Roku Developer Program

[jcolombo]

I am using videos that are transcoded and stored at brightcove. I believe the video formats to be OK for Roku because they work when put on a USB and run from the USB channel.

I can get all my playlist data and rendition information - including the http url to a video, but no matter what I try I cannot get past this error when selecting a video from my playlist.

showHomeScreen | msg = An unexpected problem (but not server timeout or HTTP error) has been detected. | index = -3
Video request failure: -3  0
showHomeScreen | msg =  | index =  0
Screen closed

I've tried both wireless as well as plugged directly into the router. Has anyone had a similar experience with Brightcove? Are there any other things I can try?
From my research so far, it seems that any of the following can cause this error:
- Attempting to play a video Roku cannot natively render (rtmp, hls, etc...)
- Roku cannot attain the necessary bandwidth to play the file
- The video URL redirects on the way to its destination
- HTTPS hosted videos require server's CA Cert's.

None of these appear to be my problem. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Jenn

[RokuMarkn]

What format are your videos in? mkv files in particular will currently only play from the USB drive, not over a network.

--Mark

[jcolombo]

Hi Mark,
Thank you for the reply!

The videos at brightcove have 4 renditions. All of which are h264 mp4's.
I've also tested them in the simple video player with success - by pasting in the URL to the video (same url the brightcove api call is giving me) - but still getting this error in my app.

Wondering if its something to do with the episode info - if the streams are not formed properly perhaps:

---- AA ----
shortdescriptionline2: Looking to adopt a cat or kitten? Caitlin Lewis from the Humane Society of Greater Dayton discusses everything you need to think about and do before, during, and after a cat adoption to ensure your new cat or kitten transitions smoothly into it's ...
shortdescriptionline1: How to adopt a cat from a shelter
sdposterurl: http://brightcove01.brightcove.com/..._Howdini-Lewis-Adopt-Cat-640x360.jpg?pubId=830934495001
hdposterurl: http://brightcove01.brightcove.com/..._Howdini-Lewis-Adopt-Cat-640x360.jpg?pubId=830934495001
streams: (list of 1)...
  List(0)= (list of 4)...
    List(0)= (assocarr)...
      bitrate: 586662
      contentid: invalid
      url: http://brightcove04.brightcove.com/..._Howdini-Lewis-Adopt-Cat-1920x1080.mp4?pubId=830934495001&videoId=1709924241001
      quality: true
    List(1)= (assocarr)...
      bitrate: 586662
      contentid: invalid
      url: http://brightcove04.brightcove.com/..._Howdini-Lewis-Adopt-Cat-1920x1080.mp4?pubId=830934495001&videoId=1709924241001
      quality: true
    List(2)= (assocarr)...
      bitrate: 1746662
      contentid: invalid
      url: http://brightcove04.brightcove.com/..._Howdini-Lewis-Adopt-Cat-1920x1080.mp4?pubId=830934495001&videoId=1709924241001
      quality: true
    List(3)= (assocarr)...
      bitrate: 2574662
      contentid: invalid
      url: http://brightcove04.brightcove.com/..._Howdini-Lewis-Adopt-Cat-1920x1080.mp4?pubId=830934495001&videoId=1709924241001
      quality: true
category: 0
title: How to adopt a cat from a shelter

Jenn

[RokuChris]

I think the problem is with your streams attribute. It should be an array with 4 elements representing the 4 renditions. Instead it has a single element whose value is a nested array with the 4 renditions.

[jcolombo]

Yes, thank you Chris - that is right, as i just figured out after my last post.

My streams array was incorrect. it was nested inside an array and should look like this instead:

streams: (list of 4)...
  List(0)= (assocarr)...
    bitrate: 2578276
    contentid: invalid
    url: http://uds.ak.o.brightcove.com/..._Howdini-Hotchner-Houestrain-Puppy-640x360.mp4?pubId=830934495001&videoId=1105750639001
    quality: true
...

Thank you!

So I guess I can add to the bullet list above:
- Incorrect stream data