Roku is a media streamer that streams Netflix in HD, Revision3, Blip.tv, Twit, etc. And now with the public SDK you can stream your local media by simply setting up a server that your home-brew app can point for its content.
This is a simple (and currently non-elegant)
solution to playing your local media on the Roku via a web server running on an OSX machine (i.e. macbook). It's a proof of concept that can be automated, cleaned up, simplified, and made more robust ... in time.
Pick up a Roku HD Player, Roku HD-XR Player, or Roku N1050 SD Player and have some fun with the SDK!
1) Getting started:
- Download the Roku SDK: http:/roku.com/developer
- Enable the roku developer menu on your device using the remote:
UP, UP, Down, Down, Left, Rigth, Left, Rigth, Select A, Select B, Start (just kidding)
(For real) Home 3x, Up 2x, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right
- Find your Roku IP address “Roku Player Settings”, “player info” to find the IP address
- To access the installer homepage, use your roku address: http://192.168.1.104
2) Start the media server on OSX
- Open the 'Settings' panel -> Sharing -> Web Sharing -> Server is running
- Place a m4v movie into the 'Users/nickc/Sites' dir (out of the box it supports .mp4, .wmv, .mov, and .m4v)
- Test out the path by copy/pasting it to your web browser:
http://192.168.1.110/~nickc/OfficeSpace.m4v
3) Modify the sample app:
- Goto the SDK dir:
cd rokudev/examples/source/simplevideoplayer/source
- Change the 'appMain.brs' file:
rokudev/examples/source/simplevideoplayer/source/appMain.brs
urls = ["http://192.168.1.110/~nickc/OfficeSpace.m4v"]
- There are other settings worth looking into if you have an HD movie and want to update the sample text/images
- Rebuild the app in the terminal:
cd rokudev/examples/source/simplevideoplayer/source
make
- Goto the Roku installer: http://192.168.1.104
Choose File -> rokudev/examples/zips/simplevideoplayer.zip
- The Roku will make a sound when it is done loading
4) Enter the Roku Player main menu
- The sample app will show in the menu as the last app
- Select it (which will show the sample description and images)
Thats it. Press play and your local movie on your network will begin playing from Roku!
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