roku, wd tv live

Trying to figure the best way to use the older tv's we have. Thinking about the Roku or WD TV Live boxes. Found out that Roku doesn't play WMV files but the WD does. Not sure this is the way to go but we want a backup plan if the wireless doesn't stream the content. It looks like there are different approaches to this and we are trying to find out the most feasible one. Found out only Samsung TV's would play both MP4 and WMV files from a USB drive as I tested a lot of tv's at Costco. Any other ideas would be appreciated.

farwest wrote:...but we want a backup plan if the wireless doesn't stream the content. It looks like there are different approaches to this and we are trying to find out the most feasible one... Any other ideas would be appreciated.

I always caution users to avoid the Internet for streaming. Buffering issues and congestion inevitably create issues. All the content on LDS.org is MP4. Both the WD and Roku are viable options. The Roku does give you live Broadcasts as well as Mormon Channel and BYUtv. Many find this an attractive feature. We are also discussing options here that hopefully in the near future we can present and provide instruction for.

It would be helpful to know what is your definition of "near future?" If we, as a stake, invest in Roku boxes for all the TVs in the stake, will there be an announcement within a couple of months that makes us wish we had held out just a little longer? Will the Roku boxes possibly compliment the options you are discussing? Any info would be appreciated.

Jones RC,

There is a real problem and disconnect with some/many FMG in this area as well. I still don't have 881W everywhere, I don't have the new 1041N anywhere... And we were just told that a 20% slash in FMG budget is eliminating our 6 month fight for newer TV's and firewall upgrades, etc...

gyoungberg wrote:It would be helpful to know what is your definition of "near future?"...will there be an announcement within a couple of months that makes us wish we had held out just a little longer?

Hold out a little longer. With the New Youth Curriculum coming out in 2013 there are a lot of discussions taking place on how to make the media more readily accessible and usable. The information being proposed will help you make a more informed decision.

It would be nice if there was a site or FTP where we could do a mas down load, for our own media servers.

Know any better way to download the content to our own servers?

JonesRC wrote:I always caution users to avoid the Internet for streaming. Buffering issues and congestion inevitably create issues. All the content on LDS.org is MP4. Both the WD and Roku are viable options. The Roku does give you live Broadcasts as well as Mormon Channel and BYUtv. Many find this an attractive feature. We are also discussing options here that hopefully in the near future we can present and provide instruction for.

I spent weeks downloading, there are some tricks of the trade as well like website copiers, but not all work on the church servers.... they are also located all over the place. Different departments have 'jurisdiction' about where they host and what they host.... the lds.org tool masks much of it, but when you start downloading you see the real disconnect out there. the metadata is atrocious as well making media servers very difficult to maintain. I'd love to know how the ios app for gospel library, or the mormon channel app get their data and organize it....

JonesRC wrote:Hold out a little longer. With the New Youth Curriculum coming out in 2013 there are a lot of discussions taking place on how to make the media more readily accessible and usable. The information being proposed will help you make a more informed decision.

What option could there possibly be? You mean someting we could do in 2014 right... budgeting is done and gone for 2012 + the 20% cut across the board that just happened. How are they going to be options in the future?

There is a large difference between having an option available, and the ability to take advantage of that option. Meetinghouses all over the country still have no wireless in them or 881W, or is my FMG the only one that hasn't upgraded anything yet? It wouldn't be that hard to believe based on my experiences, but I'm pretty certain there are others out there.

I hope they are discussing download and presentation options. Not many of our classes are taught in the chapel at the pulpit, or in the clerks offices under the counter. Those are the only places we have Internet access, at least until the budget situation changes.

I have several preconfigured consumer grade routers that have been converted to be plug and play on the churches network,

free JUST ASK


There is no reason these days to not have basic wifi.