Roku Developer Program

[el_wubo]

"canaws" wrote:
Early Development Bug Report for el.wubo...

Thank you canaws.

"canaws" wrote:

Music
It doesn't show any of my music! I get the Media List Problem message. My media path is correct (same as before). It shows the music folder and the lettered folders, but the Media List problem shows up when you enter the lettered folders.

I checked my feed page and it looks like it is looking for some kind of jpg file?
http://xxx.xxx.x.x:xxxx/feed?range=ab&key=music&dir=C:\Users\xxxx\Music\.\Folder.jpg

Compare it to a same level folder in the video and photo file...
http://xxx.xxx.x.x:xxxx/feed?key=video&dir=Movies
http://xxx.xxx.x.x:xxxx/feed?key=photo&dir=Backgrounds

That is very strange behavior for the music link. I've retested everything on windows and linux (no mac yet.) Please verify that you installed the channel following my just-now-added instructions in the previous post. If that doesn't work try disabling partitioning by setting max_folders_before_split to -1 in springboard... could be I've introduced a bug there.

"canaws" wrote:

2. It recognizes my wmv videos although it won't play them. It shows them using the my music icon, but it doesn't do anything when you click on them.

Oops. Noted. Thanks

"canaws" wrote:

Pictures*
1. My Photos picture doesn't show correctly. Most of it is just a gray, only the top is yellow.

As a sanity check, can you try cycling the power on your Roku?

"canaws" wrote:

I think that the imaging library has something to do with the images showing up gray. After I deleted the early adopter and reinstalled my older channel the top folders are still gray.

It shouldn't (famous last words) because the old version doesn't reference PIL at all. Should be completely non-interacting. Try cycling the power on your Roku. I've seen strange behavior like this on occasion and cycling power seems to solve it. Also verify that you completely (alt+ctrl+delete and kill python) stopped the early adopter server.

[hammerpocket]

el.wubo:

(1) It looks like you have the same Windows version of PIL linked under "non windows users" in your post above.

(2) I'm afraid that requiring PIL is going to cause headaches for OS X users. The package I found won't install, and even the steps I found to remedy the situation don't work. Ironically, I think installing the latest Python (which is part of the posted instructions for My Media) may be part of the problem.

[Timmy_Likes_to_]

This channel around my home has been getting daily use, especially due to the addition of the video streaming.

I am reporting my optimal Handbrake encoding settings.

Handbrake Settings:

Handbrake Version 0.94
- 32 or 64-bit OS

Preset - High Profile
- Modified the settings below

Container | MP4 File

Settings according to Handbrake Output Settings tabs:

Picture
- Keep Aspect Ratio | (Checked)
- Anamorphic | None

Video
- Video Codec | H.264 (x264)
- FPS | 23.976
- Avg Bitrate (kbps) | 1500
- Avg File sizes (Output):
- 20-30 min video | 250-400 mb
- 90 min video | 1 gig

Audio
- AC3 Passthrough | (Removed)
- Necessary for Roku to play sound.

Advanced (This was a key step in Optimizing video files)
- I noticed audio was out of sync and distracting
- Set B-Frames to zero (B-Frames | 0)

My hardware configuration:

- Media Server | WHS w/ Atom processor
- Network | Gigabit LAN to Wireless N
- Device | Roku HD (Wireless G connection)
- HDMI Cable
- 42" 1080p TV

Again, these were the settings that have produced great results for me. It might be slight overkill, but sound is in sync and video I would argue it looks better than DVD quality (probably due to the HDMI instead of AV cable). I have also streamed two videos simultaneously to two Roku HD devices from my WHS without any rebuffering.

I would love to hear others' results if you use these settings.

- El.Wubo if this is suitable to put into the How To I would happy to help out.

Big Ups to the talented developers of this superior, ever evolving, project!

[calicommando]

For those of you using handbrake, what are you using to rip DVDs and what file type/format are you ripping to before transcoding it?

[canaws]

Early Adopter Bug Report for el.wubo: Part Deux

That is very strange behavior for the music link. I've retested everything on windows and linux (no mac yet.) Please verify that you installed the channel following my just-now-added instructions in the previous post. If that doesn't work try disabling partitioning by setting max_folders_before_split to -1 in springboard... could be I've introduced a bug there.

I went back, read the instructions, and reinstalled the channel. I did everything, except copy the old config file. I copy and paste my paths straight from windows every time I install and they are correct. My ip addresses are correct also, because the feed works and the channel installs fine. I'm running Vista, if that factors in in any way, and I let pil install in the default place Python26>Lib>site-packages.

I was still getting the same problem with the music, so I set the max_folders_before_split to -1. It found my music, but there are problems with the images. Most of the artist folders has the yellow folder images, but some say 'image not available', and one is all gray (not the normal light gray, but a dark gray). I think all the 'image not available' ones were previously album art (jpg).

I also noticed that on the feed and channel after all my music file are a bunch of album art picture files with long numbered and lettered names (ex. AlbumArt_{9B4BA673-349E-470B-A746-BF6F135C6B3E}_Small) and at the end one picture called AlbumArt and one called Folder. They all say 'image not available.' None of these files are in the music directory on my computer. I tried restarting the roku and it still shows up that way.

As a sanity check, can you try cycling the power on your Roku?

I tried restarting. Still none of the jpg images in my picture folder will show (I get 'image not available') and none of large gifs/png (I get 'retrieving image'). Some of the gifs have dark gray on some or most of the picture. It seems like every sub folder has a least one totally dark gray jpg. I got the first two top level folders (my music/video) to show after uninstalling/reinstall pil and restarting the channel/server, but the my photo folder still has dark gray on the bottom half.

Hopefully, someone else will give a report too. That way you can figure out if it's just my wacky self that is having a problem or if it's some thing with the channel programming.

[renojim]

"Timmy Likes to Click" wrote:
This channel around my home has been getting daily use, especially due to the addition of the video streaming.

I am reporting my optimal Handbrake encoding settings.

snip...

- FPS | 23.976

Advanced (This was a key step in Optimizing video files)
- I noticed audio was out of sync and distracting
- Set B-Frames to zero (B-Frames | 0)

I would love to hear others' results if you use these settings.

Thanks for posting. So you're not getting any rebuffering on > 1hr videos? I don't know if all of my 24fps videos rebuffer, but the ones that do are almost always 24fps. I'll have to see if the B-frames setting helps my audio sync issue.

-JT

[el_wubo]

"hammerpocket" wrote:
el.wubo:

(1) It looks like you have the same Windows version of PIL linked under "non windows users" in your post above.

Thank you. It's fixed now.

"hammerpocket" wrote:

(2) I'm afraid that requiring PIL is going to cause headaches for OS X users. The package I found won't install, and even the steps I found to remedy the situation don't work. Ironically, I think installing the latest Python (which is part of the posted instructions for My Media) may be part of the problem.

Nuts! Well, I haven't invested too much time in the specifics of the resizing library. We'll just have to find something that works for everyone.

[el_wubo]

"canaws" wrote:
Early Adopter Bug Report for el.wubo: Part Deux
I also noticed that on the feed and channel after all my music file are a bunch of album art picture files with long numbered and lettered names (ex. AlbumArt_{9B4BA673-349E-470B-A746-BF6F135C6B3E}_Small) and at the end one picture called AlbumArt and one called Folder. They all say 'image not available.' None of these files are in the music directory on my computer. I tried restarting the roku and it still shows up that way.

Wow. That's very odd. Can you send me (email) your my_media_log.txt file? Also, can you try looking in the feed xml and picking out a url from inside the <image></image> tags? Urls that end in .jpg are normal pictures and things that end in .mp3.image are images that are embedded in mp3's. Pasting either type of url into your browser should show you the image if things are working right. Make sure you get the entire file name though, including the '&key=music' bit.

"canaws" wrote:

Hopefully, someone else will give a report too. That way you can figure out if it's just my wacky self that is having a problem or if it's some thing with the channel programming.

Yes, hopefully. Thank you for help testing this.

[el_wubo]

"Timmy Likes to Click" wrote:
This channel around my home has been getting daily use, especially due to the addition of the video streaming.

Fantastic, glad to hear it. Same is true around my house. Our TV + Roku has become the stereo.

"Timmy Likes to Click" wrote:

...
Again, these were the settings that have produced great results for me. It might be slight overkill, but sound is in sync and video I would argue it looks better than DVD quality (probably due to the HDMI instead of AV cable). I have also streamed two videos simultaneously to two Roku HD devices from my WHS without any rebuffering.

I would love to hear others' results if you use these settings.

- El.Wubo if this is suitable to put into the How To I would happy to help out.

It definitely would be. If you're willing, I'd like to declare you "official assembler of the encoding HOWTO and tips document." The github wiki is probably a good place to start assembling this document. Just click edit, create an account, and go to town.

I'd recommend starting out by wikifying your specific solution and then skimming through the board for alternatives. Pick out the ones you like, noting the issues that people reported along with them, and compile them into a set of pages. Others can participate as well since it is an open wiki.

I envision this evolving into a document that has a standard recommended set of encoding parameters and then a list of variants and the pros and cons that we discover for those variants over time. As we figure out better ways to do this we can promote variants to become the new standard.

Thank you TLC.

[canaws]

Wow. That's very odd. Can you send me (email) your my_media_log.txt file? Also, can you try looking in the feed xml and picking out a url from inside the <image></image> tags? Urls that end in .jpg are normal pictures and things that end in .mp3.image are images that are embedded in mp3's. Pasting either type of url into your browser should show you the image if things are working right. Make sure you get the entire file name though, including the '&key=music' bit.

Done and done. Check your email. 😃