Roku Developer Program

[enmud]

Hi we are new to Roku channel development. We have few queries about roku SDK and models.
1> Is latest Roku SDK 7.1 is same on Roku 4, Roku 1, Roku Lt and other current Roku models ? This is to make sure that if my channel works fine in one model it will work on all other models provided updated to latest version.
2> Is there any way to test Roku channel with different SDK versions and with different Roku models(Without having the device physically) ?.
3> Also can we downgrade SDK version/ firmware on my Roku 4 device?

[Komag]

the software version is not under user control. Theoretically, all Roku models (except the old ones) get updated always to the latest software (although there can be some months of lag). You can NOT rely on all models behaving exactly the same though, as there are some hardware differences that may come into play depending on what you are doing. Speed of course is a big differentiator, but other minor differences can effect behavior too.

[enmud]

Thanks Komag for the quick response. Do you mean to say that we have to test the app/channel with latest version of OS/firmware(as all devices will be updated soon or later) with all models of the device(to check any minor difference in hardware effect the behaviour of the app) before deploying to production?
We have both Roku 1 and Roku 4 , can we make sure that App which runs smoothly on these two will run on all other devices also?
Thanks in advance.

[Komag]

There are various quirks and small differences, but the main difference is speed. I use 5 different models to test on for my game under development. I'm not sure if that's really necessary for a more "normal" video channel though.

[EnTerr]

"enmud" wrote:
We have both Roku 1 and Roku 4 , can we make sure that App which runs smoothly on these two will run on all other devices also?

Roku1 + Roku4 sounds like a good (maybe the best) combination of current devices to test on - if you had to pick only 2 - yes. Good choice!

[Komag]

Yeah, but I would definitely add a Roku 3 to the mix (or the current Roku 2, same hardware), and there are a lot of Roku TVs out there which behave a bit differently, as well as a lot of Roku Streaming sticks which have their own quirks.

[EnTerr]

I repeat :), "if you had to pick only 2"... "current devices to test on"... "Roku1 + Roku4 sounds like a good (maybe the best) combination".

Given strict limit of two devices. Bracketing it with a Roku1 on the low end + MIPS cpu + DirectFB graphics. Bracketing with a Roku4 on the high end + ARM cpu + GLES graphics. Then things in between lean to one of the two sides - RokuTV towards Roku1, stick/Roku2/Roku3 towards Roku4.

If one were to write app that runs well on both of these, i am fairly certain it will run well on everything in between. One caveat - i generously assume they won't be checking model number like in viewtopic.php?f=34&t=94798 to adapt.

[enmud]

Thank you guys that was really helpful.