Tech Forum

In the letter the church sent out regarding the new curriculum, they mentioned playing media off of a USB drive as being the preferred choice. They suggest a Roku or the WD box as viable solutions.

My question is, who should provide this?

-- Our FM Manager seems to feel that it falls in the category of custom cables for iPads etc. (mentioned in the letter as a member responsibility). Consequently the Stake or individual members should supply these.

-- I read this an FM responsibility to retrofit older TVs so that they meet a minimum standard (of being able to play a file off of a USB drive). That way they can get another 30 years of life out of the TV instead of replacing it.

What is happening in the rest of the church?

Thanks!

If you watch January's broadcast, the answer I remember was:

• FM is not responsible
• Follow the handbook

Personal translation: Wards and stakes who do get it are taking it out of their activity funds.

Note that it doesn't make much difference if it comes from the ward or the stake. It's two slices from the same pie.

Now for a observation: Back when MLS first came out, it was optional. Units that wanted on had to find a computer that met the higher specs. Units that couldn't would have to stay on the DOS MIS/FIS program. A few years later, the church started supplying computers on a 5-year cycle.

When Internet came out, it was first: "You can tap into the FHC network", then "Wards and stakes can fund their own" and now "Church pays".

This could follow the same pattern.

Additionally the Roku or WD devices will connect to TV's over the RCA or HDMI they will support the gambit of what's available in our meetinghouses.

My preference would be the Roku for the following reasons.
-- Many people will already be familiar with it (small learning curve).
-- Slightly cheaper (looking into bulk rates with Roku as well).
-- iOS and Android remote control app (could come in handy if the remote is lost?).

The only real advantage I see for the WD player is that it supports more video formats (Roku only supports .mp4). However, I'm not sure when I would ever need any of those other formats.

Any thoughts on this?

1) Wasn't only one of them usable for webcasts? I would be nice if we could use it for stake conferences as well.

2) Personally, I 'd like to find something that doesn't require a remote. They tend to get lost.

Our Stake has done a lot of testing with these two devices, we have decide to go with the WD TV Live version. It plays pretty much what ever you throw at it. It works great with the Plexapp server software. It has great parental controls which means you can lock it down pretty good.

Never seen it buffer in any test, the Roku did.


The Roku 1st strike, requires an active credit card account for the various things that can be bought online, and the box WILL NOT function with out the CC for validation. 2nd strike, very weak parental controls, you cannot lock out all the online channels. 3rd, it will not play from a NAS, and only Plex has a media server with a channel app for the Roku. 4th, pretty much every screen other than when the video is playing, you have to look at various advertisements.

Roku does have the Mormon channel, do they play General Conference on that?

rolandc wrote:The Roku 1st strike, requires an active credit card account for the various things that can be bought online, and the box WILL NOT function with out the CC for validation.

We've been told in other threads that that can be worked around. But the other issues remain.

The Church live broadcasts are streamed to the Mormon Channel - Yes. Works really well.

JohnShaw wrote:The Church live broadcasts are streamed to the Mormon Channel - Yes. Works really well.

That is good to know, Now if we could get a PlexApp Mormon Channel.....

Plex Media server combined with the WD TV Live is very powerful and so simple. Our FM group managers are coming up Monday with some regional managers for a Demo. Could be fun.

One thing I just found out.

This involves the Roku's and one of the big computer magazine found a new model in browsing through some FCC filings. Didn't have much detail, and it has been indicated by the magazine that found the filings for the new device that it will be slightly smaller than the ones out now, and rumors say it will have a faster chipset to support new features and improve performance overall. But that is all we know. We don't even know a release date, but that may likely follow within weeks if last years announcements of the Rolu 2's were any indication.

This will also render obsolete most Roku 2's.