Roku - Locking it down to prevent unauthorized channels

I have been working on using Roku boxes to supply video streaming at church for adding church only content in local meeting houses. My only concern was how to lock the unit down so no unauthorized person could stream non-church related content. I found the answer and this is how to do it.

1) Create an Roku account (I used "LDS Church")
2) Add the church channels and delete all others (easy on the actual box)
3) In the Channel Store select the option requiring a PIN to add any channel
4) Test the Roku box by seeing if you can add a channel

Now, any other future Roku boxes added to this account will be locked down as well and will only receive the church channels you already programmed in.

The PIN disables the ability of unauthorized persons adding non-church channels to the Roku box.

thanks Jeff.... have you been part of the pilot, or are you just doing this?

How does someone become see about becoming part of the pilot group for the streaming media devices in meetinghouses? I am the STS for my stake in Washington State.

We had a building burn down last year due to arson, and the new building is getting closer to being completed (Dec to Feb time frame), so it would be great to have streaming media devices like the Roku in use in the new building along with a few DVDs for content not currently streaming.

Yes, I joined the pilot program and streamed the last conference sessions from 3 different test locations in Michigan. There are some glitches that need to be ironed out but it is looking promising.

Thank you Jeff for providing the information for creating a Roku account. For the beta this is exactly what we are doing. We currently have 55 boxes attached to the account for testing. What we have found is that people do a factory reset and it knocks it off the account and gives them all the channels. When we run a test they contact us and wonder why they don't have the channel. This would be much easier to control on a local level with a STS able to monitor the boxes.

It there is interest to participate please feel free to drop me an email.

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this question, but can the Roku get the encripted Priesthood session?
We are in a new building in Marshall, MI and have the new smaller satellite system, which has quite a bit of issues (that story is for another day, and it has been worked on for the past 2 years)... but incase the satellite goes does, which happens often during an encripted feed, can I use Roku as a back up?

Thanks, Andrew Smith

ads26andrew wrote:the new smaller satellite system, which has quite a bit of issues (that story is for another day, and it has been worked on for the past 2 years

Feel free to post on that in a new thread.

ads26andrew wrote:Not sure if this is the right place to ask this question, but can the Roku get the encripted Priesthood session?

Andrew. The question has come up several times and is now in discussion. We offered Priesthood on the Roku for our testing. Not sure at this point where that will take us. There are a couple of things that are being worked on to make that session secure. We'll keep you updated as this moves along but I will forward the request.

Is there any updates to this project? One additional question I have - Is there a way to block the ads that appear on the Roku Interface? There are some movie advertisements that I know some might consider inappropriate.

JohnShaw wrote:Is there any updates to this project? One additional question I have - Is there a way to block the ads that appear on the Roku Interface? There are some movie advertisements that I know some might consider inappropriate.

From the Roku beta test is was decided to make the Roku an approved device but not a supported device. Other options are being evaluated and tested. One of the reasons is because of the inability to control the interface and ads. There currently is no way to turn off the ads on the main interface of the Roku. The service also offers limited control and no real enterprise support. It is a great consumer device, cheap, easy setup, and provides the primary content services including Netflix, Amazon, & Hulu+. But it did not provide the advance services we felt where required in order to officially make it a STB that we could promote and support at an enterprise level.