SmugMug on Roku - NOW AVAILABLE !!

hoffmcs

A couple of weeks ago, Roku released a SDK to add channels to their platform. I decided to write a channel to view SmugMug accounts.

The channel currently includes:

• Popular Photos - Browse popular photos (from smugmug.com/popular feed)
• Albums - View Recently Updated Albums (reverse date order)
• Categories & Subcategories - Browse your albums by category
• Friends & Family Albums - Browse your linked Friends and Family SmugMug sites
• Video - Video only albums show list of videos while mixed albums show a selector screen
• Random Slideshow - Generate a random slideshow from all albums

I hope you like the channel and look forward to your feedback.

Chris

EDIT: 1/29/2010 - The channel is now officially available in the Roku Channel Store! Please post any feedback in this thread.

Loose360

Works great, thank you very much.

Here are a few pics of the menu

phototristan

Great work! From what I can tell so far, this application is a real winner.

pincusb

tester
Hi Chris,
I'd like to sign up to be a tester for my Smug Mug on Roku. I have an SD TV.
Thanks,
Paul Beckman
beckman.paul@gmail.com

karlabbott

Just saw the new channel officially in the channel store. It works great! Kudos to smugmug for getting a roku channel

devbobo

karlabbott wrote:

Just saw the new channel officially in the channel store. It works great! Kudos to smugmug for getting a roku channel

actually, kudos to Chris, the 3rd party developer...it's all due to him

bow

Sewerman

Thanks Chris I'll give it try after work

pat.kane

Great job! Thanks.
Chris,

Very nice. Thanks for taking the time to program it. I could see running this in the background during a party or to show pics when relatives visit.

I like the simple, straight-forward interface. Good job. I have run into a problem though.

Is the number of categories limited? I have 11 categories that contain pictures, but only eight of these categories show up on Roku.

Thanks,
Pat

SamirD

Awesome work! I'll have to check this out on a TV that's got it.

hoffmcs

pat.kane wrote:

Chris,

Very nice. Thanks for taking the time to program it. I could see running this in the background during a party or to show pics when relatives visit.

I like the simple, straight-forward interface. Good job. I have run into a problem though.

Is the number of categories limited? I have 11 categories that contain pictures, but only eight of these categories show up on Roku.

Thanks,
Pat

Pat,
I found the issue with the categories that are not showing up. It looks like if you have a category with only sub-categories and no galleries directly under the category, it will not show up in the list. I know this isn't the greatest solution but if you add an album with at least on picture directly to the category, it should show up. I will work to get this resolved soon. It may take some time since it has to go through the Roku quality assurance process. Thanks for reporting the bug.

Chris

EDIT: Updated workaround procedure as directed by Pat

pat.kane

hoffmcs wrote:

It looks like if you have a category with only sub-categories and no galleries directly under the category, it will not show up in the list.

Thanks Chris, that is indeed the problem. I added an empty gallery and still no luck; however, once I put one picture in that gallery, the category with its subcategories and galleries shows up.

hoffmcs

pat.kane wrote:

Thanks Chris, that is indeed the problem. I added an empty gallery and still no luck; however, once I put one picture in that gallery, the category with its subcategories and galleries shows up.

Thanks for trying it out. There were a lot of things I did to try and clean up galleries in the Roku interface and this was one thing I missed. Thanks for the updated procedure, I will amend my original post.

bgates

problem with Roku
Chris,

This is a great channel for me since I have a lot of photos on Smugmug.

Unfortunately there is a problem. When I access the general category of photos, i.e. "popular photos," etc. they display fine. But when I access my galleries (all of which show up), I get an image that takes up about 1/4 of the lower right quadrant of the screen, and the entire photo doesn't show (it is off the lower right of the screen). I can scroll through the images ok.

I have a Samsung 40" LCD, model LN40B630N.

Any help or suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks,

Bob

hoffmcs

bgates wrote:

Chris,

This is a great channel for me since I have a lot of photos on Smugmug.

Unfortunately there is a problem. When I access the general category of photos, i.e. "popular photos," etc. they display fine. But when I access my galleries (all of which show up), I get an image that takes up about 1/4 of the lower right quadrant of the screen, and the entire photo doesn't show (it is off the lower right of the screen). I can scroll through the images ok.

I have a Samsung 40" LCD, model LN40B630N.

Any help or suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks,

Bob

This is very interesting because I am having the same issue as you with your photos, so it is not your TV. Let me look into it some more and get back to you.

Chris

bgates

Thanks Chris, at least I'm glad to know it's not just me.

Bob

hoffmcs

I have found a way to solve the issue with the images. I believe the issue stems from certain settings on your account but have not exactly pinpointed exactly which one. Regardless, the issue should be fixed with the next release. 2 other people have also reported this issue. I am currently working with the QA team at Roku to get the channel updated in the channel store. Hopefully it will be available in a couple of days.

bgates

Thanks Chris.

romsrini

hoffmcs wrote:

I have found a way to solve the issue with the images. I believe the issue stems from certain settings on your account but have not exactly pinpointed exactly which one. Regardless, the issue should be fixed with the next release. 2 other people have also reported this issue. I am currently working with the QA team at Roku to get the channel updated in the channel store. Hopefully it will be available in a couple of days.

I am experiencing the same problem. I would soooo love it if you could fix this.
Thanks!

hoffmcs

The updates have been with Roku since Tuesday and I am just waiting for them to release. They said this week but I guess it will be next week. I will keep you posted.

hoffmcs

The new version is now available. You box should automatically update within 24 hours or you can force the update by just visiting the channel store and exiting.

Let me know if you run into any issues.
Chris

hoffmcs

hoffmcs wrote:

The new version is now available. You box should automatically update within 24 hours or you can force the update by just visiting the channel store and exiting.

Let me know if you run into any issues.
Chris

By the way, included in this update are the following fixes/enhancements.

• Fix: Galleries that only include subcategories do not display in the category screen
• Fix: Some slideshows display the images cut off in the lower right hand of the screen
• Enhancement: New setting to control slideshow speed. Settings include 3, 5, and 10 second intervals

romsrini

hoffmcs wrote:

The new version is now available. You box should automatically update within 24 hours or you can force the update by just visiting the channel store and exiting.

Let me know if you run into any issues.
Chris

Thanks Chris!

The fix worked perfectly. I can now see my pictures in their full screen glory and am planning on having my first ever slideshow party.

I work in the software industry and do a lot of volunteer work so I really appreciate the volunteer time and effort you put into this.

bgates

thanks
Works now for me too, and I love it. Great app, much appreciated.

Bob

hoffmcs

If anyone is interested in getting a Roku or add one to their collection, use this link to buy your Roku and you will help show your support for this application.

ruddyducks

I asked Roku a question- and was sent your way
.The question is:
I am interested in using smugmug as a way to display my pictures on my TV using Roku. I am testing it out to see how I like it before I subscribe.
I have linked the accounts, and do get the test album I am using to show on the TV. However, it does not have the "Birthday" theme I was using, and does not display the captions.
THE REAL QUESTION:
Is this something I am doing wrong in the setup-or is this a limitation of using Roku.

hoffmcs wrote:

A couple of weeks ago, Roku released a SDK to add channels to their platform. I decided to write a channel to view SmugMug accounts.

The channel currently includes:

• Popular Photos - Browse popular photos (from smugmug.com/popular feed)
• Albums - View Recently Updated Albums (reverse date order)
• Categories & Subcategories - Browse your albums by category
• Friends & Family Albums - Browse your linked Friends and Family SmugMug sites
• Video - Video only albums show list of videos while mixed albums show a selector screen
• Random Slideshow - Generate a random slideshow from all albums

I hope you like the channel and look forward to your feedback.

Chris

EDIT: 1/29/2010 - The channel is now officially available in the Roku Channel Store! Please post any feedback in this thread.

hoffmcs

ruddyducks wrote:

.The question is:
I am interested in using smugmug as a way to display my pictures on my TV using Roku. I am testing it out to see how I like it before I subscribe.
I have linked the accounts, and do get the test album I am using to show on the TV. However, it does not have the "Birthday" theme I was using, and does not display the captions.
THE REAL QUESTION:
Is this something I am doing wrong in the setup-or is this a limitation of using Roku.

There are very limited option on theming the Roku interface so I picked a nice looking simple layout. Captions are available when you pause the slideshow or in the browse photo mode. To get to the browse photo mode, when the slideshow starts, press the down arrow on your Roku remote. This was a design decision by me to not turn on captions by default and block part of the images.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

cleworth

Problem - slide show does not advance

hoffmcs wrote:

A couple of weeks ago, Roku released a SDK to add channels to their platform. I decided to write a channel to view SmugMug accounts.

The channel currently includes:

• Popular Photos - Browse popular photos (from smugmug.com/popular feed)
• Albums - View Recently Updated Albums (reverse date order)
• Categories & Subcategories - Browse your albums by category
• Friends & Family Albums - Browse your linked Friends and Family SmugMug sites
• Video - Video only albums show list of videos while mixed albums show a selector screen
• Random Slideshow - Generate a random slideshow from all albums

I hope you like the channel and look forward to your feedback.

Chris

EDIT: 1/29/2010 - The channel is now officially available in the Roku Channel Store! Please post any feedback in this thread.

I am trying out SmugMug and the Roku interface and have encountered a problem. I can access my SmugMug account through Roku and can see my test album but when I try to play the slideshow it will only show the first picture. Have also tried manually advancing (FF, right arrow, etc) to the next photo with the same result. Reconfirmed on SmugMug that the album does have multiple pictures in it (in case I messed up the upload or something). The Roku box is hard wired to my Internet connection, so no WiFi issues (Pandora works fine). Any ideas? Thank you very much. Jim Cleworth

hoffmcs

cleworth wrote:

I am trying out SmugMug and the Roku interface and have encountered a problem. I can access my SmugMug account through Roku and can see my test album but when I try to play the slideshow it will only show the first picture. Have also tried manually advancing (FF, right arrow, etc) to the next photo with the same result. Reconfirmed on SmugMug that the album does have multiple pictures in it (in case I messed up the upload or something). The Roku box is hard wired to my Internet connection, so no WiFi issues (Pandora works fine). Any ideas? Thank you very much. Jim Cleworth

This is an issue with the Roku firmware that does not like the way SmugMug redirects links. The reason you first picture works and subsequent pictures do not is because the image falls in the "Large" bucket while the rest fall into the "Medium" size bucket. You can tell when you hover over the image and in the slide out see photo sizes. Tonight, I am going to see if I can get a work around going for this issue.

You can see how resolutions relate to image sizes on this help page, http://www.smugmug.com/help/display-quality.

Chris

cleworth

hoffmcs wrote:

This is an issue with the Roku firmware that does not like the way SmugMug redirects links. The reason you first picture works and subsequent pictures do not is because the image falls in the "Large" bucket while the rest fall into the "Medium" size bucket. You can tell when you hover over the image and in the slide out see photo sizes. Tonight, I am going to see if I can get a work around going for this issue.

You can see how resolutions relate to image sizes on this help page, http://www.smugmug.com/help/display-quality.

Chris

I tried manually changing the size of the first photo to small or medium on SmugMug but oddly it changes it back to large as soon as I close the dialog box. Also changed the maximum size for the gallary from "original to xlarge which was the smallest possible setting. Also tried moving the first photo to another position and then changing the size but it will not let me. The new first photo kept it's previous size of "small". I am also trying the upload plug-in for Lightroom. Do you think it would help if I reduced the JPEG file size when uploading? Also, thanks for the quick response.

hoffmcs

cleworth wrote:

I tried manually changing the size of the first photo to small or medium on SmugMug but oddly it changes it back to large as soon as I close the dialog box. Also changed the maximum size for the gallary from "original to xlarge which was the smallest possible setting. Also tried moving the first photo to another position and then changing the size but it will not let me. The new first photo kept it's previous size of "small". I am also trying the upload plug-in for Lightroom. Do you think it would help if I reduced the JPEG file size when uploading? Also, thanks for the quick response.

It is actually the exact opposite problem. The images are not large enough which is making the Roku box choke when it gets redirected to the Medium size. The bigger the better with loading them into SmugMug.

cleworth

hoffmcs wrote:

It is actually the exact opposite problem. The images are not large enough which is making the Roku box choke when it gets redirected to the Medium size. The better with loading them into SmugMug.

Understood. I will stand by. Thanks again for the response.