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w1ndy
Visitor

Stream your own media?

Does anybody know if there is channel in the works that would allow us to stream from a windows or samba share?
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21 REPLIES 21
bcl
Channel Surfer

Re: Stream your own media?

Several of us are working on home streaming solutions. But you aren't going to find one that streams from a file share. The Roku SDK requires a HTTP server that recognizes the Byte-Range header so you are going to need a server app of some kind.

Also, the player is a bit picky about what formats it will play. What you have may or may not work with the player.
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aeproberts
Visitor

Re: Stream your own media?

Do .avi and .mp3 (or unprotected aac files) work?
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KennyJ
Roku Guru

Re: Stream your own media?

.avi does not work. Roku only supports h264 mpeg4 (mp4,m4v,mov) and VC-1 (.wmv).

Mp3's work fine. Roku supports mp3 and wma.
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Shlepzig
Newbie

AVI files

I have successfully converted AVI files to MP4 files useing ffmpeg and gotten them to stream fine.

The AVI quality was not spectacular to begin with, and I don't think I did it any favors converting it again. But it wasn't any worse than it would have been to begin with.

I have also successfully streamed YouTube videos that were downloaded as MP4 files. I have not yet gotten a direct link to YouTube bookmarked videos to stream (ok I haven't tried yet).

-Shlep'
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w1ndy
Visitor

Re: Stream your own media?

Streaming from an http server rather than a share actually sounds better!

With the use of open source software like ffmpeg you would be able to convert most popular media formats and you could use thttpd as the server to stream the media, and yes thttpd does support "Byte-Range" headers.

http://acme.com/software/thttpd/
http://ffmpeg.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thttpd
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Burkhardi
Visitor

Re: Stream your own media?

"w1ndy" wrote:
Streaming from an http server rather than a share actually sounds better!

With the use of open source software like ffmpeg you would be able to convert most popular media formats and you could use thttpd as the server to stream the media, and yes thttpd does support "Byte-Range" headers.

http://acme.com/software/thttpd/
http://ffmpeg.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thttpd


Why run a server for the client when you could just mount the share?

Does anyone know if the box can support UPnP, I assume not.
Roku3 and Roku HD1000 [Rev B] on a Samsung HLP5674W DLP in the living room; a Roku2 and two Roku XS and a few SoundBridges.Win7; Kubuntu and XP via RT-N66U, E2000 and a switch or two. I own stock in Roku, it's just all in the form of hardware.Viva la Roku
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dupondt
Channel Surfer

Re: Stream your own media?

Matt,

Does anyone know if the box can support UPnP, I assume not.

your assumption is right. There's no UPnP(-AV) support in the firmware, and IMO it's unlikely that it will be added because the DVP's memory is very limited.

Greetings
dupondt
SoundBridge M1001 and M1000 • Clint L1 (retired) • DNT IP-dio (retired)
Google Chromecast • Amazon Fire TV • Amazon Echo and Echo Dot
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Burkhardi
Visitor

Re: Stream your own media?

It seems to have the same abount of memory as the older Roku DVP. The latter had 64MB of DRAM (and 16MB of internal flash for the firmware) and worked great with UPnP and could mount network shares and such untill the cows came home. however, that FLASH RAM was shared between the system and video and I don't know how the N-Series does it. However, some of the larger apps needed more DRAM and could bog the system down so the REV-B version (with 128MB verse 64MB)came out. The work around was a swap file. The Roku-XR has a USB port, would be need to use a flash drive for a swap file.

Let me check the specs on the N-Series and see if the DRAM is shared between the system and video.



"dupondt" wrote:
Matt,

Does anyone know if the box can support UPnP, I assume not.

your assumption is right. There's no UPnP(-AV) support in the firmware, and IMO it's unlikely that it will be added because the DVP's memory is very limited.

Greetings
dupondt
Roku3 and Roku HD1000 [Rev B] on a Samsung HLP5674W DLP in the living room; a Roku2 and two Roku XS and a few SoundBridges.Win7; Kubuntu and XP via RT-N66U, E2000 and a switch or two. I own stock in Roku, it's just all in the form of hardware.Viva la Roku
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bcl
Channel Surfer

Re: Stream your own media?

"Burkhardi" wrote:

Why run a server for the client when you could just mount the share?


Because you can't mount a share. :?

The other problem is that there is a wide range of formats that people already have their media stored in, and it is stored on a wide range of devices and operating systems.

Ideally what I want to come up with is a Python based application that handles serving up the content and allowing the user to manage the feeds via a web interface.
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