Roku – Love Media Players

ROKU 4 and VC1 in MKV container

Camille Wesley — Fri, 08 Jul 2016 07:22:17 +0000

It seems that even though you have a professional Blu-ray Ripper to help you rip Blu-ray to MKV, you still can’t play them freely, even on Roku 4. That’s because some Blu-ray are encoded with VC-1 and No VC-1 hardware decoder in Roku 4. So when you rip VC-1 Blu-ray to MKV, that’s VC-1 MKV and Roku 4 can’t play VC-1 MKV.

Quick link: What is the difference between AVC and VC-1?

Problems about VC-1 MKV playback issue on Roku 4

“I’m looking at buying a Roku 4 but I need to know how my blu-ray rips will play. Many should play fine because they match Roku’s supported content (MKV with h264 video). But, my Lord of the Rings blu-ray rips are encoded in VC-1. Based on my research, Roku 3 will play VC-1 if it’s inside of a WMV, but not if it’s inside an MKV. How about Roku 4?”

Rokus will direct play VC-1 in a WMV container if and only if you are using an old Roku like an N1000 or other first gen Roku. But when it comes to Roku 4, accroding to their support pages VC1 has disappeared completely so I can’t really believe what is there anymore.

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.

How to Play VC-1 MKV on Roku 4?

Maybe you can try to convert VC-1 MKV to H.264 MKV, or you can re-rip your Blu-ray rips to H.264/AVC MP4, MKV directly with your MakeMKV. Here, we choose to convert VC-1 MKV to Roku 4 supported format with third party video transcoder.

I choose to use Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate to convert VC-1 MKV to Roku 4. This video converter can convert any video like H.265/HEVC, VRO, TS, AVCHD, XAVC, DJI Phantom 4 4K video to Roku 4 compatible H.264/AVC (.MKV, .MP4, .MOV) and H.265/HEVC (.MKV, .MP4, .MOV) with right audio codec. It even can rip Blu-ray and DVD to Roku 4. Recently, it has just upgraded to 4.8.6.7 version to support MKB61 Blu-ray rip. It also can directly rip Blu-ray encoded VC-1 and AVC Blu-ray to H.264/AVC MKV for Rou 4, Kodi, OHC . If you are running on Mac OS X, turn to iMedia Converter for Mac. learn >>the top 5 reasons to choose Pavtube iMedia Converter for Mac. If you haven’t got the software, download it now and let’s start the conversion.

Free download and install

Steps to Convert VC-1 MKV to Roku 4

1. Add movies

Run the Roku 4 Movie Coverter; click the Add button to load movie files to the program from your computer. You can also directly drag the video files into the program.

2. Select the output format

Hit the Format box and choose Roku playable format. To store your movies on Roku 4 for widely using, you’d better encode them to .mp4, .mov, or .mkv, etc compressed format.

Learn also >> 4K to Roku 4 | MKV to Roku with Subtitle | Blu-ray to Roku

Tip: If you like, you can click “Settings” to change the video encoder, resolution, frame rate, etc. as you wish. Keep in mind the file size and video quality is based more on bitrate than resolution which means bitrate higher results in big file size, and lower visible quality loss, and vice versa.

3. Start to convert videos to Roku 4

Simply click the Convert button to start encoding video to MP4/MKV for Roku. Within several minutes, you can find the converted file on your computer by clicking the “Open” button.

Afterwards, it’s free to stream your converted VC-1 MKV with Roku 4. Make sure the wireless network connection is accessible among the Roku and iPad, Apple TV, PS3, HD TV or other media players. What’s more, you can also set Plex on Roku for Blu-ray/DVD playback on Roku.

News!! Pavtube Studio is holding on Summer Vacation Promotion, visit the page to see what you can get if you purchased Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate.

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View 4K videos on Samsung TV via Roku 4

Camille Wesley — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 06:21:14 +0000

4K is the mainstreaming in the future, that’s why 4K TV having eaten more market share than 3D TV. But it doesn’t mean you can play 4K video only on a 4K TV. For example, you can play 4K video on Samsung TV via Roku 4 since Roku 4 supports video files with 4k resolution. It allows people watch 4K video on any TV hooked to the Roku 4. It does not need to be a 4k TV. That means, if you have a normal Samsung TV, you still can stream 4K video on it via Roku 4.

To stream 4K video on Samsung TV via Roku 4, you need to know which video can be played or pass through via Roku 4 to TV.

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)

Samsung LED/SUHD TV Supported Video/Audio Formats

Video Resolutions and Codecs

Only supported 4K file types are shown in the Roku Media Player channel when streaming to Samsung TV. If your 4K video is not supported by Roku, it will hide the unsupported 4K files. So, if you download some 4K YIFY video, 4K ISO images, 4K YouTube FLV video or some 4K shootings from DJI Phantom 4 4K video, you’d better convert these 4K video to Roku 4/Samsung TV supported format.

There are a number of tools capable of converting videos into a format that is playable on the Roku player and Samsung TV. One of the more popular ones is called Handbrake. We have found that the Handbrake preset, “Regular – High Profile”, produces files that play well on Roku. However, today the 4K Video Converter we want to recommend is Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate. Learn >> Handbrake vs Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate : Which One Is Right for You?

Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate – Convert 4K Video to Roku 4 Streaming on Samsung TV

Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate is a professional 4K video converter on Windows 10/8.1/8, etc (Mac version supports El Capitan. It can transcode 4K video to Roku 4 supported and Samsung TV playable format. It also can make you edit 4K video, compress 4K video to 1080p/720p/480p, even upscale your SD/HD video to 4096×2160 or 3840× 2160 resolution for your 4K TV, 4K tablet, 4K projector, etc

Key features:

Convert any video in 3840 x 2160 or 4096 x 2160 4k resolution to H.265 MP4/MKV for Roku 4 streaming on Samsung TV.
Transcode your iPhone 6S, Galaxy S7, Sony Xperia Z5/XA 4K shootings to Roku 4.
Rip 4K Blu-ray to 4K MP4/MKV for Samsung TV and Roku 4.
Re-encode DJI Phantom 4, GoPro HERO 4, Canon XC10, etc 4K AVCHD, XAVC, MTS, MXF, MP4, MOV, etc.
Solve 4K video playback issues on Himedia Q10 Pro, Nvidia Shield Android TV Box, Apple TV 4, Boxee, etc.
Edit simply 4k video such as crop, trim, merge, add watermark, rotate, effects and many more.

Free download and install

Steps to Convert 4K video to Roku 4 streaming on Samsung TV

Step 1. Import 4K videos

This program offers you two ways to upload your 4K Video files. You can either click the “Files” button to browse your hard disk or local directories and load the target files or simply drag your local 4K videos onto the interface. The software supports batch conversion.

Step 2. Choose output format for Samsung TV

Hit the Output Format drop-down menu and go to “Format > TVS” to select “Samsung TV” as the output format. The optimized output format will contains the best video settings for playback on your Samsung smart TV and will be supported well by Roku 4.

Note: If your Samsung TV is 4K model and support H.265, you can choose “Format > HD Video” to select “H.265 Video (*.mp4)” as the output format.

Step 3: Custom 4K Video

Audio Settings:

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.

So the best audio settings is to choose AAC stereo. Just click “Settings” icon on the interface then open a window like the below. Reset audio codec to AAC and channel to stereo.

Subtitle Settings

The Roku Media Player channel supports embedded subtitles in .mkv files. To choose a subtitle track use the ‘*’ button while the video is playing.

The Roku Media Player will automatically include subtitle tracks found in .SRT files. The .srt files must be saved in the same folder as the video. They must have the same name as the video. They must have an extension of .srt. To include multiple .srt files you must insert a language extension for example movie.eng.srt or movie.ger.srt.

So if you need subtitle, you can choose HD MKV format in the step two and change its video codec to H.265, size to 2160p in the step 3.

Read: Hard Burn Subtitles to 1080P X264 MKV Video

Step 4. Convert 4K Videos to Samsung TV and Roku 4

Click the “Convert” button at the bottom-right corner of the interface to convert the 4K Video file to your Samsung smart TV and Roku 4. This 4K Video Converter will finish the 4K video to Samsung smart TV conversion in just a few minutes.

After conversion, you can transfer all the output 4K MP4/MKV files to a USB drive and then plug the USB stick to USB port at the back of your Samsung TV. Now, you can play 4K video with Roku 4 on Samsung TV. You also can stream 4K video on Samsnug TV with Roku 4 via your home’s PC and DLNA server.

Hot News!!: Pavtube Studio is holding on Summer Vacation Promotion. In the promotion period, you can get $10 Amazon gift card only if you are the first 30 people to buy Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate. You can contact our customers service staff after you purchased the software at support@pavtube.com.

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The Best Way to Play MKV on Roku 4 with Subtitle

Camille Wesley — Wed, 16 Dec 2015 09:18:14 +0000

Officially, the Roku 4 supports H.264 MKV. But when someone is playing the rips of Blu-ray/DVD movie collection (MKVs with no transcoding of the audio, video, etc), some noticed that many of the MKVs were not playing (“corrupt”). Why? After a bit of investigating I narrowed this down to subtitles. When we ripped our movies, many people tended to rip all of the subtitle tracks even though they would be pretty unlikely to use most of them. The Roku Media player (at least via DLNA) is unable to handle a MKV with multiple subtitle tracks.

Roku 4 does not support DVD (VOB) and blu-ray (PGS) subtitle formats. The only subtitle format supported by Roku is the SRT subtitle format with UTF-8 character encoding. When you rip Blu-ray/DVD to MKV with multiple subtitle/audio, the subtitle format kept often is PGS that can’t be displayed on Roku 4.

So if you want to play your MKV file on Roku 4, you have two choices: 1. Remove extra subtitle track by using MKV editing tools. 2. Add external SRT subtitle to MKV video. I saw the method 1 in Roku forum while it didn’t provide an effective MKV editing tool to remove certain subtitle track indeed. But I know how to add external subtitle to MKV file.

How to Add external subtitle to MKV for playing on Roku 4 with subtitle?

Part 1: Find the associated subtitle

1. You can go and find the proper subtitles in some subtitle sites. Here are several famous and reliable subtitle websites for you to get the subtitles you want for your MKV videos.

http://www.moviesubtitles.org/
http://subscene.com/
http://www.subtitles.hr/

2. Perhaps, you also can extract the suitable srt subtitle from your source Blu-ray/DVD movies. You can refer to the guide: How to Extract SRT Subtitle from Blu-ray/DVD, BDMV, ISO?

Part 2: Add external SRT subtitle to MKV file

Step 1: Download Pavtube Video  Converter Ultimate on your Windows or iMedia Converter for Mac on Mac. They can help you add SRT/ASS/SSA subtitles to your MKV/AVI/MP4, etc videos.

Free download and install


Other Download:
– Pavtube old official address: http://www.pavtube.cn/blu-ray-video-converter-ultimate/
– Cnet Download: http://download.cnet.com/Pavtube-Video-Converter-Ultimate/3000-2194_4-75938564.html

Step 2: Run the right version app on your computer and import your MKV videos to it by clicking the “Add video” icon to import MKV video. (Snapshots are based on Windows version)

Step 3: Click “Edit” or the pencil icon  to switch to the editing interface, where you can find multiple editing functions and “Subtitle” is just one of them. Click the “Subtitle” tab and check the “Enable” box to allow you to add SRT/ASS/SSA subtitles to MKV videos. Then Click “Browse” to find and import the downloaded SRT/ASS/SSA subtitles.

Note: Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate only supports SRT/ASS/SSA subtitles, and make sure that the subtitle file and your MKV video files are kept in the same folder sharing the same name.

Step 3: Go back to the main UI and click “Convert” to start inserting SRT subtitles to your MKV videos. If you don’t want to keep the original MKV format, just click the format bar to choose the output video format you want before conversion.

Now, test the MKV video on Roku 4. It should has subtitle displayed on the screen.

Roku Subtitle tips

The SRT file must be external when used with MP4 and can be either external or internal when used with MKV. When using SRT subtitles, make sure your movie and the SRT file have the same name, otherwise the Roku will not know which movie it is associated with. Plex Media Server should scan your video file and automatically download the SRT subs for you. If not, you will need to download your own SRT subtitles if needed.

If you don’t want to mess with SRT subtitles, you can also embed the original subtitles from your DVD or blu-ray movies. For DVD, you can use either the MP4 or the MKV container. For blu-ray, you have to use the MKV container as PGS subtitles are not supported with MP4. Roku may never support embedded VOB and PGS subtitles, but Plex can help you by means of transcoding.

How to Backup Blu-ray for Roku 3?

Camille Wesley — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 09:31:23 +0000

Roku supports 1800+ streaming channels including YouTube, Netflix, etc. and 200,000+ movies and TV episodes. And the Roku 3 even comes with remote with headphone jack for private listening. So watching movies on Roku 3, you never need to worrying about disturbing family in the dead evening. With this popular streaming player, how can we enjoy DVD/Blu-ray movies? In the former post of the blog, we taught you how to watch DVD on Roku 3 and here, we continue to show you the way of playing Blu-ray with Roku 3.

Officially, the Roku 3 only supports H.264 MKV and MP4/M4V video. So the point to watch Blu-ray on Roku 3 is to bypass the Blu-ray encryption and change the format to Roku 3 suitable format. Luckily, there is an easy workaround to fulfill the task.

For realizing Blu-ray playback on Roku 3, you can use Pavtube BDMagic (Review). It can remove Blu-ray copy protection and change Blu-ray to Roku 3 suitable H.264 MP4,MKV, MOV, etc with original video quality. It has several video codecs and allows you to change the raw video codec like changing H.265 MP4 to H.264 MP4 video for Roku 3, or reset video and audio parameters to get better video quality.

Mac users can turn to BDMagic for Mac. And Windows users can directly click at the below to download the program and start conversion.

Other Download:
– Pavtube old official address: http://www.pavtube.cn/blu-ray-ripper/
– Cnet Download: http://download.cnet.com/Pavtube-BDMagic/3000-7970_4-75922877.html

How to Stream Blu-ray Movies to Roku 3 with suitable format?

Step 1: Load Blu-ray movie

Run the Blu-ray to Roku 3 programme, click “File” > “Load from disc” to import Blu-ray. Or choose “Load from folder” “Load IFO/ISO” to import Blu-ray folder.Step 2: Choose output format.

Click the put down menu of “Format”, and then choose MP4, MKV from “Common Video” profile list. If you want to watch Blu-ray via Roku 3 on your TV, you can directly select the optimized TV format. For example, if you are a Sony TV, you can choose “Sony TV(*mp4)” as the output format for watching Blu-ray via Roku 3 on Sony HD TV.

See also: Play Blu-ray/DVD movies on Roku 4 via TV

Step 3: Get down to Blu-ray ripping for Roku 3

Click “Browse” to determine the destination file you want to save the ripped Blu-ray movie. And then hit the “Convert” button to realize Blu-ray to Roku 3 conversion. After that, hit “open output folder” to find the generated movie.

With this simple Blu-ray to Roku 3 conversion, you can now enjoy Blu-ray on Roku 3 at ease without any incompatible problem.

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How to Stream DVD Movie to Roku 3 for Playing on HD TV

Camille Wesley — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 07:54:59 +0000

Want to watch movies in the evening and your wife and children hate your behavior for the noisy movies disturb their sleep? If so, get a Roku 3! This streaming player shines not only because supports 1800+ streaming channels including Netflix, etc, but also for the remote controller has headphone jack which can let the loudspeaker of TV mute so that you don’t worry about disturbing your family any more when enjoying movies in the dead of night. Despite of various merits, Roku 3 doesn’t know how to play DVD-like sources. So, if you want to play DVD movies via Roku 3 on HD TV with privacy listening, it is sensible to learn how to stream DVD to Roku 3 with a professional DVD ripper in the following part.

Hot search: Play ISO on Roku 3 | Blu-ray Playback on Roku | Play YouTube Video on Roku | iTunes Movies to Roku 3| H.265 video to Roku 3 |

Video formats supported by Roku 3 only cover MKV (H.264), MP4 (H.264), MOV (H.264), WMV (VC-1, firmware 3.1 only). For realizing DVD playback on Roku 3 with HD TV, you can use Pavtube BDMagic (Review). It can remove DVD copy protection and change DVD to Roku 3 suitable H.264 MP4,MKV, MOV, etc with original video quality. It has several video codecs and allows you to change the raw video codec like changing H.265 MP4 to H.264 MP4 video, or reset video and audio parameters to get better video quality. It now has upgraded with more functions.

Mac users can turn to the equivalence product: BDMagic for Mac.

Now, get the BDMagic on Windows computer freely and follow the steps to rip DVD to Roku 3:

Other Download:
– Pavtube old official address: http://www.pavtube.cn/blu-ray-ripper/
– Cnet Download: http://download.cnet.com/Pavtube-BDMagic/3000-7970_4-75922877.html

Step 1: Load DVD movie

Run the DVD to Roku 3 programme, click “File” > “Load from disc” to import DVD. Or choose “Load from folder” “Load IFO/ISO” to import DVD folder, DVD ISO or IFO.

Tips: You can choose preferred audio and subtitle on main UI as above.

Step 2: Set the output format

You can choose the output format according to your TV brand in TVs profile. Here, we choose “Sony TV(*mp4)” as the output format for Sony HD TV.

Tips: The pencil-like “Edit” button allows you to trim, crop, add watermarks, apply special video effects, edit audio tracks, and insert subtitles, etc.

There are more surprises this ripping program can bring to you like adjusting audio and video settings to the best, choosing preferred movie chapters to convert, splitting a movie into several, merging several clips into one, etc.

Step 3: Get down to DVD conversion for Roku 3

Click “Browse” to determine the destination file you want to save the ripped DVD movie. And then hit the “Convert” button to realize DVD to Roku 3 conversion. After that, hit “open output folder” to find the generated movie.

Stream ripped DVD video via Roku 3 on HD TV

1. Transfer the ripped DVD video to a USB file or SD card and attach it to Roku box;
2. Make sure the USB Media Player Channel has been installed from Roku Store and find the movie in this channel to stream (Tips: In a folder with both video files and subfolders, the video files are shown at the top of the screen and the subfolders at the bottom of the screen).

Now, you can enjoy favorite DVD movies on Roku 3 quietly in the evening without worrying about disturbing your families.

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