Roku Developer Program

[xwin]

"renojim" wrote:

Like I said, I haven't tried any MKV files yet. Maybe subtitles work if playing from USB? I'll have to try that at some point. I'd agree that it's a bug. Have you tried pairing one of your SRT files from an MKV with an MP4 to make sure it's not the SRT file?

You were right about details. Turned out that Roku does play subtitles with MKV files from the server. My problem was that my file was in Unicode encoding. I used Notepad++ to convert encoding to ANSI and they are working. There is a menu at the top level in Notepad++ that allows to convert encoding to several systems. Benefit of the ANSI is that the file is half the size.
Do you know if the Roku script supports post requests? I was thinking that it may be useful to send viewing position to the server instead of saving to flash. This way if one has multiple Roku boxes you can pick up viewing on the different box. Also if you replace Roku unit that info is preserved. I got the SDK but was swamped at work and have not had the time to take a look.

Thanks.

[renojim]

xwin, you might be interested in the 2.0 beta. You can read about it here. One of the features it adds is saving the restore points on the server. You'll have to apply your MKV modifications to the server code again, but that should be pretty easy.

-JT

[renojim]

"emolson1" wrote:
Newbie here. Has anyone put together a manual or FAQ on this thing? I have lots of questions....

I'm sure all of the answers are in this thread. Just kidding; I'd never do that to anyone. Is there anything specific you're wondering about? Feel free to ask here or PM me.

-JT

[xwin]

"renojim" wrote:
xwin, you might be interested in the 2.0 beta. You can read about it here. One of the features it adds is saving the restore points on the server. You'll have to apply your MKV modifications to the server code again, but that should be pretty easy.

Thanks for the pointer. I got the beta and merged my modifications. It is working well. Are you planning to put it in to git or do you think it needs more testing?

Thanks.

[renojim]

I'm planning on putting it into to git, but me and git haven't gotten along so well in the past. There's a few things I need to clean up and a couple more features I'd like to add. There were a couple of issues when the Roku 2s came out, but I think they've all been resolved. It will probably be a while before I get back to it since I have a pretty full plate right now, but I will get back to it.

-JT

[emolson1]

"renojim" wrote:

"emolson1" wrote:
Newbie here. Has anyone put together a manual or FAQ on this thing? I have lots of questions....

I'm sure all of the answers are in this thread. Just kidding; I'd never do that to anyone. Is there anything specific you're wondering about? Feel free to ask here or PM me.

-JT

LOL - I read some pages at both ends, but didn't think it would help to slog through all 109.

Here we go: Windows XP desktop computer, Roku 2XD. I followed this link to install: http://netguy204.github.com/roku_media_server/ and do my setup.

MyMedia channel installed and registered.

Python 2.6.6 - I couldn't get 2.6.7 installed correctly. Would 2.7.2 install and operate correctly? What about 3.x?

PIL-1.1.7.win32-py2.6.exe

netguy204-roku_media_server-8de3528 folder contains all the magic (What Windows app would open the "textile" docs?) I launch by double-clicking mymedia.bat

The MyMedia channel appears to work correctly.

I have a video clip in MP4 format that MyMedia recognizes and plays correctly, but it does not recognize (for example) files of type "file.name.720p.hdtv.x264-ctu.mkv" or type avi. It recognizes but won't play a file of type wmv.

I tried to convert some files using Handbrake, but that was a complete fail. Freemake converts files to MP4 (very slowly), but the files break partway through playback.

That's where I'm at. Suggestions? Thanks in advance.][quote=

[renojim]

"emolson1" wrote:
Python 2.6.6 - I couldn't get 2.6.7 installed correctly. Would 2.7.2 install and operate correctly? What about 3.x?

2.6 is the recommended version, mostly because of PIL. 2.7 might work, but 3.x is definitely out.

"emolson1" wrote:
I have a video clip in MP4 format that MyMedia recognizes and plays correctly, but it does not recognize (for example) files of type "file.name.720p.hdtv.x264-ctu.mkv" or type avi. It recognizes but won't play a file of type wmv.

The box is pretty picky about what it will play. AVI is a container and not a format. The container isn't supported no matter what the underlying video and audio are. MKV was only supported via USB playback until recently. xwin made some modifications to the server so that it will "see" them and report them to the channel, but once again the video and audio have to be in a supported fomat, namely H.264 for the video and AAC or AC-3 for the audio. WMV has always been hit or miss for me, but I try to avoid MS stuff at all costs, so I haven't put any effort into trying to see what's going on.

"emolson1" wrote:
I tried to convert some files using Handbrake, but that was a complete fail. Freemake converts files to MP4 (very slowly), but the files break partway through playback.

HandBrake is what I use and I've had probably better than a 99% success rate. I use the command line version and the following command line will probably work better than 90% of the time:

HandBrakeCLI -i whatever.avi -o whatever.m4v -O -r 29.97

I tried Freemake and while I believe it's fairly idiot proof, I thought it was too slow and produced larger files than HandBrake. I'm surprised you had problems with it. How big are the converted files? There's always been a question of whether files larger than 2GB will work.

If you're comfortable working from the command line, give HandBrakeCLI a try and see if you have better luck. There's also a whole thread on encoding for the USB channel, viewtopic.php?f=28&t=36754. Anything that works for the USB channel should work here.

-JT

[el_wubo]

"emolson1" wrote:

netguy204-roku_media_server-8de3528 folder contains all the magic (What Windows app would open the "textile" docs?) I launch by double-clicking mymedia.bat

Based on the folder name, it looks like you're version predates the mkv support xwin added.

[el_wubo]

So, FINALLY, I've set up a wiki for MyMedia. The near term useful thing you can find here is the FAQ:

http://mymedia.wikinet.org/wiki/FAQ

But, I'd love to see us also collect tricks and tips and platform specific detailed installation instructions here as well.

The main page:

http://mymedia.wikinet.org/wiki/Main_Page

You'll need to create an account (top right of the page) to edit the wiki. If you've answered a question on this forum, please add the question and answer to the FAQ.

[emolson1]

"el.wubo" wrote:

"emolson1" wrote:

netguy204-roku_media_server-8de3528 folder contains all the magic (What Windows app would open the "textile" docs?) I launch by double-clicking mymedia.bat

Based on the folder name, it looks like you're version predates the mkv support xwin added.

The walkthrough links directly to the version I used. Where is the newer version?