Hello all,
I’ve been tasked by my employer to create a Roku channel for our company for our videos. We currently have them hosted on Vimeo. I thought that it would be easy and just use the regular URL to supply the feed but as I have recently learned, that is not the case. I do not have any experience with git or RSS feeds. I would greatly appreciate the help from square one to finish if anyone has the time to explain this to me. I did not understand a lick of the language when I googled MRSS feeds.
Creating a Roku channel can be a daunting task, even when going the direct publisher route which simplifies channel creation somewhat.
Here is a list of things that you need to be able to get started creating a channel for Roku Direct publisher.
Video Host for your video content.
As you mentioned you have Vimeo, but unless it is Vimeo Pro ($240/annually) or better it will not work as a host.
Graphic Artwork images as part of the branding for your channel which include: Channel Poster, Channel Logo, Splash Screen and Small Logo for Roku Search.
JWPlayer[/url:f1pqkro5] does offer video hosting as well as MRSS/JSON support for $120/annually for 500 videos / 50k plays.
Note:
ODD Networks that KJ referenced in his link doesn’t work currently. The CEO mentioned they are reworking the free version, but I would not count on that anytime soon.
All of these things above come with a bit of a learning curve, and some kind of price, but will allow you to build a decent channel.
I would be glad to help you with any questions, and can even help with creating graphics if you need it.
FYI, Github is free for a public page, $7/mo for private repositories, so it may be your cheapest option. You can also serve a feed from a public website endpoint.
Donp88 mentioned that InstantTvChannel.com costs $49.95/month. There is also a free and a $4.95/month version, as well as a Developer SDK SceneGraph version.
Um, what do you need an rss feed? All you need to do is host the json files on a standard webserver..
Making the json files is somewhat complicated but for just 50 videos it shouldn’t take more then a day or two to get the format down and working.. the Direct Player does work well once you figure out the over complicated json files..
I’ve published here in the forums sample working json files where all you need to do is edit the urls titles and descriptions.
As for the graphics, I used an old version (version 7) of adobe photoshop, you can use any imaging software, make your picture at the highest resolution required or larger, then just simply change the canvas size and save as different name.. in adobe photoshop 7 (written for windows 95a) you simply create a giant picture, select image, then image size and type in the x/y values roku requires and then save the file under a different name..
I am the developer of the JSON Feed Manager Software that Donp88 mentions in this post. If you haven’t already, I’d suggest you take a look at the demo I’ve provided and the tutorial video I’ve created. The software does not require any knowledge of JSON syntax. It creates and manages syntactically correct JSON feed files for you. There’s no subscription fees, and, I provide free support and maintenance updates.
Baradanikto is there a script to batch import files. for instance, I have an asp script that will import a video from every subdirectory and read a “description.txt” file to add the video to my database, is there something similar to that in your json creation tool? or maybe you can read directly from a access or sql database to make the json file?
mitchstein: The first release of the software does not have an import feature. However, I just branched the source to start working on the next release of the software. I can certainly look into adding an import function.
“Baradanikto” wrote:
mitchstein: The first release of the software does not have an import feature. However, I just branched the source to start working on the next release of the software. I can certainly look into adding an import function.
I’m looking at the screenshot for the JSON Feed Manager.
[upload|IBqu06Ajw4W+roNoB2ieMg==]
Is there BIF and SRT support?
(going to download a demo now)
Downloaded the demo, and I see the fields for BIF and CC. Impressive! And yes, an import function would be phenomenal (perhaps reading an existing JSON feed).
The JSON feed Manager software does read and manage an existing feed file. You can create a new one, or, manage an existing one. The demo will read a JSON feed file, but, cannot save it.
ERROR: cannot deserialize the current JSON object (e.g.{“name”:“value”{) into type "RokuJsonFeedManager.TrickPlayFilesObject because the type requires a JSON array.
Let me know if we should take this to a different thread or forum.
Can you explain what you were trying to do? The demo is not fully functional and does not have the same maintenance fixes as the paid version. I should probably re-do the demo.
I’m trying to import a previously generated JSON file to make changes to it. It’s the one I’m currently using for my DP Roku channel, and it’s passed the feed status verification.
