Roku Developer Program

[darylkhuong]

I wish to create a subscribed-only video site similar to Netflix. Is there any quick start guide to set this up, like steps and tools that I will need to get it up running. I found the SDK guide are too insufficient to start with. Any good book on creating a media streaming to read?

Here are my specific concerns. I guess there will be the following steps (at minimum) to get it up running.

1. Prepare the media
What format, resolution, and bitrate are supported. What's the best tool to convert from DVD or ISO. I'm using Handbrake, is there any better tool for this job?

2. Prepare the server hosting
What is the recommend bandwidth, let say for 10-100 people. Which is the best hosting out there? I currently have a 1and1.com account.

3. Prepare the server to host the video
I am familiar with HTML and .NET programming, but I will need a template or an example to start with.

4. Configure Roku player to connect to the server
I have no idea how to configure Roku to play from a website. I have an idea about Roku channel, but not sure it can do what I need in this case (see question 5).

5. User authenication
How to authenticate user and make sure only one account is using the service at a time. I wonder if Roku channel can do this.

6. Compatibility
Do Roku and Western Digital XD Live Plus players (or watching on PC) have the same streaming format? What will I need to do to support both players? Do I need to write different interface for each device?

Thanks for any advice.

[YungBlood]

In short, there is no "quick start guide" to help people compete with netflix. It can be done, but it's not easy.

As far as your specific concerns:

1) The roku manuals cover which formats are supported. If you are taking video from DVD's, be careful of copyrights...

2) First, are we talking SD or HD? Remember, video takes up alot of bandwidth, especially HD. 1and1 is a good service, for serving video, you might want a real dedicated hosted server... starting around $100/mo.

3) This step is fairly easy if you are comfortable with database programming on the web. Are you familiar with asp or php? Use the appropriate one depending on your hosting service. Throw in the html & css and it should be easy.

4) There is a video player example... The video is just a file on the server, or a live stream... live streams are more advanced... but it sounds like you just want to play saved movies. So they are just ordinary files as far as the web server in concerned.

5) That's easy if you're familiar with website authentication. You can use roku registration, or just use the same user/pass as the website uses. Just have the website database keep track of the login status. Once logged in, I would have the web server hand the client a key, and then the client would use that key for each request. The key could be the timestamp of when the user logged in. If someone else tries to use the same login, it would kill the previous key... or reject the login... either way, it would be safe to assume only one person is using that account.

6) I know nothing about Western Digital players... If you can play video on roku, I'm sure you can get it to play on the pc. You may have to write multiple interfaces to play the video. But it shouldn't be a big deal.

It's not technically difficult if you're willing to sit down & learn... but it is a lot of work, and lots of pieces to put together.

-Kevin

[sibaroochi]

look into dacast.com . It's a media streaming host that you may want to use to just get started safely without putting in alot of investment in time and money. It not only lets you host your video, it provides user authentication and even incorporating ads into your video feed.

Joseph