Roku Developer Program

[Pookla]

I get
DEBUG:root:Scaling the image to (223, 200)
DEBUG:root:Scaling the image to (223, 200)
DEBUG:root:Passing on image unmodified
DEBUG:root:Scaling the image to (223, 200)
DEBUG:root:Passing on image unmodified
DEBUG:root:Scaling the image to (223, 200)
DEBUG:root:Passing on image unmodified
DEBUG:root:Passing on image unmodified

In my media log. I'm guessing that means PIL is working? It's still darn slowwwww.
Netflix, hulu, amazon are not.

Ideas?

[renojim]

Yep, it looks like PIL is working, but I can't imagine why it would be so slow. How many videos with a jpeg do you have in a directory? And, assuming it is an issue with images, if you wait a few minutes such that all the images should be cached on the box, does the speed change?

-JT

[Pookla]

Thus far I have 35, but more to come. Most of my videos are handbraked to be at full 720dpi so they are on average about 2.5GB each. I decided to save myself some PIL bandwidth and readjusted everything to be less than 100K in size, 300pix in height and width all .jpg.
So, waiting till things have loaded cuts down a minimal amount. Maybe 10%. It seems to hang each time I click a direction to scroll. And the more videos I add, the worse it gets.

I tried checking to see if having no pictures and music might help the situation. One thing I discovered is that it's hard to change the settings to "blank"; I had to come up with a blahblah folder. Not having music or pictures didn't help. I"m still scrolling about about 1 art cover every 6 seconds. Ideas on how to fix this?

[Icesnake]

I'm loving the new private channel, and have been recommending the Roku to my friends with large photo/video/music collections based on MyMedia. One question: Can I change the graphics that are on the server and see the changes on the client? I have some ideas for more, well, graphical graphics (if that makes any sense) such as a strip of film for the videos, an old vinyl LP for music, an antique camera for photos, and so on. If I am able to do this, I'll be using royalty-free sources so I can share the results.

[renojim]

Pookla, I'll have to get back to you.

IceSnake, we originally had the idea of themes before the channel went private, but a lot of the images are stored in the channel package, so to change the theme you had to reload the channel in developer mode. There are some images that come from the server, so you could experiment by replacing some of the "square" images in the images directory under the client directory. You can also look at the images for the "high contrast" theme in the themes directory under the client directory since they may be what you're looking for. One of the things I'm planning on doing is to move all (or as many as possible) of the images to the server, so stay tuned!

-JT

[renojim]

Pookla,

I just tried 2.7 again and while I was able to play videos, music and photos didn't work at all. I couldn't reproduce the slow navigation issue you're seeing, but I think I just have to say 2.7 isn't supported. For the record, I'm at a loss as to why you're seeing the slowness since once the file names/URLs and images are retrieved there's no more communication between the box and the server. All navigation at that point is strictly handled by the firmware.

Sorry. Maybe you'd have better luck with your Pogoplug. 😉

-JT

[Icesnake]

"renojim" wrote:
IceSnake, we originally had the idea of themes before the channel went private, but a lot of the images are stored in the channel package, so to change the theme you had to reload the channel in developer mode. ... You can also look at the images for the "high contrast" theme in the themes directory under the client directory since they may be what you're looking for. One of the things I'm planning on doing is to move all (or as many as possible) of the images to the server, so stay tuned!

I certainly plan to!

I did create 5 replacement graphics (all aspect ratios, not just the squares) while I waited for your answer, but sadly, replacing them on the server doesn't seem to have done anything. Is there someplace I can put them for your amusement?

Ah, one tip, I have found a use for Windows Live Movie Maker that ties into the Roku. I like to keep a scan of the DVD graphics in the folder with the MP4 file, and a JPG with a synopsis of the movie also (see the dust jacket of a Netflix rental DVD for an example). By creating a 5-minute (300-second) WMV from the JPG using WLMM, I can just click the synopsis when the wife says "What's this movie about?" and I don't have to try to explain.

So the resulting folder structure looks like:

[Top Folder]
[Alphabetic folder]
[Movie Folder]
[Movie.mp4] - the movie itself
[Movie.jpg] - the scanned DVD label
[synopsis - Movie.wmv] - the 5-minute sysnopsis "video" - actually a 5-minute still shot of the synopsis text
[synopsis - Movie.jpg] - a photo of the synopsis (could be a scan, or a screenshot from IMDB, or a screenshot from Notepad even)
[Next Movie Folder]

and so on.

[renojim]

"Icesnake" wrote:
I did create 5 replacement graphics (all aspect ratios, not just the squares) while I waited for your answer, but sadly, replacing them on the server doesn't seem to have done anything. Is there someplace I can put them for your amusement?

The box caches images, so you may have to reboot it to get it to clear its cache. There's probably other ways, like maybe watching a video, but rebooting will certainly do it. Did you take a look at the high contrast images? I have my personal version with a dark background and those images, so I'm wondering how yours compare to those.

"Icesnake" wrote:
Ah, one tip, I have found a use for Windows Live Movie Maker that ties into the Roku. I like to keep a scan of the DVD graphics in the folder with the MP4 file, and a JPG with a synopsis of the movie also (see the dust jacket of a Netflix rental DVD for an example). By creating a 5-minute (300-second) WMV from the JPG using WLMM, I can just click the synopsis when the wife says "What's this movie about?" and I don't have to try to explain.

So the resulting folder structure looks like:

[Top Folder]
[Alphabetic folder]
[Movie Folder]
[Movie.mp4] - the movie itself
[Movie.jpg] - the scanned DVD label
[synopsis - Movie.wmv] - the 5-minute sysnopsis "video" - actually a 5-minute still shot of the synopsis text
[synopsis - Movie.jpg] - a photo of the synopsis (could be a scan, or a screenshot from IMDB, or a screenshot from Notepad even)
[Next Movie Folder]

and so on.

That's pretty clever! There was a request a long time ago about interfacing with IMDB, but I never got around to looking into it, mostly because I don't have that many ripped movies. I have been thinking about ripping some of my DVDs, so I may take a look at it in the future.

-JT

[renojim]

Pookla, in doing a little research for Icesnake's image issue, I noticed that if PIL isn't installed/working even the top level navigation is real slow. Nothing like what you're seeing, but a good 3 seconds from the time you push a remote button until the screen changes. I have to think there may be a problem with the images, but I'm not real sure how to test it. You might want to try making your images no larger than 300x300 pixels and see if it makes a difference.

-JT

[cdvijay]

Jim, back again. To report -- no luck.

Also, I see two MyMedia channels. I do not know how to delete one of them.

anyway, I get the same error ---

import re
SystemError: frexp() result out of range

I am running 2.6.4 now.

So, to review, the procedure is:
1. Click on channel
2. Note the code
3. modify config.ini
4. Run python mymedia.py
5. go to rokumm.appsot.com and type in your 4 digit code.

and then wait for the TV (Roku) to say "Registration success" or similar?

thanks.