Roku Development without Developers

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1

I posted a project a few days looking for someone to modify the videoplayer sample code, but no one’s bitten. Instead, it got some erroneous talk about licensing.

What I’m wondering now: how is a fledgling platform supposed to take off if ppl willing to spend money to create a channel can’t even find anyone capable of using the SDK to make that channel?

At this point in the game, Roku should offering up -direct- help to content creators to make channels. In other words, it would make total economic sense for them to respond to my post and create the channel as spec’d. Without content, the Roku’s going no where. Tivo can stream Netflix and Amazon on Demand with no additional fuss, as well as YouTube, etc.. Other competitive developments are coming online each day, like Netflix streaming embedded into TVs, too. The big difference with the Roku is that -anyone- can create a channel… but like the web in its infancy, it’s going to either need a lot of more details in the templates or it’s going to need developers to create channels.

2

My guess is that roku is a fairly small company and perhaps probably most of their development time is spent getting new functionality/fixing bugs. There are folks out there who are now functioning as consultant developers for the Roku player (I’m one of them) and as the player gets more developers, the cost of development will surely go down, but remember that the SDK has only been publicly available for less than two months.

You might get a better response by PM’ing some developers on the forum regarding potential development, or post to a place like this:
http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/Do … fault.aspx
I’m sure there’s a bright college student or similar who would jump at the chance to make $500.

3

Hi TVforEveryone,

I’m sorry to hear of your frustration but I would like you to note this: How many channels do you see in the Roku Channel store? Not many. That is it. Most people like ourselves are probably still working on their own channels. They probably don’t have time to work on other people’s channels until they get their own out.

We at CDNOne are based in London, England the average developer here costs between £250 and £350 a day. Your offer was for $500 which is about £315 in English money. That’s basically a day’s wage for something that will not be done in a day. Do you have any idea how long we have been in development? If you did then you would really appreciate how much some of us are spending creating our channels.

I think people under appreciate what’s involved in developing and the constant demands from those not involved in the process amazes me.

Bbefilms is correct you might have to find a developer on one of those freelance sites. Not everything happens overnight.

4

“bbefilms” wrote:
My guess is that roku is a fairly small company and perhaps probably most of their development time is spent getting new functionality/fixing bugs.
Correct. About 50 people total, including the person who sweeps the floor.

5

I PM’d this comment to the OP earlier today, but I believe that it has some merit for anyone asking this type of question. It will get cheaper/easier as time goes on, but as it is now, it’s supply and demand.

Take my comments as you like…but

I think that you are underestimating the amount of work required to do what you are asking. Being a developer of an existing channel, Brightscript just isn’t very well understood, even by the people that have managed to develop something. Take that in account along with your requirements are pretty open-ended from a software development stand-point ( You -“Oh, that’s not what I meant, can you change it to do this? Should should be simple right?” Developer - “Please kill me”).

I should also mention that there’s a lot of server side code that needs to be written as well.

This is why there hasn’t been a flood of channel releases since the SDK was released.

In addition, keep in mind that as soon as you develop a Roku channel, you might want to start working on the next platform as Roku may not be the hot ticket forever.

Our channel took many months to develop and we had some limited help from others and better sample code. Some people have had the SDK for a long time and they still came up with a channel that is very basic and/or buggy.

Without copying existing code…

linking/registration code would take a week of coding and debugging.

Changing the XML - at least 4 hours.

Modification of the flow (removing the screen) 4 hours.

Resume playing - at least a week of coding and debugging both client and server side.

4:3 to 16:9 images - easy 10 minutes.

optional PIN code - at least a week of coding and debugging client and server side.

I would say that to get what you want, you’ll need to offer more in the $5k-10k range (and that’s not me or any of the existing channel operators). Anyone that takes up the project for $500 would be doing a disservice to both themselves and you.

Again, take it any way you like, but I think I’m in a good position to be correct.

6

mosten,

I’m not a coder or developer, but I absolutely see what you’re saying. I’ve been in the Roku beta helping test new channels, and often times the channel developers have to do additional tweaking when it goes through the QA testing by the beta testers… sometimes many tweaks…

Is all that included in the $500? Because I think you’re right – this seemingly simple project could turn into several weeks or more of development.

7

KennyJ,

You are right. Seemingly simple things, for example “auto refreshing a playlist after removing an item” literally took me weeks to get working correctly.

There is a lot of “try this, upload, swivel chair, test, didn’t work, try this, upload, swivel chair, test, didn’t work, try this, upload, swivel chair, test, didn’t work…Syntax Error. Crap, what did I change again?”

The OP requirement of a PIN dialog that is sometimes there makes me want to curl up in a ball and cry.

8

Good evening.

We are a Roku Developer. If you still need someone to create your channel, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

We are currently working on two other channels as we speak. Let us know if we can help. Thanks!

Float Left Interactive
http://www.floatleftinteractive.com

9

“floatleftinteractive” wrote:
Good evening.

We are an official Roku Developer. If you still need someone to create your channel, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

We are currently working on two other channels as we speak. Let us know if we can help. Thanks!

~Kirby
Float Left Interactive
http://www.floatleftinteractive.com

If you ever need beta testers, I’d love to be included.

10

“floatleftinteractive” wrote:
Good evening.

We are an official Roku Developer. If you still need someone to create your channel, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

We are currently working on two other channels as we speak. Let us know if we can help. Thanks!

~Kirby
Float Left Interactive
http://www.floatleftinteractive.com

I was not aware there is an ‘Official Developer’ program. Is info on this som where in the SDK docs that I missed or is it not being advertised directly?

11

“MarkRoddy” wrote:

“floatleftinteractive” wrote:
Good evening.

We are an official Roku Developer. If you still need someone to create your channel, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

We are currently working on two other channels as we speak. Let us know if we can help. Thanks!

~Kirby
Float Left Interactive
http://www.floatleftinteractive.com

I was not aware there is an ‘Official Developer’ program. Is info on this som where in the SDK docs that I missed or is it not being advertised directly?

Hey Mark - at this point, all you need to do is register with Roku’s developer program. I don’t believe there are any restrictions to accessing the SDK. We had taken part in an early beta program before the SDK became widely available and before we knew how Roku was going to release it. We had worked directly with Roku since we had a channel under development while they were still finalizing the final version of the SDK. We’re Unofficially Official. :slightly_smiling_face:

12

There is no “Official Developer” program for Roku. Our developer program is open to all developers who agree to the Roku Channel Developer Program Agreement.

–Kevin

13

I represent an “unofficial Roku developer” :). Tongue and cheek to reference RokuKevin’s reply about there not being “official” Roku developers.

I think that a lot of people find themselves in a position like the gentleman who made the original post.

Typically, the “content creator” who wants to publish content on the Roku box is not the same person who is going to be “in-the-code” at all times.

I represent http://www.rokuchanneldevelopment.com (shameless plug). What we do is simply this:

  1. We provide an excellent video content management system with an intuitive interface (similar to YouTube.com) to allow you to upload, manage and track your videos

  2. We integrate with Roku on your behalf, so any video in your library you choose can be easily published on your own custom branded cannel

  3. Your videos can not only be pushed to Roku, but embedded into web pages (like Vimeo etc) and viewed from iPads, iPhones, PCs - you name it

Our goal is to get your content to every screen you want and Roku players are no exception.

Our thought is, let’s create something easy to use so the visionaries and content creators can worry about things other than “code”.

All the best.

Kevin
http://www.rokuchanneldevelopment.com

14

“kburzy” wrote:
I represent an “unofficial Roku developer” :). Tongue and cheek to reference RokuKevin’s reply about there not being “official” Roku developers.

I think that a lot of people find themselves in a position like the gentleman who made the original post.

Typically, the “content creator” who wants to publish content on the Roku box is not the same person who is going to be “in-the-code” at all times.

I represent http://www.rokuchanneldevelopment.com (shameless plug). What we do is simply this:

  1. We provide an excellent video content management system with an intuitive interface (similar to YouTube.com) to allow you to upload, manage and track your videos

  2. We integrate with Roku on your behalf, so any video in your library you choose can be easily published on your own custom branded cannel

  3. Your videos can not only be pushed to Roku, but embedded into web pages (like Vimeo etc) and viewed from iPads, iPhones, PCs - you name it

Our goal is to get your content to every screen you want and Roku players are no exception.

Our thought is, let’s create something easy to use so the visionaries and content creators can worry about things other than “code”.

All the best.

Kevin
http://www.rokuchanneldevelopment.com
Cool concept, but unless you have Roku’s permission to use their name and logo, you might want to reconsider that domain and site name… If you do have permission, then nevermind :wink:

15

Way to necromance a thread. If you truly wanted to advertise your site, wouldn’t a single new thread with your post have been better? That way everyone can find it later with a better thread title pointing to your advertisement.

16

I’m locking this for the time being while we sort a few things out.