Using Vimeo with Roku


In order to use Vimeo with Instant TV Channel, you must have a Vimeo Pro account.

Vimeo Showcases, Albums and Portfolios can only be used in Unlimited or Commercial channel types.

You can use the Vimeo short-cuts discussed here for Direct Publisher Roku channels and for Custom SDK Roku channels built using Instant TV Channel.

Important: As of late January 2022, certain Vimeo MP4 URLs may not stream correctly to Roku devices. The non-working Vimeo MP4 URLs can be identified by looking for the text "progressive_redirect" within the body of the MP4 URL. It is highly recommended that for all Vimeo content the StreamFormat parameter is set to "hls" in order to use HLS URLs instead of MP4 URLs.

To store a video on Vimeo:

  1. Log into your Vimeo account.
  2. Click the Upload a Video button.
  3. Click the Choose a Video to Upload button.
  4. Select the video that you would like to upload from your local computer.
  5. Click the green Upload Selected Videos button. The upload process will begin.
  6. Wait for the uploading process to complete.

Obtain and store your Vimeo Access Token. This only needs to be done once for each Roku channel:
  1. Log into the Vimeo Developer website at developer.vimeo.com.
  2. Click My Apps located near the top of the page.
  3. Click the blue + Create an app button located near the top of the page.
  4. Enter an App name, for example the name of your channel, or the name of a grid row in the channel.
  5. Enter an App description, for example "Roku Access Token".
  6. Check (click) the I agree... checkbox.
  7. Click the blue Create App button.
  8. On the next page, scroll down to the "Authentication" section.
  9. Check (click) the Authenticated (you) checkbox. This will cause additional checkboxes to appear.
  10. Check (click) the Private checkbox.
  11. Check (click) the Video Files checkbox.
  12. Click the Generate button.
  13. The new 32-character access token will be displayed. Record the token, it will be needed later. This is the only time that the token is displayed, if you misplace the token you will need to create another.
  14. Log into your Instant TV Channel account, and navigate to the "Services" page for the Roku channel that you wish to add the Vimeo video or playlist to.
  15. Enter the 32-character Vimeo access token into the Vimeo Access Token parameter.

To use a video, Showcase, Album, or Portfolio stored on Vimeo in your Roku channel if your channel is at Update #290 or greater:
  • Individual SD & HD Vimeo HLS video file URLs (described near the end of this tutorial) can still be used with all Instant TV Channel Update levels, and can be used in the same Roku channel with the newer vm:// format URLs described here.
  1. Log into your Vimeo account.
  2. Navigate to the Vimeo video, Showcase, Album, or Portfolio that you would like to use in your Roku channel. If necessary, click the Next button at the bottom of the page to show more videos to choose from.
  3. Note the URL displayed in the address bar of your browser. Within the URL there is a sequence of digits. This is the Vimeo ID for the video, Showcase, Album, or Portfolio. In the example below, the Vimeo ID for the video is 106675854:

  4. Record the Vimeo ID number, it will be needed in a later step.
  5. Log into your Instant TV Channel account, and navigate to the "Content" page for the Roku channel that you wish to add the Vimeo video or playlist to.
  6. Enter one of the following URLs into the Instant TV Channel content item. Substitute the Vimeo ID number that you recorded in a previous step in place of "123456789".
    • For a single Vimeo video, used as the Stream 1 Url parameter for an Instant TV Channel video item : vm://123456789
    • For a Vimeo Showcase or Album, used as the Url parameter for an Instant TV Channel playlist : vma://1234567
    • For a Vimeo Portfolio, used as the Url parameter for an Instant TV Channel playlist : vmp://123456
  7. If you are using more than one Vimeo account, only the 1st account's Access Token can be stored in the Instant TV Channel "Services" page. The Vimeo Access Token for the 2nd and subsequent Vimeo accounts can be specified directly in the Stream 1 Url parameter like this: vm://{video id}/{access token}

    For example: vm://123456789/abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789, where "123456789" is the Vimeo ID number and "abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789" is the Vimeo Access Token.

    This same technique also works for Vimeo Showcases (vma://) and Vimeo Portolios (vmp://).

    For example: vma://123456/abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789 or vmp://123456/abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789.

    Your channel must be at Update #305 or higher in order to use Vimeo Access Tokens in URLs.

  8. Set the StreamFormat parameter to "hls". This format works more reliably than "mp4". HLS is an adaptable-bitrate format that allows the streaming of several different bitrates or quality levels using a single URL.
  9. Because many Roku-specific parameters are available which have no corresponding Vimeo parameter, it is possible to embed Roku-specific Custom SDK and Direct Publisher parameters into the Vimeo description field.
    • The basic format is: {[parameter_name:value][parameter_name:value]...}

      The {curly braces} and [square brackets] must be entered exactly as shown.

    • For example, if you want to load the Direct Publisher Genre information via Vimeo, you can do it using a string like this in the Vimeo description:

      {[DirectPublishGenre:comedy]}

    • Some parameters require multiple values which must always be loaded together as a set. For example, the Credit parameter has 3 sub-parameters: Name, Role, and Birthdate:

      {[Name:John Smith][Role:director][Birthdate:1960-07-18]}

    • Several different parameters can be embedded in the description at the same time:

      {[Name:John Smith][Role:director][Birthdate:1960-07-18][Name:Joe Screwdriver][Role:producer][Birthdate:1960-03-20][ReleaseDate:2008-04-10][Tag:robot][Tag:comedy][DirectPublishGenre:animated][DirectPublishGenre:comedy][ParentalRating:PG13][RatingSource:Motion Picture Association of America][AdBreak:00:05:00]}

      or

      {[Director:Ed Wood][Category:Robot][Category:Comedy][Actor:Sally Smith][Actor:John Doe][Midroll:00:15:00][Midroll:00:30:00][Midroll:00:45:00]}

    • Anything between the {curly braces} will be hidden from the on-screen Roku description.
    • Anything between the {curly braces} but not between the [square brackets] will be ignored:

      {This is a comment. [Director:Ed Wood]}

  10. That's it, your Vimeo video or playlist should now be playable from your Roku channel. For a production-quality channel, you'll probably want to replace the ListPosterUrl as well as any other parameters necessary to customize the appearance of the new video or playlist.
Vimeo Import Button The Vimeo Import button is used to import all information from Vimeo into a video item before before the channel is loaded into the Roku device. Because the Vimeo lookup is occuring on the Instant TV Channel website instead of on the viewers' Roku devices, the Roku channel will load faster and will not experience any issues related to Vimeo API rate-limiting.

If a Vimeo Access Token has been configured, the Vimeo Import button will be visible below or next to the Stream 1 Url parameter for each video. If the video has a vm:// URL and the Vimeo Import button is clicked, all available Vimeo metadata for the video will be copied into the content item.

Before clicking Vimeo Import button, set the StreamFormat parameter to "hls". This format works more reliably than "mp4".

If the Stream New button has been clicked causing more than one Stream section to be present, the Vimeo Import button will not be visible.

To use a video stored on Vimeo in your Roku channel if your channel is at Update #289 or less (this method works for all update levels):
  1. Log into your Vimeo account.
  2. Navigate to the Vimeo video that you would like to use in your Roku channel. If necessary, click the Load more... button at the bottom of the page to show more videos to choose from.
  3. Click the Advanced button. This is a "gear" symbol on the right edge of the page.
  4. Click the Distribution label on the left of the page.
  5. Click the Video file links label on the left of the page.
  6. Scroll down to the bottom of the Distribution column and locate the "Video file links" section.

    If Download the video is displayed, change it to Play the video.

    Click on Copy link to copy either the HLS or the DASH stream URL into your computer's clipboard.

  7. Log into your Instant TV Channel account.
  8. Click the Channels link at the left side of the page.
  9. From the Channels page, select the channel you wish to add the Vimeo video to.
  10. Select the Content link at the left side of the page.
  11. Right click on a folder in the Contents Tree, and select New Video or Audio.
  12. Scroll the parameter list down to the Stream 1 Url parameter box that contains "https://cdn2.instanttvchannel.com/plan9/plan9_640x480.mp4".
  13. Replace the "Plan 9" URL with the URL from Vimeo.
  14. Change the StreamFormat parameter to "hls" or "dash", depending on which URL you copied from Vimeo.
  15. Because there is only a single URL, leave the Bitrate parameter set at "0".
  16. For security, verify that the Vimeo URL begins with "https://" in order to mask the stream URL from network sniffers like Wireshark.
  17. That's it, your Vimeo video should now be playable from your Roku channel. For a production-quality channel, you'll probably want to replace the Title, Description, Length, poster URLs, Short Description Lines 1 and 2, and any other parameters necessary to customize the appearance of the new video.


Want to know more about using Instant TV Channel? Check out this Quick 5-Minute Walk-Through.

 

Instant TV Channel is a cloud-based tool for Roku developers and content providers that shortens development time and eases maintenance after deployment.


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