Roku Developer Program

[destruk]

"streamingguy" wrote:
Thank you. Point is clear now - even if I pick 800kbps stream first, I will get buffering when it shifts to other bitrate.

Sorry to drag this - "Netflix uses a true adaptive protocol so they can upshift without stopping the video but MP4 can't do that" - Do you mean they use HLS? If so, how they are getting BIF feature?

OR Is it special protocol developed by Netflix?

Netflix is allowed to use tools and features that nobody else gets access to. Items as simple as changing the loading progress bar color, secret streaming protocol formats, etc etc. It is much less irritating to focus on what we can do with Roku rather than all the stuff that would be possible but we're not allowed to play with. There is probably some way to duplicate what they do - like pausing HLS playback and overlaying an roImageCanvas to manually display the bif frames, but I'm sure their way is much more efficient.

[streamingguy]

Thank you for your reply!

That may be the reason - whenever I post some questions regarding the features which are available only on Netflix, I will not get any reply from ROKU team. Even if I get the reply, they will reply in different way...

I think every technology provider is partial to these big streaming companies. Not only on ROKU, many devices provide different features to Netflix/Hulu etc., which are not available to other developers.

[RokuMarkn]

Netflix uses a custom streaming protocol. It's similar to HLS in concept but different in detail.

--Mark

[streamingguy]

Hello Mark,

Thank you so much for clarifying it.

Are you considering "BIF" support in HLS in near future? That is the good option, which we will miss by moving from MP4 to HLS. Hope you will provide it very soon!

Thank you!