SageTV Roku channel?

[tchapin]

Think it's be possible to create a SageTV channel for the Roku boxes?

http://www.roku.com/developer

They'd take care of most other stuff (youtube, hulu, netflix, amazon vod, etc) natively. Additionally, there's the Plex channel, which looks interesting.

Thoughts?

[castylx]

I'd be interested in helping out if people are willing to put some effort...we could replace the clients with a Roku box and just hold on to the Server portion of sage.

[alfi33]

It looks like NextPVR has a Roku channel. It appears to do a bit more than I would have expected (though still not much).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F900SfynJCw

[Fuzzy]

Would kind of depend on what level of functionality you're looking for. If you are just trying to get browse/video playback (basically, the functionality you get with the web interface) it wouldn't be that difficult. If you are trying to get an actual Sage UI, then even THAT isn't incredibly difficult (using the sage OSD Plugin class), but it requires a PC based UI instance to replicate to the Roku device. Sage USED to be able to launch multiple UI instances with the -Multi command line switch, but this was removed many many years ago.

A higher level of awesome would be if sage opened up the Placeshifter protocol.. but I doubt that's going to happen at this stage, unless it goes along with a totall opening up of the deprecated sagetv system.

[keepersg]

Originally Posted by tchapin

Think it's be possible to create a SageTV channel for the Roku boxes?

http://www.roku.com/developer

They'd take care of most other stuff (youtube, hulu, netflix, amazon vod, etc) natively. Additionally, there's the Plex channel, which looks interesting.

Thoughts?

Roku boxes have a component output--> Hauppage HDPVR --> Sage

[alfi33]

Originally Posted by keepersg

Roku boxes have a component output--> Hauppage HDPVR --> Sage

I think the OP is talking about the other way around. Adding a new channel to your Roku device that allows you to browse and watch content from your Sage server could be very cool. Although it wouldn't be a true extender, it might suffice in some scenarios....especially now that extenders are quite a bit tougher to come by.

[PiX64]

So, I don't have a Roku player, but I think I am going to sign up and get a developer account. This seems like it could be fairly simple. We can possible leverage the existing webui to get program guide info, schedule recordings, so on and so forth. It would be a complete ui redesign on the roku part i think, but it def seems possible and i think would be a nice little addition.

[bastafidli]

That would solve the extender problem if you can use the Roku as an extenders.

[PiX64]

yeah - it wouldn't be a full replacement obviously, and would be as slick, but def would be functional. I need to get into the SDK and see what is available for UI support...There may be no way to change the stock ui for a Roku app., in which case we are kinda stuck with a sage channel looking similiar to the NextPVR channel.

I already created an account as a roku dev. Im a bit busy with work and the new baby and such, but my plan is to start looking at the SDK this weekend. Ill report back with what i find.

[Fuzzy]

The Roku is relatively simple to program for, from what I've seen.. they've got their own scripting language (BrightScript). You should be able to make the UI look however you want, but it wont' be a sagetv (STV) UI - unfortunately.

[cncb]

The last time I checked the Roku is very limited in file format support so keep that in mind...

[PiX64]

little snag in my plan...looking at the developer site it appears that you need to have a roku box in order to do development. I thought there was an emulator with the SDK. :-(

My parents have one but i doubt they will let me steal it for a few days while i play around with this.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by cncb

The last time I checked the Roku is very limited in file format support so keep that in mind...

The development guides say it supports H.264 w/ AAC primarily - but also supports MPEG-2 and VC-1.

[Evil_Attorney]

What about doing something similar for the WDTV Live Plus? It uses the same chip as the HD300 and has similar specs.

[tchapin]

Originally Posted by PiX64

little snag in my plan...looking at the developer site it appears that you need to have a roku box in order to do development. I thought there was an emulator with the SDK. :-(

My parents have one but i doubt they will let me steal it for a few days while i play around with this.

I'd chip in $10 to buy you one if you were serious about working on this.

At this point, I'm only really looking at playback solutions. I've upgraded to SageTV V7, but have MVPs in 2 locations, so I still use SageMC. My HD200 started acting funny, but I haven't had the chance to troubleshoot it yet. I'd be happy with only being able to view my stored content (movies, music, photos, recorded TV) via the Roku.

[PiX64]

Much appreciated, but I wouldn't feel right takIng. Peoples money for this. If I did get the time and got a channel up and running it would be free to sage peeps.

I'm kinda turned off by the limitation of the roku player. What about an xbmc plugin like mythbox? Or an app for the wdlive?

[PiX64]

Looks like xbmc has been done before. Wonder if it still works. This could be a viable client option:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35765

[tchapin]

Yes, I've been surprised at how limited the Roku is as well. It's a neat little toy though. All of the apps to pull content from your local network really suck. They miss out on the rich metadata and are super limited in the formats they can play. I'm currently checking out Plex, which might be sufficient.

[tmiranda]

I just ordered a Boxee Box which seemed to me to be the best option. It should arrive Tuesday so I'll know soon enough if I'm right or not.

[PiX64]

U thinking a boxee box app?