Roku Developer Program

[WilDD]

Streaming mp3 files over http with and without id3 tags will play fine on a Roku 1, but streaming to a Roku 2 XS doesn't work with id3 tags. It's the same files being streamed from the same location using the same software, and they work fine on the Roku 1, but not on the Roku 2.

Here is a summary of what is happening:

Roku Original, N1100, Version 3.1, Build 1011 - mp3s play with or without id3 tags
Roku XR, N1101, Version 3.1, Build 1027 - mp3s play with or without id3 tags
Roku 2 XS, 3100X, Version 4.8, Build 3520 - mp3s play without id3 tags, but not with id3 tags

So the same mp3 file will play fine on a Roku 2 XS without id3 tags, but not with id3 tags. Does anyone know why this would happen? It works on the Roku 1 models, but not Roku 2 XS.

The manifest file has requires_audiometadata=1 in it.

[destruk]

Why does it have audio metadata in the manifest since that only works with local files? ie you download the mp3 first, or play from USB? If you are streaming online, then id3 tags should be ignored entirely.
And there are multiple versions of ID3 tags so you should be testing with version 1 as well as version 2, 2.3, and 2.4 to figure out which fail.

http://sdkdocs.roku.com/display/RokuSDK ... ioMetadata
roAudioMetadata currently only works with local file URLs.

Worst case solution, open the mp3 file in winamp, go to view file info, select the id3 tab(s) and uncheck the "include" box for the ID3 info. Then without any tag information it'll work across roku devices with no issues.

[WilDD]

"destruk" wrote:
Why does it have audio metadata in the manifest since that only works with local files? ie you download the mp3 first, or play from USB? If you are streaming online, then id3 tags should be ignored entirely.
And there are multiple versions of ID3 tags so you should be testing with version 1 as well as version 2, 2.3, and 2.4 to figure out which fail.

http://sdkdocs.roku.com/display/RokuSDK ... ioMetadata
roAudioMetadata currently only works with local file URLs.

Worst case solution, open the mp3 file in winamp, go to view file info, select the id3 tab(s) and uncheck the "include" box for the ID3 info. Then without any tag information it'll work across roku devices with no issues.

This channel will stream from http and USB both. That's why I need the manifest entry (for the USB). When streaming from USB, I do grab and use the id3 information, however, when streaming over http, I don't try to get id3 info because that isn't supported. I just want to be able to play the mp3s when streaming over http. This channel also doesn't provide the mp3s, they are streamed through the user's local network. So the problem is that since users are streaming from their local network, they have mp3s that they access from other devices that work fine with the id3 tags, and they also want to be able to stream to the Roku. But they don't want to have to strip the id3 tags to stream to the Roku (a lot of extra work, and eats up more storage space). It looks like we should be able to play mp3s with id3 tags over http, especially since it worked on the Roku 1 models. I don't know why it would change so that it doesn't work on the Roku 2s.

[RokuMarkn]

Can you PM me the URL of a file that doesn't play on the Roku 2?

--Mark

[TheEndless]

As a temporary workaround, could you download the mp3 to tmp and play from there? If you're working with a playlist, you could always download the next track while the current one is playing. That would also give you ID3 support with remote files.

[WilDD]

"TheEndless" wrote:
As a temporary workaround, could you download the mp3 to tmp and play from there? If you're working with a playlist, you could always download the next track while the current one is playing. That would also give you ID3 support with remote files.

That's a good idea, but it looks like there could be a significant delay for each song with the download to tmp if not using a playlist. It could also eat up a lot of memory. I'm seeing some mp3s around 10MB.

After doing some more experimenting, it looks like some mp3s with id3 tags will play on the 2 XS. Actually, it looks like most will play. But this one that someone else sent me won't play with the id3 tags, but it will play with the id3 tags stripped out. Also it will play on the Roku 1 models with or without the id3 tags. So I don't know what is going on with this particular mp3 file.

[destruk]

Have you tried re-encoding the problem mp3 and re-adding the id3 into the new file?