My Media - Your Music and Video on the Roku DVP

Converting to MP4 the easy way:

First-time use:

Get DVDfab Decryptor. I'm using the free version (DVDFab HD Decrypter 7.0.9.3), but now that I have found out what it can do, I'm giving serious thought to buying the "full monty" version. Run it.
On the left-hand side click "DVD to Mobile."
Select "iPad."
On the "Source:" bar choose your DVD (folder icon) or an ISO file (the other icon).
On the "Target" bar choose the desired output location.
DVDfab will have auto-selected the longest video on the disk; change this if you need to.
Select your language and subtitle options.
Next to the "profile" button, click "Edit." Modify the settings to your preference, then hit "Set as Default" followed by "OK"
Click "Start" and go do something else for a while.

Subsequent use:

Run DVDfab.
On the left-hand side click "DVD to Mobile."
On the "Source:" bar choose your DVD (folder icon) or an ISO file (the other icon).
On the "Target" bar choose the desired output location.
DVDfab will have auto-selected the longest video on the disk; change this if you need to.
Select your language and subtitle options.
Click "Start" and go do something else for a while.

When it's finished, you'll hear a sound (if your sound is on) and the result will be neatly titled and stored in an appropriately-named folder inside the "Target" folder you chose.

I have not yet tried this with multiple conversions from the same disk. I'd be interested in the results if anyone does before I do.

For those of you who have gotten this working for Windows, here's how to automate the web server startup.


How to start the Python web server automatically
This can be done with a simple batch file. First, you should add en environment variable for your Python installation so that you can call the python.exe file from anywhere. To do this, modify the PATH statement in your environment variables to include this:

c:\python26

To add environment variables in Windows 7 & Vista:
Right-click My Computer and then click the Advanced system settings link. Click the Environment variables button. In the System Variable section, select the PATH item and click the Edit button. At the end of this string, add a semicolon and then your new variable for Python.

Now, assuming that your Roku Media Player files are in a folder named roku_media_player, create a batch file like this:

cd c:\roku_media_player\server
python rss_server.py

Save it as "roku_start.bat" to and double-click it to start your web server.

So you've noticed that the command windows stays open?
Here's how to run this without showing the command window (invisible mode)
Create another file that looks like this:

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run chr(34) & "c:\Python26\roku_start.bat" & Chr(34), 0
Set WshShell = Nothing

Save this file as "roku_start.vbs". When you launch this .VBS file, it will call the .BAT file you made above, but will not show the command window.

Now, how do I get this to run each time I start my computer?
Easy. Just put the roku_start.vbs (or a shortcut to it) into your Windows Startup folder.

Windows Startup folder locations
Windows 7 + Vista
NOTE: The all users Startup folder is a hidden system folder located at:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Windows XP
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

How do I stop the Python web server if I can't see the command window?
Normally, you could use CTRL+C to stop the web server, but without a command window, this isn't possible. Just open Windows Task Manager and on the Processes tab, sort the list to fine the process called Python. Select it and then hit the End Process button to stop the web server.

I noticed personal video in the planned features. Any idea on a timeline for that?

thanks

I got the channel installed on Roku. Server is running... I can connect to http://<server IP>:8001/feed from another PC. Server IP address is correct on the roku.

The channel hangs on "retrieving..."

Could spaces in the music path cause problems? Anything else to check?

EDIT: Spaces in the path is the problem. Even enclosed in quotes.

"C:\Documents and Settings\Doug\My Documents\My Music" doesn't work but C:\Music does. Could be the path with spaces is too long also.

dougrb:

I'm surprised that the path with spaces was the problem. I'll give that some more testing but I'm glad you got it working in the mean time. I think a few other testers have been successful with spaces in their music path. I know, on linux, that spaces work provided I don't enclose the path in quotes.

Other than that it sounds like your up in running. Did I understand you correctly? Does everything seem to be working?

srankin:

The major technical issue I'm still working through in my head is the best way to help everyone get their media into the correct format. The Roku player is very particular about supported video formats and everyone's favorite DivX isn't on the list.

The most ideal scenario would be to translate any video compression (within reason) in real-time to the format that the Roku expects. That way you don't have to spend a lot of time converting your video to yet another format and waste space storing it in that format. One of our users has done some speed testing going from DivX to H264+AAC (the preferred Roku format) and reported that the process was very slow and not suitable at all for real time.

Second most ideal scenario is that we put together a tool using one of the great catch-all libraries (avisynth comes to mind) that will automate converting your collection into the Roku format. Then everyone can schedule an overnight or several day batch job to get their stuff converted and go from there.

Finally, I could just take a weekend and get the player ready to handle H264+AAC format video and leave it up to everyone else to solve the conversion problem.

Timeline: Don't know yet. Still some improvements to be made in the music player and I want to focus on that right now. I'll keep you posted.

I use spaces in the path. Be sure not to use quotes, even with spaces. Are you using the springboard.py GUI file to do the install?

I initially didn't use quotes and then figured I might need them. I did try a shorter path name with spaces C:\My Music Test and it works.

dougrb:

Using your original setup (with the long path and spaces) were you able to browse and drill down into your collection when you connected to the server using your web browser?

If so, then this could be some limitation in path length in the client that we need to know about.

AHHH... that's what the server page is supposed to look like. Here's what I get with the problem path name. I don't see any way to add file attachments. I'll try a cut and paste but it might be ugly (not like it's that pretty in HTML).

<class 'eyeD3.tag.TagException'> at /feed
Multiple PCNT frames not allowed.Python C:\Documents and Settings\Doug\Desktop\netguy204-roku_media_server-a66bfac\server\eyeD3\tag.py in __loadV2Tag, line 1358
Web GET http://localhost:8001/feed

Traceback (innermost first)
C:\Documents and Settings\Doug\Desktop\netguy204-roku_media_server-a66bfac\server\eyeD3\tag.py in __loadV2Tag
...
raise TagException(str(ex)); ...
â–¶ Local vars
C:\Documents and Settings\Doug\Desktop\netguy204-roku_media_server-a66bfac\server\eyeD3\tag.py in link
...
padding = self.__loadV2Tag(f); ...
â–¶ Local vars
C:\Documents and Settings\Doug\Desktop\netguy204-roku_media_server-a66bfac\server\rss_server.py in file2item
...
if not tag.link(fname): ...
â–¶ Local vars
C:\Documents and Settings\Doug\Desktop\netguy204-roku_media_server-a66bfac\server\rss_server.py in getdoc
...
items.append(file2item(os.path.join(base,file), config, curr_image)) ...
â–¶ Local vars
C:\Documents and Settings\Doug\Desktop\netguy204-roku_media_server-a66bfac\server\rss_server.py in GET
...
return getdoc(config.get("config", 'music_dir'), config).to_xml() ...
â–¶ Local vars
C:\Documents and Settings\Doug\Desktop\netguy204-roku_media_server-a66bfac\server\web\application.py in handle_class
...
return tocall(*args) ...
â–¶ Local vars
C:\Documents and Settings\Doug\Desktop\netguy204-roku_media_server-a66bfac\server\web\application.py in _delegate
...
return handle_class(cls) ...
â–¶ Local vars
C:\Documents and Settings\Doug\Desktop\netguy204-roku_media_server-a66bfac\server\web\application.py in handle
...
return self._delegate(fn, self.fvars, args) ...
â–¶ Local vars
C:\Documents and Settings\Doug\Desktop\netguy204-roku_media_server-a66bfac\server\web\application.py in process
...
return self.handle() ...
â–¶ Local vars
Response so far
HEADERSVariable Value
Content-Type 'application/rss+xml'

BODY

Request information
INPUT

No data.
COOKIES

No data.
METAVariable Value
app_stack [<web.application.application instance at 0x00E12350>]
fullpath u'/feed'
headers [('Content-Type', 'application/rss+xml')]
home u'http://localhost:8001'
homedomain u'http://localhost:8001'
homepath u''
host u'localhost:8001'
ip u'127.0.0.1'
method u'GET'
output u''
path u'/feed'
protocol u'http'
query u''
realhome u'http://localhost:8001'
status '200 OK'

ENVIRONMENTVariable Value
ACTUAL_SERVER_PROTOCOL 'HTTP/1.1'
HTTP_ACCEPT 'text/html, application/xml;q=0.9, application/xhtml+xml, image/png, image/jpeg, image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, */*;q=0.1'
HTTP_ACCEPT_CHARSET 'iso-8859-1, utf-8, utf-16, *;q=0.1'
HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING 'deflate, gzip, x-gzip, identity, *;q=0'
HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE 'en-US,en;q=0.9'
HTTP_CACHE_CONTROL 'no-cache'
HTTP_CONNECTION 'Keep-Alive, TE'
HTTP_HOST 'localhost:8001'
HTTP_TE 'deflate, gzip, chunked, identity, trailers'
HTTP_USER_AGENT 'Opera/9.80 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en) Presto/2.2.15 Version/10.10'
PATH_INFO '/feed'
QUERY_STRING ''
REMOTE_ADDR '127.0.0.1'
REMOTE_PORT '9818'
REQUEST_METHOD 'GET'
SCRIPT_NAME ''
SERVER_NAME 'localhost'
SERVER_PORT '8001'
SERVER_PROTOCOL 'HTTP/1.1'
SERVER_SOFTWARE 'CherryPy/3.1.2 WSGI Server'
wsgi.errors <open file '<stderr>', mode 'w' at 0x00A540C0>
wsgi.input <web.wsgiserver.SizeCheckWrapper object at 0x00E64C70>
wsgi.multiprocess False
wsgi.multithread True
wsgi.run_once False
wsgi.url_scheme 'http'
wsgi.version (1, 0)

I installed the latest version. WMAs play great. The artwork looks great.

CURRENT REQUESTS:
Artist Name/Album/Track displayed while songs are playing.
Pause function.

...and that's all I need.


I feel like Steve Martin in the Jerk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1el59ig9AK8