[mythtv] Roku, mythtv integration, mvpmc

bill peck bill.peck at gmail.com
Wed Jan 26 10:40:51 EST 2005


On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 23:27:09 -0800, Kevin Elliott <kevin at phunc.com> wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-dev-bounces at mythtv.org [mailto:mythtv-dev-bounces at mythtv.org]
> On Behalf Of David Shay
> Sent: Friday, January 21, 2005 7:26 AM
> To: mythtv-dev at mythtv.org
> Subject: [mythtv] Roku, mythtv integration, mvpmc
> 
> Development team,
> 
> I just recently found a product called Roku HD1000
> (http://www.rokulabs.com/products/hd1000/index.php), and generated some
> traffic on the mailing lists about.  I am just stepping into HDTV, and just
> bought a PCHDTV 3000 and am getting it configured.  The Roku seems highly
> extensible with it's SDK.  I will probably buy one soon, with the goal of
> getting some level of integration with Myth.  It was clear that the team
> wasn't very happy with the way that the mvpmc group/project was working, and
> I was wondering if the group was open to starting a new initiative to work
> with the Roku stuff.  If so, how would you recommend proceeding?  I just
> wanted to start off on the right foot.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> ----------------
> 
> David,
> 
> When progressing with this, keep in mind that the Roku HD1000 only supports
> MPEG-2 TS streams. More or less, it should be able to stream most of the
> content MythTV records, although you'll need to strip the NUV header more
> than likely. The videolan client (vlc) has been able to stream to the
> HD1000. I understand that MPEG-4 support is underway, but according to some,
> the HD1000 might not have the hardware power to decode it in real time,
> which could really make it unusable.
> 

I'm pretty sure we would have to transcode the video to MPEG2 on the
fly for the HD1000 to play it.  Something like mythserver does now.

> So yes, recorded content should play fine, but local video files (divx,
> mpeg-4, and not-so-properly-formatted-mpeg2 can not successfully be decoded
> by it.
> 
> How you will have the Roku HD1000 be controlled is another issue. I am not
> aware of a perfect solution for this yet. There is serial and telnet control

I would imagine you would have a thin app on the roku that would talk
to the myth box and request any video, live tv, etc..  and if the
format was not in MPEG2 then it would transcode it at this time.

> ability for this device, but I don't know if you can tell it to load a
> stream at a particular URI as of yet. For example, how do you want to
> control it? You might want to be able to use the Roku remote to search,
> browse, and list content (this would require creating a new protocol to talk
> to MythTV (perhaps adding uPNP AV to MythTV to make it look like a device,
> or by writing a custom protocol to fetch content listings from MythTV to be
> displayed on a Roku UI application). Or perhaps you want to stay within the
> MythTV menu system, select your content there, and have it trigger the Roku
> to stream content (somehow) off the MythTV content server. You would also
> have to tell your receiver or your HDTV to change to the proper input to
> display and hear the Roku HD1000. Either way, it looks like a fair amount of
> work.
> 
> Roku Labs intends on completing the uPNP AV stack on all of their devices,
> but as of now, you can't use it to list content it sees, you can just
> control basic functionality. For example, with the Roku M500/M1000/M2000
> devices, you can tell it to PLAY, PAUSE, SKIP FORWARD, etc. But you can not
> tell it to play a specific song.
> 
> Let me know if I can be of assistance when you start working on this.
> 
> Kevin
> 
> Kevin Elliott
> kevin at phunc.com
> http://www.kevinelliott.net/
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 


-- 

Bill Peck
http://www.pecknet.com


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