Roku Developer Program

[powerfinger]

Hello,

I have built a couple of simple Roku channels using the videoplayer sample application as a template. What I am trying to do next is build a channel that uses the RSS XML coming out of a Wordpress blog as the basis for the xml on the channel. So, the Wordpress blog would work as a CMS for the Roku channel. Each Wordpress post would contain a video file that would be the Roku content. The title of the post would be the title of the video and the Wordpress category the category of the video in the Roku channel.

However, when I compare the xml in the videoplayer to the xml coming out of the wordpress blog, they are quite different. I'm trying to first understand what my general approach should be. Should I take the xml out of the Wordpress rss feed and generate a new xml file that looks like the example in the videoplayer sample? Or is there a set of objects I should should create in the brightsign code by parsing the Wordpress rss xml and extracting the same elements - under different tag names?

I found the greenhughes example for mixter, which was helpful, but the example wasn't complete so I am trying to fill in the blanks. Any comments or pointers appreciated. Thanks

[RokuJoel]

Try this:

https://roku.box.com/s/d834c57fcc831b498423

Should be compatible with most, if not all wordpress blogs.

- Joel

[powerfinger]

Thanks - I will check it out.

[powerfinger]

This mrss program works really well. I just created a Wordpress blog, embedded video into it and pointed one of the outline mrssURL settings to the feed. It tracks the Wordpress category as well and uses the blog entry as the description for the video in the Roku channel. I embed the video with something like this:

<a href="http://bandofmusicians.com/1500_1501.mov">FC Flag</a>

Perfect.

The only thing I can't quite get the hang of is how to pass a tag that will populate some of the other Roku fields, like the title poster for example. After reading the documentation and studying the sample, I tried a few entries in the wordpress blog body:

</media:thumbnail url="http://bandofmusicians.com/FlyingColorsRoku/hd_fc_flag.jpg"/>

<itunes:image href="http://bandofmusicians.com/FlyingColorsRoku/hd_fc_flag.jpg" />

I also tried posting the image from the wordpress Add Media function, which generated this entries:

<p><a href="http://bandofmusicians.com/FlyingColorsRoku/hd_fc_flag.jpg"><img src="http://bandofmusicians.com/FlyingColorsRoku/hd_fc_flag.jpg" width="290" height="218" class="alignnone" /></a></p>

None produce the desired result, which is to populate the poster image on the Roku for the associated item. When I look at the xml rendered from the posting, it looks like this:

<item>
<title>The Comments Keep on Coming</title>
<link>http://bandofmusicians.com/kingcomment/2013/02/19/the-comments-keep-on-coming/</link>
<comments>http://bandofmusicians.com/kingcomment/2013/02/19/the-comments-keep-on-coming/#comments</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:09:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

<guid isPermaLink="false">http://bandofmusicians.com/kingcomment/?p=25</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Now here are even more insightful comments. With video, an image, a thumbnail, itunes image and no weird characters. FC Flag]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><br /><img src="http://bandofmusicians.com/kingcomment/?p=25" width="200" height="140" alt="media" /><br />
</p>
<p>Now here are even more insightful comments. With video, an image, a thumbnail, itunes image and no weird characters.</p>
<p><itunes:image href="http://bandofmusicians.com/FlyingColorsRoku/hd_fc_flag.jpg" /><br />
</media:thumbnail url="http://bandofmusicians.com/FlyingColorsRoku/hd_fc_flag.jpg"/><br />
<a href="http://bandofmusicians.com/1500_1501.mov">FC Flag</a></p>
<p><a href="http://bandofmusicians.com/FlyingColorsRoku/hd_fc_flag.jpg"><img src="http://bandofmusicians.com/FlyingColorsRoku/hd_fc_flag.jpg" width="290" height="218" class="alignnone" /></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>http://bandofmusicians.com/kingcomment/2013/02/19/the-comments-keep-on-coming/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
<enclosure url="http://bandofmusicians.com/1500_1501.mov" length="38225758" type="video/quicktime" />
</item>

What do I need to do to get the title poster image on the Roku to populate correctly? Any assistance appreciated. Thanks

[RokuChris]

I don't know much about WordPress RSS, but putting tags in a post's body isn't going to work. They need to be part of the actual RSS structure. Here's the MRSS spec for reference: http://video.search.yahoo.com/mrss

I should also point out that the RSS you shared is a podcast, not MRSS. The MRSS template channel has some basic podcast support built in, but will work better if you feed it real MRSS.

[powerfinger]

I tend to agree - I certainly can't find any embedded code that works in the body of the text.

However, embedding the code for specifying the video file does seem to work:

<p><a href="http://bandofmusicians.com/1500_1501.mov">FC Flag</a></p>

but then again, maybe not, as in the item I find this as well:

<enclosure url="http://bandofmusicians.com/1500_1501.mov" length="38225758" type="video/quicktime" />

So, I guess it's really the enclosure url that is resolving on the Roku, not the href.

I've started to poke around with Wordpress custom fields as well, but so far no luck.

[RokuChris]

"powerfinger" wrote:
So, I guess it's really the enclosure url that is resolving on the Roku, not the href.

Correct. The enclosure tag is what turns RSS into a podcast.

[powerfinger]

Thanks for the comments - I'm getting the hang of this thing, sort of.

I've taken another shot at it, using the Mediarss plugin for wordpress.

Now, the content in my wordpress blog is processed into mrss by the plugin. When I put the following in my blog post:

<media:content
url="http://bandofmusicians.com/1500_1501.mov"
fileSize="12216320"
type="video/quicktime"
medium="video"
isDefault="true"
expression="full"
bitrate="128"
framerate="25"
samplingrate="44.1"
channels="2"
duration="185"
height="200"
width="300"
lang="en" />


<media:title>The title from mrss</media:title>
<media:description>The media description from mrss</media:description>
<media:thumbnail url="http://i.smartplanet.com/gallery/6260697-600-600.jpg"></media:thumbnail>

I get the following feed generated:

<item>
<title>mrss only &#8211; comments welcome</title>
<link>http://bandofmusicians.com/kingcomment/2013/02/24/mrss-only-comments-welcome/</link>
<comments>http://bandofmusicians.com/kingcomment/2013/02/24/mrss-only-comments-welcome/#comments</comments>
<pubDate>Sun, 24 Feb 2013 03:06:44 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

<guid isPermaLink="false">http://bandofmusicians.com/kingcomment/?p=76</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The title from mrss The media description from mrss]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><media:content<br />
url="http://bandofmusicians.com/1500_1501.mov"<br />
fileSize="12216320"<br />
type="video/quicktime"<br />
medium="video"<br />
isDefault="true"<br />
expression="full"<br />
bitrate="128"<br />
framerate="25"<br />
samplingrate="44.1"<br />
channels="2"<br />
duration="185"<br />
height="200"<br />
width="300"<br />
lang="en" /></p>
<p><media:title>The title from mrss</media:title><br />
<media:description>The media description from mrss</media:description><br />
<media:thumbnail url="http://i.smartplanet.com/gallery/6260697-600-600.jpg"></media:thumbnail></p>
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>http://bandofmusicians.com/kingcomment/2013/02/24/mrss-only-comments-welcome/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
<enclosure url="http://bandofmusicians.com/1500_1501.mov" length="38225758" type="video/quicktime" />

</item>
I still get the enclosure, but I don't know how to get rid of that. I'm not embedding any content in this posting. The whole post is just the mrss tags.

On the Roku box, I get the title, description displayed and the video content to play. But the thumbnail continues to not display. Instead I get "retrieving image". I am using the same image as from the mrss.zip file.

I have tried a variety of ways to code the media:thumbnail line, including:

<media:thumbnail url="http://i.smartplanet.com/gallery/6260697-600-600.jpg" /> - matched what is in the smartplanet example, but doesn't want to work
<media:thumbnail> url="http://i.smartplanet.com/gallery/6260697-600-600.jpg"</media:thumbnail> - left the url as text in the feed and some weird characters in the xml line.

I don't get any clues from the telnet session unfortunately.
Any assistance appreciated.

[powerfinger]

It was a bit of a job getting rid of the enclosure entry.

Turns out Wordpress adds it automatically without any control from the user. Odd.

Went through a couple of plug-ins to find one that would actually take it out and not break Wordpress.
This one worked for me:

http://www.15framespersecond.com/enclosureflex/

Now however, I get nothing on the Roku. Here is a sample of my feed:

<item>
<title>mrss- no enclosure</title>
<link>http://bandofmusicians.com/kingcomment/2013/02/24/mrss-no-enclosure/</link>
<comments>http://bandofmusicians.com/kingcomment/2013/02/24/mrss-no-enclosure/#comments</comments>
<pubDate>Sun, 24 Feb 2013 05:48:24 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

<guid isPermaLink="false">http://bandofmusicians.com/kingcomment/?p=124</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The title from mrssThe only media description from mrss]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><media:content<br />
url="http://bandofmusicians.com/1500_1501.mov"<br />
fileSize="12216320"<br />
type="video/quicktime"<br />
medium="video"<br />
isDefault="true"<br />
expression="full"<br />
bitrate="128"<br />
framerate="25"<br />
samplingrate="44.1"<br />
channels="2"<br />
duration="185"<br />
height="200"<br />
width="300"<br />
lang="en" /><media:title>The title from mrss</media:title><media:description>The only media description from mrss</media:description><media:thumbnail url="http://i.smartplanet.com/gallery/6260697-600-600.jpg" /><br />
<itunes:image href="http://i.smartplanet.com/gallery/6260697-600-600.jpg" /></p>
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>http://bandofmusicians.com/kingcomment/2013/02/24/mrss-no-enclosure/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
</item>

I added the itunes:image tag when I realized I was getting enclosures (ie podcasts) every time, to see if that would produce the image. It did not.

Any assistance appreciated.

[powerfinger]

fyi - if working through this thread using the mrss program provided - only the blip tv entry passed the nowhere man analysis of the mrss structure. The apple and smartplanet xml did not pass. My guess is they are podcasts, not mrss feeds to the program.

It appears that if you are looking for an mrss sample to emulate, the blip tv one is the best choice.

http://www.thenowhereman.com/roku/isItNowhere.php

http://gardenforktv.blip.tv/rss/itunes
Is this a vaild URL?
Yes
Does it produce a valid response?
response code: 301
The response code is not 200, indicating a possible error condition
content-type: text/xml;
content-length: 610489
Yes
Is the response valid XML?
Yes
Is this an RSS feed?
Yes
Does the RSS contain any items?
Yes
Is this a podcast?
Yes
Does this podcast contain Roku compatible content?
This podcast contains content in the following formats...
video/x-m4v
Yes. At least some of the content in this podcast should play on Roku
Is this an MRSS feed?
Yes
Does this MRSS feed contain Roku compatible content?
Yes. At least some of the content in this MRSS feed should play on Roku
This MRSS feed contains content in the following formats
video/quicktime video/mp4 video/x-m4v text/plain video/x-flv

So, will this URL work with Nowhere TV?
Probably. This URL points to a valid feed that contains content that will likely work with Nowhere TV

http://feeds.feedburner.com/SmartPlanetVideo
Is this a vaild URL?
Yes
Does it produce a valid response?
response code: 200
content-type: nosniff
The content-type is not text/xml, but the file may still be XML
Yes
Is the response valid XML?
Yes
Is this an RSS feed?
Yes
Does the RSS contain any items?
Yes
Is this a podcast?
Yes
Does this podcast contain Roku compatible content?
This podcast contains content in the following formats...
video/m4v
No. The content in this podcast will probably not play on Roku
Is this an MRSS feed?
Yes
Does this MRSS feed contain Roku compatible content?
No. The content in this MRSS feed will probably not play on Roku
This MRSS feed contains content in the following formats
video/m4v

So, will this URL work with Nowhere TV?
No. This URL does not point to a valid feed that contains Roku compatible audio or video

Note - the video does play