Roku Stick, Roku Media Player, and MP4

Ok, after returning that steaming pile of failed called Chromecast, I did a little research and purchased a Roku stick. And, my little gamble paid off: I'm accessing my Serviio videos from Roku Media Player. There is one little hitch: not all of them play. Some of them hang on the "Loading..." status bar of the Roku Media Player. And yes, they are all .MP4 files.

Now, I have two different sets of .MP4 files as my media server hosts two distinct types of content: mobile media, and home media. Mobile media has a reduced resolution so that a) it takes up less space on my phone / tablet's SD card, and b) requires less bandwidth streaming across the internet. These reduced files ALL play fine on the Roku Stick. But not all of the other non-mobile media works - some (not all) of these hang in loading. I tried doing so searches, but most of what I found either didn't work, or was for Roku 2 / 3 and not for the stick.

So, my initial thought is that the problem is in the encoding - resolution, bitrate, etc. I've tweaked things here and there, bit each tweak takes a long time to process and test. So, my question is: is there a way via Serviio to optimize my .MP4 files for the Roku Stick / Media Player? Does anyone know what the best settings for ripped media are? Any other pointers and suggestions?

I will say this: I have been extremely happy with Serviiio. It is simple to use, works with stuff like Bubbleupnp, and now with the Roku stuff is it a HUGE cost savings trying to set up some sort of media server so that I can have mobile media, media I can download, and so on.

[atc98092]

The Roku won't support a video bitrate much faster than 12,000 kbps. But it has nothing to do with resolution, because I have some HD MP4 files that play just fine. It's all in the bitrate. It's possible the Roku Stick can handle a bit higher, but I don't know if the Stick has hardware closer to the Roku 2 or 3. If it's more like the 2, that's pretty much the limit.

Unfortunately, I don't believe there's a way to modify the Roku profile to only transcode videos based on bitrate. You will either need to transcode all files (which works fine, but does take some computer power), or convert your videos to a lower bitrate.

And of course I believe the Stick is Wi-Fi only, so their might be a bandwidth issue. My players are hard wired, and a low Wi-Fi signal might cut the bandwidth enough to be causing an issue. Just a thought.

As far as ripping settings, it depends on what media you are ripping and into what format. MakeMKV keeps the video intact and copies any and all audio and captions tracks you like. It has no "settings", and only saves to MKV. It works excellent with DVDs, and some Blu-Rays. I just discovered a new ripping software called MovieRescuer, and it works terrific with Blu-Rays. It's much slower than MakeMKV, and you cannot select separate audio or captions tracks. It saves BD videos as M2TS completely native, with no compression and every audio and caption track included. It ripped several BD movies that I had difficultly using with MakeMKV. However, again, there's no settings to be made. Once you've ripped the discs, you would then have to use a converter (such as HandBrake) to reduce bitrate or otherwise modify the file.
I am extremely pleased with the way my Roku players work with Serviio. It has taken a little time to tweak the profile, and a number of beta versions of the Media Player, before it all came together. I just wish the Roku supported MPEG2 video, so I wouldn't need to transcode the majority of my videos. Besides the MP4 files, the Roku also supports MKV and TS folders, so there are a number of options to play with for videos.

Ok, I thought I'd follow-up here as I have found the specific problem. The issue wasn't with the video resolution - which is what I originally thought - but the audio conversion. The Roku Media Player / Stick was choking on anything that wasn't 2-channel stereo or mono. It just happened that the template that I used for my tablet and phone to rip and convert videos did that automatically. The 6-channel stuff and even 4-channel conversions choke the stick / software after it loads the video.

Now for one other thing I wanted to post: for anyone who was, like me, getting incomplete or inconsistent information on whether the Roku Stick will work with a Serviio DLNA server, the answer is an unqualified: yes. Load the Roku Media Player app - which is a free app - make sure your videos are using the appropriate MP4 encoding (which is pretty standard stuff), and make sure you crunch the video down to 2-channel video, just to be sure it'll run.

The ads for the Roku devices are someone ambiguous about their abilities in this matter. Roku Media Player says that it will support Serviio, but there is nothing that connects these two entities together, or directly states as much. Moreover - unlike Chromecast - it works with most network setups, and even on lower-end PCs. I'm running Serviio off of a dual-core, 2 GB RAM XP box that is about 7 - 8 years old, and it streams video to the Roku just fine; no hangups, pauses, gaps, or glitches. The only time I have a problem is if I am moving converted videos from one PC to another (over the network) which does cause major problems. But that has more to do with network bandwidth and processor utilization than video streaming.

I haven't tried tweaking the 4-channel audio to see if I can get it to work. My thoughts are that you can't. I think a lot of this has to do with the limitations on the Roku devices than anything else. But, I don't have the room for a bona fide home theater, so stereo sound is good enough for me.

Thanks for the feedback.

[atc98092]

The Roku players WILL pass AC3 and DTS bitstream from MKV containers. So multi-channel in and of itself isn't an issue. In fact, the Roku profile included with Serviio will transcode non-compatible audio to AC3, and it shows up that way on my AV receiver display.

Unless there are differences between the Roku Stick and the other players, it should also play MKV files without issue. Again, the problem is bitrate. Send the Roku too large a stream and you end up with a lot of buffering. The new Roku TV (I believe it's only contained within a few TVs, not a separate product) is the only one that will play MPEG2 video, so all the others require transcoding of any ripped DVDs.

But just to say this again, my Roku 2 XS players will play everything I have: MKV, AVI, MP4, WTV, WMV, HD and SD. Anything that it can't play native Serviio transcodes into TS format, and with the latest Roku firmware updates we probably need to tweak the Roku profile a little for even better playback.

HI,

I just bought a Roku 3, only for streaming from my Serviio home PC to my 1080p Panasonic TV. The TV has DNLA but doesn't support HD streaming so I wanted to use Roku to get over that.

Using Roku with Serviio (Roku profile, of course) works great for video, but often fails for audio. I guess it's this multiple-channel audio I see written about.

Now, Serviio seems to be great at transcoding video. My question is: can it also transocde audio to a format Roku can understand? Or is there some reason ahy audio cannot be transcoded in real time, whereas video stream can be?

I know it can transcode down to Stereo from surround, which should make Riku happy. But still many things don't play with sound even with this checked.

Interested in information. This seemed a suitable thread, sorry if not. (Does anyone else find sound probems with Serviio/Roku3?)

[atc98092]

What container are your videos in (MP4, MKV, MPG, etc.)? If they are in almost anything other than MP4, they require transcoding, and the Roku profile transcodes all audio to AC3, which is Dolby Digital 5.1. What is your audio setting in the Roku, stereo or surround? At least on my Roku 2 XS, AC3 is sent through the Roku unchanged to my AV receiver. If you are only using TV audio (no AV receiver), then your setting should be stereo.

If your videos are in MP4, and the audio is anything other than LPCM, then they again are transcoded. However, if you have HD MP4 with HD audio (Dolby TrueHD or DTS Master Audio) as the main audio track, that will be a problem, as your TV can't decode the HD audio. Also, most TVs can't take DTS audio either, so that's another potential issue with sound. All TVs will accept and decode standard Dolby Digital, since that's the audio used for ATSC television broadcasting.

If there's something different about the settings in the Roku 3, then I'm outside my knowledge area, as I only have the 2.

My Panasonic TV is pretty old, but it will stream HD video. However, it usually can't handle the full HD bitstream, so it has to be transcoded to a lower flow. Perhaps that's what you mean by your TV not supporting HD streaming.

Hi,

I'm trying to play from Serviio -> Roku 3 -> Panasonic TX_L37G15B
This TV has DNLA but definitely doesn't support any HD over DNLA.
The file container is .mkv
Audio is 'DD51' (dolby Digital Stero 5.1 right?)
In the Roku3 my audio setting is 'stereo'
Serviio 1.4.1.2 has recognised and auto-set the profile to Roku Media Player.
In Serviio I have set 'enable transcoding' and 'downmix audio to stereo'. (Without transocding Roku can't use the file at all since it isn't MP4.) I tried 'keep original audio channels' but that doesn't work.
Lots of other files play fine from serviio -> Roku3 -> TV.

I tried streaming exactly the same file using 'Plex' on the same PC through the same Roku3 with no settings changed on Roku3 or TV and it played perfectly. This makes me think that it's not the TV or Roku3 that are the root of the issue. If Plex can do it surely Serviio should be able to also.

(Plex interface is aweful compared to Serviio, which my whole family far prefers. We want Serviio to work...!)

[atc98092]

OK, did a quick web search and found a manual for your set. British, right? This is what they say is supported via DLNA:

Movie : MPEG-2 (PS format) / DivX Extension - ".mpg", ".mpeg", ".divx" or ".avi"
● Some MPEG-2 format may not be supported

So, MKV is not supported, MPEG2 is good, although there might be an issue with some (and they don't say why). So, you need everything transcoded to MPEG video. Your audio looks like it should be supported, as the manual says "You can enjoy the multi-channel sound via an amplifier connected to DIGITAL AUDIO OUT terminal".

So, for DLNA directly to the TV, I'd try the "Panasonic Viera E/S/ST/VT (2011)" profile in the Serviio console. Remember to hit the save button when you choose a different profile. This will transcode all MKV files to MPEG video and ac3 audio.

Now, for the Roku, this is what is in my profile. I thought it was the default, but maybe I've tweaked it and forgotten I did it. Anyway, I can play all my MKV files, regardless of HD or SD, and don't have any buffering issues. I remember that the profile originally used applehttp as the target container, and the Roku didn't seem to like that very well. Chaneru worked with it, and that's where the Roku profile started. I also notice the DTS audio line commented out, so maybe I did that as well. The Roku can pass AC-3 and DTS bitstream over HDMI. However, it's unlikely your TV can handle DTS, so that line should be uncommented. (A line in the profile file is commented out by putting <!-- where you want the comment to start and --> at the end)

Check this against your version of the Roku profile (note that this is only a portion of the complete profile. It is, however, the complete video transcoding portion). Remember that after making any changes to the profile file, you must restart the Serviio service (or simply reboot the computer). Hitting the stop button on the Console does not accomplish this.

  Code:

<Transcoding>
         <Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="h264" maxVBitrate="12000" targetACodec="ac3">
            <!-- <Video targetContainer="applehttp" targetVCodec="h264" targetACodec="aac"> -->
            <Matches container="asf" />
            <Matches container="mpegvideo" />
            <Matches container="mpeg" />

            <Matches container="mpegts" />
            <Matches container="matroska" />
            <Matches container="avi" />
            <Matches container="flv" />
            <Matches container="wtv" />
            <Matches container="ogg" />
            <Matches container="3gp" />
            <Matches container="rtp" />
            <Matches container="rtsp" />
            <Matches container="rm" />
         </Video>
         <Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetACodec="aac" aBitrate="320">
            <!-- <Matches container="matroska" aCodec="dca" /> -->
            <Matches container="matroska" aCodec="vorbis" />
            <Matches container="ogg" vCodec="mpeg4" />
            <Matches container="mp4" aCodec="lpcm" />
         </Video>
         <Video targetContainer="mpegts">
            <Matches container="matroska" vCodec="h264" />
            <Matches container="flv" vCodec="h264" />
         </Video>
         <Video targetContainer="asf" targetVCodec="wmv2" targetACodec="wmav2" maxVBitrate="15360" forceStereo="true">
            <Matches container="*" vCodec="mpeg2video" />
            <Matches container="*" vCodec="dvvideo" />
            <Matches container="wtv" />
            <Matches container="ogg" />
            <Matches container="flv" />
            <Matches container="rm" />
         </Video>
         <Audio targetContainer="mp3">
            <Matches container="*" />
         </Audio>
      </Transcoding>


Serviio -> TV does work great with that Panasonic profile (although, in some cases, there's a 'stretched' portion of video on the right side). But I don't get any HD of course with MP2 or AVI/DIVX.

Edit: My transcoding profile (RokuMPApp) is identical to yours atc98092. Same lines commented out. Still no good.

I have been unable to make Serviio work for all audio types with Roku 3 despite my fiddling around with parameters so far. I've found some .avi files now too that Serviio can't handle to Roku3 but Plex can.

Again, video is fine so far across the board. It's just an audio problem for some files.

Next stage now is to experiment with other available predefined Serviio transcodes to see if any of those will work.

I strongly suggest a Raspberry Pi with XBMC. It works flawlessly.

Plex with Roku works flawlessly too

Here's a magnet link to an example file which works flawlessly with Plex and Roku, but not with Serviio and Roku.

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:60BC55C8A6E067A553DD335C0AC51239E74034FD&dn=Star.Wars.Rebels.S01E01.Spark.of.Rebellion.1080p.WEB-DL.DD5.1.H.264-YFN&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3a80&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.publicbt.com%3a80&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.istole.it%3a80%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2fopen.demonii.com%3a1337

It's for a cartoon thing broadcast a couple of weeks back on network.

[atc98092]

Go to Roku page roku activation record enter Roku com activation code appeared on Roku TV. My Roku com activate not working use new Roku code.

That is a scam web site. Roku does not charge for activation or support. Reset your device, and follow the activation instructions exactly. Do NOT accept a browser suggestion for the activation site.