Roku Developer Program

[malort]

Anyone using the roVideoPlayer is aware that using SetMaxVideoDecodeResolution may help reserve memory, but the question is what it actually does. When set, does it actually down-scale the media to the specified resolution? The main question is how is 4k affected? The docs state "Video decode memory allocation is based on a resolution of 1920x1080 or 1280x720 as the maximum supported resolution for a particular Roku model", but what about 4k? Should we be setting this to 3840x2160 or leaving it at 1920x1080 for the Roku 4 (when it's set in 4k mode).

[TheEndless]

In my experience, you should only ever need to use SetMaxVideoDecodeResolution on the older Roku 2 XD/XS models. I've never run into memory issues on the other platforms that have required making that call. It is also my understanding that calling it only affects the amount of memory being reserved, and has no affect at all on which streams the video player actually plays.

[malort]

"TheEndless" wrote:
In my experience, you should only ever need to use SetMaxVideoDecodeResolution on the older Roku 2 XD/XS models. I've never run into memory issues on the other platforms that have required making that call. It is also my understanding that calling it only affects the amount of memory being reserved, and has no affect at all on which streams the video player actually plays.

Appreciate the response! I'm not sure why I didn't think about excluding the call. I understand that it doesn't affect which streams can play, but I was wondering if it may also down-scale as it does when you set the Display Type (i.e. 1080p content will play fine on 720p or 480p, just down-scaled).

I'm also curious if you have any feedback on the Roku 2 XD/XS models. Do you normally set the SetMaxVideoDecodeResolution lower than 1920x1080 regardless of the display setting?

[TheEndless]

"malort" wrote:
I understand that it doesn't affect which streams can play, but I was wondering if it may also down-scale as it does when you set the Display Type (i.e. 1080p content will play fine on 720p or 480p, just down-scaled).

I haven't explicitly tested it, but I don't see any reason why it would. It'd still require the same amount of memory to decode, regardless of whether it's downscaling after the fact or not.

"malort" wrote:
I'm also curious if you have any feedback on the Roku 2 XD/XS models. Do you normally set the SetMaxVideoDecodeResolution lower than 1920x1080 regardless of the display setting?

If I'm using roImageCanvas, I rarely (never?) call it. If I'm using roScreen, I always use 1280x720 on the Roku 2 XD/XS, otherwise I'll inevitably run into an infinite buffer or isRequestFailed. It may also apply to the Streaming Stick (based solely on the 3xxx model number), but I think it actually has more memory to work with, so it's not critical.

[NewManLiving]

At one time, not sure if this is still the case, but setting to a lower resolution than the actual video would hang the box. After loading would complete, the screen would go black and stay that way. Tested this several times over a year ago on ROKU 3. Since I have not done it again, I do not know if this is still true.