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1 Roku Set-Top Boxes

2 2011 ViewCast Corporation. All rights reserved. ViewCast, GoStream, ViewCast logo, SimulStream, Niagara, SchedulStream, Niagara logo, Osprey, and Niagara SCX are trademarks or registered trademarks of ViewCast Corporation or its subsidiaries. Microsoft, Windows XP, Windows, and Windows Media are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. QuickTime, iphone, and ipod, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Adobe and Flash are trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Inc. Disclaimer The information in this publication remains the property of ViewCast Corporation. Users may not use, reproduce, or disclose this information without the implied consent and written approval of the company. ViewCast Corporation makes no representations or warranties with respect to the contents or use of this manual and specifically disclaims any express or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. Further, ViewCast Corporation reserves the right to revise this publication to make enhancements in the products described in this manual, at any time, without obligation to notify any person or entity of such revisions or changes. In no event will ViewCast Corporation be liable for direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use the product or documentation, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. ViewCast Corporation is not responsible for any third-party license fees that may occur with the use of our products by an end user including but not limited to creating or distributing content. The user is responsible for any fees the Multimedia Patent Trust may apply for creating and distributing MPEG content. Warranties For complete warranty details, refer to the specific warranty included with each product. General warranty information includes the following: Limited Warranty: ViewCast warrants its hardware products against defects in material and workmanship under normal use for the period of one year (12 months) from date of sale. Where specific warranties exist that provide more substantial coverage, notwithstanding the warranty provisions herein, such product warranties control and preempt or supersede the warranty provisions herein. Reseller Pass Through of Standard Limited Warranties: Resellers pass the ViewCast standard limited warranties for the products through to the customer without modification. Any modification of a product voids the ViewCast warranties or any other existing or available warranty. Corporate Contact Information ViewCast collaborates and partners with various clients to integrate products into their individual environments. Niagara Technical Support: Phone: , Fax: or submit the technical support online request from the ViewCast website. ViewCast USA Support: Monday through Friday: 9 a.m. 5 p.m. Central Time. Typical response time is within one business day for customers without a Priority Support Agreement. ViewCast Corporation 3701 West Plano Parkway, Suite 300, Plano, TX USA Toll Free (U.S. only): website:

3 Streaming Guide Contents Stream with Ustream and Roku... 1 Ustream overview... 1 Setting up a Ustream account... 1 Setting up the Niagara streaming system... 5 Setting up your Roku STB Testing your channel Stream Roksbox and Roku Roksbox overview Setting up a Roksbox channel Configuring your web server Setting up an XML file Setting up the Roksbox channel on your Roku player Setting up the Niagara system Testing your channel ViewCast iii

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5 Streaming Guide Stream with Ustream and Roku Ustream overview One way to stream to a set-top box (STB) is to stream over the Internet. For example, you can use Ustream s service combined with a Roku STB. This method is also referred to as an Over The Top (OTT) service because the video service is delivered over the top of a broadband service. You can setup your Niagara encoding profile to send a live stream to the Ustream channel. Figure 1. Streaming over the Internet to a STB Setting up a Ustream account Setting up the Ustream only involves a few steps. 1. Create an account with Ustream at ustream.com if you don t already have one. Ustream has a free service (with ads) which is fine for testing. 2. Login to your Ustream account. ViewCast 1

6 Stream OTT with USTREAM and Roku 3. Click on your account name at the top of the window. Click on Go to Dashboard from the dropdown list. 4. A Jump to Your Channel box is on the left pane. Select create another channel. You will be prompted to enter information about your channel. 5. Enter the channel name and click Create. ViewCast 2

7 Streaming Guide When complete, a list of channels display and when you select a channel, selections are available under your channel. ViewCast 3

8 Stream OTT with USTREAM and Roku 6. Your channel options display below the channel name. To find the stream address and stream name, click on Remote at the bottom of you channel options. The Remote section contains the RTMP URL that you need for the encoding profile and the stream key (which is the stream name in Niagara SCX). Alternately, you can click Download the Flash Media Encoder XML file and extract the URL and stream key information. In this case, the last six letters offair in the stream key are not part of the name you enter in the encoding profile. ViewCast 4

9 Streaming Guide Setting up the Niagara streaming system Once you have obtained the streaming information from your Ustream account, you can setup your Niagara encoding profile to send a live stream to the Ustream channel. Logging in to the Niagara streaming system: 1. Log in by entering the IP address of the Niagara system in the address bar of Internet Explorer. 2. Enter the user name and password (defaults are admin / admin). 3. Click on Encoders All Encoders. ViewCast 5

10 Stream OTT with USTREAM and Roku The Encoder Properties window displays a list of encoders. Some encoders are provided by default. You can rename, edit, or delete these encoders. 4. To add a new Flash Encoder, click Create New Encoder. 5. On the next window, select Flash Encoder Driver from the Encoder Type drop-down menu. Name the encoder and then click Create New Encoder. You can also clone the properties from another encoder profile if you are planning on making only small changes. ViewCast 6

11 Streaming Guide 6. On the next window, you can set the details of your encoding profile. The four tabs are labeled Video, Audio, Output, and H.264 Presets. 7. Video tab: Click Video to select your source inputs, signal type, and resolution. For resolutions not included in the drop-down list, choose Custom and simply type in your desired resolution. ViewCast 7

12 Stream OTT with USTREAM and Roku 8. Next, set the Video Encode Settings. These include your frame rate and bit rate. You cannot change the Video Encoder. You need to use the same video resolution that you specified during the Ustream channel setup. 9. You can adjust the Video Filter Settings and choose your De-Interlace method. Most standard video sources would require the Advanced (MotionAdaptive) setting. 10. Audio tab: Select your input source. 11. Choose your Audio Output Settings including audio format, bit rate, and encoder type. ViewCast 8

13 Streaming Guide 12. Output tab: Next, set your Server Settings. Select Enable Streaming to send to your Ustream channel. If you want to save a copy of the file for archiving or On Demand playback, select Save to file and designate a location and file name. Keep the folder as D:\AV Files. This step ensures the file is not overwritten if you ever perform a Factory Restore. Select Create Unique File if you do not want to overwrite the file each time you start and stop an encoder. 13. Enter the server information obtained during the Ustream channel setup. This information is the Server Address and the Stream Name(or stream key). Click Server Without Password in the Server Type drop-down menu. 14. H.264 Preset Tab: On this tab you can adjust specific H.264 codec settings. There is a Restore Defaults option at the bottom right of this page if you need it. ViewCast 9

14 Stream OTT with USTREAM and Roku 15. The system includes a few Custom Profiles. A best practice is to only adjust the User profiles. 16. When you are done with your selections, click on the Save Settings button. 17. An Operation Successful message displays. Click OK. 18. You will be brought back to the Encoders page. To start encoding, click on the Red button next to the profile you wish to start. You will see the encoder start and then receive an Operation Successful message. 19. On the Encoders page, the button will now be blue to indicate it is encoding. ViewCast 10

15 Streaming Guide 20. On your Ustream page, click Go Live! ViewCast 11

16 Stream OTT with USTREAM and Roku Setting up your Roku STB There are several models of Roku set-top boxes so the images and setup may vary. Because Ustream is not typically a default channel, you will need to add it to your Roku channels. 1. If you just purchased the Roku, configure it through the user interface on your TV. 2. Go to the Roku Channel store at and sign in or set up an account. 3. Add the Ustream channel to your Roku. a. Open a web browser and go to b. Go to My Account, and then scroll down to Add a Private Channel. c. Enter IN4DN and then click Add Channel. This step will add the Roksbox channel to your Roku. ViewCast 12

17 Streaming Guide d. Now you will have to go to the Channel Store on your Roku and click on the Ustream channel to add it to your player. Ustream will now be an available channel selection on Roku. ViewCast 13

18 Stream OTT with USTREAM and Roku Testing your channel To see the channel, you will need to find your channel on the Roku. 1. Search for your Ustream channel. The popular channels are listed so you will need to search for your channel name. Click Search. 2. Using the soft keyboard on the TV, enter the channel name and search. 3. Search results will be displayed and you can select you channel by pressing the OK button oin the Roku remote. Your channel should now be streaming to your set-top box. ViewCast 14

19 Streaming Guide Stream Roksbox and Roku Roksbox overview You can stream live video with Roksbox using HTTP Live Streaming (also known as HLS). HLS consists of segmented TS files which are played consecutively from a M3U8 playlist file. If you are creating your own live stream, your live streaming environment must be able to create these segmented TS files, and the continuously updated M3U8 file. There are several Niagara streaming systems with HTTP Live Streaming (HLS): Niagara 9100, Niagara7550/7500, Niagara 4100 and Niagara Pro II. A Roksbox tutorial may be found at: The Roksbox tutorial referencing live video may be found at: At the time of this tutorial, there are several Roku HD Streaming Boxes, they are: Roku LT: up to 720P WiFi only Roku 2 HD: up to 720P WiFi only Roku 2 XD: up to 1080P WiFi only Roku 2 XS: up to 1080P WiFi & Ethernet Setting up a Roksbox channel Adding the Roksbox Channel to your Roku player: 1. Open a web browser and go to 2. Go to My Account, and then scroll down to Add a Private Channel. 3. Enter P1KWQ and then click Add Channel. This step will add the Roksbox channel to your Roku. 4. Go to the Channel Store on your Roku and click on the Roksbox channel to add it to your player. ViewCast 15

20 Stream OTT with USTREAM and Roku Configuring your web server 1. Windows IIS 7 or 7.5 a. b. Server 2008: or-windows-server-2008-r2/ c. You can also use another web server like Apache, Mongoose, etc 2. Organize your files to have a Media folder directly under your web server root. Name this folder Media. (Example - C:\inetpub\Media). Under the media folder there should be a video folder, a music folder, and a photo folder, which we will call Videos, Music, and Photos, respectively. For this tutorial, we will only be utilizing the Videos folder. See the Roksbox Tutorial for instructions on how to add music and photos. The examples this guide use IIS7. You can see the directory structure that is setup with Media from the root. ViewCast 16

21 Streaming Guide 3. Enable FTP When setting up the HTTP server, enable the FTP capability. In this example, a directory HLS has been created under FTP and a virtual directory HLS is created under the website. ViewCast 17

22 Stream OTT with USTREAM and Roku 4. Verify that Directory Browsing is enabled. When using IIS, the Directory Browsing for the Media and sub-directories should be enabled. Go to the IIS Manager, highlight the Media folder, and then double-click the Directory Browsing icon. You can enable/disable the feature in the right pane. ViewCast 18

23 Streaming Guide Setting up an XML file You can stream live video with Roksbox using HTTP Live Streaming (HLS). HLS consists of segmented TS files which are played consecutively from a M3U8 playlist file. You can use a Niagara streaming system to create the HLS content. Use an XML file to display your video information from your web site and to connect to the Niagara HTTP Live Stream. (videos.xml) To use an XML file, you need to include a reference to a M3U8 file within the <path></path> labels in the XML file. Post any thumbnail poster photos in the same directory. For example, to play a live stream, you could include a section in your XML file as follows: <xml> <movie> <title>niagara HLS</title> <year>2012</year> <Content Owner>ViewCast Corporation</Content Owner> <genre>live</genre> <mpaa>nr</mpaa> <description>this is an HTTP Live Stream form a Niagara Streaming System.</description> <path> <poster>viewcast.jpg</poster> </movie> </xml> For more information: ViewCast 19

24 Stream OTT with USTREAM and Roku Setting up the Roksbox channel on your Roku player You may to use the wizard or step through the following settings. The wizard does a test at each step. 1. On your Roku, scroll to the Roksbox channel icon. Click OK. 2. Scroll to the right and click Options. 3. Click My Options. 4. Click Media Settings. 5. Click Web Server. 6. Select Change Web Server Address and enter the IP address of your web server. ( 7. Select Change Media Root Folder. Make sure it matches the folder name on your web server (Media). 8. Select Change Media Information. 9. Select Change Video Information. 10. Select Change Video Folder Path. Name the location the same as it is on your web server (Videos). 11. Select Change Video XML Name. Type in the xml file name (videos.xml). Click Apply. 12. For more information on setting up Roksbox accounts and settings go to: Roksbox will stream VOD files from your web server. For instructions on this, please go to ViewCast 20

25 Streaming Guide Setting up the Niagara system After you set up your Roksbox channel, you need to set up your HLS encoder on the Niagara system. Logging in to the Niagara streaming system: 1. Log in by entering the IP address of the Niagara system in the address bar of Internet Explorer. 2. Enter the user name and password (defaults are admin / admin). 3. Click on Encoders All Encoders. ViewCast 21

26 Stream OTT with USTREAM and Roku The Encoder Properties window displays a list of encoders. Some encoders are provided by default. You can rename, edit, or delete these encoders. 4. To add a new Apple HTTP Encoder, click Create New Encoder. 5. On the next window, select Flash Encoder Driver from the Encoder Type drop-down menu. Name the encoder and then click Create New Encoder. You can also clone the properties from another encoder profile if you are planning on making only small changes. ViewCast 22

27 Streaming Guide 6. On the next window, you can set the details of your encoding profile. The tabs are labeled Video, Audio, and Output. 7. Video tab: Use the default settings on the Video tab. 8. Audio tab: Use the default settings on the Audio tab. 9. Output tab: Next, set your Server Settings. Select Stream to Network Host. Select ftp:// as the prefix to the Host Address. Enter the HTTP server address. For example, our address is /HLS. 10. Choose the subfolder name myevent. 11. Clear the Stream to File System check box. ViewCast 23

28 Stream OTT with USTREAM and Roku 12.. Select Ftp as the Authentication Type and your Username and Password. 13. When you are done with your selections, click on the Save Settings button. 14. An Operation Successful message displays. Click OK. 15. You will be brought back to the Encoders page. To start encoding, click on the Red button next to the profile you wish to start. You will see the encoder start and then receive an Operation Successful message. 16. On the Encoders page, the button will now be blue to indicate it is encoding. ViewCast 24

29 Streaming Guide Testing your channel 1. Make sure your web server is running and ready to serve video. 2. Start the HLS Adaptive stream on your Niagara streaming system and direct the stream to your web server. 3. On your Roku, open the Roksbox channel, and select My Videos. Your video should be listed in the menu. Navigate to your video and click OK. Click Play. ViewCast 25

30 viewcast.com 2012 ViewCast Corporatioon. ViewCast, Niagara (and design) are registered trademarks of ViewCast Corporation or its subsidiaries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Product specifications and availability may change without notice. MD_A12vA