Roku Developer Program

[calicommando]

Ok, here are my video issues. I tried handbrake but didn't have a decrypter. I thought maybe DVDFab's decrypter would work with it, but it didn't, so I had a jumbled mess of video. So I reripped, this time using DVDFab. I got a successful rip (unfortunately with closed captions), but the quality looks terrible on a 40" HDTV. Has anyone successfully ripped a quality video that would be suitable for playback on the Roku, keeping in mind that I have the 64-bit version of Vista?

[el_wubo]

New: Video Support

mainline: http://github.com/netguy204/roku_media_ ... ves/master

partition branch: http://github.com/netguy204/roku_media_ ... /partition

I've just updated the latest version of both the main and the partitioning branch with video support.

Make sure you re-install your channel from springboard after you download. Also make sure to kill any instances python still lingering around. You may have to go to the alt+ctrl+delete process's tab to do this.

Here are the current requirements for getting your video to work:

* 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.)

* Files must end in m4v

* Place files in your music folder. I may add an option later for separate audio and video folders.

What I have tested:

* Handbrake encoded, ipod preset, web optimized

* Fast forward, Rewind, and Pause

What I haven't tested:

* Videos longer than 30 minutes

* Any other encoding settings

* Lots of other stuff.

Known Issues:

* Video takes a while to start. This can be improved by building more streaming smarts into the server.

* No video metadata available in the list view (other than file name) -- I need to find a good cross-platform library that lets me get this

* No wmv support yet. Won't be hard to add.

Let the bug reports begin!

[el_wubo]

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

[dellsweig]

"el.wubo" wrote:
Thanks jaredsubman for the initial research and crack at this. I'm starting in on adding support to the channel and server tonight. If all goes as planned we could have initial support sometime tomorrow night or Tuesday (that's my goal.)

Handbrake seems like a great utility for doing the conversion and it's convenient that the Ipod Legacy preset matches the Roku so well. Start converting now so you'll have something to test when support is rolled out.

Now.. scrolling back through the forum:

buaboo:

Open another script in the /etc/init.d directory and make sure your script looks similar. Typically init.d scripts need to respond to a couple of arguments (start, stop, restart) and some distributions enforce a distro specific header. Make your script look like another script in init.d and you should be good to go.

DeftOne:

Yeah... you've discovered that little hack. I'm not sure if it's a feature or a bug either. I guess it's a feature in that I anticipated it. It's a side-effect of how my song cycling logic works. I agree with your description of how song cycling should work and will revisit that logic at some point after video support.

Dellsweig:

I haven't forgotten your directory depth problem. Still no progress on that front. I'll try to get you something new to test soon.


All:

Thank you for your enthusiastic support and for sharing what you've learned. You all make this a lot of fun to work on.

THANKS!!!!

Are you having fun yet 🙂

[trksh22]

Hey do you have a donation link somewhere (is that allowed?). I think it's really cool that you're doing this. Putting in a lot of work that a lot of us can benefit from, ACTIVELY making updates almost as soon as users request them and not even asking for anything in return. I won't even try to pretend that I have a decent amount to donate (stinky student loan payment) but hey, maybe if someone else donates it'll add up to enough to buy a 1/8 tank of gas?

[umbighouse]

Just getting caught back up with all of the progress...

The alphabet folder partition splits is excellent. It makes navigation much better for those folders deep in the alphabet.

Just tried the video support. el.wubo- you crushed it again! I tested 2 different videos which both played fine. One was an .m4v and the other was an .mp4 which I renamed to .m4v and they both worked. Note that I use Handbrake to do the conversions anyway, so it sounds like a good possible mainstream choice of decoder to use.

I haven't tried some of the higher quality settings being suggested here, but I'm sure people could report back their successes, and a suggested standard could be found.

Great job all- this has really come very far very fast.

[dellsweig]

"umbighouse" wrote:
Just getting caught back up with all of the progress...

The alphabet folder partition splits is excellent. It makes navigation much better for those folders deep in the alphabet.

Just tried the video support. el.wubo- you crushed it again! I tested 2 different videos which both played fine. One was an .m4v and the other was an .mp4 which I renamed to .m4v and they both worked. Note that I use Handbrake to do the conversions anyway, so it sounds like a good possible mainstream choice of decoder to use.

I haven't tried some of the higher quality settings being suggested here, but I'm sure people could report back their successes, and a suggested standard could be found.

Great job all- this has really come very far very fast.

Can this be made to work for my picture folders?? (jpg format stuff)

[renojim]

Let me first say, Great job and thanks!

I've been playing with the new video additions and there seems to be an issue with large files. I haven't been able to figure out exactly what the file size limitation is, but it seems as though files over 64MB (2^26) have problems. However, to complicate things further I've had files of much less than 64MB not play, but when I reboot the Roku player those same files will play.

For what it's worth, the error from the client is: "play failed: The format is not supported or the media is corrupt." I don't think the media is corrupt because I'm just using MP4box to strip out the first 60 seconds of a huge file, then the first 90 seconds, etc., until I get to the 64MB file size. I also get the error on the files that won't play until I reboot the Roku player, so it doesn't seem as though it's a valid error message.

Has anyone been able to get a large file to play?

-JT

[umbighouse]

I've played a few m4v files over 250mb without any issues. They were converted with Handbrake.

[calicommando]

I'm sorry to keep bringing this up, but everyone seems to be using Handbrake to rip the videos. What are you using to get past the copy protection?