Roku Developer Program

[beowulf573]

I'm going through the docs on the spring board screen, and it says when the content type is audio the album art is sent to the screen saver.

This doesn't seem to work with the default screen saver, does this mean I need to implement my own? It doesn't seem hard based on the code provided by the clock example, but how do I receive the album art the spring board docs say it's sending?

I could implement my own screen saver that reads the current content, but I'd rather do the the way recommended by the docs if possible.

Thanks,
Eddie

[renojim]

The docs are wrong in this case. It used to be that the album art was displayed from the Springboard screen when the screensaver kicked in, but they broke that several firmware releases ago. There really isn't any "sending" going on. You'd have to have a way to know the current song from the screensaver which runs in a different context from the rest of your app, so any global variables you could use from your main app won't do you any good. It certainly can be done, but you'd have catch the appropriate "next song" events from the audio player in your main app, extract the SD or HD PosterUrl from the current song, send that information to your screensaver via the tmp: device or the registry, and then display it on something like an roImageCanvas from your screensaver. Easy, huh?

-JT

[RokuKevin]

The docs are correct that you can implement a screensaver for the application that can override the system default screensaver.

Agreed that it is non-trivial to implement. However the v2.7 SDK (available very soon) will include an implementation of an "album art screensaver" in the sample audioapp example.

--Kevin

[lucasgonze]

Kevin, is it possible for me to get a notification of the new 2.7 SDK?

[TheEndless]

"RokuKevin" wrote:
The docs are correct that you can implement a screensaver for the application that can override the system default screensaver.

Agreed that it is non-trivial to implement. However the v2.7 SDK (available very soon) will include an implementation of an "album art screensaver" in the sample audioapp example.

--Kevin

Well, that was a little misleading. The documentation for the roSpringboardScreen specifically states:

If the ContentType is audio, the album art from the Audio Springboard Screen is sent to
the Screen Saver. The album art in the screen saver stays synched with the currently
playing song and is only displayed when audio is playing.

That suggests to me that the album art is automatically sent to the screensaver, if it's defined in the springboard's content. I'd also read that mean it's automatically sent to the built-in screensaver. The implementation in the 2.7 audioapp example, however, explicitly implements code to write the album art to disc for reading with a private screensaver. While certainly a handy example, since you actually have to write code to keep the artwork in sync, I'd say the documentation is still wrong, unless I'm missing something...

[renojim]

I pointed out months ago that the documentation is wrong and here we have a new release and it's still wrong. You'd think they'd just delete that section. When I first pointed it out, I was under the impression that whatever was broken would someday be fixed. Maybe it's still in the documentation because it will be fixed, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Sorry if I sound like a jerk sometimes, but sometimes I just can't help myself... :mrgreen:

-JT

[RokuKevin]

renojim,

Check out the audioapp in the new v2.7 SDK. It implements the app specific screensaver.

Kevin

[TheEndless]

"RokuKevin" wrote:
renojim,

Check out the audioapp in the new v2.7 SDK. It implements the app specific screensaver.

Kevin

Kevin, I think you're missing the point. The documentation states that the cover art is automatically sent to the screensaver thread, which is simply not true (anymore?). Both renojim and I know how to implement app specific screensavers, as we have them in a number of our current channels.

[renojim]

"TheEndless" wrote:
Kevin, I think you're missing the point. The documentation states that the cover art is automatically sent to the screensaver thread, which is simply not true (anymore?). Both renojim and I know how to implement app specific screensavers, as we have them in a number of our current channels.

+1

-JT