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Comment by WalterBright | Hacker News Reader

I also want my Roku box to be able to display PDF files. I'd even pay for it.

and a pony.

Roku records and collects multiple screenshots every second of whatever you're watching, even if the content is being streamed from another device, and they analyze the images to figure out exactly what you watch, when, how long/often, and use that to make assumptions about who you are and what you're into which can then be sold to anyone willing to pay for it (and/or leaked/hacked).

Maybe it doesn't matter much for the files you'd be viewing, but if roku could display PDF files they'd be doing the same thing there as well. Sadly, the more things roku can display for you, the more parts of your life they can siphon and use to stuff your dossier.

I didn't know that. It's pretty disappointing news. Looks like I might just get one of those media player boxes.

Just plug in a Raspberry Pi or PC stick of your choice. That and a wireless mouse or trackball. You'll probably want to move around the file.

I know I could plug in a computer to it. The Roku would be much more convenient.

What's the use case for displaying PDF files on a Roku? You would really read documents on your TV? I'd be interested in developing that if there's a market

I have an uncounted number of PDFs, easily in the many thousands. I'd like to lounge in my LazyBoy and read them. I'd like to read them while I do my exercises. I'd like read them while in bed and sick of watching TV.

I'd upgrade to a 4K TV if I had a viewer for it.

I'd pony(!) up $200 for an app that did that. I don't know if other people would, but I would.

I find it strange that Roku comes with an app to play movie files, display jpgs, play song files, but it won't display a pdf. I've searched Roku for such an app, and googled for it, but came up empty.

Wouldn't you want a portrait mode monitor for your PDFs? I read them on a 24" UHD portrait mode display. It is so nice to have the PDF page fill the display so I don't have to scroll within each page.

Of course this doesn't solve the problem of reading them in bed! Or would it?

At least in the LazyBoy you could have a portrait mode monitor on an Ergotron arm and that would work pretty nicely?

I wrote about this in more detail here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36179132

I actually like 2-page display, like an open book.

There are several options for the Apple TV [1]

There's probably something similar for Android TV.

Roku doesn't really have a third party app ecosystem

1: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pdfontv/id1071669734 , https://apps.apple.com/us/app/easy-pdf-reader-for-all-cloud/... , https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pdf-viewer-for-tv/id1661646958

> Roku doesn't really have a third party app ecosystem

There seem to be a lot of 3rd party apps for it! I even have the SDK for it.

Right, but the ecosystem is nowhere near as robust as that of the other two platforms, as evidenced by the wealth of apps that solve OP's problem.

Lots of people have Rokus but not very many people are developing for them.

Android TV probably has a PDF app, so a Chromecast (with Android TV) should do the trick.

I don't want to buy another box. It's already a rat's nest of cables. I once looked through all the various "media player" boxes on Amazon. They all did video, pictures, and music. None did pdf.

Almost every phone can cast/screen mirror. Unless your Roku is really old it supports it.

OOC: what is your use case for PDFs on Roku?

I want my Roku box to play AAC.

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