Roku Developer Program

[mitchstein]

encoder 4 has been discontinued and the free version doesnt encode h.264... sux to be me I guess.. Anyway I downloaded and installed ffmpeg, I created the preset file and saved it in the bin directory (because I can't figure where else it might need to go.. I ran the .bat file and used the commandline from the documentation and got back "

> ffmpeg -i 1.wmv -acodec libfaac -ab 128 -vcodec libx264 \ -vpre roku -crf 15 -
threads 0 ~/1.mp4
ffmpeg version N-62058-gfd2bcfc Copyright (c) 2000-2014 the FFmpeg developers
built on Apr 2 2014 22:02:20 with gcc 4.8.2 (GCC)
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-w32threads --enable-av
isynth --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enab
le-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libcaca --enable-libfreetyp
e --enable-libgsm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --ena
ble-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-l
ibopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libsoxr --enable-libsp
eex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-aa
cenc --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavp
ack --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable
-zlib
libavutil 52. 71.100 / 52. 71.100
libavcodec 55. 56.107 / 55. 56.107
libavformat 55. 36.101 / 55. 36.101
libavdevice 55. 11.100 / 55. 11.100
libavfilter 4. 3.100 / 4. 3.100
libswscale 2. 6.100 / 2. 6.100
libswresample 0. 18.100 / 0. 18.100
libpostproc 52. 3.100 / 52. 3.100
[wmv3 @ 0460bb00] Extra data: 8 bits left, value: 0
Guessed Channel Layout for Input Stream #0.0 : stereo
Input #0, asf, from '1.wmv':
Metadata:
SfOriginalFPS : 300000
WMFSDKVersion : 11.0.5721.5145
WMFSDKNeeded : 0.0.0.0000
IsVBR : 0
DeviceConformanceTemplate: MP@LL
Duration: 00:00:18.16, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 287 kb/s
Stream #0:0(eng): Audio: wmav2 (a[1][0][0] / 0x0161), 22050 Hz, stereo, fltp
, 32 kb/s
Stream #0:1(eng): Video: wmv3 (Main) (WMV3 / 0x33564D57), yuv420p, 320x240,
223 kb/s, 30 tbr, 1k tbn, 1k tbc
[NULL @ 0460c200] Unable to find a suitable output format for 'ΓÇôab'
ΓÇôab: Invalid argument

>

I am so in over my head now... I have no idea what all this means.. I haven't used a DOS prompt since 1989 when I started running windows NT 4.0 servers.. Anyway the most confusing part is 'ΓÇôab' huh? whats that mean? is there any gui based application that will run on a 32 bit version of server 2008 enterprise or a 64 bit windows 7 enterprise OS that is easier and might have roku step by steps? Anyway I know I am so close to getting this to work, yet so far away.. aaarrghh

Lol, I miss the good old windows 2003 days with windows media server, we had one codec, one format and everyone saw it.. lol

[TheEndless]

"mitchstein" wrote:
I am so in over my head now... I have no idea what all this means.. I haven't used a DOS prompt since 1989 when I started running windows NT 4.0 servers.. Anyway the most confusing part is 'ΓÇôab' huh? whats that mean? is there any gui based application that will run on a 32 bit version of server 2008 enterprise or a 64 bit windows 7 enterprise OS that is easier and might have roku step by steps? Anyway I know I am so close to getting this to work, yet so far away.. aaarrghh

Try Handbrake, and use its built-in AppleTV 3 preset. Doesn't get much more straightforward than that for manual conversion. You can even add a bunch of videos to its queue and leave it to do its thing...

[mitchstein]

Handbrake worked perfectly! Now serving 4 videos successfully and tidying up the xml and creating custom images for everything... I should be ready to publish soon!!

[mitchstein]

Ok all seems well with the mp4 files using handbrake, except one issue, if someone has a slow internet connection thier Roku device keeps buffering one of my users claims they have Fios but buffers every 30 seconds, running a "speedtest" on thier computer found that thier connection speed would be 80MBS for like 5-10 seconds then drop to like 1MBS and jump up and down..

So I realized I'm compiling my MP4 files at 1.6MPS therefore he buffers alot.. So I starting think IIS Smooth streaming....

Ok I've downloaded installed learned (somewhat) Squeezeit (after fighting with microsoft that I wasn't spending the cash to upgrade to windows server 2013 64bit since my 2008 r2 is only 2 years old in order to buy another software package 'Blend" for Visual Studio 2013 (which only runs on win8/2013 64bit). And that because the discontinued support for Expressions Encoder.. Anyway enough of the Microsoft is becoming Apple rant..

I created the IIS smooth stream the Squeezeit made all the required files, .ism ismc and appropriate .ismv files and even created an .html file that loads a basic silverlight player (nice)... I made and asx file that points to an isx file that was created by IIS smoothstreaming playlists when I imported the asx file..

when I http://www.tvbydemand.com:80/asx/1170.asx I get in windows media player that it cannot find the server...
When I http://www.tvbydemand.com/1170.isx I get it encountered and error downloading the file
when I go to the roku it shows the loading bar moves up two or three spots then returns to the menu screen..

.MP4 work perfectly, I'm at a loss of what to do or what the problem is if anyone has any ideas I'd really like to get it to work through the smooth streaming...

I believe the smooth streaming will also allow it to play through to android phones.. I got it working fine with mp4 on windows phones and iphones simply by compiling a smaller resolution and lower bitrate.. Again though on some plans (especially 3g) it buffers alot so smooth streaming would fix that as well...

[TheEndless]

You should be pointing the Roku to http://www.tvbydemand.com/1170.ism/manifest (or whatever your ism is named). You'll also need to specify the StreamFormat as "ism". The Roku defaults to "mp4" which is why that works without a StreamFormat specified.

Alternatively, you could provide multiple MP4 bitrates, and the Roku will select the one most appropriate for the current network conditions. It will rebuffer when it switches, but it will only ever switch down, so that shouldn't happen after the first rebuffer.

[mitchstein]

Ok I tried this..

http://www.tvbydemand.com/roku/media1/l ... m/manifest

in my media player..
it can back with windows media player encountered an error while downloading the file

does this mean it can't find the file it is looking for? or could it be a codec problem?

All of the files are in that dir .ism.ismc .xap .match1_109Kb.ismv etc etc..

[mitchstein]

Ok it plays on the roku... the audio is choppy though gonna try to change the aac codec and see what happens...

[TheEndless]

"mitchstein" wrote:
it can back with windows media player encountered an error while downloading the file

I don't think Windows Media Player supports smooth streaming.

[mitchstein]

Hmm, probably why squeezeit produces an html file using silverlight.. So far with everything I can find being taken into account I'm going to have to create different video files for, roku, android, computers/tablets and other then android phones in order to deliver to the majority of the masses..

So tonight I plan to learn how to detect which device is requesting what. and script out automatically delivering the correct url for each device. Tommorrow I will setup a Virtual machine on my server to try out this soreson bittorrent (incase of a virus etc etc) and see if I can do it with that. If not then it's off to learn ffmpeg commandline and recompiling with good codecs, the current version has the h.264 codec but not the aac audio codec.. Then I just have to script out a page to upload the videos, transcode them, put them in the proper dirs and create the database entries... Will be a fun week ahead of me.. lol..

[TheEndless]

"mitchstein" wrote:
Hmm, probably why squeezeit produces an html file using silverlight.. So far with everything I can find being taken into account I'm going to have to create different video files for, roku, android, computers/tablets and other then android phones in order to deliver to the majority of the masses..

So tonight I plan to learn how to detect which device is requesting what. and script out automatically delivering the correct url for each device. Tommorrow I will setup a Virtual machine on my server to try out this soreson bittorrent (incase of a virus etc etc) and see if I can do it with that. If not then it's off to learn ffmpeg commandline and recompiling with good codecs, the current version has the h.264 codec but not the aac audio codec.. Then I just have to script out a page to upload the videos, transcode them, put them in the proper dirs and create the database entries... Will be a fun week ahead of me.. lol..

Have you looked into HLS instead? Roku, Android, and iOS all support HLS, and there are several web players (e.g., jwplayer) that support if for embedding in websites. Sorenson should also have an HLS option.