Solving playback issues

[atc98092]

When I say Plex "can't" access a USB drive, that's based on the user interface not showing it as an available data source. Plex is not designed to access a USB drive for media playback, so there's no user function showing it. Now, could the Plex channel silently access the drive? I suppose the answer would be yes, it could. But again, it wouldn't serve any purpose, so why would they make the effort to do so? 

There are some users that have monitored the data flow to/from the Roku device, and I have never heard of any reports of large amounts of data going from the Roku device, so it doesn't appear anyone has ever tried to copy any media from the external drive. 

[atxchip]

Dan, thanks for that information. I appreciate it.

[Moving_On]

As a programmer,  I'm not sure how you can make a statement "Roku isn't scanning your media to send back to Roku. Your media remains solely on the device. It's only scanning for media on the drive so that it can list it in the menu as a playable media file. There is no mining of your media data being sent back to Roku. ". 

Unless you know how Roku is coded, or you are running a packet tracing program at the point in the time of connecting a USB device(depending on packet encryption).  Don't make absolute statements.  Your not even an employee of Roku.

As far as I'm concerned, I see nothing written by Roku saying they will prevent 3rd party apps from reading/transferring file names and maybe other file information. Once a 3rd party company downloads filename and related info, they can analyze DRM violations. Then 3rd party companies lawyers will force Roku the company to share Roku user information. 

If this does not change, it may lead 2 different directions due to DRM lawyers. 

1. DRM will be forced on USB users or Roku the company.

OR, 

2. Roku stops USB's ability to watch/play videos. 

Keep in mind Roku is a California company based just south of San Francisco (Los Gatos)!

[Moving_On]

Roku is just CYA for themselves, before possible lawsuits.

[nightwingken]

@Moving_On 
"If this does not change, it may lead 2 different directions due to DRM lawyers.

1. DRM will be forced on USB users or Roku the company.

OR,

2. Roku stops USB's ability to watch/play videos."

Which is exactly what happened. They fixed it with the new update, but it was incredibly frustrating.
I hope it never goes this way.

[csky]

Have been watching mp4's on an external hard drive attached to a Roku Ultra box for many months without issue until this upgrade. Hope this gets fixed soon!

[csky]

@atxchip: Totally agree! Media on privately owned drives should remain private, and not be accessed by ALL "channels" on the Roku device.

[csky]

@atxchip: Good idea! I'm going to remove ALL unused "channels" on the Roku player tonight.

[atxchip]

@cskyI never realized these "channels" had the freedom that I now suspect they have. It's been a while since I've dug through the "Terms" set forth in the Roku app. I did once again a couple of days ago and still didn't see anything pertaining to "channels" having the freedoms I suspect they do.

[renojim]

@atxchip, I wouldn't say channels (Roku may finally be calling them apps) have that much freedom and Roku keeps taking away any "freedoms" they may have had.  For example, apps can no longer see the MAC address or serial number of a device.  I don't know what those could have been used for nefariously, but that ability is gone.  The USB access just hasn't kept up with today's expectations on privacy issues.  Other than that, Roku devices are probably more locked down than any other platform I've seen.

I've always used devices with USB ports since those are the ones with Ethernet ports, but I've only ever attached a USB drive for testing.  I much prefer a NAS for my media.  It could be argued that any app has free reign over anything attached to a user's network, but I don't see a way around that.  Should Roku block all access to the local network?  That would upset a lot of people.  It's really about time that they added permissions for apps.

And, in case anyone was wondering, USB drives get mounted read-only, so no app can change anything on a USB drive.