Roku Direct Publisher

[belltown]

One suggestion would be to replace your video url with a known DP-friendly video url, such as one of the videos from their tutorial, e.g:

http://roku.cpl.delvenetworks.com/media/59021fabe3b645968e382ac726cd6c7b/decbe34b64ea4ca281dc09997d0...

You can do the same with the thumbnails, too, just to verify that your hosting of the videos and thumbnails is not causing a problem.

[mikeIFA]

@belltown: good suggestion I tried it and there is still an issue. I am now thinking that there may be a problem with using a "series" > "season" > "episode" format. I will be trying the shortFormVideo feed type instead. 
For Reference, this was the feed I was trying:

{
   "providerName":"Index Fund Advisors, Inc.",
   "lastUpdated":"2017-06-07T20:19:41.525Z",
   "language":"en-US",
   "series":[
      {
         "id":"1",
         "title":"IFA.tv",
         "seasons":[
            {
               "seasonNumber":2017,
               "episodes":[
                  {
                     "id":"594",
                     "title":"IFA.tv - Dimensional vs Vanguard - Show 240",
                     "content":{
                        "dateAdded":"2017-05-31T15:30:16.000Z",
                        "videos":[
                           {
                              "url":"http://roku.cpl.delvenetworks.com/media/59021fabe3b645968e382ac726cd6c7b/decbe34b64ea4ca281dc09997d0f23fd/aac0cfc54ae74fdfbb3ba9a2ef4c7080/117_segment_2_twitch__nw_060515.mp4",
                              "quality":"HD",
                              "videoType":"MP4",
                              "bitrate":5000
                           }
                        ],
                        "duration":326,
                        "captions":[

                        ]
                     },
                     "thumbnail":"http://cloudfront.horsenetwork.com/sites/4/2016/08/flickr.com_Sera-Photography_FEATURED-SIZE-800x450.jpg",
                     "episodeNumber":1,
                     "releaseDate":"2017-05-31",
                     "shortDescription":"Dimensional vs Vanguard",
                     "longDescription":"Why do our 100 IFA Index Portfolios utilize strategies from Dimensional Fund Advisors versus better-known passive fund companies such as Vanguard? ",
                     "credits":[
                        {
                           "name":"Mark T. Hebner",
                           "role":"host",
                           "birthDate":"1952-08-16"
                        }
                     ]
                  }
               ]
            }
         ],
         "genres":[
            "educational"
         ],
         "thumbnail":"http://cloudfront.horsenetwork.com/sites/4/2016/08/flickr.com_Sera-Photography_FEATURED-SIZE-800x450.jpg",
         "releaseDate":"2009-01-01",
         "shortDescription":"A Collection of investment videos about Index Fund Investing.",
         "tags":"Finance, Education, Investing, Index Funds, IFA"
      }
   ],
   "playlists":[
      {
         "name":"featured content",
         "itemIds":[
            "594"
         ]
      },
      {
         "name":"interviews",
         "itemIds":[
            "594"
         ]
      },
      {
         "name":"market reviews",
         "itemIds":[
            "594"
         ]
      }
   ]
}

[mediadisconnect]

mikeIFA,

It wouldn't surprise me there is a problem with the series>season>episode format.  While I know others have, no matter what I try I can't get it to work.

[mikeIFA]

I converted my feed to a shortFormVideo feed (no longer using series > seasons > episodes), but my channel still doesn't load the thumbnails or videos (black/blank screen).

Me = Frustrated
So, I created a completely new channel and used the same shortFormVideo feed and everything is working now... What!! ???

So the same feed that is used in the new channel works, but my originally converted channel (SDK -> Direct Publisher) still doesn't load the thumbnails or videos (black/blank screen).
Something is seriously wrong with the conversion of my original channel to the Direct Publisher. The analytics, or settings, or geographical region restrictions or something must have gotten messed up and are causing the issue.

@mediadisconnect: I also tried to get my series feed working with my newly created channel, but that didn't work. So my suggestion would be to try the shortFormVideo content type instead.

[mikeIFA]

I cycled through all of the channel specific property pages of my original channel and saved each page. My original channel now works with the shortFormVideo content type feed. I plan on updating my feed to create categories for each season as a workaround to the series > seasons > episodes feed not working.

[mikeIFA]

Reviewing my original feed I noticed that my series > tags are not part of an array

"tags":"Finance, Education, Investing, Index Funds, IFA"

Should have been:

"tags":["Market Reviews","Interviews","Featured","Index Funds"]

[mediadisconnect]

Did the change in tags result in the series > season > episode setup work?