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[akak718]

I've recently cut the cable at my house and am now relying on streaming devices for all of my content. I was previously using a Sony Blu-ray player to stream DLNA video from my MediaCenter, trans-coding all video on the fly to the MPEG2 format required by the Sony unit.

Now I have moved to Roku for my streaming. It is working great except for the content on my home network. The only Roku channel I have found that actually works with MediaCenter is the Roku Media Player. Its a much nicer interface than what I used on the Sony, but there is a big problem - it only supports H264 MPEG4 video in MP4, MOV, or MKV containers. Since most of my stored video is in older DIVX, XVID, and MPEG2 formats, it is unplayable. Is there any chance we can get new trans-code options for the DLNA server so I can convert all my videos on demand to the format needed by Roku?

Better yet, I would love to see J River add a native Roku channel that can make better use of what Media Center can do. The Roku Media Player channel is ok, and better than what my Sony Blu-ray has, but it still leaves a lot to be desired on the user interface. Adding a channel could even give JRiver more exposure and drive some sales of Media Center.

[akak718]

I should add that I have already tried all of the H264 options available in MediaCenter 21.0.15 and none worked. I do have a few files that play correctly when left in their native mode, so if there is any info I can provide from those files that would help to understand the problem, let me know.

[akak718]

This is what the Roku web page says it supports:

https://support.roku.com/hc/en-us/articles/208754908-Roku-Media-Player-Playing-your-personal-videos-music-photos

What media file types does the Roku Media Player channel support?

The following media file formats are supported:

    Video — H.264/AVC (.MKV, .MP4, .MOV), on Roku 4 only: H.265/HEVC (.MKV, .MP4, .MOV); VP9 (.MKV)
    Audio – AAC (.MKV, .MP4, .MOV); MP3(.MP3, .MKV); WMA (.ASF, .WMA, .MKV), FLAC (.FLAC, .MKV), PCM (.WAV, .MKV, .MP4, .MOV), AC3/EAC3 (.MKV,.MP4. .MOV, .AC3), DTS (.MKV, .MP4, .MOV), ALAC (.MKV, .MP4, .MOV, .M4A)
    Image — JPG, PNG, GIF (non-animated)

Only supported file types are shown in the Roku Media Player channel. The channel hides unsupported file types.

Multichannel AAC  is not supported on all Roku models. Roku TV’s and Roku 4 set-top-boxes do support multichannel decode to PCM stereo.

On Roku set-top-boxes Dolby Digital audio (AC3, EAC3) is only supported via pass through.

DTS is only supported via pass through on both Roku set-top-boxes and Roku TV’s. You must connect your Roku player via HDMI or S/PDIF to a TV or receiver capable of decoding Dolby Digital or DTS in order to hear videos with audio tracks in those formats.

Some media server software may convert files into Roku compatible formats.

DRM-protected content is not supported.
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[Hendrik]

Unfortunately we don't currently have the ability to transcode to streamable mp4 or mkv files. Making both these formats streamable is a bit tricky, with mkv probably being the easier of the two.

Which Roku box do you have?

[akak718]

I currently have a Roku 3 on one TV. Now that I have ditched my satellite, I will probably add a Roku 4 for my main TV.

Note that the video files that I already have in both MP4 and MKV formats play fine streaming from MC, as long as I turn off trans-coding.  I suppose I could go through and convert all the non-playable files with handbrake or something like that, but I don't want to lose the quality of the original or have to store both versions.

[ek654389]

Was there ever a resolution to this?   I just got a Roku 3 and most of my media doesn't load from MC21's DLNA server.   The plex server works for most stuff, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having MC21.  Are there really no DLNA settings that transcode for Roku?

[Hendrik]

Rokus video support is extremely limited, it doesn't seem to support streaming media very well (or practically at all), and the formats it does support are not well suited for automated video conversion.

[akak718]

Was there ever a resolution to this?   I just got a Roku 3 and most of my media doesn't load from MC21's DLNA server.   The plex server works for most stuff, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having MC21.  Are there really no DLNA settings that transcode for Roku?

This is a very good point. Plex and at least 4 or 5 others can do exactly what we are asking for. But I don't want to run another DLNA type server just for my Rokus. I want it to come from my Media Center where I have tens of thousands of files already sorted and labeled. I've been a supporter for many years going back to version 8, and this is the first time I have been really disappointed. If those other guys like Plex can do it, I don't accept the answer that it can't be done.

[JimH]

If the Roku supports DLNA, then it's just a question of settings for the server.

[Hendrik]

From what I can tell Plex for example doesn't use DLNA, they have their own "Plex Channel" on the Roku which somehow does that differently.
I can't really tell, Roku is a US only device, and seems generally not very good at what it does, but thats just from trying to find info on it since I can't buy them where I live.

I'm sorry if we cannot support every single device that claims to be a media server, sometimes these devices also have to support a certain set of standard technologies to interact with MC, like proper DLNA functionality.

[akak718]

The Roku does in fact support DLNA via its Roku Media Player channel which I stated in my original post. The issue is just that the supported file formats are rather limited, which makes all my older video files useless since MC21 is not able to transcode them into a supported format.

It is true that Plex (and others) is not a DLNA server, but it is able to transcode various file formats on the fly to something that the Roku can stream.

[Hendrik]

The problem is that Roku does not support any streamable format over DLNA, ie. any of those you can use for live-transcoding.