Mormon Channel for the Roku Channel Store

For those of you that don't know, the Roku Player is a small black box that streams internet content through your home wifi network or hard wired into your router. Up until recently you could only stream Netflix, Amazon On Demand, or MLB content. But in the last few weeks Roku released the Roku Channel Store. With the release of the Channel Store there are now many channels that range from technology podcasts to internet radio through Pandora.

Now to my main point.

I want to get a Mormon Channel on the Roku Channel Store. I do not have the know-how to make this happen but I'm sure many of you do. I can just imagine the Book of Mormon study classes and General Conference streaming through my Roku box and I just can't wait. They even have the ability to do live streaming so we could get General Conference set up to stream live!

Sorry for sounding like a salesman, but the Roku has saved my family a lot of money. We turned off Cable and Dish and now pay less then $10/month to Netflix to stream all of our TV and Movies and get all of the new content such as Facebook, Pandora, etc for free. The Roku player can be purchased for only $79 and has absolutely NO subscription charges (sorry again for sounding like a salesman).

The only thing I can think of that is close to a video Mormon Channel is BYU-TV, and I guess the postings on YouTube. I guess what you are requesting is that the Church make this content available to Roku?

+ 1 for me on this.

I have made the first step to getting more info. But I think that the church, or whoever provides the streams, to look in to it and create an "Official" channel.

I would love to be able to stream conference live using my roku instead of watching it on a computer.

It would also be cool to have a Mormon Channel app for Boxee. Boxee is a free media player for Windows / Linux / Mac based on XBMC. It has an "App Store" like the Roku Channel Store where you can download applications. The Boxee API for creating applications is documented and anyone can develop an app.

betteridgejl wrote:It would also be cool to have a Mormon Channel app for Boxee. Boxee is a free media player for Windows / Linux / Mac based on XBMC. It has an "App Store" like the Roku Channel Store where you can download applications. The Boxee API for creating applications is documented and anyone can develop an app.

I like Boxee because it supports so many different formats, looks good, supports multiple platforms and will now be sold as a "box" in addition to just being software.

BUT the whole market is yet to take off and currently they are so many different products out there and no clear leader so it is questionable whether the church would priorities any. I think it is more likely that a church member would write an add-on wrapper for each of these players as long as the church make the clips available via RSS/XML files.

The multiplicity of formats for streaming audio and video have proven to be a headache for the big leaguers in broadcasting as well as the little guy. I only know of one broadcaster that seems to be putting all its streams into all available formats, which total about 20 right now, and that is Clear Channel.

As for Mormon Channel, they want to have it in as many ways to receive it as possible, right now that is just the web player and the iPhone app, but they want to be able to get it to any device available, so one doesn't have to choose a particular device just so htey can get it. They are working on solutions, and the LDS Tech Wiki has some good information on projects to get it on some of the major platforms beyond the iPhone as well.

JamesAnderson wrote:The multiplicity of formats for streaming audio and video have proven to be a headache for the big leaguers in broadcasting as well as the little guy. I only know of one broadcaster that seems to be putting all its streams into all available formats, which total about 20 right now, and that is Clear Channel.

But that is exactly what products like Boxee are trying resolve by supporting as many formats as possible as well as allowing people to write their own apps and adding their own RSS links.

On that note I tried to add the church's general conference XML formatted rss link in Boxee and while it could display each entry it wouldnt play/stream them. It was rejected immediately so it couldnt be bandwidth etc. So if anybody has any idea why not let me know.

It cannot be the file format either because I downloaded the mp4 file and it played fine once it was played locally by selecting the folder etc.

Many thanks for the feedback and suggestions!

By way of background, when we launched Mormon Channel, the online player was put together using Flash. There was a method to the madness; Flash offered the best opportunity to integrate with our program listings. And of course, when you're producing a channel with lots of great talks and content, it can get frustrating for listeners to constantly be asking, "who was that who just spoke?".

However, we also recognized that Flash wasn't yet able to offer the same integration with both mobile devices and the host of new boxes out there, from Roku to wifi radios and the like.

With that in mind, we have a new MP3 stream in final testing right now. Our first priority will be to support new mobile applications, including PalmPre, Blackberry, WindowsMobile, and others. But there is no reason that the same stream couldn't be utilized for other platforms as well.

Keep the suggestions coming!

Best,

Chris Twitty
Digital Media

I've not tried it but I believe Boxee and XBMC support RTMP, so you may be able to get it to receive the current streams.

A large number of internet radios use the Reciva Database to get themselves listed on the devices.

I suggest trying to get the channel listed there.

https://www.reciva.com/.

I think the Roku equivalent is http://www.radioroku.com.

I think Pandora is not a directory but personalised service more like a predictive jukebox.

Does anyone know if there are any webservices available to get a listing of all video archives for past General Conferences (and other audio/video available from the Church website)? I see the RSS feeds, but they seem to only contain the audio/video for the latest General Conference. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

jmweek wrote:Does anyone know if there are any webservices available to get a listing of all video archives for past General Conferences (and other audio/video available from the Church website)? I see the RSS feeds, but they seem to only contain the audio/video for the latest General Conference. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

Try THIS page. It's an archive of the broadcasts.

Thanks for the response. I'm actually looking for something that can easily give me the various audio/video archives that I could then refer to in a software application I am building. I suppose I could scan the webpages, but if they ever change the format of them I would need to change my code. Something like a webservice would be much cleaner and easier to write a software app for.

It uses the "private channel" functionality of the Roku SDK. I found it the other day, and it's pretty great. Here's the home page for the channel (which includes dozens of other audio and video sources as well):

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

I think Roku has quite a future to it and if I could get byutv on the roku, I would never need to spend money on cable. I should be really easy to add the channel - could we add BYUTV?

We are currently working with Roku to determine what steps need to be taken to develop a channel. A team is assembled and we are identifying approved content. I will give an update soon about our progress. Thank you everyone for your suggestions.

I thought this would be fun to try to pull together, so I now have a private LDS Video Podcasts channel for you to try. It references videos from some of the lds.org podcasts and from the videos pages of the lds.org Gospel Library. This is really a proof of concept and a hobby project, but it does work and I'm interested to see if it works for more people than just me.

The private channel code is TMLJW. Here's how to add a private channel: http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=26446

Give it a try and let me know how it goes for you.

leonardmc: Thanks for the reply, I think that almost anything digitally available via lds.org or any official site would be OK, although there may be a few with IP permissions issues that could not be used.

I'm thinking everything from 2001 on for General Conference, CES firesides, other meetings of general interest, most but not all of the segments in the Sunday School DVDs, some other material, and Mormon Messages, etc. That would provide a substantial 'starter' collection'.

Now for audio matters such as Mormon Channel. We're moving more and more towards intermediary devices being used to bring web content to the home and car, for audio there's a lot of chatter about Internet radio in the car, some manufacturers already have production-ready devices already being sold. And here's a blog post about one such way this is happening.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-20007037-48.html

It's obvious that some variations of the Mormon Channel app would have to be made for displays like this, most smartphone displays are vertical, while the sample display shown is horizontal.

jribble wrote:I thought this would be fun to try to pull together, so I now have a private LDS Video Podcasts channel for you to try. It references videos from some of the lds.org podcasts and from the videos pages of the lds.org Gospel Library. This is really a proof of concept and a hobby project, but it does work and I'm interested to see if it works for more people than just me.

The private channel code is TMLJW. Here's how to add a private channel: http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=26446

Give it a try and let me know how it goes for you.

Is it possible to add a private channel if you just use the Boxee software (and not the box)?

I have the LDS RSS videos working with the "My RSS Feeds" app but would like to add this private channel too.

The private channel is for the Roku video player. I don't think Boxee is able to use Roku channels.

jribble wrote:The private channel is for the Roku video player. I don't think Boxee is able to use Roku channels.

Cheers, I got them mixed up.

aboushley wrote:I want to get a Mormon Channel on the Roku Channel Store. I do not have the know-how to make this happen but I'm sure many of you do. I can just imagine the Book of Mormon study classes and General Conference streaming through my Roku box and I just can't wait. They even have the ability to do live streaming so we could get General Conference set up to stream live!

We are currently in the process of refining our agreement with Roku to create both a private and general channel. Along with the agreement, and subsequent SDK required to build the channels, there is the issue of content. There are several questions to address in terms of what content is appropriate for what channel and audience and, what content currently held by the Church, is intellectually approved to release on these types of devices? We have a team working on both the Agreement and content.

We can see a lot of benefits to having the Church's content available on a Roku channel along with other Over-the-Top devices that are becoming more readily available. We are also looking at Tivo, Boxee Box, Google TV, PS3, and XBox 360 along with VOD services like Comcast & Netflix. These devices and services have channels or stores that we hope might provide us an opportunity to make our content more readily available to a wider audience.

Thank you for your interest and ideas. It is fun when others capture the vision of how emerging technology could be used to help share our media messages.

jonesrc wrote:We can see a lot of benefits to having the Church's content available on a Roku channel along with other Over-the-Top devices that are becoming more readily available. We are also looking at Tivo, Boxee Box, Google TV, PS3, and XBox 360 along with VOD services like Comcast & Netflix.

That is so cool. Let's hope it goes well.

I was wondering if there has been any update on the status of an official LDS channel on Roku. I have the private LDS channel as well as the podcasts and those are great.

What I really am hoping for is that live General Conference will be able to be viewed from the Roku box. Please tell me this is something that can be done.

Thanks for the work to bring church content to the Roku box!

Looking forward to this! Any update? I would love to see a live stream of Gerneral Conference.

I'm new on this forum so I hope this post is appropriate.

The broadcast TV station that used to provide conference to the Phoenix area in the past does not do it any more. In May we huddled around our computer to watch, which worked fine but I would like to stream it directly to the TV. It appears others are working on that issue. I was looking at the "WD TV Live Plus" media player as well as the "Roku" to see if they could be used to do it.

In searching the internet I found that the church made conference available in May through "YouTube" on the "MormonMessages's Channel". I don't know if it was live, but if it were that would be one approach since the "WD TV Live Plus" as well as the Rokuis can stream YouTube.

I'm not completely clear on what these boxes do or how they differ but it seems that there are more people working on streaming conference with the Roku.

I would appreciate any help that I could get. It appears that there are many people like me.

Hi djreed,

djreed wrote:The broadcast TV station that used to provide conference to the Phoenix area in the past does not do it any more. In May we huddled around our computer to watch, which worked fine but I would like to stream it directly to the TV. It appears others are working on that issue. I was looking at the "WD TV Live Plus" media player as well as the "Roku" to see if they could be used to do it.

Remember the day when the first home (vintage) computers like Commodore VIC-20, Commodore 64, IBM PCjr, Texas Instruments TI-99/4A and others using Motorola MC6845 video generator could be easily connected to your NTSC television as the computer monitor. Then computer graphics soon exceeded televisions capacity with Video Graphics Array monitors and then Super VGA.

Televisions have caught up and now with HDMI connection standard moving into the default for both computer video card and monitor connection and television connections it is now very easy again to connect your computer to the television with HDMI.

When I mention Commodore it reminds me of the first home computer I used, I was in the fourth grade, it was the Commodore PET, the Commodore PET was used all the way through my Junior High 9th grade year in typing class. Anyhow my oldest child just completed fourth grade, it is completely amazing to see the progress of technology from my fourth grade to my oldest child's fourth grade.

The reason the Phoenix TV station does not air conference now is because soon after the person that built the station got it on the air, he sold it, the new owner owns one other in the Phoenix area I think. that first owner was LDS.

But if you've got a radio that has HD Radio as a feature in your car or home you have Mormon Channel in that market. Went through last year and it was quite an experience to be going through the Broadway Curve then on the 60 into Mesa and be listening to a Conference talk, and it was not even Conference Weekend either.

I'm hearing more and more about Internet-enabled TVs, I mentioned in another thread they were expecting to sell nearly 11 million units in 2011, it will actually start up this holiday season, that's why some of the non-Internet enabled models are going for less, along with the fact that HD is pretty much standard now on all sets.

Others are saying this time that Internet TV is going to be a game-changer, probably in the next two years as well. A study out last week said that 65 percent of all US adults are time-shifting in one way or another what they watch, whether it be via Tivo, web sites like Youtube or Hulu, or other means, and that is going to change the way things are done. There will still be networks so you can sit down and watch a show when it's broadcast, but the wave of the future is going to be these 'on demand' services, and movie rental sites are already doing a lot of business being at the forefront of this.

I would love to be able to watch conference sessions on my Roku box so that I can cancel my cable. Any chance?

Someone just added a Justin.TV channel, so maybe it will be on there. The quality is just not that great.

Thanks.

i thought i'd link to another thread in a different category that some people here might be interested in:

http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5832

i posted there before i saw this more thorough thread.

i'm curious as to what the policy/stance of the church is about homebrew apps that link to LDS.org hosted media. lets say i made an app for Boxee which basically operates as a browser with a custom UI that can watch mormon messages from youtube and general conference with liveupdating via rss feeds. because i'm not redistributing the media in any way, only a custom rss reader that gets its media and metadata from the original sites like a podcast, what are the legal implications?

i'm curious, just in case the church decides against releasing an official boxee app or google tv app, etc. i'd still like to share my custom app with others if they want it.

i see all kinds of non-official lds apps in the android market that do similar things, or even for major companies that individuals or software companies make without explicit permission.

what do you all think?

What is the status of the official Roku Channel?

I am glad that so many people have shown interest and that the Church is working on this new technology.

Until the Church does release the official channel, you can catch the conference talks and Mormon Messages using the private YouTube App that you can find here: http://www.thenowhereman.com/roku/

Great to see the interest in the Roku Channel. We have recently finalized and signed the agreement with Roku and downloaded the SDK. We are in the process of designing the Channel and prepping content for it. Currently we are planning on putting Conference on it as well as Mormon Messages.

We are also in the process of evaluating other OTT channels including Google TV, Boxee, Tivo, and the Sony and Samsung Web-enabled TVs.

As many of you probably know, we have an official page in iTunes now and have made the most recent conference available in 11 languages (itunes.lds.org). We have provided multiple video formats in both session and speaker format. Having this channel gives us content that is now available for playback on the Apple TV in the podcast section. I might say the HD video looks great, only 720p but shows well on a large screen device.

It's our intention to create both an open and private channel for the Roku. Both channels would contain Church content and would serve two different audiences. Your ideas and thoughts for the type of content you could see on the channel would be welcome. Thanks for the interest and comments.

Why have both an open and private channel? Is the private channel like a beta/labs channel and the open channel the current full release? Or do you plan to have 2 completely different channels? If so, what will be the difference?

Have you investigated the possibility of being able to broadcast General Conference live through the Roku channel?

What can I do to help move this project forward?

Do you have any connections to BYUtv? Or would I want to contact someone at BYUtv to discuss a BYUtv Roku Channel?

Thanks,

Adam

As far as content suggestions for the Roku channel, this would be a good place to start:

http://lds.org/videos

I wish we could tap into the BYUtv content, but I am not sure how the content licensing works.

This area is moving very fast, and time will tell what technologies stay and which disappear, but it's gettint where we can't keep up with it fast enough either.

Sony web-enabled TVs are going to largely use Google TV/Android. See http://www.google.com/tv for that and the other info, including the box option to using Google TV. Google TV will use Android apps pretty much out of the box, but like the iPad those may not be fully optimized to take advantage of the layout of a TV screen vs. a smartphone screen. They will introduce a new app store for the optimized apps for the TV screen. Details for developers will come out next year according to the above site.

Ford is working on and how now released an SDK for, the Ford Sync system, which will allow app developers to make their apps car-freindly by allowing voice commands to be used, you'll use a regular smartphone, as they found that to develop for what was big three years ago was just not going to work, they needed a frontend to stay up to date, the smartphone was it. After all, Pandora was barely on the radar three years ago, today it has 65 million users, a good chunk of that growth came in the last 18 months. Mormon Channel didn't exist then either. And don't forget all the new features that can and will be introduced to both smartphones and their apps over the next few years too. After all, the car is the 'last frontier' for Internet radio, and over a third of all radio listening is in the car.

TiVo will be another one, I've seen some of what they are doing and it also includes Pandora, and soon eveyrone is going to have Pandora or some other web radio app standard out of the box. So it makes sense to develop for all of them.

Windows 7 Phone comes out just after Thanksgiving. So we finally get a Windows Mobile platform to fully develop Mormon Channel for.

This blog post from the 'Radio and Internet Newsletter, which I've isolated to allow people to go back to it a long time after now, tells a lot of this in stories 1, 2, and 4. The blog has a lot of 'backoffice' stuff about Internet radio, but often has a lot of details about what is going on in the retail marketplace for web radio applications and the hardware that plays them.

http://textpattern.kurthanson.com/artic ... developers

Another news site article about Ford Sync:

http://www.gpsbusinessnews.com/Ford-Rev ... a2534.html

Now to content for the Mormon Channel app, the video side is going to need to go back as far as possible on the General Conference and CES Firesides, etc., to make the web TV apps a real value. Other content besides is anything on the Mormon Channel Youtube page, and even this one from FamilySearch: http://www.youtube.com/familysearchvids Most of what is found on video.lds.org (hope I got that irght) should be in the app as well. If possible any of the material on the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Youtube page too. They have put up a fair number of things as well.

One audio item is whatever can be cleared from the Church Music site should be on any Mormon Channel app as well, I think that is an item that some have been asking about elsewhere as well.

I started putting together a concept channel map for the Roku Mormon Channel using Google Docs Drawing tool. Anyone can edit and contribute to it.

http://goo.gl/UMie

I am willing to help with any coding as well if needed.

Please let me know.

Adam

I could barely read the flowchart, how do I enlarge it without possibly screwing things up for other users/editors?

Try using the magnifying glass tool.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/298089/2010-10-12_1436.png

jonesrc wrote:Great to see the interest in the Roku Channel. We have recently finalized and signed the agreement with Roku and downloaded the SDK. We are in the process of designing the Channel and prepping content for it. Currently we are planning on putting Conference on it as well as Mormon Messages.

It's our intention to create both an open and private channel for the Roku. Both channels would contain Church content and would serve two different audiences. Your ideas and thoughts for the type of content you could see on the channel would be welcome. Thanks for the interest and comments.

I'm glad to see that progress is being made in developing an official LDS Roku Channel. I would love to see byu.tv on the channel as well to allow viewers to watch the BYU football games ...or maybe it should be a separate channel.

Doug

BYU does have a lot of content, they redid their site earlier this year and it would be something that they could do if they desired to. But they would need to do it themselves so it would handle all the types of things they wanted to make available for it.

In their case they would want to put the two networks, and BYU Radio in the app, but with the recent move to Ooyala for streaming BYU Radio they would have to find something else since a third-party LDS radio app had to switch from KBYU-FM/HD1's stream to KUER-HD3's online stream for that third-party app to have a classical station. Android has a cow with .wma streams for some reason although recent versions claim to be able to handle them.

So they would have to work out a lot of things before they were to put something together.

In my opinion, the Mormon Channel and BYU Channel should be two separate Roku Channels. They may have some content overlap (possibly General Conference or others), but they are unique enough that they should be separate.

That being said, I would really love to see both of them come to Roku as soon as possible!

The content on the LDS Video Podcasts private channel is pretty good. (October conference was there pretty quickly afterward.) The main thing missing is Live coverage and Mormon Messages. Other nice things might be some of the training type videos from sites like Duty To God and such. I agree that BYUTV and Mormon Channel should be separate, or maybe two sections within the same channel.

zonazag wrote:TThe main thing missing is Live coverage and Mormon Messages.

We are working on the design of an Official Channel from the Church and the intention at this point is to include Conference, Mormon Messages, and S&I Firesides. Your suggestions on additional content are welcome as well and appreciated. We'll have to engage BYUTV in some talks, seems to be a very hot item.

Any video content on lds.org is also needed, not just the recent General Conference but as far back as is on the website. There are also other videos, like on video.lds.org, that are not aggregated in a way that they could be more useful. You presently have to go all over the place to find the video content, because it's in several departments. Ditto for audio material, after all, many of the upcoming A/V devices that people will view Church content via the Mormon Channel apps will handle both audio and video content, etc., through the same devices and interfaces.

This goes back to the 2000 release of lds.org, where each department at CHQ maintained its part of the website, and in many cases finding anything, whether it be a print, video, or audio resource, was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, or several, and still is in some cases yet. Basically things get put up and as far as anyone who needs something always finding exactly what they need, the old statement 'never the twain shall meet' seems to be the case at times.

http://www.youtube.com/familysearchvids has a small amount right now but that could grow as well.

jonesrc wrote:We are working on the design of an Official Channel from the Church and the intention at this point is to include Conference, Mormon Messages, and S&I Firesides. Your suggestions on additional content are welcome as well and appreciated. We'll have to engage BYUTV in some talks, seems to be a very hot item.

I am very interested in an Official Channel from the Church. I don't currently own a Roku device, but if a Church channel like the one described above existed, I think I would buy one just for that content.

There will be many more devices that will likely be able to use various apps for Mormon Channel. For several well-known Internet services now, there already is a large number.

Case in point; US residents can access an Internet radio site called Pandora, the service started in 2005 and it took three years to get 6 million users. Now two years after taht and it ballooned to 65 million plus today. Part of the reason is the smartphone apps they developed. Part of what happened there was getting it onto hardware, according to them they are on over 200 separate electronic products such as TiVo, Blu-ray DVD players, and a whole host of others of which I am not familiar with. Another company that has done similar things but with video is Netflix, that is expanding rapidly as to how you can watch movies through devices as well, although being video, not as many devices handle their apps now.

Things will boil down to how many products use what OS, and what modifications may be needed for what products and how popular the product is that the Mormon Channel app ends up being developed for. But there will be enough that the Mormon Chanel app will likely see development for most of the operating systems and individual devices as needed in the end.

The nice thing about the way that the TV market is evolving is that two of the main companies in the space (Google and Apple - though Apple does not have Apps on the TV yet) are building on top of their mobile OS. Therefore some of the development can overlap with the Mobile Apps that are already being developed. So the main devices to be concerned with in my opinion are going to be:

Google TV - built on Android http://www.google.com/tv/developers.html
Roku - http://www.roku.com/developer
Boxee - http://developer.boxee.tv/

Other platforms on the fringe are Samsung Apps, Yahoo TV Widgets and Tivo.
And in the future perhaps Apple TV (does not yet support apps, but seems inevitable) - Built on iOS

So that leaves us with 3 primary platforms - one overlapping with a mobile platform.

I have Boxee and have developed an unofficial Mormon Channel which I have posted on my own repository (http://apptree.me/dir). For now I was planning to polish of a few last changes and add it to main Boxee App directory as an "Unofficial Mormon Channel" so that more people can use it. I'd be glad to hand it over and make it Official as well. I'd also be happy to share the design with any one who wants to get started on any other platform. I am not likely to jump into the development on Roku as I'm in Canada and we don't have them. But I'd be glad to help where I can with design/UI/IA.

It has been about a month since the last post, any update on the Roku channel?

I would like to be able to watch the new leadership training video on my TV if possible rather than at my computer.

Has a page on the LDS Tech wiki been created for the Mormon Channel Roku project yet? I'm interested in contributing.

As a new Roku owner, I want to put my vote in for this as well. Before the next General Conference would be ideal

I vote to also include the Legacy podcasts http://feeds.lds.org/LDSLegacy
to the channel. Also the Joseph Smith Papers would also be great.

zonazag wrote:It has been about a month since the last post, any update on the Roku channel?

It has been a while, my apologies. We are in the process of development. It is taking some time locking down and getting clearances on content. The design is coming along and testing on the feeds is taking place.

Discussions on what content to make available is also happening. With this being a public facing channel it is taking some time to decide what should and shouldn't go on the channel or if we should have two separate channels or a private channel for some of the content. It's great to see the interest and ideas of what to include.

I'm not seeing a project for the LDS Channel for Roku in the available projects list. Is this a project you need testers for? If so I'd love to test and give feedback.

I've been using the privet LDS channel on Roku, it's pretty cool some functions don't seem to work but it has some current content, I'd love to see it updated more often. If there was a way to have it stream conference live that would be even cooler!

MattW
MatthewWorley.com

Matt. In fact we are working with the developer of the Unofficial Roku Channel to make it the Official Channel. It was through this forum that we came across the channel and made contact. You have probably noticed the recent updates to the channel. As far as the content goes, we are getting IP approval and ingesting all the content into a media server that will generate our feeds for us for the both the Roku and Boxee Box. It takes some time to get all the put together but we are making some good progress. We are also discussing the option to stream conference live through the Roku. Great ideas and suggestions, thanks for participating.

Sweeet! Can't wait for this to all work out, If you guys need a beta tester I'm in! I'd love to get to the point where we can put a Roku with a TV from the church library so the seminary kids can stream a video for class. No more need to check out discs or dare I say, VHS tapes.

This is great news. I'm also subscribed to the unofficial (so far) private channel. Since this channel will become the official channel I have some feedback for the content. I like how the content is organized into different categories and subcategories. This helps when browsing for interesting material, but it is still hard to find specific material. Many Roku channels have a built in search feature, the LDS Roku channel could also benefit from a search feature. As for the aesthetics of the channel, I'd love to see the background changed to reflect the church, currently its showing a picture of the Wright brother's airplane.

Its good news that General Conference may be streamed live. This trumps all other content that can be placed there as far as I'm concerned.

Thanks.

Do we have any updates on this Channel? I'd like to give it a review on my blog but I am holding off till it's in better shape. Is there a Timeline and will we have access to streaming conference through it?

I love the new additions to the channel! I watched a bunch of the Mormon Messages and Messages for Youth via the channel....great work. I also enjoyed the General Conference Highlights from the Oct 2010 Test addition - the video quality was excellent. Thank you for your hard work in adding official church content.

MattWorley wrote:Do we have any updates on this Channel? I'd like to give it a review on my blog but I am holding off till it's in better shape. Is there a Timeline and will we have access to streaming conference through it?

Matt. We are still gathering content and creating official URL's for the content. I would not post yet in your blog. We are hoping to have an official channel up and functioning in March. We'll keep you posted.

sgoodmansen wrote:Many Roku channels have a built in search feature, the LDS Roku channel could also benefit from a search feature.

We have discussed a search feature and agree it would be great. We are talking about that feature for a subsequent rev.

sgoodmansen wrote:I'd love to see the background changed to reflect the church, currently its showing a picture of the Wright brother's airplane.

The design has been updated and will reflect the design of the current Mormon Channel branding campaign. A big thank you needs to go to one of our community developers for getting the ball rolling on the channel. The plan is to take the current work that has been done and integrate it in to our media management system for distribution.

sgoodmansen wrote:Is this a project you need testers for?

LDS Media Talk had a great little write up on the Mormon Channel and invited testers. We had a great response and when we get close hope to use many of those who responded to help us test the channel. Drop a note to avdmtech@ldschurch.org and your name can be added to the list. Also see the article at http://ldsmediatalk.com/2010/12/28/expl ... n-channel/

I added this channel a month ago. Went through the content then removed it. I added this channel today (01 Mar 2011), so much has changed! Loved going through the content. I can already see great content for FHE. Looking forward to having General Conference live streaming.

I was worried about the quality of the video when the Roku said it was only 2 dots but it comes in really nice. I love where this channel is going. Great work.

wnukem wrote:Looking forward to having General Conference live streaming.

We just started a live conference alpha test. If there is interest in participating drop an email to avdmtech@ldschurch.org and we'll send the information on the private channel. We will stream the general Young Women Meeting and all the Sessions of Conference with the exception of the Priesthood Session. This test is for April 2011 General Conference.

I am glad to see that a channel is in the works for the roku from the church.
Any news about when this channel will be available?

ethanasbury wrote:Any news about when this channel will be available?

The public Roku Channel is in production now. There are many IP related issues to securing content to play on the channel but those are close to resolution. We are hopeful that reviews will go well and permission will be granted to release the channel in the next couple of months. Thank you for your interest.

Is the alpha test full or are you still accepting candidates to test still?
And if it is still open should I just email you to sign up?

Music and the Spoken Word would be a GREAT addition to a ROKU channel! I love this idea! I would love to be a part of any test groups if there are still openings!

Regarding the LDS Video Podcast channel on Roku, is there any way that all the General Conference sessions can be positioned within the same folder? Right now as it stands there is a General Conference folder with April 2010 and October 2009 addresses and, if you scan almost the whole way to the right, there is another General Conference folder this time with October 2010 addresses. Why wouldn't all the general conference addresses be within the same folder system for ease of use navigation purposes?

On a secondary note, earlier in the above string there was a question about the need for a mormon channel, a BYUtv channel and an LDS Video Podcast channel. Having three seems overkill as many of the items are duplicates. So far the best interface and organization of content of the three is the BYUtv. IMHO it could quickly/easily be loaded with the content from the other channels and serve as a "one-stop shop" for all LDS content. Overall though, thank you for doing such a great job in getting this setup and out. I am sure that more than just LDS folks are watching it -- serving as an excellent missionary tool. Thanks!!!!

The LDS Video Podcast channel has gotten a little messy as I worked on a Mormon Channel channel. Currently the Podcast channel is showing categories for both channels. I haven't cleaned it up because of focus on the Mormon Channel and because I expect that the Podcast channel will go away once the Mormon Channel is available.

The LDS Video Podcast channel was just something written by me that is nothing more than a hobby project. The Mormon Channel and BYUtv channels are the official channels and have a member and non-member focus respectively, as they do in their current non-Roku aspects. From what I understand the Mormon Channel is having a somewhat slower ramp up because of content licensing issues. BYUtv already has a lot of video content online and can simply make that same content available on the Roku. Mormon Channel is new to video and they are finding that much of what they planned to put online they can't because of licensing issues. At least, that's what I understand being an outsider not working for the church.

jribble wrote:Mormon Channel is new to video and they are finding that much of what they planned to put online they can't because of licensing issues.

Thank you Jarrod for that explanation. It is true that there are issues with clearing material for playback on each device that we supply with content. It does make it difficult at times to make content readily available as fast as we would like. This process is being looked into and I'm confident that in a short time a resolution will be reached to more content accessible in a quicker fashion.

scott793992 wrote:Music and the Spoken Word would be a GREAT addition to a ROKU channel! I love this idea!

We are in discussions to make this content available. We are crossing our fingers to. Thanks for the great suggestion.

We have released the Mormon Channel on the Roku Box. We have had some great beta testers and received some good feedback and ideas. Please visit http://www.mormonchannel.org for additional information or find the Mormon Channel on your Roku Box in the Channel Store. Feel free to give us feedback on the channel and any ideas that you feel will help make it better.

Roku really works great! Mormon Channel is wonderful. BYUtv Beta is also great. I would Love to see Music and the Spoken Word on it too. Wondering about getting and using the Roku DXS for older TVs in church buildings using a common Roku account so that all the Ruko boxes would have the same content.

srweight wrote:I would Love to see Music and the Spoken Word on it too. Wondering about getting and using the Roku DXS for older TVs in church buildings using a common Roku account so that all the Ruko boxes would have the same content.

We are working to get Music and the Spoken Word on the Roku Mormon Channel. There are IP issues with Music that make it a little tricky but there is high interest to see it there.

Also, there is a joint effort between ICS and MSD to develop the Roku Box as a potential meetinghouse device. In the next few months there will be testing done on the box to see how it will work in a meetinghouse environment.

Happy to hear the channel is working great for you.

I can really see it as a standard item with the TVs and projectors in our stake buildings, a common account would sync all of them. It would also be great if we could use it for Meetinghouse broadcasting! No Laptop or Desk Top required. That would need a way to connect to streams.lds.org in someway. Really can see using BYUtv scriptures in class - the pause button would work really well for discussion and Mormon Messages in class too - in fact there is more media than can be justified to use in classes and firesides.

This article was published on July 19, 2011.

http://newsroom.lds.org/article/roku-mormon-channel

I heard a rumor from my Uncle in California that “the church is putting Roku boxes in the meetinghouses”. Is that true, or is it just a local rogue unit doing this? While I can appreciate that an Ethernet connection and a Roku box are probably a cheaper way to get BYU TV and the Mormon Channel (both of which are now available on Roku), I’m not aware that the church is wholesale replacing satellites with Ethernet and Roku. However, something like that might be cool for the future. (LDS-branded Roku boxes locked down to BYU TV and the Mormon Channel would be much cheaper than satellites, especially since the church is relying more heavily on meetinghouse Ethernet.)

Does anyone have further information on this?

It could well be a pilot program. The church has expressed interest in other posts about being able to stream programming to the units.

I certainly wouldn't label this as rogue. Just this week our Stake Presidency will be discussing the possibility - based on experience I had with my wife this last week. She taught RS and wanted a way to show a Mormon Message as part of that lesson. I have a laptop, and a tablet that were portable, but not really good for viewing.... could we have hooked up a Projector? Yes.. but pretty complex for a short video... so I brought in my Roku... Within minutes I had it talking on the wireless network, and using the RCA jacks on our television to show the video. (I have 9 buildings in my stake, and all of them have TV's - we have no LCD displays in our Media Centers). I'm thinking a Roku device in each building would be great. In addition it would help the 1 building in our stake that doesn't have a satellite to broadcast General Conference easily....

The one thing that would make the Roku devices pure perfection, is if a channel were to be created to accept the stake-initiated broadcasts.....

I agree with John. The Roku seems to be a very good backwards-compatible option for all of our meetinghouses with older TVs. I love my Roku, and was part of the beta test.

I, and othere, have audio problems with the BYU channel on ROKU. The live stream is fine. but the audio cuts out after a couple of seconds on all the on demand. Does anyone have a solution?

rmiller wrote:I, and others, have audio problems with the BYU channel on ROKU. Does anyone have a solution?

BYU is aware of the issue and is working with Roku to address the problem. It is believed that the problem was introduced with the last update. We'll try to keep you posted in this thread to developments.

JohnShaw wrote:so I brought in my Roku... Within minutes I had it talking on the wireless network, and using the RCA jacks on our television to show the video.

Ease of use and setup is one of the features that make the Roku Box a very attractive solution for delivering digital media. I use it on Sunday's for my YSA class. It is good to hear stories about how people are using the device to support their teaching efforts. We are hoping our beta test of the Roku proves that theory. Thanks for sharing that story.

JohnShaw wrote:The one thing that would make the Roku devices pure perfection, is if a channel were to be created to accept the stake-initiated broadcasts.....

Great idea and one we are working on. In fact we have it working. You can manually add the URL on the box and receive the stream. In terms of a VOD stream the format is pretty straight forward. A live stream is a little different with the way it is delivered but we are looking into ways we can delivery that as well.

rmiller wrote:I, and othere, have audio problems with the BYU channel

I followed up with BYUtv and received the following:

"Roku has acknowledged an issue with the Roku 2 and HLS video. There is literally nothing we can do to fix it on our end except wait for Roku to address the issue via a firmware update. I know the issue is affecting several apps in addition to ours."

JonesRC wrote:Great idea and one we are working on. In fact we have it working. You can manually add the URL on the box and receive the stream. In terms of a VOD stream the format is pretty straight forward. A live stream is a little different with the way it is delivered but we are looking into ways we can delivery that as well.

How do I manually add the URL on the box? I'd like to test our the test feeds

JohnShaw wrote:How do I manually add the URL on the box? I'd like to test our the test feeds

John. We have it working but have not implemented to date. Roku is very selective about the type of LIVE feed it will take from the devices we currently support so we are looking at options. We will be sure to put the word out of its availability if and when we make it a feature on this device. Thank you asking.

The one thing I like about the Roku, over many other video streaming methods, is the fact that the Roku uses a buffer and adjusts the picture quality based on the network connection speed detected. The buffering avoids the freezing and jumping video feeds we've all seen at one time.

I've been picking up some of the older Roku XR units for testing with Conference feeds. The reason I've been using the older units is because I prefer the varied output options on the XR model (HDMI, composite, S-video, component, optical) in comparison to the 2 options (HDMI, composite) on the newer Roku2 line. Only the top of-the-line Roku2 has the option for a hardwired ethernet connection.

Hardwired always beats wireless in speed and reliability.

Would the ROKU be able to stream BYU TV through a multimedia projector? We have a theater at Historic Kirtland and the missionaries would like to watch conference when there are no tours. I envision an ethernet cable into the ROKU. What cable options are there for the output? Than you.

As long as the projector takes the composite (RCA-Yellow) cable as input, usually labeled Video1 or Video2 - you should be good. I plan on using this at home for Conference this year.

If you go to the Roku store and look for BYUtv, it's there, been there for about the last three or four months if not earlier. It uses the current BYUtv logo as well, I've even seen that on roku.com (however, the webpage does not show Mormon Channel even though it's available through the Roku itself).

JohnShaw wrote:As long as the projector takes the composite (RCA-Yellow) cable as input, usually labeled Video1 or Video2 - you should be good. I plan on using this at home for Conference this year.

Thanks John.

JonesRC wrote:Ease of use and setup is one of the features that make the Roku Box a very attractive solution for delivering digital media. I use it on Sunday's for my YSA class. It is good to hear stories about how people are using the device to support their teaching efforts. We are hoping our beta test of the Roku proves that theory.

We have a number of older TV's in the buildings in our Stake. Recently, one of the Seventy was visiting his daughter who lives in one of the wards, and wanted to show a video from his iPAD. Unfortunately, we had no connectivity options for his HDMI output. (Roku boxes don't seem to have HDMI input either.) But, maybe a Roku box might allow someone to connect and download the content directly?

What do others do to get video from modern devices (e.g. iPAD, Android phones) with HDMI output to TV's with only RCA or F-Connectors?

I did check the site at roku.com, and you don't need HDMI for any of the four models. It's an option, but you can get away without it, and they all work on older NTSC sets.

The side issue is going to be the Wifi signal then, that's about the only thing keeping anyone from using a Roku in a given location, once you're sure the TV is hooked up.

Another thing, the boxes auto-update, so they should be turned on for a time before use to be sure the latest incremental firmware version for them gets loaded to them, much the same way Sophos updates on a PC in a clerks office or an FHC. Probably doesn't happen that often but it does help.

mwgbell wrote:maybe a Roku box might allow someone to connect and download the content directly?

I don't know as a Roku box can download content outside of what's in the Roku Store. However, some models do have a USB port to allow you to connect a thumb drive and playback video that way.

What a great idea to have a Mommon Channel and BYU-TV channel for the Roku. Nice Work

Panasonic TV has one of the stronger online content repository (channels) for their internet enabled televisions, dvd and blu-ray players. They recently opened it up for developers.

http://developer.vieraconnect.com/

Could the channels that were created for Roku be used for the Panasonic Viera Connect?

Members who have these tvs or players wouldn't need the added expense of the Roku box. Some of the Panasonic players are less expensive than a roku box.

dcook3712 wrote:Could the channels that were created for Roku be used for the Panasonic Viera Connect?

Thank you for sharing this idea. We are looking at the opportunities available on OTT platforms and having developer tools available makes entry more enticing.

I have been handed a Roku by my FM group. Their challenge to me is to figure out how to stream conference and other live broadcasts to my stake center. I see in this thread that the Roku Mormon Channel does stream conference in english. My task is to also stream in ASL.

In the past I have received direct links to the ASL stream for conference, which has worked great via computer browser. My question is can I stream ASL conference live via the Roku Mormon Channel? Or, alternatively, is it currently a possibility to stream a direct link of the ASL conference stream to the Roku?

jjamminjim wrote:Their challenge to me is to figure out how to stream conference and other live broadcasts to my stake center.

A question you should be asking is can you stream encrypted broadcasts such as the Priesthood session of conference? Or regional conferences?

At this time, I think Roku is a good move for general/public broadcasts, but if someone is thinking about it being a satellite replacement, I think there is a very good chance they'll be in for unpleasant surprise sooner or later.

You may want to tackle this question first, as it may be more limiting for whatever they are planning.

jjamminjim wrote:Their challenge to me is to figure out how to stream conference and other live broadcasts to my stake center. I see in this thread that the Roku Mormon Channel does stream conference in english. My task is to also stream in ASL.

We currently stream five languages on Mormon Channel for Live Events: English, ASL, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. We are testing a live channel on the Roku that streams 16 languages. As long as you have the appropriate bandwidth in your facility you can stream ASL.

We have also been doing some testing on streaming local live events by having the ability to enter in your generated URL into the Roku Box. We have been successful in getting this to work on Roku and are working and discussing possible options with the IT team.

JonesRC wrote:We currently stream five languages on Mormon Channel for Live Events: English, ASL, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. We are testing a live channel on the Roku that streams 16 languages. As long as you have the appropriate bandwidth in your facility you can stream ASL.

That is great news! My stake center's satellite system is broken and I am trying to implement, test and verify a solution that allows me to stream all church broadcasts, english and asl, via roku.

I assume that this excludes general conference priesthood streaming. Is there a way to securely stream priesthood to the roku?

For the last general conference I had to obtain a password throughout my stake president for the priesthood session. I also was able to secure a direct link to the stream through my stake president. Would a direct link obtained via my stake president allow me to stream priesthood to the roku?

jjamminjim wrote:My stake center's satellite system is broken

Feel free to start a new thread on that, but ultimately that's the FM group's responsibility to fix. You may want to have the stake president lean on them.

RussellHltn wrote:Feel free to start a new thread on that, but ultimately that's the FM group's responsibility to fix.

THank you for the reply. I have the FM group working on it now. They have been since before the last conference (and I have had to stream every broadcast)i.

In the mean time, I have this Roku assignment. It looks very promising. I have all the information that I need to continue with the Roku, except the general priesthood conference stream. Is it possible to do now, or probable in the near future?

last conference we had Priesthood session streamed. the URL was sent to the Stake President, as
STS the would not send it to me, only Stake President. He gave to me and we streamed through the Stake computer and displayed on the Screen in the Stake Center. So, it is possible but you need to get the URL EARLY as it is only sent to Stake President's LDS e-mail account.

KenRichins wrote:last conference we had Priesthood session streamed. the URL was sent to the Stake President.

That was my experience with the last General Conference Priesthood session as well. I received both an English and an ASL URL through my Stake President, and streamed them through laptops.

Using the ROKU as a complete solution is the goal (including General Conference Priesthood sessions and Stake Conference broadcasts from Church Headquarters), thus removing the need for computers. I wonder if the "ability to enter in a generated URL into the Roku Box", that is being tested as mentioned above by JonesRC, will work for these General Conference Priesthood URLs.

I don't know if the priesthood URL will work on Roku but the email address that a stake presidency member needs to send in their request to is streamingsupport@ldschurch.org. Once they are verified in CDOL then the URL will be sent to them. How it is distributed after that is the stake presidents responsibility.
Troy

I am having a hard time deciding between Roku and Sony. I was a diehard Roku fan, but Sony Blu-rays have the build in Sony Entertainment Network which is powered by Google tv I am told and it seems to be a strong set up with Blu-ray player. Can anyone tell me if BYU and the Mormon channel stream on Sony Network?

circa1978-p40 wrote: I have Boxee and have developed an unofficial Mormon Channel which I have posted on my own repository (http://apptree.me/dir). For now I was planning to polish of a few last changes and add it to main Boxee App directory as an "Unofficial Mormon Channel" so that more people can use it. I'd be glad to hand it over and make it Official as well. I'd also be happy to share the design with any one who wants to get started on any other platform. I am not likely to jump into the development on Roku as I'm in Canada and we don't have them. But I'd be glad to help where I can with design/UI/IA.

Is it possible to log in and watch live tv using your app? I am using Boxee software, not a box and am able to load the Mormon Channel and select Watch Live but I am not able to log in once that loads.

Any help is very much appreciated,

Paul

I've worked on the Beta Testing team for the Roku device. We streamed General Conference as well as the encrypted Priesthood sessions using our secured and authorized Roku boxes. Roku performed well using these live broadcasts and the equipment needed to use it was: Roku box, Projector, and the crab (to tie into PA through a microphone jack).

I also streamed pre-recorded video for use in Seminary classes or general Sunday School classes using wireless connections throughout my test locations without incident. Picture for pre-recorded items streamed wireless and even worked with 70% signal strength with crystal clear pictures and audio. I'm now a fan of using Roku for church content and hope to eventually be able to stream all church videos through an archived digital library instead of the old fashioned VHS or DVDs.

Well, I've read every post here and decided it's time to post my question. I have been asked by our stake presidency to try to figure out how to stream our local stake webcasts to our building through our Roku. I went ahead and downloaded the SDK and configured what I could without actually testing the feed (not sure what the "streamformat" should be yet).

JonesRC -
You mentioned, "We have also been doing some testing on streaming local live events by having the ability to enter in your generated URL into the Roku Box. We have been successful in getting this to work on Roku and are working and discussing possible options with the IT team." - is this something I can test? Our Stake Conference will take place next month and I'm hoping to have it ready by then.

If copying what you have already tested isn't possible, can I get some feedback on appropriate configuration that I've already started?

Thank you all so much for the great content here!

John

I recently got a Boxee Box and would like to see official Church/BYU apps for it. I know there is the unofficial Mormon Channel app and I can sorta get to BYU.TV via the Boxee Browser, however, it doesn't compare with what is now offered on Roku. Any developers out there working on this?

kennethjorgensen wrote:I like Boxee because it supports so many different formats, looks good, supports multiple platforms and will now be sold as a "box" in addition to just being software.

BUT the whole market is yet to take off and currently they are so many different products out there and no clear leader so it is questionable whether the church would priorities any. I think it is more likely that a church member would write an add-on wrapper for each of these players as long as the church make the clips available via RSS/XML files.

fmladineo wrote:I recently got a Boxee Box and would like to see official Church/BYU apps for it.

We actually have the channel designed but dealing with the single stream issue. We provide adaptive streaming which the Boxee does not currently support. We are searching and working on a solution that will allow us to release the channel.

klingler wrote:I have been asked by our stake presidency to try to figure out how to stream our local stake webcasts to our building through our Roku. I went ahead and downloaded the SDK and configured what I could without actually testing the feed (not sure what the "streamformat" should be yet).

The current communicator boxes in the Ward House provide a WMV file which the Roku does not support. We have created and tested the ability to enter a URL into the Roku Box with success but you must have the appropriate HLS h.264 video format.

JonesRC wrote:The current communicator boxes in the Ward House provide a WMV file which the Roku does not support. We have created and tested the ability to enter a URL into the Roku Box with success but you must have the appropriate HLS h.264 video format.

The Western Digital TV Live supports WMV9. The WD was previously suggested as a solution for units that needed to download then show a event.

JonesRC wrote:The current communicator boxes in the Ward House provide a WMV file which the Roku does not support. We have created and tested the ability to enter a URL into the Roku Box with success but you must have the appropriate HLS h.264 video format.

Will this be an option in the future? (any timeline?) I just watched the LDSTech Conference session that had a lot of discussion re: Roku boxes. I'm fairly persuaded by the ease of getting a cheap box instead of pulling out the clerk computer to receive a webcast.

RussellHltn wrote:The Western Digital TV Live supports WMV9. The WD was previously suggested as a solution for units that needed to download then show a event.

I also use a Western Digital TV Live streaming player (WDTV) and it now also supports flingo which seems to be fashioned as an open-source solution for sending a variety of online media to various streaming players. Any chance the LDS flash-based videos (move player?) on the website, including live streaming conference could be made compatible with at least flingo or as a new app for the WDTV? Or at least stream live on You Tube since flingo is already compatible with You Tube videos.

rgme wrote:Will this be an option in the future? (any timeline?) I just watched the LDSTech Conference session that had a lot of discussion re: Roku boxes. I'm fairly persuaded by the ease of getting a cheap box instead of pulling out the clerk computer to receive a webcast.

The Roku Box is an approved solution for VOD but discussions are still ongoing in regards to it being a decoder box for the communicator.

JonesRC,

Will you provide more details around the Roku and VOD (I'm assuming this is Video On Demand) - Are you still thinking about PLEX, weekly synchronization of video, etc...?

I found a way to play General Conference on my xbox 360 by streaming it through TVersity if anybody wants to know.
Install TVersity, go to library, add item, type: internet video

The video url you need to copy and paste from the link on the lds.org windows media icon on https://www.lds.org/general-conference/ ... s?lang=eng (right click to copy link address or shortcut)

My link was : mms://a1119.l12520051118.c125200.g.lm.akamaistream.net/D/1119/125200/v0001/reflector:51118

Then hit the Submit button.

Then on your Xbox, browse the XBOX video player, find tversity, all, then find the name of your video stream you labeled in TVersity.
This should work on any network media player that uses UPNP, like Boxee Box, Google TV, PS3, etc.