Roku Developer Help - Where Do I Put My Video Content?

Where Do I Put My Video Content?

Instant TV Channel does not host your video or audio content. Instead, Instant TV Channel works with a variety of Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), Online Video Providers (OVPs), and other storage providers. You can choose the CDN, OVP or storage provider that best suits your requirements.

Here is a short list of "Roku-Friendly" CDNs, OVPs and storage providers that have been verified to work with Instant TV Channel:

5centsCDN - Advanced CDN solutions including web acceleration, live streaming, cloud storage, and encoding services. All accounts include 24/7 live chat support.

5centsCDN Cost: Plans start at $2.50 per month for 1TB of bandwidth.

Amazon S3 and CloudFront - Amazon's bandwidth cost is higher than other providers, but because Amazon has a free tier and no monthly minimum, using Amazon S3 or CloudFront may be a good choice for non-public Roku channels with smaller numbers of viewers. Amazon CloudFront is an excellent choice for storing Instant TV Channel poster images and other small files, regardless of the size of your channel.

Here are several Amazon walk-throughs:

Amazon Cost: About 9 cents per Gigabyte. Pay-as-you-go, no monthly minimums.

BoxCast - BoxCast is an inexpensive and easy-to-use live HD streaming service. BoxCast provides a low-cost dedicated encoder device that works with almost any camera or video source.

Here's a walk-through covering how to use BoxCast with Instant TV Channel.

BoxCast Cost: Plans start as low as $20/month. Email sales@boxcast.com or call 1-888-397-2278.

Brightcove - Brightcove is a CDN/OVP which provides a wide variety of features and services that are ideal for developers with large libraries of content and multi-platform requirements. Brightcove also provides automatic support within Instant TV Channel for adaptable bitrate video streams and playlists.

Here's a walk-through covering how to use Brightcove with Instant TV Channel.

Brightcove Cost: $12,000 per year which includes 10 terabytes of annual bandwidth.

Castr - Castr is an integrated live stream platform. Stream, host, schedule, monetize – all in one place.

Here's a blog post about the basics of using a Castr live stream with platforms like Roku.

Castr Cost: Live HLS-format streams are available starting at $150/month. Includes 2 terabytes of Akamai or Fastly bandwidth.

Dacast - DaCast is a feature rich and fully enabled live and on demand video streaming service. It comes in an easy-to-use, self-service environment.

Here's a walk-through covering how to use a live stream from Dacast with Instant TV Channel.

DaCast Cost: Starts at $25 per month.

INXY - INXY provides a variety of services from Highwinds, Leaseweb, Verizon and other dedicated CDNs that are suitable for medium and large bandwidth Roku channels. INXY CDN services can use an Amazon S3 bucket as an origin server for reliability, while serving bandwidth from a dedicated CDN system for extremely low recurring costs. Free trial accounts and setup assistance are available.

Using a dedicated CDN usually requires that you perform your own video transcoding before storing the video on your origin server.

INXY Cost: Varies depending on selected CDN and bandwidth. Starts at under $10 per month for 1 TB. Email .

ScaleEngine - ScaleEngine provides a variety of scalable video streaming services including standard video-on-demand (VOD), HLS/Wowza live streaming, scheduled VOD streams, and more. ScaleEngine is more technically-oriented than other providers and has a text-based user interface to set up your content. Live support is provided.

ScaleEngine Cost: VOD and HLS plans start at 9 cents per Gigabyte of streaming bandwidth. A small monthly minimum applies.

Vimeo - Vimeo is a video hosting and delivery platform that allows you to easily and securely manage your video library. Vimeo provides automatic support within Instant TV Channel for multi-bitrate video streams and playlists. A Vimeo "Pro" account is required for use with Instant TV Channel.

Here's a walk-through covering how to use Vimeo with Instant TV Channel.

Vimeo Cost: About $20 per month, billed annually. Limited to 20 GB of new uploads per week.

Your Own Web Server or Hosting Provider - Any web server or hosting provider can be used to provide video streaming services. Keep in mind that even a moderately popular Roku channel will use up more bandwidth than a typical server can provide, which will cause buffering problems and dropouts in your videos. While your own web server or hosting provider is an excellent choice for hosting your Roku channel's poster JPGs or PNGs, using it to host your video streams will probably result in unsatisfactory performance for most channels.

Other Compatible CDNs, OVPs, and Storage Providers -

Akamai
Limelight Networks

Many other CDNs and storage providers are compatible with Instant TV Channel. If your CDN or storage provider is not listed here it may still be compatible with Instant TV Channel. The easiest way to find out is to build a free test channel (using Instant TV Channel of course!) and try out the stream URLs from your CDN or storage provider.

DISCLAIMER: Instant TV Channel cannot guarantee that the information on this page is accurate or complete, nor can it guarantee the availability of services, pricing, or compatibility of any CDN or storage provider.

Want the basics about working with Instant TV Channel? Check out this Quick 5-Minute Walk-Through.