XBMC on Roku - Viable option in the future ?
#1
First things first.. can Thank enough to the Guru's who made this XBMC thing possible... Great Job.
Now my second qn, I know.. must have been asked a few times by now ROKU/XBMC, am really curious is this a
possibility in the future for XBMC to be ported on Roku or is it a total mismatch.. Am not
a techie guy so pardon my ignorance.

Is there any work being done in this regard.. If not will there be anything in the future... i hope so.
Please chime in......

Rock on XBMC !

Thanks.
#2
Mostly, total mismatch. The GPU support specs you are looking for are opengles 2.0. If it can't do that, it probably can't do XBMC. And to my knowledge Roku's SoC doesn't have the ponies for that.
#3
Well, the original series of Roku boxes didn't have the chops to run XBMC. However, the current series of Roku 2 boxes are based on the Broadcom 2835 SoC, which is the same SoC as the Raspberry Pi. This SoC features a relatively powerful VideoCore IV GPU, and will of course do OpenGL-ES 2.0. The new Roku boxes are powerful enough to run XBMC, as evidenced by the Raspberry Pi port.

However, that does not mean that there is a good chance of seeing XBMC on the Roku 2 series. I'm not terribly familiar with how Roku channels work, but I have doubts that it would be easy to create an XBMC plug-in. By what little I do know, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it to happen.
#4
Unfortunately the Roku platform is fairly well locked down. The publicly available SDK for Roku uses simple Netflix like interface elements, and while making for a great Plex client would not allow XBMC. There is another SDK available to partners like Hulu and some game studios, but I doubt Roku would be interested in ceding control of their platform, in that XBMC would bypass all of their existing partner arrangements. And with the availability of the cheap RPi there isn't really any incentive to jailbreak the Roku 2.

As the previous post stated, RPi is almost identical hardware to the Roku 2, with the exception of Bluetooth on the Roku, and additional IO pins and USB on the R Pi.
#5
can't xbmc implement something similar for the ROKU2 that PLEX now has? Their plexmediaserver now runs on linux too so you can stream files from your own PC/server to the ROKU2 box & your tv.
#6
nope, you want something like a crippled player on a crippled platform, look elsewhere Smile
#7
(2012-08-15, 02:01)bmullan Wrote: can't xbmc implement something similar for the ROKU2 that PLEX now has? Their plexmediaserver now runs on linux too so you can stream files from your own PC/server to the ROKU2 box & your tv.

Fortunately we Roku 2 owners do have the option of Plex Media Server and the Roku Plex client. My wife finds XBMC annoying, and likes the simplicity of the Roku. The Plex developers have done a great job of adding as many Desktop Plex options as possible.
#8
(2012-08-15, 07:27)DrowningApe Wrote:
(2012-08-15, 02:01)bmullan Wrote: can't xbmc implement something similar for the ROKU2 that PLEX now has? Their plexmediaserver now runs on linux too so you can stream files from your own PC/server to the ROKU2 box & your tv.

Fortunately we Roku 2 owners do have the option of Plex Media Server and the Roku Plex client. My wife finds XBMC annoying, and likes the simplicity of the Roku. The Plex developers have done a great job of adding as many Desktop Plex options as possible.

You are posting in the wrong forum.Angry
#9
Please don't talk about Navi-X, 1Channel, or IceFilms on XBMC.org
#10
(2012-08-15, 07:27)DrowningApe Wrote: My wife finds XBMC annoying

Then you are probably doing it wrong. Xbmc is very easy to use when it´s setup in the right way.

BTT: Don´t wait for XBMC to support a Roku, WDTV or any other Mediastreamer-box crap.
Just get a Raspberry Pi and Raspbmc, you won´t find a cheaper or better solution at that price.
#11
Ahh, that's the problem with Wife 1.x, you need to update to Wife 2.x as it has more features.
#12
My wife loves XBMC. So do her mother and grandmother. So that would mean I got a grandmother in law v2. Cool
opdenkamp / dushmaniac

xbmc-pvr [Eden-PVR builds] [now included in mainline XBMC, so no more source link here :)]
personal website: [link]

Found a problem with PVR? Report it on Trac, under "PVR - core components". Please attach the full debug log.

If you like my work, please consider donating to me and/or Team XBMC.
#13
One of the major benefits of having only sisters (and mostly only nieces) is you get to find out quickly what is and is not lady approved. Primary finding: women love the XBMC for iOS remote and airplay.
#14
As an alternative to a full XBMC implementation on inexpensive devices, like the Roku or Raspberry Pi, how about a video playback client on a streamer coupled with XBMC on a computer/tablet as a second-screen interface?
#15
(2013-02-06, 07:40)JJJD Wrote: As an alternative to a full XBMC implementation on inexpensive devices, like the Roku or Raspberry Pi, how about a video playback client on a streamer coupled with XBMC on a computer/tablet as a second-screen interface?

Funny you should mention that, because nightly builds (wiki) now have a new feature that does exactly that. Still needs some work for it to work with all formats and more devices, but the basic idea is that XBMC can "play to" and control any UPnP/DLNA source.

If anyone wants to grab a nightly build, on XBMC turn on the "look for clients" option under Settings -> Services -> UPnP

Other XBMC installs can also be clients, and some (most? not sure) UPnP/DLNA devices should work too, like some SmartTVs.

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XBMC on Roku - Viable option in the future ?0