Roku Developer Program

[writerguy]

"renojim" wrote:
... You can also create a dynamic playlist within the channel by browsing through the folders, selecting a song, and then "Add to playlist". You'll generally want to pause the music as you do that./quote]

Ah, OK, here's one of the things I've been struggling specifically how to use -- these playlists created within the channel.

I was using the "Add to Playlist" option on Roku when I first started using the channel earlier this afternoon. The single most confusing thing was this -- where was the playlist being created? How could I save it and access it later? I saw each song I added showing on a list -- but I had no clue about what to do with that list and how to use it.

If there's no real playlist being created and saved, and it's not kept somewhere on Roku in the MyMedia channel, what in the world is the value of it? Or how should I be using it?

Thanks again for your great patience and help with all these questions. If I weren't nearly bald already, I'd be pulling my hair out or scratching my head bald puzzling over a lot of this stuff! 😄

Seriously, though, it's great stuff!

Gary

[renojim]

Pookla! I thought we lost you.

I can tell you that MyMedia isn't slow in general, although the "Retrieving" part could use a little work. We just have to figure out what's causing the problem you're seeing. I run the server on a Dockstar (Pogoplug) and the channel is as snappy as any other. For example, I have a folder with nothing but album art (almost 400 jpegs) that are all generally 200x200 or 300x300, with some larger images, and I can browse through that folder as quickly as I can press the buttons on the remote. I am wondering if a firmware update is causing slow navigation with "posters" that aren't the right dimensions. Like I said earlier, I removed PIL a couple of days ago and I couldn't believe how slow navigation became. I never noticed that before when I experimented with and without PIL, so I'm wondering if it's something new or whether I just never noticed it before.

Two questions:
Are you connected to an SD or HD TV? The dimensions for SD are actually 223x200.
When you downloaded the zip, did the file name contain ExtremeAvocado-31 or -36?

There is a way to test whether PIL is working. If you have the photos directory setup, using your browser go to http://localhost:8001/feed and find a photo to display that's larger than 300x300. At the end of the URL for the photo, which will look something like

http://192.168.1.103:8001/media?name=Kendall.jpg&key=photo

add "&res=300,300"

http://192.168.1.103:8001/media?name=Kendall.jpg&key=photo&res=300,300

If you refresh the display the photo should be resized.

I'm not sure what the 404 errors are. You may get more information by looking in my_media_log.txt.

You really would be better off if you could install Python 2.6. While it looks like videos and photos work, music does not. Also, it's really hard to say if the problems you're seeing have anything to do with 2.7. And, sometimes the box just behaves strangely. It's always good to power cycle it to make sure it's not some kind of fluke.

And finally, (Long post I know), would it be possible to figure out a way to tag my videos and then have a search function? I'd love to tag them by genre and year and then be able to search that.

I've thought about some kind of search function, but it wouldn't be all that easy to implement. One thing we've always tried to avoid is to require a database of any sort, so the server would pretty much have to search through the whole folder hierarchy to find something. Your best bet is a well thought out organization to your movies. If you're really clever (and have a lot of time on your hands), you could use links (symbolic or otherwise) to have a movie appear in two different folders. Then you could have one set of folders broken up by year and another by genre. A lot of work, I know, but possible.

-JT

[renojim]

"writerguy" wrote:
Ah, OK, here's one of the things I've been struggling specifically how to use -- these playlists created within the channel.

They were intended to just be a quick (or not so quick) way to create a list of songs you want to listen to right now. The list is gone once you exit the channel. Having a way to create a list and then store it on the server might not be a bad idea for a future feature, but there's probably easier ways to create playlists using Winamp or (cough) Windows Media Player.

-JT

[Phil65]

"renojim" wrote:
Phil65,

Sorry, I sort of missed your post about not being able to register. It doesn't look like you've added the registration ID to config.ini. However, you're going to have a problem since it looks like you have Python version 2.7 I've been able to get the server started with 2.7, but a lot of things don't work. I'm not a Mac person, so I'm going to be of limited help. Did you install Python, or does it come pre-installed on a Mac? If you installed it, I'd suggest uninstalling it and installing 2.6. If it comes pre-installed, you may have to do some research on how to install 2.6.

Having said all that, it's not clear that the server is really starting. If you can't start it by selecting open with Python, I would think something is wrong. When you start it via springboard.py, does a window open with something like:
warning: this server has not completed rendezvous
http://0.0.0.0:8001/

If so and you'd like to see if you can make it past the registration, close the server and start the channel and then add the four character registration ID that's displayed to config.ini. Just add a line anywhere:
regid = xxxx

Of course, replace xxxx with the four character ID. Then restart the server and it should spit out:
submitting 'http://192.168.1.101:8001' to rendezvous server as xxxx
http://0.0.0.0:8001/

If all goes well, the channel should automatically go past the registration screen. However, like I said I don't think you'll be able to play any music or view photos.

-JT

No go. I installed Python 2.6.6, will that work okay? 2.6 refused to install. I followed all your steps, but same old result. I'm afraid I'm going to have to take a break from this for awhile. Thanks for all your suggestions.

[Phil65]

"Phil65" wrote:


No go. I installed Python 2.6.6, will that work okay? 2.6 refused to install. I followed all your steps, but same old result. I'm afraid I'm going to have to take a break from this for awhile. Thanks for all your suggestions.

Just a follow up: Brian Taylor was kind enough to spend over a half hour on Google chat with me and talked me through it. A bunch of Terminal commands that I didn't understand. But we appear to have gotten it working. Now we'll see what happens next time...

I just want to commend Brian and all the people here who go so far out of their way to help. Nobody's making you do it, and people like me who are clueless require a lot of patience. Kudos to you.

[writerguy]

"renojim" wrote:

"writerguy" wrote:
Ah, OK, here's one of the things I've been struggling specifically how to use -- these playlists created within the channel.

They were intended to just be a quick (or not so quick) way to create a list of songs you want to listen to right now. The list is gone once you exit the channel. Having a way to create a list and then store it on the server might not be a bad idea for a future feature, but there's probably easier ways to create playlists using Winamp or (cough) Windows Media Player.

-JT

I see. I think I see? What I really don't see is any usefulness personally in temporary, "right now" playlists. But that's probably because I listen to music one album at a time, which I seem to be able to do via the MyMedia channel without putting titles into a playlist.

As for creating playlists using (cough, cough) Windows Media Player -- how would I make those available via the Roku MyMedia channel? Is there a setting where I can give the path to individual playlists that Windows Media Player and/or iTunes has created on my hard drive? I don't recall seeing such a setting.

Thanks so much for your help with all this.

Gary

[renojim]

We had a discussion about creating playlists some time ago and at that time I thought I was able to create a playlist with WMP and save it as a .m3u file. However, I just tried it with WMP9 and XP and the playlist it created didn't have the full path, so it wouldn't work. I don't know if a later version of WMP will create a playlist with full paths or not. As you may have guessed, I don't use it and it's one of those programs I hate to even start because it screws up all my file associations. I'm sure if you do a search you could find freeware for creating playlists, but the only time I did it for testing I used Winamp. 99% of the time I listen to music I choose "Shuffle All" on the top level of my music collection and the other 1% I load up my CD player.

If you have a .m3u file already and it has full paths in it, you can copy it anywhere in the music directory you have configured for MyMedia, like C:\Users\Gary\Music, and it will show up in the channel. If it only has relative paths or no paths, you have to put it in the right directory. For example, if you have an album playlist that just lists the songs on an album (which isn't really necessary since you can already play an album) the playlist has to go in that album's directory.

-JT

[sourbear]

Well anyway, here is xBrake I was talking about earlier, if you want it.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/6s33ncqix30gt9t/xBrake_Alpha_1.0.zip

[canaws]

"writerguy" wrote:

"renojim" wrote:

"writerguy" wrote:
Ah, OK, here's one of the things I've been struggling specifically how to use -- these playlists created within the channel.

They were intended to just be a quick (or not so quick) way to create a list of songs you want to listen to right now. The list is gone once you exit the channel.

I see. I think I see? What I really don't see is any usefulness personally in temporary, "right now" playlists. But that's probably because I listen to music one album at a time, which I seem to be able to do via the MyMedia channel without putting titles into a playlist.

As for creating playlists using (cough, cough) Windows Media Player -- how would I make those available via the Roku MyMedia channel?

"renojim" wrote:
I just tried it with WMP9 and XP and the playlist it created didn't have the full path, so it wouldn't work. I don't know if a later version of WMP will create a playlist with full paths or not.

I'm the one who originally put in a request for some kind of playlist feature waaaaayyyy back when. 😛 It was preciously because I couldn't get WMP (11 on Vista) to give me playlists with full paths. It would always give me relative paths that won't work with MyMedia. Although I'm mostly an album listener too, every once in a while I just feel like hearing certain songs. There's a similar feature on Windows Media Center which is why I thought of it.

[renojim]

"sourbear" wrote:
Well anyway, here is xBrake I was talking about earlier, if you want it.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/6s33ncqix30gt9t/xBrake_Alpha_1.0.zip

Thanks! I'll take a look.

-JT