solution would be a channel that is a client for an existing server technology.

For instance. My SoundBridge discovers and plays audio content from any iTunes running on my network. Perhaps the most elegant solution would be a channel that is an iTunes (DAAP) client.

UPNP is another option. EyeTV DVR software uses a UPNP mechanism to allow you to play recorded content on devices other than the computer it was recorded on. And there are UPNP media servers out there that are pretty simple to install.

Just my $0.02 🙂

[JacobD]

Local streaming is exactly what I want most from my Roku right now. Other additions I would like are streaming from specific websites, but those companies will make their own channels.

I was pleased to see the language for the Roku is very similar to Visual Basic, which is the only language I know.

I see the project as three parts:
Roku client channel
PC server
Server interface

Roku client channel can start out very simple. The example already provided would need not much extra code to stream from a local source. Get it working, then add features.

The PC server can use any freely available webser. The key component needed is a command line utility to create the array indexes the player users.

The server interface is not necessary to get the functionality, but is needed for usability. It would just be a GUI for adding metadata to the videos and running the index tool. If some of you are good enough programmers, you could make the index tool understand Mythtv metadata, run the indexer with a script in MythTv and it would all integrate.

[WilDD]

The ideal solution would be to create a UPnP/DLNA channel. That way, anyone could use their UPnP/DLNA server of choice such as Playon, Tversity, Twonky, etc., and use the Roku DVP as a client. This would be very easy for the average (non technical) person to use.

However, after looking at the SDK, I'm not sure if this is even possible with the tools available.

Any thoughts on this by anyone with more in-depth experience with the SDK?

[dupondt]

"nowhereman" wrote:
Perhaps the most elegant solution would be a channel that is an iTunes (DAAP) client.

That would require a DAAP client software in the DVP's firmware. Even if Roku would want to inlcude it they probably couldn't because to the best of my knowledge Apple no longer license DAAP to other companies.

UPNP is another option.

That would require a UPnP client software in the DVP's firmware. Given the very limited memory of the device it is IMO unlikely that it will be possible to include it.

Greetings
dupondt