How to host videos for your Roku channel

DynTube hosts and packages the video, then publishes the selected project as a Roku JSON catalogue feed. Your team uses that feed inside the Roku application it builds and submits.

Published

A dark room at dusk. A large flat TV stands on a walnut desk, its screen filled with a calm mountain lake at sunset. In front of it sits a small square black streaming player with a single green status light; a short black HDMI cable curves from the player up into the underside of the TV, and a blue Ethernet cable runs from the player's other side across the desk and into a black slotted-angle rack at right. On a shelf in that rack a slim unbranded network gateway shows a row of four green link lights, one blue light and a blue power ring, with its own blue uplink cable leaving the frame. A plain black remote lies on the desk. Behind, a window looks out over a blurred city skyline at sunset.
The video never lives in the room. The player pulls it in over the network connection and puts it on the TV.Illustration · DynTube illustration

Understand the hosting, feed and app layers

A connected-TV catalogue has three separate parts. The video host stores and delivers the media. A feed describes the published catalogue in a machine-readable format. The Roku application reads that feed and presents the viewer experience on the device.

DynTube supplies the hosted playback output and the Roku-compatible JSON feed. You build, test and submit the channel application with Roku’s current developer tooling. Keeping those responsibilities clear prevents a feed URL from being mistaken for a finished TV application.

Prepare the video project first

Create a project for the catalogue and upload the source videos through the dashboard or API. Add accurate titles, descriptions and thumbnails, then wait until the videos you want in the feed have Published status. The feed is built from one selected project and includes its published videos.

Use adaptive delivery where it matches the Roku application’s playback design. Test the actual source URLs returned by the feed in the application rather than assuming a browser embed and a native TV player behave identically.

Create the Roku JSON feed in DynTube

  1. Open More tools, then Roku in the DynTube dashboard.
  2. Choose Add Roku Feed.
  3. Enter the required feed title and provider name.
  4. Select the project whose published videos should form the catalogue.
  5. Choose at least one feed genre and the required sort order.
  6. Create the feed, then copy or open its stable feed URL from the row menu.
feed URL shape
https://api.dyntube.com/v1/feeds/roku/<YOUR_FEED_KEY>

What the DynTube Roku feed contains

Each response describes the feed and up to 1,000 published videos from the selected project in the configured order. Video entries include the video key, title, description, thumbnail, tags, release date, duration and a source URL. The genres chosen on the feed apply to its items.

Connect the feed to your Roku application

Configure the catalogue-loading layer of your Roku application to request the DynTube feed URL and map its entries into the app’s screens and playback flow. Follow Roku’s current official developer requirements for application behaviour, packaging, testing, certification and submission because those requirements belong to the app platform and can evolve independently of the feed.

How catalogue updates reach viewers

DynTube generates the feed from current project data when the URL is requested. A newly published video or metadata update is therefore eligible for the next successful feed response. The Roku application decides when to fetch again, and caching between the application and feed can affect when the change appears on a television.

Validate each layer separately

  • Open the feed URL and confirm it returns JSON for the intended project.
  • Check that the expected videos have Published status and appear in the configured order.
  • Confirm titles, descriptions, thumbnails, duration and source URLs in the response.
  • Load the same response through a development build of the Roku application.
  • Test playback, seeking, captions and error handling on representative Roku devices.
  • After a catalogue change, compare the direct feed response with what the application currently shows.

Plan capacity from connected-TV viewing

TV sessions may be longer and may select higher renditions than short mobile visits. Estimate monthly viewers, average watch time and delivered bitrate for the Roku audience, then add that delivery to the viewing from your website, apps and other channels. Compare the combined result with current plan allowances.

Build a small catalogue before migrating the full channel

Start with a project containing a few representative titles, including different durations and caption states. Verify the feed, app navigation and playback on real devices, then expand the same project or create the production feed after the workflow is proven.

Treat catalogue metadata as part of the TV experience

TV viewers browse from a distance, so concise titles, recognisable thumbnails and useful descriptions matter. Establish a metadata convention before importing a large project, then inspect the feed response and the final app screen together. A valid JSON field can still produce a weak catalogue if the text or artwork was prepared only for a website card.

Troubleshoot from the feed outward

When an item is missing, first confirm the feed key, selected project and Published status. Request the feed URL directly and look for the video entry. If the current response is correct, continue into application parsing, caching and device refresh. This order separates DynTube catalogue state from the application layer and avoids republishing videos that are already present in the feed.

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