Roku Developer Program

[renojim]

sourbear,
I don't think I've ever had a problem converting flv files with Handbrake, but I can't say I've done a lot of them. Do you have a link to one that you can't convert?

stratcat96,
if you use Firefox, there's a Greasemonkey script that will add a "Download" button to Youtube with mp4 as one of the options. The downloaded videos will play just fine as is.

-JT

[sourbear]

"renojim" wrote:
sourbear,
I don't think I've ever had a problem converting flv files with Handbrake, but I can't say I've done a lot of them. Do you have a link to one that you can't convert?

stratcat96,
if you use Firefox, there's a Greasemonkey script that will add a "Download" button to Youtube with mp4 as one of the options. The downloaded videos will play just fine as is.

-JT

It's the videos on the NWA Hollywood Wrestling web site here. I've got them all downloaded and they are flv format - and I can convert them into mp4 with Handbrake. And Roku via My Media will play them but after about 30 seconds, Roku stops to rebuffer, play 30 more seconds, stop to rebuffer.. on and on.

I just encoded one of them with Freemake.. about to go see if it worked.

EDIT: The one I encoded with Freemake wouldn't even play. It just loaded to about 55% and seemed like it froze because it wouldn't do anything else. Also noticed that other videos I already encoded over the last couple of months and that played fine before, now have the rebuffering issue. Wondering if Roku had a software update that is causing issues now with My Media.

[renojim]

I downloaded one called "CWFH-A_LOOK_BACK_AT_THE_HISTORY_OF_THE_NWA" and converted it and it seems to play fine. I didn't watch the whole thing, but it certainly plays for several minutes with no buffering. I used the command line version of HandBrake and the command was:

HandBrakeCLI -i file.flv -o file.m4v -O -r 29.97 -e x264

I've played several videos over the weekend with no problems. Have you rebooted your box lately?

-JT

[writerguy]

OK, I'm completely -- COMPLETELY! -- lost trying to install the MyMedia private channel on my Roku XD and Windows 7 Home Premium computer.

I went through the "walkthrough" steps -- and immediately found no instructions whatsoever about where to unzip and install the various pieces of python software.

You guys need to remember some of us are pretty "non-techie" using Windows 7 and you gotta spell it out. 😄

I ran the files to install Python and the PIL Library files. That seems to have gone all right.

BUT -- When I downloaded the zip file with the server directories/files in it -- I haven't a clue where to unzip that. I downloaded it to my Windows desktop, but don't think I want all of it just setting there on the desktop. So I tried unzipping it to that "netguy..." god-awful long directory name and putting that directory into my C:/ root. Then I went into the folder and ran the mymedia.bat file. It gave me this error message:


C:\netguy204-roku_media_server-23c75dc>rem Contributed by umbighouse

C:\netguy204-roku_media_server-23c75dc>rem copyright 2010

C:\netguy204-roku_media_server-23c75dc>cd server

C:\netguy204-roku_media_server-23c75dc\server>c:\python26\python.exe mymedia.py

warning: this server has not completed rendezvous
http://0.0.0.0:8001/

THEN, since I have no idea what to do with this, I clicked the next step in the "walkthrough" -- something about configuring the server -- and I got this error in my browser:


Unable to connect
Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at 127.0.0.1:8001.


At this point, I tried searching this forum and the many pages of this thread for clues about "server has not completed rendezvous" and found nothing I could understand.

I tried puzzling out a way to 1) discover what IP address I need, and, 2) how to give roku or this on-computer server, or something the right commands to hook up.

At this point, I'm resisting the urge to carefully and calmly disconnect my Roku XD -- AND SHRIEK AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS WHILE I PITCH IT THROUGH THE LIVING ROOM WINDOW.

But, of course, I'm not going to resort to that sort of insanity.

Howsoever -- can ANYONE out there give me some seriously useful step-by-step instructions for activating and installing all this stuff on a Windows 7 Home Premium computer? I mean instructions that don't assume I know each step or techie-speak terminology. A sort of "MyMedia Channel for Dummies" approach?? :mrgreen:

Thanks so much.

Gary

[stratcat96]

"renojim" wrote:

stratcat96,
if you use Firefox, there's a Greasemonkey script that will add a "Download" button to Youtube with mp4 as one of the options. The downloaded videos will play just fine as is.

-JT

I use Google Chrome and have the Freemake plugin for that, it works very well. I have a single-core processor so I just like to d/l what I want and do the conversions later. Thank you for the recommendation though!

[sourbear]

"renojim" wrote:
I downloaded one called "CWFH-A_LOOK_BACK_AT_THE_HISTORY_OF_THE_NWA" and converted it and it seems to play fine. I didn't watch the whole thing, but it certainly plays for several minutes with no buffering. I used the command line version of HandBrake and the command was:

HandBrakeCLI -i file.flv -o file.m4v -O -r 29.97 -e x264

I've played several videos over the weekend with no problems. Have you rebooted your box lately?

-JT

Thanks for giving it a go. I'll try the command line way. I haven't used that since I first downloaded it last year sometime so I'll have to relearn it. I've got a "legacy" Roku box... bought it the first week Roku went public and hit the market - and I've never seen any option to reboot it. But Google is my friend, I'll find out how.

[renojim]

There isn't an option to reboot it, you just have to unplug it and plug it back in. Many have asked for a way to do it from the settings, but so far the powers that be haven't added it.

I'm sure there's a way to duplicate in the GUI what my command line parameters do, but I'm just a command line kind of guy.

-JT

[renojim]

Gary,

You are really close. However, I'm not sure why Firefox wouldn't have been able to connect. The messages you got are normal and aren't really error messages. The window that opens when you double-click mymedia.bat is the server and you have to keep that window open, although you can minimize it. Anyway, we need to find your IP address. The easiest way is to run ipconfig. Open a command prompt - click the start menu, type cmd and hit return. Type ipconfig at the C:\> prompt and hit return. My Windows 7 machine has an ethernet card, not a wireless card, so I get a lot of information with one section that looks like this:

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe60::60c:19c7:d8a8:8ea2%12
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.103
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

I'm not sure what the heading would be if you have a wireless card, but the information should look the same. It's the IPv4 Address that we're interested in. Depending on your configuration, the information may have scrolled out of the window, so use the scrollbar if you have to. So my server's IP address is 192.168.1.103. Yours will probably start with 192 as well.

So once you find that, try to browse to that IP address. For example, I would browse to http://192.168.1.103:8001. That should get you to the registration screen. Start the channel on the Roku and enter the four character registration ID that is displayed on your TV.

Good luck!
-JT

[sourbear]

"renojim" wrote:
There isn't an option to reboot it, you just have to unplug it and plug it back in. Many have asked for a way to do it from the settings, but so far the powers that be haven't added it.

Just an FYI...

I found out that there is a reset button on the back of the unit (some models have it on the bottom of the unit)

Via the Roku User Guide I found via Google:
To restart your player, press the Reset button
To do a factory reset, press and hold the Reset button for 15 seconds

Edit: OK, after the reboot, older vids I'd already encoded are playing fine now but the NWA vid I encoded with Freemake is still hanging up at about 55% loaded. So back to Handbrake. JT, in your command line command, I'm assuming it needs the full path to file.flv ?

[writerguy]

"renojim" wrote:
Gary,

... So once you find that, try to browse to that IP address. For example, I would browse to http://192.168.1.103:8001. That should get you to the registration screen. Start the channel on the Roku and enter the four character registration ID that is displayed on your TV.

Good luck!
-JT

Thanks, JT, for checking in on this. I found the IP address -- it was 192.168.0.101

However, when I went to http://192.168.0.101:8001 , I got the FIrefox "Unable to connect" screen, telling me: "Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at 192.168.0.101:8001."

Digging deep into my very shallow knowledge of coding, Internet, etc., , I suspect the port 8001 is being used somehow by something else. Would that be likely? If so, would you have a suggestion about what I should do? Something I should edit, a different port in the storm, etc.?

Thanks so much for your help!

Gary