My Media - Your Music and Video on the Roku DVP

[hebertj0194]

Speaking of encoding restrictions:

Does anyone feel like they've figured out the optimum procedure for encoding movies for the Roku? Want to put together a quick encoding HOWTO? Publish it however you like. Email it to me and I'll put it in the zip, blog it and I'll link, etc.

I find that using Handbrake with the AppleTV setting works great for me. However, need to make sure you are using only 1 audio channel. So delete the second channel, leave first as is, good to go!

[-LD]

Speaking of encoding restrictions:

Does anyone feel like they've figured out the optimum procedure for encoding movies for the Roku? Want to put together a quick encoding HOWTO? Publish it however you like. Email it to me and I'll put it in the zip, blog it and I'll link, etc.

I find that using Handbrake with the AppleTV setting works great for me. However, need to make sure you are using only 1 audio channel. So delete the second channel, leave first as is, good to go!

I use Handbrake with the Universal setting. Unfortunately (for the Roku) I encode both a 5.1 track and an AAC track. When I do this, the Roku has no sound. The picture quality is also not particularly good, noticeably blocky on text, for example. This is not the case when playing the same file on a PC or AppleTV. Ignoring the audio issues (a deficiency in the Roku for now) the picture quality is simply not acceptable for a file that looks great on every other device it's played on.

[cmcnulty]

Speaking of encoding restrictions:

Does anyone feel like they've figured out the optimum procedure for encoding movies for the Roku? Want to put together a quick encoding HOWTO? Publish it however you like. Email it to me and I'll put it in the zip, blog it and I'll link, etc.

I also use Handbrake using the iPod setting plus checking web-streaming checkbox. In my case the quality seems to actually be better through the roku. It's only anecdotal, but watching the same file on my computer seemed to have more problems keeping the audio and video in sync.

I personally would love it if handbrake or some other open source encoder could be used directly by the server, ideally in a way that it could start streaming shortly after it started encoding. It takes my PC a good 5-10 minutes to encode a 45 minute long show, which would be a long time to wait if the server had to encode the whole thing first.

[DeftOne]

cmcnulty, -LD, hebertj0194 and any others,

How long are the videos that you've encoded with Handbrake using the settings you've described? Any of them longer than 1 hour? What source are you encoding from? I've tried just about every setting in Handbrake, and all the movies (DVD/VIDEO_TS source) I've encoded begin rebuffering fairly frequently after the 1 hour mark. There are others out there that have reported this as well. Just wondering if any of you have found the illusive magic settings to fix this problem. I wish the Roku DVP wasn't so finicky and restrictive with its supported encode settings.

[calicommando]

I don't know for sure that this is the best method, but I've been ripping DVDs using DVDFab. I set everything to rip within the parameters of what will play on the Ruku. I've ripped about 6 DVDs so far, all of them full length movies. Four of the six have been fine, the other two have ended up with an audio/video sync issue by the end of the movie. None of them have done the frequent rebuffer though since I learned that I have to encode in Dolby Digital and not 5.1.

[-LD]

cmcnulty, -LD, hebertj0194 and any others,

How long are the videos that you've encoded with Handbrake using the settings you've described? Any of them longer than 1 hour? What source are you encoding from? I've tried just about every setting in Handbrake, and all the movies (DVD/VIDEO_TS source) I've encoded begin rebuffering fairly frequently after the 1 hour mark. There are others out there that have reported this as well. Just wondering if any of you have found the illusive magic settings to fix this problem. I wish the Roku DVP wasn't so finicky and restrictive with its supported encode settings.

Mine are all longer than an hour, most 2 or more. However, I haven't watched them because they have no sound on the Roku

[el.wubo]

Early Development Preview

If you've been itching to install a new version here's an early preview of what we've been working on.

What to expect:
* BUGS! (report them)
* Theming isn't finished yet (umbighouse is on it!)
* Photo browsing and slideshow (thanks renojim)
* Audio pausing (thanks renojim)
* Fixed bugs related to Home button (thanks renojim)
* Better feedback while the channel is loading data from the server (thanks renojim)
* MP3's with embedded album art will now display the art
* Server-side image thumbnails, leading to faster channel browsing (see below)

Installation:
* Stop your current server (verify by pressing alt+ctrl+delete and stopping python in the processes tab)
* Download and install the Python Imaging Library (PIL, see below) for windows or linux and mac.
* Download and extract the new zip to a new location
* Copy your config.ini file from old_installation/server/config.ini to new_installation/server/config.ini to maintain your current settings
* Start springboard, configure your image folder, click install client
* Start the server

Python Imaging Library
In order to make personal image browsing a reality we must be able to resize images of many formats on demand. I've added the Python Imaging Library (PIL) as a requirement because it enables the server to load and manipulate most popular image formats. The channel will still work without PIL but it will pass the Roku full sized images (not thumbnails) and you can expect slow performance from your photo collection.

Known Bugs:
* My Photos uses My Videos icon and theming not correct on My Photos page
* Horrible photo browsing performance if PIL is not installed (not really a bug, but something you should be aware of)
* Slightly worse load times for big music collections (expect this to improve soon)

Let the bug reports begin.

Note: This isn't release quality yet. It's for the brave and industrious... those willing to troubleshoot through quite a few bugs and issues.

EDIT: Fixed renojim's nick (called him rokujim... oops)
EDIT: Formatting, known bugs, installation procedure
EDIT: Fixed PIL non-windows link
EDIT: More features from renojim, pil instructions for mac and linux

[canaws]

Early Development Bug Report for el.wubo...

Music
It doesn't show any of my music! I get the Media List Problem message. My media path is correct (same as before). It shows the music folder and the lettered folders, but the Media List problem shows up when you enter the lettered folders.

I checked my feed page and it looks like it is looking for some kind of jpg file?
http://xxx.xxx.x.x:xxxx/feed?range=ab&key=music&dir=C:\Users\xxxx\Music\.\Folder.jpg

Compare it to a same level folder in the video and photo file...
http://xxx.xxx.x.x:xxxx/feed?key=video&dir=Movies
http://xxx.xxx.x.x:xxxx/feed?key=photo&dir=Backgrounds

Video
1. My m4v videos play fine. I can pause/ff/rewind and all that. The videos I have are only a couple of minutes long, so I can't say anything about longers vids.
2. It recognizes my wmv videos although it won't play them. It shows them using the my music icon, but it doesn't do anything when you click on them.

Pictures*
1. My Photos picture doesn't show correctly. Most of it is just a gray, only the top is yellow.
2. No images for the subfolders.
3. Navigation is extremely slow.
4. It shows png and gif images, but not jpg (it says image not available). The file is there with the file name, but the image does not show.
5. Loading of pictures is extremely slow. The smaller images eventually show, but my larger images never did (it says retrieving image, but it never shows) or showed up with gray areas on them. Eventually my top folders (my music, my video, my photos) started to show with gray area too.
7. They all show up on the feed page (gif, png, jpg).

*I installed the python imaging library as directed.

I think that the imaging library has something to do with the images showing up gray. After I deleted the early adopter and reinstalled my older channel the top folders are still gray.

[renojim]

cmcnulty, -LD, hebertj0194 and any others,

How long are the videos that you've encoded with Handbrake using the settings you've described? Any of them longer than 1 hour? What source are you encoding from? I've tried just about every setting in Handbrake, and all the movies (DVD/VIDEO_TS source) I've encoded begin rebuffering fairly frequently after the 1 hour mark. There are others out there that have reported this as well. Just wondering if any of you have found the illusive magic settings to fix this problem. I wish the Roku DVP wasn't so finicky and restrictive with its supported encode settings.

I know this thread has become pretty long, but try this from several pages back:
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=25955&p=160957#p160957

I thought I had foolproof HandBreak settings, but lately I've been having problems with audio sync issues.

-JT

[el.wubo]

Early Development Bug Report for el.wubo...

Thank you canaws.

Music
It doesn't show any of my music! I get the Media List Problem message. My media path is correct (same as before). It shows the music folder and the lettered folders, but the Media List problem shows up when you enter the lettered folders.

I checked my feed page and it looks like it is looking for some kind of jpg file?
http://xxx.xxx.x.x:xxxx/feed?range=ab&key=music&dir=C:\Users\xxxx\Music\.\Folder.jpg

Compare it to a same level folder in the video and photo file...
http://xxx.xxx.x.x:xxxx/feed?key=video&dir=Movies
http://xxx.xxx.x.x:xxxx/feed?key=photo&dir=Backgrounds

That is very strange behavior for the music link. I've retested everything on windows and linux (no mac yet.) Please verify that you installed the channel following my just-now-added instructions in the previous post. If that doesn't work try disabling partitioning by setting max_folders_before_split to -1 in springboard... could be I've introduced a bug there.

2. It recognizes my wmv videos although it won't play them. It shows them using the my music icon, but it doesn't do anything when you click on them.

Oops. Noted. Thanks

Pictures*
1. My Photos picture doesn't show correctly. Most of it is just a gray, only the top is yellow.

As a sanity check, can you try cycling the power on your Roku?

I think that the imaging library has something to do with the images showing up gray. After I deleted the early adopter and reinstalled my older channel the top folders are still gray.

It shouldn't (famous last words) because the old version doesn't reference PIL at all. Should be completely non-interacting. Try cycling the power on your Roku. I've seen strange behavior like this on occasion and cycling power seems to solve it. Also verify that you completely (alt+ctrl+delete and kill python) stopped the early adopter server.

[hammerpocket]

el.wubo:

(1) It looks like you have the same Windows version of PIL linked under "non windows users" in your post above.

(2) I'm afraid that requiring PIL is going to cause headaches for OS X users. The package I found won't install, and even the steps I found to remedy the situation don't work. Ironically, I think installing the latest Python (which is part of the posted instructions for My Media) may be part of the problem.

[Timmy Likes to Click]

This channel around my home has been getting daily use, especially due to the addition of the video streaming.

I am reporting my optimal Handbrake encoding settings.

Handbrake Settings:

Handbrake Version 0.94
- 32 or 64-bit OS

Preset - High Profile
- Modified the settings below

Container | MP4 File

Settings according to Handbrake Output Settings tabs:

Picture
- Keep Aspect Ratio | (Checked)
- Anamorphic | None

Video
- Video Codec | H.264 (x264)
- FPS | 23.976
- Avg Bitrate (kbps) | 1500
- Avg File sizes (Output):
- 20-30 min video | 250-400 mb
- 90 min video | 1 gig

Audio
- AC3 Passthrough | (Removed)
- Necessary for Roku to play sound.

Advanced (This was a key step in Optimizing video files)
- I noticed audio was out of sync and distracting
- Set B-Frames to zero (B-Frames | 0)

My hardware configuration:

- Media Server | WHS w/ Atom processor
- Network | Gigabit LAN to Wireless N
- Device | Roku HD (Wireless G connection)
- HDMI Cable
- 42" 1080p TV

Again, these were the settings that have produced great results for me. It might be slight overkill, but sound is in sync and video I would argue it looks better than DVD quality (probably due to the HDMI instead of AV cable). I have also streamed two videos simultaneously to two Roku HD devices from my WHS without any rebuffering.

I would love to hear others' results if you use these settings.

- El.Wubo if this is suitable to put into the How To I would happy to help out.

Big Ups to the talented developers of this superior, ever evolving, project!

[calicommando]

For those of you using handbrake, what are you using to rip DVDs and what file type/format are you ripping to before transcoding it?

[canaws]

Early Adopter Bug Report for el.wubo: Part Deux

That is very strange behavior for the music link. I've retested everything on windows and linux (no mac yet.) Please verify that you installed the channel following my just-now-added instructions in the previous post. If that doesn't work try disabling partitioning by setting max_folders_before_split to -1 in springboard... could be I've introduced a bug there.

I went back, read the instructions, and reinstalled the channel. I did everything, except copy the old config file. I copy and paste my paths straight from windows every time I install and they are correct. My ip addresses are correct also, because the feed works and the channel installs fine. I'm running Vista, if that factors in in any way, and I let pil install in the default place Python26>Lib>site-packages.

I was still getting the same problem with the music, so I set the max_folders_before_split to -1. It found my music, but there are problems with the images. Most of the artist folders has the yellow folder images, but some say 'image not available', and one is all gray (not the normal light gray, but a dark gray). I think all the 'image not available' ones were previously album art (jpg).

I also noticed that on the feed and channel after all my music file are a bunch of album art picture files with long numbered and lettered names (ex. AlbumArt_{9B4BA673-349E-470B-A746-BF6F135C6B3E}_Small) and at the end one picture called AlbumArt and one called Folder. They all say 'image not available.' None of these files are in the music directory on my computer. I tried restarting the roku and it still shows up that way.

As a sanity check, can you try cycling the power on your Roku?

I tried restarting. Still none of the jpg images in my picture folder will show (I get 'image not available') and none of large gifs/png (I get 'retrieving image'). Some of the gifs have dark gray on some or most of the picture. It seems like every sub folder has a least one totally dark gray jpg. I got the first two top level folders (my music/video) to show after uninstalling/reinstall pil and restarting the channel/server, but the my photo folder still has dark gray on the bottom half.

Hopefully, someone else will give a report too. That way you can figure out if it's just my wacky self that is having a problem or if it's some thing with the channel programming.

[renojim]

This channel around my home has been getting daily use, especially due to the addition of the video streaming.

I am reporting my optimal Handbrake encoding settings.

snip...

- FPS | 23.976

Advanced (This was a key step in Optimizing video files)
- I noticed audio was out of sync and distracting
- Set B-Frames to zero (B-Frames | 0)

I would love to hear others' results if you use these settings.

Thanks for posting. So you're not getting any rebuffering on > 1hr videos? I don't know if all of my 24fps videos rebuffer, but the ones that do are almost always 24fps. I'll have to see if the B-frames setting helps my audio sync issue.

-JT