Roku Developer Program

[squirreltown]

So I'm trying to get with the program and am re-building my channel with the 2dAPI. One of the most obvious problems is the fact that screensavers won't run over a roScreen, so the screen just goes black. My experience as a user before i knew the technical cause was that something was "broken" - either the channel or the RokuOS, neither of these is very good from a dev or manufacturer perspective. Now I am finding that with the exception of audio, which continues playing, no processing seems to occur when the screensaver kicks in - "springboard" screens don't update, "slideshows" don't advance and whatever else I haven't discovered yet. I 'm wondering if Roku has any plans to address this as it really makes the system appear half-baked, and there is an obvious push from Roku to drive devs toward the 2DAPI. Of course I can send remote key-presses all the time to keep the screensaver from kicking in, but thats a bad solution at best.

[NewManLiving]

I'm wondering the same thing myself. One user made use of ECP to send himself
A keypress. I have not tried this but it seems plausible Of course you do not
Want to burn in the screen If that is still possible today. So you would essentially
Have to build your own pseudo screensaver. That is my plan But I have not
Considered it too much at this time

[RokuChris]

"squirreltown" wrote:
there is an obvious push from Roku to drive devs toward the 2DAPI.

I personally encourage developers to stick to the built in screen types unless there is a compelling need to do otherwise. It makes for a consistent user experience across the platform and will make your channel more intuitive.

[NewManLiving]

Unless I am missing something here all I get
Is the black box effect. I use Aquarium screensaver
If his showed up I would be happy. But it does not

[NewManLiving]

Keep in mind that this is an roScreen we are
Using. Different stack different rules I believe

[squirreltown]

Thank you Chris. In my case, the compelling need is that I don't like the way the stock Roku components look , there is no way to change them, I'm far from alone in those sentiments and when this question comes up on this dev board, the most common response is "build it in 2D". I'm sure I can design a UI thats every bit as intuitive but the far better solution would be for Roku to make the stock components visually customizable. Roku should enforce the UI to make the experience seamless across different channels, but they aren't doing that by saying "Here's 2D - build whatever you want".

[RokuMarkn]

There are some channels, such as games, that can't use existing screen types. roScreen is powerful, but that power comes at a cost -- by using an arbitrary number of bitmaps in an roScreen, there may not be enough memory free to run a normal screensaver, which may also be based on roScreen and use an arbitrary number of bitmaps itself.

--Mark

[squirreltown]

Mark, thats all very true, and as I have discovered in my very limited experience with roScreens, memory management is a real pain. But your answer doesn't address my original question. Screensavers won't run over paused video either - but at least the floating Roku logo will show. Having the screen just go black makes everyone look bad - the devs and Roku. I'm sure theres a better solution, even if it falls short of compatibility.

[NewManLiving]

Well I suspect that there may be something more than just memory although you
Make a good point. The examples I submit under 2d API wisdom leave most
Of the memory intact. At least that is what r2d2_bitmaps tells me
And I still don't see any fish. Unless that water is getting terribly mirky
I think that most people who use the API for applications are trying to
Present something more appealing than the blackbox. After all a great
Deal of work goes into it. Also the person who uses the API for application
Development tends to be very particular and creative. I don't believe that
This type of person will accept what essentially amounts to nothing at all

[TheEndless]

"NewManLiving" wrote:
I'm wondering the same thing myself. One user made use of ECP to send himself
A keypress. I have not tried this but it seems plausible Of course you do not
Want to burn in the screen If that is still possible today. So you would essentially
Have to build your own pseudo screensaver. That is my plan But I have not
Considered it too much at this time

This is the approach I took in a channel I'm currently working on. I only use the pseudo screensaver if the current screen is roScreen based. The main problems with it are a) I have to keep track of user idle time in my code, b) there's no way to get the user's screensaver timeout settings, so I have to assume the lowest possible value of five minutes, and c) the box never goes into true "sleep" mode (assuming it actually does enter a lower power state during normal screensavers).

FWIW, screensavers do work over an roScreen on the legacy (3.1) boxes. You would think it could use the same logic with roScreen as it does with paused video, where it tries to display the screensaver, then fails over to the default bouncing logo if there's not enough memory available.