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michaelluis
Visitor

dev environment obstacles

I've been trying to better streamline the development process and eliminate anything cumbersome. One of the many things that come to mind is the need to have a TV nearby test recent code. I was wondering if the following is possible and if is already in practice by some fellow brs developers.

- use an "HDMI input to USB" adapter to plug into my laptop, and plug the roku box into it.
- use something like vlc media player to see the video output from it
- deploy my development updates and test, without ever taking my eyes away from my laptop screen.

Has the above development environment been accomplished? Are there any other more efficient setups that have been accomplished. In in theory we should then be able to Screencast the development work without having to use our camera phones to record the screen on a big TV, etc..
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squirreltown
Roku Guru

Re: dev environment obstacles

"michaelluis" wrote:
 In in theory we should then be able to Screencast the development work without having to use our camera phones to record the screen on a big TV, etc..

Don't know about the rest of it, but the web interface has a utilities/screenshot function.
Kinetics Screensavers
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michaelluis
Visitor

Re: dev environment obstacles

"squirreltown" wrote:
"michaelluis" wrote:
 In in theory we should then be able to Screencast the development work without having to use our camera phones to record the screen on a big TV, etc..

Don't know about the rest of it, but the web interface has a utilities/screenshot function.


What I mean is a way to Screencast the experience rather than screenshot a single image. So for example, you can browse your channel using your remote, but you are viewing it on your computer. So then you can record your desktop to produce a video of you browsing roku.

But either way, this isn't the true goal but rather a nice side effect. My true goal is to be able to develop and test, all on the same laptop...eliminate the need to have the roku device plugged into TV. The setup that I described seems logical...i just can't find any record of anyone doing it.
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Komag
Roku Guru

Re: dev environment obstacles

Yes, I used to do exactly what you're describing using an old thing called EasyCap, but it's no longer compatible with Windows10, and was SD only anyway, but it worked for me quite well. I've also used my Elgato video capture for nice HD, but there is some serious lag (between 500-1000ms), but it works.
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Veeta
Visitor

Re: dev environment obstacles

I use a Magewell USB device which captures HDMI.  On my mac, quicktime will show the live output and it's very responsive. Unfortunately, it doesn't negotiate HDCP so video doesn't play (purple screen in place of video output).  It's still useful because the non-video UI does show up fine, even over the SG Video node, and that's where most of my development time is spent.  So far, it looks like the only way around the HDCP limitation is to pay $10k/yr to the HDCP standards group.  Would be nice if there were an alternative.
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tim_beynart
Channel Surfer

Re: dev environment obstacles

HCDP is the blocker for the truly tv-less development setup. I've tried a couple "HDCP Stripper" boxes from Amazon/eBay connected to an HDMI-to-USB box, but they never worked. 
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