[mythtv-users] OT(ish) - Roku as a Capture source?

[Derek & Cindi Cass]

Ugh, just realized I have digest turned on.  I'm hacking together a
response from thread responses.

raymond at wagnerrp said:

Does a Roku actually have channels, or would you be trying to control an
on-screen menu with channel change scripts and an IR blaster?

eric at lisaneric said:

I'm confused. What is your private channel actually doing? Why isn't
this just a matter of figuring out how to start the NHL channel at the
right time?

and

I thought the Roku used a bluetooth remote, not IR. Does it have an
IR receiver as well? 

My response:

The Roku does have "Channels."  Each entry in your Roku menu is a
channel, i.e. NHL, Cartoon Network, Netflix, etc.  When you select a
channel, the Roku makes a JSON call to the appropriate service for that
channel to get listings.  My thought was to create my own channel using
the Roku SDK.  I would create a local JSON service that would get
listings from the myth db.  Normally, the NHLGCL service would return 1
to many listings for all of the games for that day.  In my case, I would
only return 1 listing for the Bruins home broadcast.

The way the menuing works would make it nigh impossible to just figure
out when to start the NHL channel at the right time as there would
likely be several different broadcasts to choose from at 7pm local time,
and no way to discern which was which.  However, if I make my own
private channel, I can make it only ever return one listing (unless the
Bruins can figure out to play 2 games at once), and so the IR blaster
need only fire OK/Select/Enter to select my channel, and again to select
the one broadcast that is shown.  I would have to have no other
channels, or probably just my channel and the NHL channel, but that
should still make IR Blasting controllable.  Yes, in the end this is IR
blasting to control an on-screen menu, but there should only be 2-3
clicks and always in the same order.  

This would clearly require capturing requests/responses from the NHL
channel to determine what is being sent and received, but the Roku SDK
does define what the structure of the request/response is, so it's only
a matter of data.  If I understand it correctly, the end result of your
program choice is a response that has a URL for the stream, so if NHL
always returns a stream name that I can discern based on the teams
playing, date, time, etc., then I should be able to create the same URL
and return it from my channel.  A Big If to be sure.  My other Big If is
that the Roku will handle the authentication to view the stream based on
the fact that the final URL is live.nhl.com/bos-mtl-date-time-whatever
and that the NHL server will demand credentials.  The NHL channel in the
Roku store itself is free, and anyone can use it to see stats and such,
but to watch the games themselves requires purchasing the package.  So,
this gives me hope that authentication only happens when you try to
actually view a game, and that the Roku will handle that for me based on
it's settings for the NHL channel (again, a rather Big If).

The Roku 3 does have a BT remote, but it also has an IR receiver so that
it can be used with universal remotes.

Thanks,

Derek