Media server?

Sorry about the lack of posts – weekends have been pretty busy.

Since the last post, I’ve added about 30 things I want to do that have nothing to do with the media server. Sensing a trend in which nothing gets accomplished, I’m going to focus on the media server today.

 

Ok, so I have a roku device installed and running and I want to create a pirvate channel. The private channel will be used to share family videos with grandparents (who suffer from technophobia) that live about a thousand miles a way.

Do nothing if it isn’t ambitious. 😉

Finding a Ripper

Roku requires videos to be in either .mov or .mp4 format. Going down the list on https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/RippingDVDs#dvd::rip_.28multiverse.29, I’ve got the following notes and found one that did work:

Thoggen: what the hell is an ogg file? Not even trying this one.

Acid Rip: .mpg supported but doesn’t support mp4. Also result is jumpy video. :-/

k9copy: requires a lot of dependencies, but success! The mp4 looks smoth and the wizard was easy to follow.

 

K9Copy

K9Copy, while being somewhat smart, is option heavy. Maybe that’s why it required so many dependencies. 😉

Here’s how to get a basic home-video on DVD over to an MP4 on your harddrive:

1) If you don’t have k9copy, run “sudo apt-get install k9copy”

2) Run k9copy from the terminal

3) Click on wizard when it opens

4) Select DVD drive & click next

5) Select Rip & encode DVD and click the open file dialog box

6) Select where you want to save it, name the file, and select mp4 as the filter. Click save.

7) Click Next 2 times

8) Check everything under title and click Next

9) This is where it gets confusing a bit. Keep the defaults, but select mpeg-4 as the codec and check 2 Pass.

10) Click finish.

 

Adding a private channel

1. Go to https://owner.roku.com/Developer/Apps. If you haven’t created an account  yet, go ahead and do so. The fine print doesn’t mention anything about your first born son.

2. Click on “Create a Private Channel” and fill out all the needed info. The HD and SD image selections are strict with the image size (exactly 290×144 for HD and 290×218 for SD).

Setting up your roku device for development mode

Remember Contra? Up, down, up down, left, right… yeah.. it’s like that but not quite.

On your roku remote, hit: Home 3X, Up 2 times, then right, left, right, left, right. You’ll be taken to string to enable the development-mode installer. It also shows the IP address that roku is connected to. Copy that down, and click the enabler.