Solving playback issues

[Sam865]

I have created over 100 short videos in .MP4 format and stored them on a USB drive. Each MP4 video contains a scrolling music lead sheet and audio that is synchronized with the video. The result is a music backing track that I use to practice my music. Each video is between two and five minutes in length, and the file sizes range from about 50MB to 400MB.  All the videos are in a single folder on the USB drive.

When I select a file using the Roku Media Player, it recognizes and plays the video flawlessly through my Roku Stream Bar, and it will play each video in sequence.

However, I would like to arrange the videos into smaller "sets" with approximately 10 to 15 videos in each set. I'm trying to organize these "sets" by creating a playlist for each set. Playlists would give me the flexibility to include certain video songs in multiple sets without creating multiple folders and without including duplicate MP4 videos on the USB drive.

Roku documentation says that M3U playlists are supported in ROku Media Player, and I assumed that the M3U format will work with MP4 files. However, I've been unable to make this happen. The Roku Media Player displays an error message saying that no supported file formats are found. I've attempted to create playlists in .M3U format, but I'm not sure what the syntax should be. I've tried the following (which does not work).

#EXTM3U
##EXTINF:219,Summertime
file:///Summertime.mp4

(etc.)...
Could someone tell me if it is possible to use playlists with Roku Media Player, and if so, what the syntax should be.

I've also considered creating a simple PDF file that contains links to open specific videos. That would be a very simple solution to this problem. (It works fine on a PC, but as far as I know, there is no "PDF Reader channel" available.)

[renojim]

I don't know if it supports play lists for videos or only audio files.  @atc98092 may know more.

[atc98092]

I use playlist files for movies on my Roku devices without an issue. I use both M3U and PLS, although M3U on occasion give me problems. I don't think the fact I'm streaming them from a DLNA server has any impact on the playlist functionality. The player still has to recognize the files and play them correctly. My playlists include files in MKV, MP4, TS/M2TS, and even AVI and MPG containers. Of course, the latter two require transcoding by my server to play on a Roku, as those are not supported by the Roku OS. 

I know others in the past have reported using playlist files directly on a USB drive without a problem. No one has mentioned anything recently about them not working that I'm aware of. 

I'm at work right now, so I can't look at any of my current files for the syntax. I use Playlist Creator (a Windows program) to create my playlists, so I don't have to mess with the syntax. 

[Sam865]

Thank you for your response. I was hoping to find a simple "self-contained" solution in which everything  (multiple mp4 media files and one or more playlist files) is stored on a USB memory stick. 

My goal was to be able to hand my friends a USB stick with everything  they need to play my videos on their own Roku devices using the Roku Media Player channel. I was hoping to simply create an accurate playlist on my PC using VLC media player (or some other media player, or even a text editor). I could then copy this playlist to the memory stick and use it with Roku Media Player.

I have used the Emby client app on my Roku Stream Bar, and it does an excellent job of playing mp4 video files and playlists. However, using this approach, the mp4 videos are stored on a Windows 10 desktop and streamed over my local WiFi network from my Emby server, which is also on the desktop PC. This approach is too complex, an beyond the technical capabilities of my friends.

(I assumed, probably incorrectly, that the Roku Media Player was capable of reading a local playlist that points to local video files and playing those files in sequence on a Roku stream bar.)

[atc98092 · Accepted solution]

OK, I've looked at some of my playlist files. Most of them use an absolute path to the media file, but I did find a few entries that use a relative path, which is what you need to use. 

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:5069, -  - 13 Ghosts
G:\Movies\13 Ghosts (1960).mkv
#EXTINF:6159, -  - 5 CARD STUD
..\5 Card Stud (1968).mkv
#EXTINF:6625, -  - A New Kind of Love
G:\Movies\A New Kind of Love (1963).mkv
#EXTINF:6126, -  - A WALK TO REMEMBER
G:\Movies\A Walk to Remember (2002).mkv
#EXTINF:6140, -  - 
I:\Media\Movies_8\Recorded TV\Barefoot in the Park (1967).mkv
#EXTINF:10179, -  - BATTLE OF THE BULGE
..\Battle of the Bulge (1965).mkv
#EXTINF:5253, -  - 
I:\Media\Movies_8\Recorded TV\Beach Party (1963).ts
#EXTINF:6826, -  - 
..\Bullitt (1968).m2ts
#EXTINF:6072, -  - CALAMITY JANE
F:\Video3\Calamity Jane (1953).mkv

You can see 5 Card Stud is a relative path, which happens to be in the folder underneath the Playlists folder. Same with Bullitt. Notice it uses the ..\ format to drop one folder level. Perhaps you can try .\ (a single period instead of two). There are some devices that won't recognize a file in the same folder without the .\ first. Under Windows, the command prompt is fine without it, but when using PowerShell, it's necessary to use .\ for a file in the same folder the prompt is set in. 

So, instead of "file:///Summertime.mp4", try ".\summertime.mp4". Since the Roku runs under a modified version of Linux, you might need to use the ./ forward slash instead of the back slash. Give them both a try. 

[Sam865]

Thanks for your help! It works when I use the correct syntax. When I launch the playlist on my Roku Stream Bar the playlist file is displayed and the files in the playlist are displayed and they play as they should with Roku Media Player.

[atc98092]

Great news, glad that solved it!