Roku Developer Program

[ashes00]

el.wubo, apparently this channell has WAN support. I am at my girlfriends house with my roku. I am able to connect, and stream mp3s and m4v files which are served up by the python at my house over 25 miles away. It buffers alot, but that becasue I have a basic DSL connection (1.5 down & 0.3 up). Of course the connectivity is becase of a pin hole in my firewall, but the actual functionality is ALL el.wubo! I did not think this would work but it does. This is the second mazing feature that I found

1. Being able to use a NAS as media storage
2. Being able to connect from Internet

el.wubo - was this intential or just by coincident?

Again Great Job

-Ash

[el_wubo]

New update:

New video specific artwork from umbighouse.

Plumbing cleanup: Media and feed are url encoded relative to your media directory (no user visible impact.. just better design)

ashes00:

It's a known but not advertised feature. This is definitely "use at your own risk" because the server does nothing to authenticate the client and will happily serve files to anyone who asks. Additionally, it won't verify that the file that's requested is actually in your media directory so it will serve up other files as well. You should think of it as running an anonymous ftp server with access to your C drive... only safe if you fully trust your network.

So, if you're comfortable with that, go for it. I'm not so I don't do it and that's why there's the security warning in the readme.

[ashes00]

10-4 on the security. The main use was for me to stream my content while at my other "Location". However I was dying to test it. The buffering is more than i can handle now LOL. Thanks for all the work!

-Ash

[el_wubo]

I just realized I forgot to update the partition branch with the previously mentioned items. It now includes those features as well.

Additionally, inspired by ashes experiment, the server will now make sure the media requested actually lies within the tree you've designated as your music folder. This is very primitive security but it will prevent some of the more obvious abuses. Still, I recommend that this software only be used behind a router and on a trusted network.

[hebertj0194]

el.wubo,

I appreciate the response. I did find hammerpocket's comments in the thread, but it left me still wondering what to download to create the web server in the OSX environment. Maybe that is just a general question that could be asked. I am unfamiliar with Python, always dealt with C language in my microcontroller programming days.

I will do some googling and use his notes.

Thanks

[el_wubo]

The zip file you download from github includes everything you need. The web server is built into the server code. The only thing you have to supply is python which (I believe) comes with OSX.

Likely all you'll need to do is:

Open terminal
cd to wherever you put the code
cd server
python springboard.py

[dellsweig]

"el.wubo" wrote:
I just realized I forgot to update the partition branch with the previously mentioned items. It now includes those features as well.

Additionally, inspired by ashes experiment, the server will now make sure the media requested actually lies within the tree you've designated as your music folder. This is very primitive security but it will prevent some of the more obvious abuses. Still, I recommend that this software only be used behind a router and on a trusted network.

Are the fixes for the numeric folder names in the partition build or is that still to come?

[el_wubo]

"renojim" wrote:
el.wubo,

I'm trying to figure out how all of this stuff works so I can contribute. As a first little test that I can change something and update the client properly, I changed the "screen.SetListStyle" from flat-episodic to flat-category and the side poster art now displays.

-JT

Very cool. I hadn't tested that layout. I like it a lot better than flat-episodic. I've changed it to be the default. Thanks renojim.

If you want to tackle something else as you're learning: The client currently isn't very helpful when it can't connect to the server. It would be good if it displayed a helpful error message of some kind instead of the permanent "Loading" screen. The decision point is the rss.Parse line in datamodel.

[el_wubo]

"dellsweig" wrote:

Are the fixes for the numeric folder names in the partition build or is that still to come?

Still to come. It's a tough problem to handle all special characters and numbers with the way the current partition algorithm works. If there are any python developers in the crowd that would like to claim this task as there own (by enhancing my algorithm or writing your own) just shout out.

[DeftOne]

"el.wubo" wrote:
* video must be encoded in one of the supported mp4 encodings mentioned on page 37 of the Component Reference in the SDK documentation you've all downloaded (Handbrake's Ipod setting with "Web Optimized" checked works.)

FYI: Handbrake's "High Profile" + "Web Optimized" also seems to work.

Looks like the "rebuffering after 1 hour" issue that others have noted is still rearing its ugly head. I transcoded two different movies (VIDEO_TS (VOB) source) in Handbrake using:

- "High Profile"
- "High Profile" + Web Optimized
- "Ipod"
- "Ipod" + Web Optimized

and they all started rebuffering after the 1 hour mark. Oddly enough, the lower quality "Ipod" encodes actually rebuffered more frequently (every 20-30 seconds) after the 1 hour mark than the higher quality "High Profile" encodes (every 2-3 minutes). I wish someone could figure out exactly what settings to use to get past this problem. I really don't want to have to encode the audio and video separately and then mux them back to together as bryankaiser noted previously in this thread. There has to be a better way.

Also worth noting is that I had to remove the 2nd audio track (AC3 Passthru) when using the "High Profile" preset, otherwise the audio wouldn't work at all. This seems to go along with the statement from one of the Roku moderators who said the Roku can't handle more than one audio stream.