Hi,

First post here, but have enjoyed reading the content on the forums here for a while now.

I thought some of you might be interested in some coding I've done.
I own a couple of Roku PhotoBridges (but I don't work for them etc.)

Roku PhotoBridge

It has a 300MHz MIPS CPU by the way.

Which I've been using to watch some HD and DVD stuff. Anyway, its an 'open platform', theres a full SDK available freely for anyone to use. They're currently working on a new beta firmware, and one of the features they added in a beta a few weeks ago is that it now supports a codec plugin model i.e. if you can develop with some specific interfaces, then the system will be able to play music files in that format.

Having stored my entire CD collection in FLAC format (and having a lot of music in other formats) this was great news as it meant I was able to use a system that was already fully integrated into my home-entertainment system as my 'music player'.

Long story shortened, I've ported over the following lossless codecs so that they work on the PhotoBridge
FLAC
Apple Lossless
Shorten
WavPack
TTA

I've ported over a few other (non lossless) music formats as well (won't mention them here obviously).
The codec-plugins themselves, and all my source code of course, is freely available via the Roku Forums

Roku Forums - Codec Development Thread

The current firmware that supports this codec plugin model is still (very) beta, lacking in features etc. but I thought people would be interested in this news (or looking at the modified source code etc.).

Peter

Edited - Did not have TTA in list, added now.

Impressive hardware. And it's very good to know WavPack works fine on MIPS as well. Thanks.

do the plugins run on the server side (i.e. decode to PCM on the server, transmit PCM to the box) or on the box itself?

Josh

Hi Josh,

These are all 'native' codec plugins.

Its different from how the SoundBridge (also by Roku) works - that needs a server application to work.

The PhotoBridge uses SMB to see network shares on computers (or on NAS systems) - it retrieves the files as they are and decodes them on the PhotoBridge itself.
As the PhotoBridge reads compact flash cards, you could even read the files straight from one (a compact flash card) and it would work fine. If you really wanted to

Peter

For WavPack I used a port of the 'tiny' version of the WavPack 4.0 decoder - so this does introduce some limitations - like it can't handle WavPack correction files for example. But it does work well alright.

WavPack was probably the easiest of the lossless codecs to convert/get running, very easy indeed to get the whole thing fully integrated (well, the 'tiny' version was anyway).