anachirino / bifserver

Server which creates and serves up BIF files for Roku players

Overview

Implements a BIF server which can produce the BIF files which are needed by a Roku Player to support the video trick modes so that you can see thumbnails of the video when start fast forwarding or rewinding.

Requirements

• Python 2.7
• ffmpeg

Make sure the python, ffmpeg, and ffprobe commands all on your PATH so that they can be run from the command line.

Running

Execute:

python bifserver.py

This starts the BIF server on port 32405

Acessing BIF Images

Lets say you have a video file at /media/example.mkv, then you can get a standard definition BIF via HTTP by using the http://localhost:32405/media/example.mkv.sd.bif URL and a high definition BIF by accessing the http://localhost:32405/media/example.mkv.hd.bif URL.

The first time you try to access the BIF file you will get an HTTP 503 errors until the BIF is created. The BIF file will get created in a background thread. ffmpeg will be used to extract the BIF file images. Once the BIF file is created requsts for the file will succeed.

Creating the BIF file can take a couple of minutes. It depends on the size of the media and speed of your machine. You should try trigger the creation of the BIF files eagerly before you need to use them on your Roku Player. The could be done on the command line using the curl command. For example:

curl -I http://localhost:32405/media/example.mkv.sd.bif

Eagerly Creating the BIF files using Plex Media Server

You can have the Plex Media Server trigger the eager creation of the BIF file when a media file is first added the the Plex library. Just add the BifServer.bundle as Plex plugin. Then enable it as an agent for your TV shows and Movies.