Roku Direct Publisher

[fjdkalfdkfdk]

Roku Direct Publisher started supporting live content (through the "liveFeed" type) a few months ago, which is great.

However, it seems very counter-intuitive to me that the refresh rate of the (live) content on the homepage of a Direct Publisher app is ~6 hours. By then, a live video will have come and gone, and the user may never have had the chance to see it! At best, if the content is known well in advance, we can work with the "validity period" to hide content until it becomes relevant, but if an app works with user-generated content, there is no way of knowing this.

Even though questions around the topic of update periods have been asked previously, I have not found a definitive answer on the solution to this problem (if indeed there is one). Thank you!

[37mediagroup]

If it;s what I think you're referring to my suggestion & workaround is load the new file early (6+ hours) and just stream a 'Standby' graphic until closer to going live. Live bandwidth rates should be fairly minimal if that's a concern, since no viewers will watch long, and you can keep an eye on the live feed & rest assured your stream is ready to go.

[Baradanikto]

The 6+ hours is typically the time it takes for Roku to ingest the feed url if the url path has not changed.  I believe it does this due to caching.  You should be able to rename the feed file and force Roku to ingest it right away because it will not have a feed url in its cache with the new name.

[fjdkalfdkfdk]

@37mediagroup  Unfortunately, I do not see this as a viable option for user-generated content. Take, for example, a service like Youtube, where users can start a live stream at any time. There is no way to predict which placeholders to put in the feed file because it's up to the user. Thanks for the suggestion though, would love to hear other ideas if you have any.

[fjdkalfdkfdk]

@Baradaniktocould you elaborate on this? It's an interesting suggestion. However, I think what you're suggesting is a manual process, right? Because if we rely on user-generated content (like Youtube), a live stream could be started at any moment (and without advance notice). So then the feed url will need to be changed automatically (e.g. on a cronjob) every 2 minutes or so, but I doubt this would be appreciated by the Roku platform.

[Baradanikto]

It is a manual process and is used by developers when creating and testing a channel.  The idea is that under normal circumstances, it may take upwards of 6+ hours for Roku to ingest a feed url if the name has not changed.  It uses the feed url that has been cached to improve performance.  If you rename the feed url, it forces Roku to ingest the feed file immediately because it has not been cached.

If you're planning to use YouTube, I don't think that will work due to YouTube's TOS and the fact that Roku and YouTube due not "play well together".

Your best bet is to follow the advice of @37mediagroup since it is the Roku recommended way to set up a live feed.  There are other posts on this forum referring to that recommendation.

[fjdkalfdkfdk]

@BaradaniktoTo be clear, I mention Youtube only as an example of a platform with user-generated content; our company has its own streaming platform with user-generated content. Regardless, thank you for your answer, it confirms my fear that Direct Publisher offers no way of having a truly dynamically populated home screen.