Features, settings & updates

[BartZLederman]

I'm seeing a really weird problem.  I've installed a DLNA server on four PCs so far (three Windows 7, one Windows 10).  All of the installations were fine when first set up.  I use Windows Media Player to be the server, I set up Music, Video and Image shares, they all go into the Windows Libraries, etc.  Until now everything I put on was served (keeping in mind that the Roku web page that says what media it will play is totally wrong).  One of the systems I set up was for a friend: he was having problems with other programs on that system, though Roku Media Player was seeing the media served on that PC just fine.  So I swapped one of my systems for his.

I reset the libraries on that PC from scratch.  Videos play properly, Images show properly; but music does NOT show up at all.  Windows Media Player says the files are in the library, Windows Explorer shows the proper media files in the Music Library, the sharing properties on the Music Library are the same as the Video and Images libraries; but Roku Media Player says there is no music there.  The test files I put in the library played when served by my other PCs.

I've used the built-in Windows feature to reset the Libraries, but that hasn't changed anything. All of the Windows software says it's working properly.  I've done scans for corrupted Windows files, and SFC says everything is good.

I've never seen a fault like this before.  Since Roku Media Player can see the Images and Videos and play them, the link from Roku Media Player to my media server must be working.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why Roku Media Player isn't seeing any music files when Windows shows they are there in the library and are being served?

[renojim]

Since you mention Windows, are these WMA files?  If so, Roku dropped support for them some time ago.

Can you give an example of where the web page is wrong (and what web page you're referring to)?  We can probably bug the right people to get it fixed.

[BartZLederman]

No, they are not WMA files.  I believe I said that the music used to play.

I found the problem.  I admit it's a little embarrassing, but I don't think it's my fault.

I mentioned that I've set up systems like this at least four times.  Every time I went into Windows Media Player and used the "Organize -> Manage Libraries" feature to add the folders to be served to the libraries.  I did this the first time I set up this PC, and it worked.

This time I did exactly the same thing.  WMP set up the Videos, Images, and Music libraries. All of them looked identical. All of them were set to share the folder.  But, for some reason I can't even guess, the Music folder was not actually set to bringing up the "Properties" tab on the Music library said sharing was on, just like the other libraries: but the folders below the top folder were not actually shared.  Right clicking on the folder and using "share with" did not fix the problem. It was necessary to bring up "Properties" on each of the folders separately, go to the Sharing tab, click on the "Share" button (even though it said it was being shared) which brings up the list of users who can share the folder, and then click on the "Share" button in the lower right hand corner to make the folder actually be shared.  This did propagate to the folders below that in the directory tree.

As I said, I have no idea why it was necessary to do this for Music when it was not necessary for Videos or Images; or why I had to do this when it was never necessary in the past.  But there it is.

As for the web page that has bad information on it:

https://sdkdocs-archive.roku.com/Audio-and-Video-Support_3737490.html

is one that most users won't see, as it's in the developer's section: but it lists formats that the previous reply here says aren't supported.  It could be correct that "Roku Devices" will support these formats, but Roku Media Player won't.

What most users will see is this (assuming you can even FIND the web page, as it's well hidden and doesn't show up in most searches):

https://support.roku.com/article/208754908

It says it supports MKV as a container.  It DOES NOT.  I've never been able to get it to play an MKV file, nor has anyone else.  Others have reported this in this forum.  I'm not sure if it will really play an MOV file either.  For Audio, it will play MP3, ACC, and M4V, and I think FLAC.

This web page basically says the same thing as the "Developers" page: but just because the Roku DEVICE 'supports' the format does NOT mean that the Roku Media Player channel support it.

What is also missing is what Profile and Level of H.264 will play.  I've found that the maximum it will support is a profile of "High" and IDC Level 4.1 .  Go past that and maybe it will play, usually it won't.  And it does not appear to support HEVC on most devices.

Roku Media Player also says it support subtitles.  I've never been able to get that to work on any Roku device, and my friend who needs them also can't get them to play.

As for getting it fixed: I've reported this to Roku many times, and they just don't care.  If you're reading this forum you should know that nobody from Roku reads or cares about what is said here.  If you have another path into Roku support to someone who will listen, more power to you.  I hope you succeed, and if there is any way I can help, let me know.

[renojim]

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@BartZLederman wrote:

No, they are not WMA files.  I believe I said that the music used to play.

And as I said, WMA files used to play.

It says it supports MKV as a container.  It DOES NOT.  I've never been able to get it to play an MKV file, nor has anyone else.

MKV is just a container.  It's what's in it that matters.  If you put an unsupported codec in a supported container it still won't play.  I don't use RMP, but I'll bet you I can get it to play an MKV file.  Roku devices most definitely support MKVs.

I've only used subtitles in SRT files and they work fine, but again, I don't use RMP.  I have no reason to believe they wouldn't work.

The web page should be updated to remove WMA.  I'll try to ping someone

Edit:  Your link is to an archived SDK document page.  The link you should be looking at is:
https://developer.roku.com/docs/specs/media/streaming-specifications.md#!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if streaming your own media is your number one priority Roku really isn't the device for you.  Roku has shown little to no interest in such a use since its inception.  I suspect it's because you're just not making them any money in an on-going fashion.

There's a beta program for RMP that @atc98092 could probably tell you about, but as someone that's been in a few Roku beta programs over the years don't expect them to listen to you any more there than they do here.  RMP seems to be about as low a priority as it can get.

[atc98092]

@RokuChris is the employee that oversees RMP. A new beta was recently released, but I'm not certain there's anything in it that might be a solution here. You can send a private message to Chris to request joining the beta. The advantage to this beta is that the test version of the channel does not replace the public version. So if the test version really breaks something, one still has the public version available.

Roku absolutely supports the MKV container. But as @renojim mentioned it's the codecs within the container that matter about supported playback. As far as profile and level, it's generally accepted that for 1080 material Level 4.1 is the highest used. Any level higher is for 4K material. All Roku 4K devices support H.265 at up to level 5.1. 

For subtitle support, Roku devices will only display text based captions. This includes external SRT files, as well as embedded captions in the text format, such as EIA-602. For captions used on ripped DVD/Blu Ray discs, those are image based, and Roku will not display them. 

Windows Media Player is a miserable DLNA server. It has limited transcoding support, and doesn't provide a very clean presentation in players like RMP. It's far, far better to use a dedicated platform like Plex or Emby, both of which have dedicated channels for Roku devices that work very well. Or if you are OK with RMP (and overall it has to pluses as well), a basic DLNA server like Serviio works very well with Roku devices. I wrote the Roku profiles included with Serviio, so I am comfortable making that recommendation. 

But I agree that RMP appears to be a low priority for Roku. I also agree with @renojim that for local media playback, a Roku is not the ideal device. With a properly set up media server (such as Plex or Serviio) it's satisfactory for many users. But if you want the ability to see image based captions, or bitstream lossless audio to an AVR, you need to move up to the Nvidia Shield. Then you can use one of the many player apps that support local media, such as Kodi, VLC, or MrMC.