If using Amazon S3 to host your video content and banner ads…does amazon give you information on the number of times a file has been viewed and from where? What information is provided regarding analytics for files?
Hi destruk,
Thank you for the fast reply. I’ll take a look at the link. I am just now getting more familiar with Amazon s3 and been wondering if there was a way to know for example how many times a banner ad is seen. It seems a like a good place to use for hosting files to run the roku channel.
What about file structure in setting up Amazon s3? Is it best to create a bucket and name it “roku” or use the name of the channel for the bucket?
You can handle the structure any way you like. Shorter bucket names and shorter paths will take less room to list in the xml.
Sounds good.
I’m uploading a video to test and now have to figure out how to get it to play. I think it must require perhaps cloudfront since I already make the link public and not working in browser or device.
I uploaded a video. I right clicked to make it public.
What’s the next step to make it work? I copied the url of the file and tested in my channels xml but doesn’t play.
What step(s) am I missing?
Thank you.
does the URL begin with https:// ? if so, try changing to http:// for initial testing purposes.
- Joel
Hi Joel,
I tried it both ways.
I uploaded it. Then right clicked to “make public” then copied the link and put in into the url where I took out an old video url that was from another hosting place.
I wasn’t 'sure if I had to use cloudfront or if I can just use the url. The video worked when it was at another hosting location before trying it on amazon s3. It’s encoded with handbrake and is an m4v file and it played on the roku device (from the other hosting location).
Thank you
You can just use the standard http web url link - but the access control list needs to allow for anonymous access for testing.
I tried it again without the “s” on the http and this time it worked. Perhaps the other time I tried it I may not have gone out of the channel and back in. Not sure but it’s working.
destruk…what is the following mean about access for testing from your post..
“but the access control list needs to allow for anonymous access for testing”
Thank you.
If you download Cloudberry Explorer, it shows you all the options in your buckets. So right-clicking a bucket or folder and left click ACL (access control list) settings.
http://orangescale.net/blog/log/2009/09 … 3-account/
Anonymous users require at least read access to be able to pull a file from S3. If you have the weburl for a file in your bucket, try to pull up the file in a browser - if it works in a browser, then it’ll work when roku asks for it. If it gives you an xml error or another error, check your acl permissions.
Ok, thank you for this info. I recall seeing something about cloudberry in a online video. Seems like it will make it a lot easier while working with amazon s3.
It’s free 
I wouldn’t use S3 without it.
Cloudberry is great. You are so right! It’s been a big help.
Did you setup one bucket and then add images, videos, xml etc into the same bucket or a bucket for each? Looking at using S3Stat along with cloudberry and wondered what the proper way is to setup for the server logs. Right now I have a bucket for each.
If you can shed some light on this for me, I would appreciate it.
We stick everything for the same channel into the same bucket - different channels get different buckets. Different categories for the same channel gets different folders.
I imagine it’d work any way you would prefer using, but that’s what we do.
One bucket with all of the contents does seem best. Before getting too far along I’m setting up the buckets and folders and then enable logging using s3stat. So far it looks like they will provide detailed reports.
Thank you.
In case it is of help to anyone using as3, I had my xml in a folder but when placed the url into the categoryfeed I was only able to get the splash screen. The url had a " / " at the end of it. Took that out and it worked perfectly.
