Channels & viewing

[RickAdams]

Thanks for your post. I have a 4TB WD XHD connected to an ancient Dell Precision laptop. It works most of the time, (yes, laptop on all the time and I hate that too) and at least once a week I have to edit poster frames and titles. I have about 500 family videos. I don't care that much about the streaming, I just want my wife to have access to our family videos on the tv after I'm gone. I did not know I could plug my XHD into the back of ROKU. I will give it a look, but what I really need is a media browser that will work with an XHD. I like the Plex interface a lot, but not the instability. Do you know of a media browser that uses images instead of text? Old people really need the picture to locate videos. Thank you. I also hate ( strong word, but ) I hate that Roku Ultra comes with ear buds but they do NOT work independently of the tv speakers.

[TVCCS]

For those who come across this thread there is an alternative app now available on Roku for media playback - Shelby USB Media Player.  I recently installed a Hisense 58 inch Roku TV that couldn't properly play 4K test video files via the Roku Media Player, especially the one from Immersive Audio used to test 4K Dolby Atmos Files.  The Shelby Player is able to play that file back successfully without stops and gaps - I'm assuming it's either got better development or a more recent CODEC stack, but it helps. 

[atc98092]

Shelby USB Media Player only has two reviews, but both place it pretty low. Perhaps they've made improvements to it, so it would make a good alternative for USB playback. But it doesn't help those who want to stream from a DLNA server. Right now, RMP is the only option available. Of course, searching the channel store for DLNA doesn't even find RMP, so perhaps there's another channel hidden in there that will also play media from a DLNA server. Chaneru doesn't count, because it hasn't been updated for even longer than RMP.  

[TRB2]

I set up a KODLIX N40 Mini PC I bought from Amazon for $130 in the closet where my router lives. I added a 20TB hard drive in an Inateck 3.5 Inch HDD Enclosure. I moved all of my media (movies, videos and music) to the HD. I installed the Plex Media Server on the Mini PC and created different libraries to categorize the media. I use the Plex Media Player on 3 different Rokus in the house. They all work extremely well. You can also use the Roku Media Player with the Plex Media Server. The Plex Media Player doesn't have the greatest UI, but its not bad once you get used to it and its way better than the Roku Media Player. Ive been using this setup for well over a year and it is reliable and always works. I'm basically pretty happy with it.

[DKDiveDude]

Just tried the "Shelby USB Media Player" today. Looks like a 10 year developed this app. Starts up with only the app title!?! Although the Roku Media Player detected my external 14TB hard drive fine, Shelby did not!

What a piece of **bleep**!

To bad Roku is not clever enough to enhance their media player so it automatically detects if media audio source is DTS and your connection is Optical, and then automatically converts it to Dolby Digital. My Windows based media all players can convert to DD if so chosen via settings, so it can't be that hard. Just another reason why my next TV will not be Roku based.

[atc98092]

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@DKDiveDude wrote:

To bad Roku is not clever enough to enhance their media player so it automatically detects if media audio source is DTS and your connection is Optical, and then automatically converts it to Dolby Digital.

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There's only a handful of Roku players that have DD encoders, and they are capable of converting the audio. But this is only available in the Ultra 4640 and Ultra 4800 series players. No other Roku player has a DD encoder. 

[DKDiveDude]

I don't see how your answer has much to do with my comment.

So to clarify. I have a Smart TV with a Roku Operating system. This system includes a piece of software, and App made by Roku, which is their Roku Media Player. That software can be changed to include code that converts DTS to Dolby Digital, if the TV's sound output is set to use Optical. And I would dislike Roku a lot less if they did so!

[atc98092]

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@DKDiveDude wrote:

So to clarify. I have a Smart TV with a Roku Operating system. This system includes a piece of software, and App made by Roku, which is their Roku Media Player. That software can be changed to include code that converts DTS to Dolby Digital, if the TV's sound output is set to use Optical. And I would dislike Roku a lot less if they did so!

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To support the ability to encode any other audio codec to DD, a license is required from Dolby Laboratories, in addition to the encoder itself. Roku doesn't seem willing to pay for that encoder for multiple devices, so it's only available on their most expensive player, the Ultra. That's why it won't happen with your Roku TV.

Roku devices can only do one thing with DTS audio: they can bitstream it to a supporting AVR/Soundbar via HDMI if the audio is contained in the MKV container. That is the only Roku acknowledged DTS support, but I also know that I can bitstream DTS from the TS/M2TS container. Just note that this will only bitstream the lossy DTS core of any higher quality codecs, such as DTS-MA/DTS:X.  

[drealph90]

Hook that SSD up to a raspberry pi or similar SBC and set up emby,Plex,jellyfin. That will create a nice power efficient media server that you can leave running on a shelf somewhere or just tuck behind your router. You could even set it to download your media for you and automatically add it to your library

[djd616]

Hello, 

I've tried the Shelby USB media player and after three or four songs, it keeps shutting itself off. 

I don't have too many choices at this point because the only other alternative is the Roku media player. Which I don't like at all.