Bootstrap Broadcast: A Hands-on Guide to Delivering On Demand Media with Roku Channels

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2 Bootstrap Broadcast: A Hands-on Guide to Delivering On Demand Media with Roku Channels First Edition Copyright 2014 by Lacy McDowell This work is not written by or endorsed by Roku, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or translation of any part of this work by any means without permission of the author is unlawful. Purchase of this product does not grant you resell rights. ISBN-10: ISBN-13: Disclaimer and Terms of Use Agreement Roku is a trademark of Roku, Inc.. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The author and publisher of this book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. Any Roku screenshots are meant for educational purposes only. This ebook is an unofficial guide for creating channels on Roku Streaming Media Players and is not meant to replace any online or printed documentation that came with the device. The author and publisher of this work and any accompanying materials have used their best efforts in preparing it. The information contained in this guide is strictly for educational purposes. The author bears no responsibility for any issues that may arise from improper use of the Roku player. The owner of the device is responsible for taking all necessary precautions and measures with their device. Therefore if you wish to apply ideas contained in this work, you accept full responsibility for your actions. The author and publisher disclaim any warranties (express or implied), merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. The author and publisher shall in no event be held liable to any part of any direct, indirect, punitive, special, incidental or other consequential damages arising directly or indirectly from any use of this material, which is provided "as is" and without warranties. The author and publisher do not warrant the performance, effectiveness or applicability of any sites or services listed or linked to from this work and the accompanying materials. All links are for information purposes only and are not warranted for content, accuracy or other implied or explicit purpose.

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5 Bootstrap Broadcast: A Hands-on Guide to Delivering On Demand Media with Roku Channels Chapter 3 Your Content Matters Media you watch on your Roku device is the lifeline of the entire Roku ecosystem. Without it, you just have a really fancy box collecting dust in your living room. When it comes to getting content in your channel, you have two choices create the content, or find some to use. What do I mean by content? Content consists of all the images, video and audio assets that you display on your TV from your Roku device. Once you have created content, it must meet Roku standards. Author s Note: If you are searching for sample content to use, please make sure you have permission to rebroadcast it. Keep it legal! This rule also applies when you begin to create full private and public channels with multiple content elements. If you are having trouble finding video to use for testing purposes, I have provided a few video clips for this chapter at All the instructions are on the website. The diagram in Figure 3-1 gives a quick overview of the encode and playback process. Figure 3-1. Encode playback path.

6 Bootstrap Broadcast: A Hands-on Guide to Delivering On Demand Media with Roku Channels Video Encoding Video encoding transforms your assets into the formats that Roku has specified in its SDK documentation. Encoding also gives you control of your assets with compression so they can be stored, transferred and streamed effectively. Encoding Software (Desktop and Cloud) Encoding software is often the easiest and less expensive option for encoding media. The upside to software encoding is it s easy to install, and you can encode and write code on the same development workstation. The downside is you can tie up your computer resources when you encode video using lots of compression such as H.264. A wide range of products exist for most desktop operating systems. See Figure 3-2 for an example of a popular desktop program I often use. If you don t want to go the desktop route, there are plenty of benefits to using cloud services such as Encoding.com or Zencoder. It s less taxing on your system and in most cases, there is nothing to install. All the work is done in a Web browser or by a command line interface. You get to use a cluster of servers for your task, and the cost is minimal compared to traditional desktop software. Some of the most popular, effective and affordable products are from companies like Telestream, Sorenson Media, Adobe, Apple, VideoLan, Miro, HandBrake, Brightcove, and Amazon Web Services. These companies have products and services I am most familiar with and have given me great results. However, there are many other products that will satisfy your needs.

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