Roku Developer Program

[renojim]

#1 - I use the command line version of HandBrake, so I'm not real sure how to match the settings for the GUI. My command line is pretty simple:

HandBrakeCLI -i filetoconvert.xxx -o filename.m4v -O -r 29.97 -e x264 -S <size in megabytes of the input file>

The -S parameter keeps the converted file size about the same as the original size. I'm not real particular about quality. To get a faster conversion you can omit the "-e x264" parameter which uses the ffmpeg codec, but I've had better results with the H.264 codec. I've used this for countless files and I'd say better than 90% play without any problems. Every once in a while I get a problem file, but I've never figured out what causes it. I usually just use Format Factory when that happens.

You might also want to check out this thread about an alternative to HandBrake. I tried it once and it worked, but I'm set in my ways and will continue to use HandBrake.

#2 - I think you're just at the stage of browsing photos, right? You're just looking at the thumbnails. Click on one to start a slide show.

-JT

[Timmy_Likes_to_]

I get 100% success with these settings using the High Profile preset as a base. I've also tested the settings with Large File Size and Web Optimized checked. I am also using one of the latest versions of the channel from github and running the channel from development mode.

Handbrake Settings:

Handbrake Version 0.95
- 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 or 29.976 (Depends on Source)
- 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
- I noticed audio was out of sync and distracting
- Set B-Frames to zero (B-Frames | 0)

[Timmy_Likes_to_]

Curious...

What is the main difference in using the channel as a private channel or running the channel from development mode?

[athirukk]

"renojim" wrote:

#2 - I think you're just at the stage of browsing photos, right? You're just looking at the thumbnails. Click on one to start a slide show.

-JT

No, I am past thumbnails screen and ofcourse I have started slide show. During that slide show in full screen, all of my JPG files are in same size in my 720p HDTV. There are lot of empty black screen in both sides. I never got to see a JPG file filling my entire HDTV screen.

That is the reason I was asking whether there are some config which I can tweak.

[renojim]

"Timmy Likes to Click" wrote:
What is the main difference in using the channel as a private channel or running the channel from development mode?

None, really. The private channel was just supposed to be a little easier to install.

-JT

[renojim]

"athirukk" wrote:
No, I am past thumbnails screen and ofcourse I have started slide show. During that slide show in full screen, all of my JPG files are in same size in my 720p HDTV. There are lot of empty black screen in both sides. I never got to see a JPG file filling my entire HDTV screen.

Ah, I get it. The pictures should be pretty much filling up the screen either vertically or horizontally while maintaining aspect ratio. I don't think you'd like it if they were stretched to fill the screen. Imagine turning your camera sideways to take a picture and then having that picture stretched horizontally.

If you're really interested, I could put up a version of the channel that fills the screen with photos.

-JT

[athirukk]

Oh.....I got it.

I was actually expecting my photos displayed little bigger while maintaining aspect ratio and not stretching it. I could view the same photo bigger in Picasa channel but in MyMedia, it is small.

Yes, I would really appreciate if you could include the feature which improves the picture browsing functionality of the channel better.

[renojim]

It adds a small border to account for overscan issues that some TVs have (so the picture isn't clipped). It's more of a problem with SDTVs, but some HDTVs have the problem as well. I had thought about making the amount of overscan be one of the settings. I pretty much only use fairly old SDTVs and it's practically perfect on my TVs (imagine that). I'll have to take a look at it on an HDTV and see how it looks.

-JT

[athirukk]

"renojim" wrote:
#1 - I use the command line version of HandBrake, so I'm not real sure how to match the settings for the GUI. My command line is pretty simple:

HandBrakeCLI -i filetoconvert.xxx -o filename.m4v -O -r 29.97 -e x264 -S <size in megabytes of the input file>

The -S parameter keeps the converted file size about the same as the original size. I'm not real particular about quality. To get a faster conversion you can omit the "-e x264" parameter which uses the ffmpeg codec, but I've had better results with the H.264 codec. I've used this for countless files and I'd say better than 90% play without any problems. Every once in a while I get a problem file, but I've never figured out what causes it. I usually just use Format Factory when that happens.

You might also want to check out this thread about an alternative to HandBrake. I tried it once and it worked, but I'm set in my ways and will continue to use HandBrake.

#2 - I think you're just at the stage of browsing photos, right? You're just looking at the thumbnails. Click on one to start a slide show.

-JT

Cool, this worked perfectly, with little loss of quality in video, audio was good and in synch.
Thanks JT for the command line and this time I used Ubuntu to run HB instead of XP. XP HB GUI mode took longer time to convert to .m4v and eventually it didnt run in Roku. May be I was missing some settings...But when I used the cmd line in Maverick, it was just under 2 hrs to convert a ~700MB .mkv to .m4v

@TIMMY: I will try your settings in HB GUI and see how it goes....

[Timmy_Likes_to_]

Yeah let me know if you like the settings.

It took me awhile to hone in on size/quality. I was satisfied enough to go with that.