Media playback

The following sections provide a technical overview of the media playback features available on the platform, organized by implementation priority. These features are designed to improve user accessibility, streamline the viewing experience, and maintain engagement through sophisticated state management and performance optimizations.

Screensavers

Screensavers are standalone applications automatically invoked when a device has been idle for a user-specified period. They serve to protect the display and provide a non-interactive background experience.

Closed caption

The platform supports multiple closed-caption formats for rendering text-based timing and format information to ensure compliance with accessibility standards such as the CVAA.

Trick mode

Trick mode provides visual feedback during playback operations such as seek, forward, and rewind. This function lets a user visualize the timestamp of the content they are seeking.

Bookmarking

Bookmarking saves a user's playback position so they can resume precisely where they left off.

Instant resume

Instant Resume enables applications to save their current state upon exit and continue playback immediately upon relaunch, significantly reducing wait times.

Fast video start

Fast video start minimizes the perceived buffering time when a user initiates playback.

Text to speech

The Text to Speech (TTS) engine provides an audible version of UI strings to assist users with visual impairments.

Voice controls

Voice controls allow users to manage playback using the Roku voice remote or mobile app, providing a hands-free navigation experience.