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In our stake we are using Roku boxes to play Come Follow Me videos from a USB Flash drive connected to the Roku. While the Roku is capable of streaming video over the internet, playing media from the USB Flash drive is standalone without any requirement for a wireless connection. A YouTube video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsF6GlqWvno ) prompted a private message asking how we created the graphical icons for the videos and folders. This post will answer that question and I’m hoping that anyone else who has input can chime in on the topic here too.
The Roku 2 XS is the model that has a USB connector. You need to install the Roku USB Media Player to actually use the USB port. This “channel” is free and easy to install.
There is very little documentation on how to organize files and provide cover “artwork” for videos. We tried a bunch of things based on what similar media players use. Here is what we found. You can provide .JPG files for each folder and video to provide this artwork. We organized the videos in 4 top level folders: Young Men, Young Women, Sunday School, and Training. To create graphics for folders, you can either place a .JPG file with the same name alongside the folder, or place a file “folder.jpg” within the folder. We used the latter method. Below YM, YW & SS folder, there are folders for each month. If you name the folders January, February, … they will be sorted alphabetically rather than in chronological sequence. To resolve this we named them “a January”, “b February”. We created artwork for each of these months and saved it as a “folder.jpg” file within each months folder. The artwork is color coded to match the top level colors for the each program (YM, YW, Sunday School, Training), and has text with the month abbreviated (“Jan”, “Feb”…) and the program (IE Young Men) on the artwork. Below that level are the media files with an artwork file for each video. We renamed the media files from “2102-06-007-invite-us-to-testify-1000k-eng.mp4” to “invite-us-to-testify”. These filenames are displayed by the Roku USB Media Player below the artwork, so we wanted them to be easily recognized.
Attached are a two jpeg diagrams showing the folder hierarchy and some representative artwork. The black text below each image is what the Roku inserts from the folder/file name:
This is how we created the artwork – I’m sure those with professional graphics tools would find a better way, but it worked using tools I know. For the folders, we started with pictures from the website, or the pdf documents. These were placed into PowerPoint where we could add text as needed. For the small circular pictures we did some basic graphical editing (in Windows Paint) then placed them on a matching color background. After we had them all in PowerPoint, we used screen captures of PowerPoint at a consistent size to create each piece of folder artwork.
For the media files themselves, we extracted artwork for each video with a screen grab. The most time consuming part was viewing all the videos, deciding on a representative portion of the video for a screen grab, using Widows Snipping Tool to grab the screenshot at the right point and saving it with the name to match the video.
I won’t claim our artwork is professional or perfect, but it is very intuitive and easy to use. We created folders for every month, but only downloaded the first 3 months of videos using the zip files on the website. With 3 months of videos and artwork the total Flash contents is about 3.5 GB in 1080P resolution. We are using 16GB USB Flash drives, so the whole year easily fits.
If anyone wants the artwork, send me a PM. I’m happy to share any of this.
We also downloaded the Hymns (music only and vocals) Children’s Songbook (music and vocals) (580 MB total). We created folder icons for each group (Hymns – Music Only, Hymns – With Vocals, Childrens – Music Only, Childrens – with Vocals). The Roku USB Media Player displays songs by the tagged title when provided. The downloaded music is tagged. We wanted them organized by Hymn number / Songbook page number to make it easier to locate the desired song. We used a free program called Mp3tag to extract the tags and filenames, then imported csv files into Excel, and manipulated from:
Filename: “Hymns_331_OhSayWhatIsTruth_music_eng.mp3”
Original Title: “Oh Say, What Is Truth?”
New Title: “331) Oh Say, What Is Truth?”
In the Children’s Songbook we did similarly changing:
Filename: “CS_023b_HeavenlyFatherWhileIPray_music_eng.mp3”
Original Title: “Heavenly Father, While I Pray”
New Title: “23b) Heavenly Father, While I Pray”
We applied a sequential “#” tag also to maintain the order, and we re-imported the tags to the files. The way you place the files on the flash drive is significant, zip and unzip seems to work best to keep them with the first one at the top of the list in the USB media player. All 1162 mp3 files fit in fewer than 600 MB.
We also downloaded the Gospel Art pictures (210 MB in “print” resolution). I’m not sure how useful they are. If I wanted pictures for a lesson I would put them on my own flash drive and have them in the order I would use them. There are some problems with Roku also displaying “artwork” files for folders as photos, and I’m still working to get a better solution here.
The Roku 2 XS is the model that has a USB connector. You need to install the Roku USB Media Player to actually use the USB port. This “channel” is free and easy to install.
There is very little documentation on how to organize files and provide cover “artwork” for videos. We tried a bunch of things based on what similar media players use. Here is what we found. You can provide .JPG files for each folder and video to provide this artwork. We organized the videos in 4 top level folders: Young Men, Young Women, Sunday School, and Training. To create graphics for folders, you can either place a .JPG file with the same name alongside the folder, or place a file “folder.jpg” within the folder. We used the latter method. Below YM, YW & SS folder, there are folders for each month. If you name the folders January, February, … they will be sorted alphabetically rather than in chronological sequence. To resolve this we named them “a January”, “b February”. We created artwork for each of these months and saved it as a “folder.jpg” file within each months folder. The artwork is color coded to match the top level colors for the each program (YM, YW, Sunday School, Training), and has text with the month abbreviated (“Jan”, “Feb”…) and the program (IE Young Men) on the artwork. Below that level are the media files with an artwork file for each video. We renamed the media files from “2102-06-007-invite-us-to-testify-1000k-eng.mp4” to “invite-us-to-testify”. These filenames are displayed by the Roku USB Media Player below the artwork, so we wanted them to be easily recognized.
Attached are a two jpeg diagrams showing the folder hierarchy and some representative artwork. The black text below each image is what the Roku inserts from the folder/file name:
- Example of artwork for Roku USB Flash with Come Follow Me training videos
- training folder artwork example.JPG (46.98 KiB) Viewed 32660 times
For the media files themselves, we extracted artwork for each video with a screen grab. The most time consuming part was viewing all the videos, deciding on a representative portion of the video for a screen grab, using Widows Snipping Tool to grab the screenshot at the right point and saving it with the name to match the video.
I won’t claim our artwork is professional or perfect, but it is very intuitive and easy to use. We created folders for every month, but only downloaded the first 3 months of videos using the zip files on the website. With 3 months of videos and artwork the total Flash contents is about 3.5 GB in 1080P resolution. We are using 16GB USB Flash drives, so the whole year easily fits.
If anyone wants the artwork, send me a PM. I’m happy to share any of this.
We also downloaded the Hymns (music only and vocals) Children’s Songbook (music and vocals) (580 MB total). We created folder icons for each group (Hymns – Music Only, Hymns – With Vocals, Childrens – Music Only, Childrens – with Vocals). The Roku USB Media Player displays songs by the tagged title when provided. The downloaded music is tagged. We wanted them organized by Hymn number / Songbook page number to make it easier to locate the desired song. We used a free program called Mp3tag to extract the tags and filenames, then imported csv files into Excel, and manipulated from:
Filename: “Hymns_331_OhSayWhatIsTruth_music_eng.mp3”
Original Title: “Oh Say, What Is Truth?”
New Title: “331) Oh Say, What Is Truth?”
In the Children’s Songbook we did similarly changing:
Filename: “CS_023b_HeavenlyFatherWhileIPray_music_eng.mp3”
Original Title: “Heavenly Father, While I Pray”
New Title: “23b) Heavenly Father, While I Pray”
We applied a sequential “#” tag also to maintain the order, and we re-imported the tags to the files. The way you place the files on the flash drive is significant, zip and unzip seems to work best to keep them with the first one at the top of the list in the USB media player. All 1162 mp3 files fit in fewer than 600 MB.
We also downloaded the Gospel Art pictures (210 MB in “print” resolution). I’m not sure how useful they are. If I wanted pictures for a lesson I would put them on my own flash drive and have them in the order I would use them. There are some problems with Roku also displaying “artwork” files for folders as photos, and I’m still working to get a better solution here.
