Channel Issues & Questions

[Magic_Taco_Truc]

Am I crazy here, or is there no simple way to loop a single video that I own without rebuffering every time? I want to use my Roku and projector to loop a video for a Halloween ghost display, but I can't find a single simple solution to just loop the video without it buffering every time. Is there an answer to this, or am I stuck with having to use a computer or other device in my front yard?!

[Elijah_Baley]

Roksbox has that ability and I "think" Chaneru does as well. Plex will also.

For Plex (using the RARflix channel), once you set up Plex just place the video you want to play in its own separate folder and make that folder a library of its own(Use home video for the type but I think it work for other types as well.) Then select that video in Plex and choose "playback options and more" and then choose "Playback options" then press "OK" on "Playback" until it changes to "Continuous [This context]" then close the playback menu and play the video using the "Continuous [context] Play option.

It will repeat play without intervention.

EDIT: I just tested and this works as well in the regular Plex channel but the choices are named a bit differently.

[dssonic]

This doesn't directly address your question, but the channel "ScreamSaver" plays a loop of misc Halloween footage along with spooky sounds - maybe it would meet your needs.

http://www.roku.com/channels/#!details/ ... creamsaver

[Magic_Taco_Truc]

Thanks for the help. I tried RARFlix with Plex and still suffered from the video re-loading between each loop. Do I need to convert it to another format? It's an HD mp4 that is just over 1 minute long, about 77 megabytes in size. I was hoping it would just buffer once and then loop forever

[Elijah_Baley]

"Magic Taco Truck" wrote:
Thanks for the help. I tried RARFlix with Plex and still suffered from the video re-loading between each loop. Do I need to convert it to another format? It's an HD mp4 that is just over 1 minute long, about 77 megabytes in size. I was hoping it would just buffer once and then loop forever

I misunderstood what you were wanting. I thought you wanted to simply repeat a video over and over but now I understand that you want repeat play with no interruption for reloading. That is you want it to behave like the same video has been spliced end to end multiple times to effectively one very very long video.

To answer the question as I now understand it, no it cannot be done on the Roku as far as I know. The Roku must restart the video each time it reaches the end as it needs to have what it is playing in its memory and its buffer is only about 15-30 seconds long so it must reload to return the starting part of the video into memory.

It would seem that you want a function that Roku was never designed to support and that would be extremely rare for any user to want or need.

EDIT: BTW shortening the video still would not function the way you want as the Roku is simply not designed to do what you want. It buffers every time it starts a video even if the same video just finished.

[Magic_Taco_Truc]

Well, thanks all the same. I guess I'm stuck finding another alternative. I wish I had discovered this more than two days before Halloween!

[mikebdoss]

"Magic Taco Truck" wrote:
Well, thanks all the same. I guess I'm stuck finding another alternative. I wish I had discovered this more than two days before Halloween!

Couldn't you loop it with computer software, then play that via your computer (or other device) through your projector? Seems like there's got to be some solutions for this outside the Roku.

[Magic_Taco_Truc]

It's going in my front yard, so setting up my desktop PC out there isn't really an option. My only laptop is a work laptop, so I'd be risking my job by using it. Not sure what to do at this point.

[mikebdoss]

"Magic Taco Truck" wrote:
It's going in my front yard, so setting up my desktop PC out there isn't really an option. My only laptop is a work laptop, so I'd be risking my job by using it. Not sure what to do at this point.

Maybe loop the video using software of your choice to something that's 20 minutes or longer, then play that on the Roku? There would still be rebuffers, but they'd come much less often.

[macmillanweb]

Greetings. We have a Roku Channel product that loops through a block of videos endlessly:http://macmillanweb.net/html/roku_looping_channel.asp
Please contact me if you are interested. The channel is controlled through online channel management software. The videos and the order of the videos can be changed at any time.