The updates below consist of changes to the Brightscript code included in channel PKG files
as well as changes to the online Instant TV Channel editor tools.
The UPDATE button in the Channel List or Theme Editor will apply these changes to your Roku channel.
If your channel is already updated to the latest version then the UPDATE button will not be visible.
New features and corrections will usually apply only to new Content Items added to your channel,
and will not be available for old Content Items
unless the individual old Content Items are updated to the current update level.
When uploading a new Pkg file to an already published channel in your Roku Developer Account,
it is essential that you increment the Channel Version number shown on the "Package Upload" page in your Roku Developer Account.
The Channel Version number is used by Roku devices to determine if an already installed channel can be updated to a new version.
If you forget to increment the Channel Version number then Roku devices that already have your channel installed will not automatically receive the new version.
Always thoroughly TEST new updates using a clone before updating a production channel.
More information about
how to update a channel
and
SceneGraph
can be found in Instant TV Channel's
Help!
section.
• Changed the .pkg filename format so that the major and minor version numbers consist of three digits instead of two.
• Added the following new Theme parameters which allow the channel to observe the Roku device's 'Auto-Play Video' setting
as required by Roku's Spring 2024 Certification Update:
AutomaticPlayWarningEnabled -
If the device's 'Auto-play video' setting is 'Off', and this parameter is 'True', then the viewer must click OK in the automatic play warning dialog before any auto-play video can begin.
If this parameter is 'False' then auto-play videos will begin regardless of the device's 'Auto-play video' setting.
This parameter also affects non-Springboard background and trailer videos if the device's 'Auto-play video' setting is 'Off'.
No warning dialog is displayed for trailer videos and background videos.
AutomaticPlayWarningTitle -
The title shown at the top of the automatic play warning dialog.
The default value is: Auto-Play Video.
AutomaticPlayWarningBody -
The body text shown in the automatic play warning dialog.
The default value is: Press OK to start streaming. To prevent this message from being displayed again, please change "Auto-play video" to "On" in your Roku settings.
• Added "installed" as an available condition for all DoNotDisplay Condition parameters.
This allows content items to be hidden (or displayed) if a channel/app with a specific App ID has already been installed on the device.
This is intended to be used along with the "Channel" Programmable Buttons and Linking Ad functions that were added in the previous Update.
See the
DoNotDisplay Condition Cookbook for usage examples.
• Added "isautoplayallowed" as an available condition for all DoNotDisplay Condition parameters.
This allows content items to be hidden (or displayed) depending on the device's 'Auto-play Video' setting.
This is intended to be used along with a Picture Screen item or short Video item to display a warning to viewers if they have 'Auto-play Video' disabled.
See the
DoNotDisplay Condition Cookbook for usage examples.
The new parameters in this update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
July 1, 2024
Update 539
• Re-enabled "Channel" Programmable Buttons and Linking Ad functions that were previously disabled due to Roku policy changes last year.
These functions allow the Roku channel to transfer control to another Roku channel, or to install another Roku channel.
Please see the
Programmable Buttons for Roku Channel Automation help article for more information on Programmable Buttons
or the
Placing Advertisements in your Roku Channel help article for more information about ad configuration.
• Renamed the ITVC "Keys & CDNs" web page to "Services".
The re-enabled functions in this update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
March 21, 2024
Update 538
• Modified PlayStart behavior so that it allows rewinding before PlayStart if Live is set to "yes+controls".
This allows live streams to be rewound prior to the live point when PlayStart is used to set the live point.
PlayStart still limits rewinding prior to PlayStart for non-live content.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
January 27, 2024
Update 537
• Corrected a bug that prevented overhang position adjustments if Developer Mode was set to Basic.
There are no Brightscript/SceneGraph code changes in this update.
It is not necessary to upload the new package file to your Roku Developer Account.
January 26, 2024
Update 536
• Corrected a bug that prevented the PLAY button for audio-only items from being displayed under certain circumstances if the Theme VideoPrebufferingEnabled parameter was set to "True".
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
January 24, 2024
Update 535
• Corrected a bug that prevented the Purchase Error message box configured on the Roku Billing page from being displayed when an in-channel-purchase failed.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
December 15, 2023
Update 534
• Corrected a bug that caused a "Developer Warning" error message to be displayed when in-channel-purchase programmable buttons were used.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
October 23, 2023
Update 533
• Added the %RATING query variable / macro for ads tags.
Please see the
Query Variables for Content and Ad URLs help article for more information about configuration of ad tags in a Roku SDK channel.
• Prioritized "media:content" elements over "enclosure" elements when both elements are present in an MRSS feed.
Please see the
Using RSS / MRSS Feeds and Playlists with Roku help article for more information about using MRSS feeds in a Roku SDK channel.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
September 22, 2023
Update 532
• Added a "Developer Warning" error message that is displayed if the channel attempts to use a Roku ECP function.
• Corrected a bug that caused the clock to display AM instead of PM when the time was between 12:00PM and 12:59PM.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
September 17, 2023
Update 530
•Added support for Client-Side Ad Insertion (CSAI) via SCTE-35 EXT-X-CUE-OUT markers.
This unique feature allows any Midroll Ad Type, including VAST ads,
to be automatically inserted into a stream based on the Instant TV Channel ad configuration parameters.
Please see the
Placing Advertisements in your Roku Channel help article for more information about ad configuration.
•Added two new Springboard styles:
"Standard Adjustable" is the normal Springboard style available in all previous updates,
but with adjustable text margins, poster location, poster scaling, and button height.
"Transparent Adjustable" allows the previous screen, for example a Grid, to be visible in the Springboard background.
The Springboard exits to the previous screen when the remote-control DOWN button is pressed on the last Springboard button,
or if the remote-control LEFT or RIGHT button is pressed.
The text margins and button height are adjustable.
If present, the Springboard poster location and scaling are also adjustable.
Transparent Adjustable Springboard screen displayed over a Grid screen.
•Added an optional on-screen digital clock, configurable using the Theme ClockStyle, ClockColor, ClockFontSize, Clock_X and Clock_Y parameters.
•Added fully adjustable font sizes (points) for the Theme ClockFontSize, GridListNameSize, GridTopDescription1Size, GridTopDescription2Size and RatingWidgetFontSize parameters.
If a numeric font size is present it overrides the pre-defined Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, or Huge font size.
•Added the Theme GridHorizontalWrap option to disable wrapping at the beginning and end of Grid Rows.
•Added the following Theme parameters related to Springboard layout:
SpringboardButtonCount - Maximum number of visible Springboard buttons.
If the number of buttons exceeds this value then they will scroll vertically.
SpringboardButtonHeight - Height of Springboard buttons in pixels. (There is already a SpringboardButtonWidth parameter.)
SpringboardMarginLeft - Left-side boundary for items displayed on the Springboard.
SpringboardMarginRight - Right-side boundary for items displayed on the Springboard.
SpringboardMarginTop - Top boundary for items displayed on the Springboard.
SpringboardPosterScale - Reduces or enlarges the standard Springboard poster sizes.
SpringboardPoster_X - Adjusts the Springboard poster horizontal position.
SpringboardPoster_Y - Adjusts the Springboard poster vertical position.
SpringboardStyle - Selects the style of the Springboard. Currently the choices are
"Standard", "Standard Adjustable", and "Transparent Adjustable".
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
June 26, 2023
• Preset editable channel templates are now used when creating a new channel.
The initial channel layout is based on the selected template.
The layout can be modified after the channel has been created.
The following templates are available now, others will be available in the future:
Basic - A basic channel with one or more videos.
Grid - A grid channel with multiple rows of videos.
Live - A single-video channel for live or broadcast streams.
Advanced Grid - A grid with background-style trailer videos, like Netflix.
Vertical Grid - A grid with single item rows and background-style videos.
• Existing channels from any Instant TV Channel account can be imported to create a new channel.
Importing a paid channel creates a clone which can be upgraded.
June 15, 2023
Update 529
• Modified the behavior of the Springboard optional Play All button so that it skips over non-video items without displaying an error message.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
May 22, 2023
Update 528
• Changed the behavior of Springboards so that trailer videos specified in custom buttons are not automatically played
when the Theme TrailerStyleSpringboard parameter is something other than "Off" or "No Video".
This allows button and non-button trailer videos to be configured independently of each other.
• Corrected a bug that prevented image URLs formatted without the typical .jpg or .png extensions from being displayed under certain circumstances.
This primarily affected thumbnails from Vimeo.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
May 9, 2023
Update 527
• Corrected a bug that caused Last.fm metadata lookups for audio-only streams to fail after a few minutes.
Please see the
Audio Streaming with SHOUTcast and Roku help article for more information
about using Last.fm and SHOUTcast with Roku audio streams.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
May 1, 2023
Update 526
• Improved the speed of Favorites initialization by storing Favorites data in the Roku device non-volatile memory in addition to optionally storing in AWS S3.
An AWS S3 Favorites bucket is no longer required unless you would like to monitor which Favorites your customers are selecting.
Please see the
How to Add Video Favorites to a Roku Channel help article for more information.
• Added support for the Vertical List ListItemHighlight Theme parameter.
• Added support for MXN and BRL currency for Roku Search Feeds.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
April 28, 2023
• Updated the free WordPress Registration & Linking example plugin to support Wordpress 6.2 and PHP 8.1.17.
Please see the
Paid Roku Channels: Registration & Linking with WordPress help article for more information.
The updated plugin is available here.
March 14, 2023
Update 525
• Corrected a bug that prevented Deep Link IDs contained in MRSS feeds from being recognized if they contained upper-case characters.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
March 1, 2023
Update 524
• Corrected a bug introduced in Update #522 that prevented trailers and backgrounds in Horizontal and Series Lists from operating correctly.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
February 19, 2023
Update 523
• Corrected a bug triggered by setting the Theme PosterScreenLine1Text parameter to #00000 in order to hide the ShortDescriptionLine1 text in Horizontal Lists.
The bug caused the ShortDescriptionLine2 text to be displayed in the wrong location,
or prevented it from being displayed at all.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
February 2, 2023
Update 522
• Worked around a long-standing Roku firmware issue that caused an incorrect item to be selected when rapidly scrolling and selecting in Horizontal Lists only.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
February 1, 2023
Update 521
• Corrected a bug introduced in Update #520 that caused Grids to crash if Favorites were not configured.
A workaround for using Update #520 without Favorites is to set Favorites Enabled to "Yes" and set Favorites Bucket Name to anything other than blank on the "Services" page.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
January 30, 2023
Update 520
• Added support for video "Favorites", which allows your viewers to save their favorite videos in an on-screen list.
Please see the
Adding a Video Favorites List to your Roku Channel help article for more information.
• Added a templating option to simplify Springboard changes in large channels.
Please see the
Using Templates for Roku Springboard Screens help article for more information.
• Added context information to GA4 In-Channel-Purchase / Roku Pay events.
Please see the
Google Analytics for Roku Channels help article for more information.
• Corrected a bug that prevented the : (colon) symbol from being used as a Control item purchase macro separator.
Please see the
Changing URLs or Text using a Macro help article for more information.
• Replaced the missing Conditional Control item symbol in the tree displayed on the Content page.
• For testing Purchase Macros and In-Channel Purchasing / Roku Pay, added ITVC_PURCHASED as a dummy Product ID that always behaves as if it has been purchased.
It is not necessary to configure ITVC_PURCHASED as a Product ID in your Roku Developer Account.
• Updated the default Roku Search Feed format to conform with Roku Search Feed 2.0 (JSON).
The older XML version is still available by manually editing the feed URL and replacing "rsfeed2" with "rsfeed".
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
November 14, 2022
Update 519
• Corrected a bug introduced in Update #514 which prevented Google Analytics V3 from working if the Theme ShareRegistry parameter is set to the non-default value of "False".
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
September 29, 2022
Update 518
• Added the Theme OverlayEnabledTrickplay parameter to enable the overlay specified by the Theme OverlayUrl parameter or the Content TrailerOverlayUrl parameter to be displayed on the Trickplay (fast-forward / rewind) screen.
Previously the overlay was always disabled on the Trickplay screen.
Roku UI text, typically the video title and the time, is visible at the top of the Trickplay screen so the position of items in the overlay may need to be adjusted.
• Additional clean up of the default Roku buffer screen to prevent it from briefly flashing for videos with buffer screens and videos that have longer than expected buffering times.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
September 23, 2022
Update 517
• Additional clean up of the default Roku buffer screen to prevent it from briefly flashing when a video starts under certain circumstances.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
September 22, 2022
Update 516
• Corrected a bug that caused bookmarks to not be saved if the Theme VideoPrebufferingEnabled parameter was set to "true".
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
September 21, 2022
Update 515
• Added voice command support using Roku voice remotes on all keyboard entry screens in order to meet Roku certification requirements.
• Changed the behavior of the remote control PLAY button on menus.
When a non-video item is in focus on a menu,
the PLAY button will behave the same as the OK button.
When a video item is in focus on a menu,
the PLAY button will skip the Springboard (if Springboards are enabled) and immediately begin playing the video.
Previously the remote control PLAY button had no effect on menus.
• Added "auto" as a StreamFormat option.
This is not a documented Roku stream format option and should be used with caution.
• Improved the performance of prebuffering.
Prebuffering is controlled by the Theme VideoPrebufferingEnabled parameter.
Prebuffering is only available for videos starting from a Springboard/Detail screen.
• The Buffer Screen and Buffering Progress Bar is no longer displayed for successfully prebuffered videos.
• Cleaned up the normally hidden default Roku buffer screen to keep it from briefly flashing when a video starts or stops.
• Corrected a bug that prevented Preview Springboard buttons from operating correctly.
Preview Length is now interpreted correctly as a length in seconds instead of as an absolute position in the video file.
If you are using Preview buttons in Springboards you may need to adjust the Preview Length parameter.
• BUG: Bookmarks may not be saved if the Theme VideoPrebufferingEnabled parameter is set to "true".
This is corrected in Update #516.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
August 18, 2022
Update 514
• Added support for Google Ad Manager Programmatic Access Library (PAL) for video ads.
This enables publishers with direct VAST call (DVC) approval from Google to monetize DVC-based Roku channels.
• Added the Theme GooglePAL parameter to enable/disable the Google Programmatic Access Library (PAL) for video ads.
When enabled, nonces, which are encrypted signing strings from Google, are added to VAST ad tags via the %PALNONCE macro variable.
Default is enabled.
• Added the macro variable %PALNONCE. Inserts a Google PAL nonce into a VAST ad tag.
• Added the macro variable %US_PRIVACY. Inserts "1-N-" into a VAST ad tag if viewer's System - Privacy - "Personalize ads" box is checked, inserts "1-Y-" if "Personalize ads" is unchecked.
Additional information about the US Privacy String is here:
https://github.com/InteractiveAdvertisingBureau/USPrivacy/blob/master/CCPA/US%20Privacy%20String.md
• Added MRSS irc:playstart and irc:playduration tags for use with live and VOD streams.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
July 5, 2022
Update 513
• Added the Theme GATrackerMeasurementId parameter to support Google Analytics version 4 (GA4).
• Added the Theme GATrackerDebug parameter to support Google Analytics version 4 (GA4).
• Updated the
Google Analytics for Roku Channels help article with information about using GA4 with your Roku channel.
• Added support for MRSS media:subtitle tags with trackID, trackDescription, and trackLanguage attributes.
• Improved on-screen error messages for unavailable content.
• Added the | (pipe) separator symbol as an alternative to the % symbol for use as a Control item macro separator.
• Corrected a bug that prevented the web GUI Control item ControlParagraph text box from displaying %-escape sequences correctly.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
April 22, 2022
Update 512
• Added the Theme PosterScreenFocusBorderTint parameter to allow the focus frame for Horizontal and Series lists to be customized.
• Added the Theme SpringboardOverhangEnabled parameter to allow the overhang to be removed from all Springboard/Detail screens.
• Added the Theme SpringboardButtonFocusImage and SpringboardButtonWidth parameters to allow buttons on the Springboard/Detail screen to have custom colors, shapes, and transparency.
• Added the Theme SpringboardPosterBorderImage and SpringboardPosterBorderThickness parameters to allow the frame surrounding the poster on the Springboard/Detail screen to be customized.
• Added the Theme OverlayEnabledTrailers parameter to allow overlays to be applied to trailer videos using the OverlayUrl parameter of the parent list of the trailer video.
This facilitates the use of vignette or gradient overlays on trailer videos:
Springboard/Detail screen with horizontal gradient overlay on trailer video.
• Modified the Springboard/Detail screen behavior so that if the PosterUrl parameter is blank then no placeholder image is displayed. See example Springboard image above.
• Added the Roku Billing Expiration Date Grace Period parameter to work around the Roku In-Channel Purchase last-day bug.
• Corrected a bug that prevented the display of the Grid Overhang when returning to a Grid from the In-Channel Search screen.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
• Changed the maximum allowable Product ID length in various parameters in order to accomodate 36-character UID format IDs.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method.
It is not necessary to re-package or re-upload SDK channels after applying this update.
February 28, 2022
Update 510
• Added the Vimeo Import Stream Format parameter to the Services page.
This parameter allows the developer to override the StreamFormat parameter for individual Vimeo items when importing or re-importing.
This is useful for bulk-converting channels using MP4-format Vimeo URLs to HLS-format URLs (or vice versa) with the Import All Vimeo Videos context (right-click) command.
The default setting for Vimeo Import Stream Format is to use HLS for all imported Vimeo videos.
Channels prior to Update #510 will always use HLS for newly imported Vimeo videos.
This update is applicable to channels using both the SDK publishing method and the Direct Publisher publishing method.
It is not necessary to re-package or re-upload SDK channels after applying this update.
November 8, 2021
Update 509
• Changed the behavior of backgrounds loaded from the Grid Row ListTrailerBackgroundUrl parameter so that the background image no longer fades out and in when the grid is scrolled horizontally.
• Corrected a bug that caused backgrounds loaded from the Grid and Theme BackgroundImageUrl parameters to not always be restored after displaying a background for an individual item.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
September 20, 2021
• Added the Import All Vimeo Videos context (right-click) selection to all content tree folders in SDK channels,
and to the top-level content tree folder in DP channels.
Reimporting a Vimeo video will always replace any existing Vimeo image URLs in addition to the stream URL(s).
It may be necessary to temporarily set Vimeo Parameter Override on the Services page to "Yes" in order to prevent existing data
like the title or description from being overwritten by the Vimeo data.
It is strongly advised to test Import All Vimeo Videos on a clone before applying to a production channel.
This feature was added in response to Vimeo's undocumented change of it's image URL format.
No update is required.
September 19, 2021
• Added support for reimporting existing Vimeo videos on a per-video basis.
Reimporting a Vimeo video will replace any existing Vimeo image URLs in addition to the stream URL(s).
This feature was added in response to Vimeo's undocumented change of it's image URL format.
No update is required.
September 14, 2021
• Corrected a bug that prevented ShortDescriptionLine1 & 2 in grid rows from appearing in reports.
• Corrected a bug that prevented BIF files from being generated for video URLs that started with "s3://".
No update is required.
July 23, 2021
Update 508
• Corrected a bug affecting items contained in Vertical Lists that prevented trailer images and videos from being displayed
if the ListPosterUrl parameter was blank or invalid.
• Eliminated the requirement that video ads must be located within the same parent list as Deep Linking video content.
Video ads positioned at the top-level of the content tree will now be visible to all lower nesting levels during Deep Linking.
This allows video ads to behave consistently whether or not Deep Linking is used,
and will simplify video ad configuration in channels which use Deep Linking or Roku Search.
Please see the
Placing Advertisements in your Roku Channel help article for more information.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
July 6, 2021
Update 507
• Changed the behavior of the Search function within automatic-play lists
so that multiple consecutive searches can be performed using only the remote control DOWN button.
Prior to this change, after a selection was made on the Search screen, it was necessary to press the remote control BACK button
to exit the automatic-play list in order to re-enter the Search screen.
This change causes the DOWN button to behave consistently within an automatic-play list, so that it always enters or re-enters the Search screen if Search is enabled.
• Corrected a bug that caused a crash if a Text item was scheduled.
Scheduled Text items are not currently supported.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
July 5, 2021
• Added the Create All BIFs context (right-click) selection to all content tree folders in SDK channels, and to the top-level content tree folder in DP channels.
This generates BIF files for all video items at that point and lower in the content tree that do not already have the HDBifURL parameter populated.
Please verify that the Create BIF button for a single video works as expected before using this feature.
This feature causes multiple BIF files to be emailed to you or stored in your AWS S3 account.
• Added the Expand All Folders context (right-click) selection to the top-level content tree folder.
This opens up all folders in the content tree to make it easy to perform browser searches (CTRL-F) on titles.
No update is required.
June 18, 2021
Update 506
• Added the Theme ArtworkMaximumSize parameter.
Possible settings are "1280x720" and "1920x1080".
The default and backwards-compatible setting of "1280x720" pre-scales all artwork by 1.5x if the channel is viewed on a 1920x1080 or larger screen.
The "1920x1080" setting turns off pre-scaling regardless of screen size, and may result in a slight improvement in sharpness if larger artwork sizes are provided.
Additional scaling may still occur if necessary, as it was before this update.
Don't forget to adjust the Buffering Bar position on the Theme page if changing this parameter!
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
June 1, 2021
Update 505
• Added support for country codes with the DoNotDisplay Condition parameter.
This can be used to permit or block content from being displayed in specified countries.
See the
DoNotDisplay Condition Cookbook for usage examples.
• Added support for DoNotDisplay Condition before/after/between time values with no date specified, to allow daily recurring use without re-entering the parameter.
• Added custom font support to dialogs, including the exit dialog introduced in Update #502,
so that the on-screen dialog boxes use the optional font specified on the Theme page instead of using the default Roku font.
• Added a BACK button to the In-Channel Search screen.
Please see the
How To Add In-Channel Search to a Roku Channel help article for more information.
• Added support for an additional title-artist divider string in the SHOUTcast index page screen scraper.
Currently supported divider string formats are "Artist - Title" and "Title/Artist".
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
April 18, 2021
• Corrected a bug in the web interface that was triggered when modifying stream parameters for imported Vimeo Showcases.
Please see the
How To Import Videos help article for more information about how to import videos,
including Vimeo Showcases, into your Roku channel.
No update is required.
April 8, 2021
• Corrected a bug in the web interface that was triggered when modifying the RokuSearchQuality parameter.
No update is required.
April 6, 2021
Update 504
• Worked around an undocumented change in Roku Static Analysis related to "roDeviceInfo.GetConnectionInfo()" that blocked channel publication.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
March 29, 2021
Update 503
• Corrected a bug that caused purchase macros to crash when used to modify BufferPictureUrl parameters.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
March 22, 2021
Update 502
• Added support for an exit confirmation dialog: "Are you sure you want to exit the channel?". This is controlled using the following Theme parameters:
ChannelExitDialogEnabled - Enable or disable the confirmation dialog. The default setting is "enabled".
ChannelExitTitle - The title shown at the top of the exit confirmation dialog.
ChannelExitBody - The exit confirmation dialog message.
ChannelExitNoButton - The text shown in the exit confirmation dialog "No" (do not exit) button.
ChannelExitYesButton - The text shown in the exit confirmation dialog "Yes" (exit) button.
DialogBackgroundImage - The background image for all dialogs, including the exit confirmation dialog.
DialogTitleText - The color of all dialog titles, including the exit confirmation dialog title.
DialogBodyText - The color of all dialog messages, including the exit confirmation dialog message.
• Added the Theme RatingWidgetRectangleOpacity parameter which adjusts the opacity of the optional colored rectangle used with the Rating widget.
See the Update #458 notes below for more information on the Rating widget.
• Added the Theme BufferPictureTimer parameter which adjusts the minimum number of seconds that buffer picture images
specified by video item BufferPictureUrl parameters are displayed.
This parameter is only used when an individual video item's BufferPictureTimer parameter is set at the default value of 0.
Setting an individual video item's BufferPictureTimer parameter to a non-zero value overrides the Theme BufferPictureTimer parameter.
• Added two additional control macro types that can be used to alter images or text displayed in the channel based on whether or not a particular Product ID has been purchased:
"text purchase macro" - A macro that is applied to text parameters conditioned on the provided Product ID having been purchased.
"url purchase macro" - A macro that is applied to URL parameters conditioned on the provided Product ID has been purchased.
Please see the
URL and Text Macros documentation for more information about using macros.
• Corrected the behavior of "url macros" which previously did not always alter PosterUrl and ListPosterUrl parameters.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
March 8, 2021
Update 501
• Corrected a bug that was present since Update 491 that prevented audio from being played with slideshows.
• Added support for secure s3:// audio stream URLs.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
March 4, 2021
Update 500
• Added the Theme AutomaticPlayExit parameter to control the behavior of the remote-control BACK button within AutomaticPlay-enabled lists.
The default setting of "All Levels" causes the BACK button to exit all nested autoplay lists.
The "Single Level" setting causes the BACK button to exit only the autoplay list that is currently looping.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
February 9, 2021
Update 499
•Corrected an issue that caused a harmless Static Analysis warning for invalid splash screen resolution.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
Please see the
Static Analysis documentation for more information about Static Analysis warnings and errors.
February 8, 2021
Update 498
• Removed the Theme splash_extended parameter.
• Removed the Theme splash_rsg_optimization parameter.
• Eliminated the flash that occurs shortly after the splash screen is displayed.
The Theme splash_time parameter must be set to "0" to eliminate the flash.
When splash_time is set to "0" the duration of the splash screen will vary depending on the complexity of the channel.
Example channel with splash screen extended to at least 3 seconds.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
February 4, 2021
Update 497
• Added support for BoxCast query parameters with bx:// URLs.
For example this allows the number of Broadcasts returned in a BoxCast Channel to be increased from the default limit of 20 to a higher limit:
bx://{BoxCast_Channel_ID}?l=50
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
February 1, 2021
Update 496
• Corrected a bug that prevented the next event countdown text from being displayed over Picture Screen images used as schedule leaders or fillers.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
January 5, 2021
Update 495
• Added the Theme IncludeECP parameter to permit removal of all ECP code from the channel if necessary.
• Corrected various Static Analysis issues.
Please see the
Static Analysis documentation for more information.
• Added macro substitution support to grid items.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
November 16, 2020
• Added support in the web interface for international characters.
This allows international characters to be entered in the web editor for on-screen display within a Roku channel.
The default font has support for the following "Latin Extended" characters:
à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï
ð ł ñ ò ó ô õ ö ø š ù ú û ü ý ÿ þ
À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï
Ð Ł Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Š Ù Ú Û Ü Ý Þ ß
Using a custom font (SDK channels only) may allow other character sets to be displayed.
August 26, 2020
Update 494
• Worked around a Roku OS issue which intermittently caused a small number of channels to crash at launch.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
August 21, 2020
Update 493
• Because this update changes how channels communicate with S3,
it is highly recommended that this update is tested on a clone before applying it to a production channel.
This is particularly important for developers using S3 buckets not located in "us-east-1".
• READ BEFORE UPDATING:
This update adds support for AWS Signature Version 4, which replaces AWS Signature Version 2.
Configuration buckets that were created in regions other than "us-east-1" will not be accessible after this update is applied
unless the Services Configuration Bucket Region parameter is changed to the correct region.
Failure to correctly set the Configuration Bucket Region parameter may prevent the channel from loading.
The "TEST S3 CONFIGURATION STORAGE" button will verify that the correct region has been selected.
Instant TV Channel documentation has always stated that the configuration bucket should be created in the "us-east-1" region.
This is the optimal region because the Instant TV Channel servers also operate in the "us-east-1" region.
• Replaced the default "Plan 9" stream URL and added an example BIF/Trickplay URL.
• Minor web interface cosmetic update to reflect Roku's latest "mm_icon" revisions.
• Trigger the AppLaunchComplete beacon prior to optional Theme splash_video playback to prevent a static analysis error.
• Added support for SigV4-only AWS S3 buckets.
• Added Services Configuration Bucket Region parameter to specify AWS region/endpoint for configuration S3 buckets.
• Added Theme S3Region parameter to specify AWS region/endpoint for non-config S3 buckets.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
June 19, 2020
Update 492
• Modified RAF initialization in order to better support Roku-supplied video ads and video ad testing.
• Modified Roku OS detection in preparation for OS 10.x and higher.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
May 6, 2020
Update 491
• Worked around an OS issue which caused excessive buffering time and
a brief interuption in live audio-only streams at 15 second intervals after playback started.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
April 14, 2020
Update 490
• Updated the default value of the Theme rsg_version parameter to "1.2".
• Added the Theme IncludeBilling parameter to allow unused billing-related software to be excluded from the Pkg file in order to eliminate Static Analysis errors.
The parameter defaults to "True" which causes the billing code to be included in the Pkg file.
The parameter must be "True" to monetize with subscriptions or one-time purchases.
A new Pkg file is required if changing this parameter.
• Added the Theme IncludeRAF parameter to allow unused RAF (Roku Advertising Framework) software to be excluded from the Pkg file in order to eliminate Static Analysis errors.
The parameter defaults to "True" which causes the RAF code to be included in the Pkg file.
The parameter must be "True" to use VAST ads.
A new Pkg file is required if changing this parameter.
• Added support for multiple SRT files in MRSS feeds.
Please see the
MRSS Elements documentation for more information.
• Eliminated various harmless Static Analysis warnings.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
February 24, 2020
Update 489
• Corrected a bug that prevented in-channel searching from working correctly with randomized AutomaticPlay-enabled lists.
• Corrected a bug that prevented Deep-Linking from working correctly with randomized AutomaticPlay-enabled lists.
• Corrected a bug that prevented "Input" (roInputEvent) Deep-Linking events from working correctly when a result from in-channel searching was being played.
This update is not required if your channel's Theme AutomaticPlayRandomize parameter is set to "False" and SearchScope parameter is set to "off".
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
January 8, 2020
• Corrected a bug that prevented MRSS/XML irc:srt, irc:srturl, and media:subTitle elements from being imported.
• Corrected a bug that prevented Roku Search Quality from being modified.
No update is required.
November 11, 2019
Update 488
• Changed the Theme SpringboardEnabled parameter options from "True" / "False", to "yes", "no", "no + AutomaticPlay Once", and "no + AutomaticPlay Repeat"
in order to support autoplay of Lists and Grid rows, including MRSS playlists, when the Springboard is disabled.
• Corrected a bug that caused the OPTIONS key, when used to display Grid item descriptions, to be unresponsive under certain conditions.
• Worked around a Roku OS 9.2 issue that incorrectly calculates the duration of audio streams.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
October 30, 2019
Update 487
• Added ES (español) to available Roku Search regions in order to support Spanish-language descriptions for Search results.
• Added the Theme RokuSearchDescription parameter which selects the language to be used for the description in Roku Search results.
This parameter only affects NEW matches. It has no effect on existing matches.
• Added the Account Roku Search Match List Sort Order parameter which determines the order in which the possible Gracenote matches are displayed in the selection list.
This parameter affects all channels in the account.
Please see the
How To Make a Roku Search Feed help article for more information.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method.
October 18, 2019
• Added support for Roku Search Feeds.
Please see the
How To Make a Roku Search Feed help article for more information.
Roku Search can be used with all SDK channels, no update is required.
September 23, 2019
Update 486
• Added the Theme GridFocusBorder parameter which can be used to provide a 9-patch PNG image that replaces the default focus border for grid items.
The color of the GridFocusBorder image is blended with the color specified by the GridFocusBorderColor parameter.
If GridFocusBorderColor is set to #FFFFFF then no blending occurs.
• Added the Theme GridFocusBorderOnTop parameter to position the focus border over or under the focused Grid item.
• Modified the behavior of AutomaticPlay-enabled lists so that videos can be rewound prior to bookmarked video starting positions.
• Corrected a bug that caused the channel to crash if Brightcove logging was enabled without a Brightcove account ID.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
August 27, 2019
Update 485
• Corrected a bug that prevented "Input" (roInputEvent) Deep-Linking from working correctly in Automatic-Play lists.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
August 26, 2019
Update 484
• Added
documentation for the Condition parameter which
allows the DoNotDisplay parameter to be conditionally applied to content items based on dates, purchase status, RIDA, Client ID, or display mode.
• Corrected a bug that prevented RIDA from being used in the Condition parameter.
• Added a Condition parameter test for FHD displays.
• Modified the behavior of the remote control DOWN key to display the in-channel Search keyboard (if enabled) when a Picture Screen is displayed.
Previously the DOWN key was ignored when a Picture Screen was displayed.
• Changed the color for the in-channel Search keyboard screen's Results Title to use the Theme ParagraphHeaderText parameter.
• Added support for a future update that will generate a Roku Search Feed for Commercial channels.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
July 30, 2019
Update 483
• Corrected a bug that caused the channel to crash if a Vimeo Showcase was used as a Grid Row with the Services Vimeo SDL2 Description parameter set to "No".
The Vimeo SDL2 Description parameter allows the Vimeo description to be displayed when Grid Top Descriptions are being used.
Please see the
Using Roku Grid Screens
and
Using Vimeo with Roku help articles for more information.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
July 29, 2019
Update 482
• Deep-linking and searching within autoplay lists now retains the matched item's position in the list.
This allows the next item in the list sequence to be automatically played after the deep-linked or searched item is played.
• Corrected the behavior of the VAST ad ROKU_ADS_CONTENT_GENRE macro which was not being populated.
• Added the Theme RAFGenreMacroSource parameter to select the source to be used for populating the ROKU_ADS_CONTENT_GENRE macro.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
July 23, 2019
Update 481
• Added the Theme AdMidrollStop parameter.
This parameter is the number of minutes remaining in a video after which no further midrolls may be played.
This may be used to prevent midrolls from interrupting the closing credits of a video when AdMidrollInterval is used to define the midroll positions.
If the video Length is 0 (not set) then AdMidrollStop is ignored.
• Added support for purchased and non-purchased Product IDs to DoNotDisplayCondition.
• Added a "restart channel" option to ProgrammableButton Purchase Error and PurchaseSuccess.
This allows the channel to be restarted after a purchase in order to update items that have DoNotDisplay conditional on a purchase.
• Added a "restart the channel" option to After Purchase for Springboard Purchase buttons.
Example channel using new features from Update 481.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
July 19, 2019
Update 480
• Added support for MRSS custom Grid poster sizes when MRSS feeds are used as Grid Rows.
Uploading a new package file to your Roku Developer Account is not necessary to use this new feature,
however the channel does need to be updated for the new MRSS parameters to be available.
• Corrected a bug that caused the channel to crash if the Theme VideoAdsEnabled parameter was set to "if not linked".
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
July 16, 2019
Update 479
• Added the Theme PosterUrlImport parameter to control how poster URLs are optionally modified when imported.
The default value converts https:// poster URLs into http:// URLs in order to improve poster display performance.
This affects MRSS imports, Direct Publisher imports, and Vimeo imports.
• Please see the
How To Import Videos help article for more information.
This update is applicable to SDK channels and Direct Publisher channels.
Uploading a new package file to your Roku Developer Account is not necessary.
July 15, 2019
Update 478
• Added support for importing videos from MRSS XML feeds,
including MRSS feeds with Instant TV Channel extensions,
into Horizontal Lists, Vertical Lists, Series, and Grid Rows.
• Added support for importing videos from Roku Direct Publisher XML feeds
into Horizontal Lists, Vertical Lists, Series, and Grid Rows.
• Added support for importing videos from Roku Direct Publisher JSON feeds into Grids.
• Please see the
How To Import Videos help article for more information.
• Added the Theme MrssImportDestination and MrssImportDirection parameters.
This update is applicable to SDK channels and Direct Publisher channels.
Uploading a new package file to your Roku Developer Account is not necessary.
June 14, 2019
Update 477
• Corrected a bug that prevented Top and Restart Programmable Buttons from working correctly as targets of the optional Springboard GoTo button.
Please see the
Programmable Buttons for Roku Channel Automation help article for more information on Programmable Buttons.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
June 11, 2019
Update 476
• Corrected a bug that caused Vimeo Portfolio vmp:// URLs to crash the channel.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
May 7, 2019
Update 475
• Reduced false warnings from Roku's "Static Analysis" report.
• Changed the behavior of the %ADVERTISINGID and %ISADIDTRACKINGDISABLED macros so that they return the newer RIDA (Roku ID for Advertising) values
if the Roku device firmware is at version 8.1 or higher.
Older firmware versions, if they are still in use, will return the "deprecated" non-RIDA values.
Support for the older firmware versions may result in harmless "Static Analysis" warnings.
It is preferable to use the ROKU_ADS_TRACKING_ID and ROKU_ADS_LIMIT_TRACKING macros for VAST ad tags instead of the %ADVERTISINGID and %ISADIDTRACKINGDISABLED macros.
• Corrected a bug that prevented the PlayDuration parameter from being observed by audio-only streams.
• Corrected a bug that prevented the PlayDuration parameter from being observed by video streams played using the Springboard Preview button.
• Corrected a bug that prevented the Springboard "Play From Beginning" button from working correctly with audio-only streams.
• Corrected a bug that caused in-channel Search option "ShortDescriptionLine1+2" to ignore the contents of the ShortDescriptionLine2 parameter.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
April 29, 2019
Update 474
• Added support for Brightcove HLS renditions with type "application/x-mpegURL".
Please see the
Using Brightcove with Roku help article for more information
about using Brightcove with Roku.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
April 24, 2019
Update 473
• Modified the Theme TrailerBackgroundIgnoreVideo parameter.
The parameter now provides selectable options of "yes", "no", and "auto".
Previously this was a True/False parameter.
The new "yes" option displays the trailer background image both before and after any trailer video has played,
this is equivalent to the previous "True" option.
The new "no" option never displays the trailer background image before the trailer video plays.
The new "auto" option is equivalent to the previous "False" option.
Regardless of the option selected, if there is no trailer video then the trailer background image is displayed immediately.
The TrailerBackgroundIgnoreVideo parameter is usually set to "yes" only if the trailer background image matches the trailer video's buffer picture,
as this provides the appearance of the trailer video's buffer picture being displayed a second or two sooner than it otherwise would.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
April 23, 2019
Update 472
• Corrected a bug that caused the Theme TrailerVideoLoopLimit to be ignored.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
April 22, 2019
Update 471
• Added the "Convert to Update #..." context menu selection to allow individual content items to be updated to the channel's current update level.
• Allow spaces to be embedded in stream URLs submitted for BIF generation.
• Added the Theme PosterScaling parameter to control how content posters are modified if their aspect ratio does not match the configured on-screen aspect ratio.
Choices are "Crop", "Letterbox/Pillarbox", and "Stretch".
"Crop" is equivalent to the behavior prior to this update where posters were always scaled symmetrically and cropped to match on-screen poster dimensions.
• Corrected a bug that caused an audio item bookmark to be reset to 0 if the Springboard is exited before resuming the audio stream.
The PosterScaling and audio bookmark portions of this update are applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
April 17, 2019
Update 470
• Corrected a bug that crashed channels running on devices with a Roku firmware version of less than 9.1 because they do not contain the SignalBeacon function.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
April 16, 2019
Update 469
• Added channel launch time signal beacons to satisfy Roku's September 30, 2019 certification criteria.
• Unescaped ShortDescriptionLine1 & ShortDescriptionLine2 in Grids so that "%0a" can be used to force line breaks.
• Corrected a bug that prevented grid description bubbles from being displayed under certain circumstances.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
April 8, 2019
• Added BIF support for MKV source videos.
• Added the Send BIF S3 Success Email parameter to the "Account" page to enable the sending of email messages for successful writes of BIF files to S3.
The new default setting is for no email to be sent.
In case of an error generating a BIF file or writing a BIF file,
an email message is always sent regardless of this setting.
April 4, 2019
• Added "Wizard" buttons on the "Services" page for S3 Configuration bucket and S3 BIF bucket creation.
March 25, 2019
Update 468
• Modified the behavior of the "Create BIF" button on the Content page so that it emails the BIF file if the S3 BIF bucket is not configured.
• Corrected a bug that prevented the AllowPause and ChannelAppId options to be ignored for Selectable Banner Ads.
The Banner Ad portion of this update will only become active for SDK channels after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account. The BIF portion of this update does not require a new package file and can be used with Direct Publisher channels and with SDK channels.
March 18, 2019
Update 467
• Added the "Create BIF" button to Content page video items in order to generate BIF files
in support of new Roku testing requirements.
The BIF files are created and stored in a pre-configured S3 bucket which is accessed within the channel using the "bif://" prefix.
Direct Publisher users will need to change the "bif://" prefix to a less-secure prefix such as "http://bucketname.s3.amazonaws.com/".
The BIF interval and image quality is configurable on the "Services" page.
Please see the
BIF help article for more information.
Big Buck Bunny video WITHOUT BIF
Big Buck Bunny video WITH BIF
• Corrected a bug that caused the channel to crash if the Theme SpringboardMinuteLabel parameter was blank.
• Corrected a bug that caused a fade-in time of 0 to "freeze" the left-right scrolling in Horizontal Lists.
• Corrected a bug that caused the mini-progress bars on episodic Horizontal List posters to be displayed incorrectly under certain circumstances.
• Corrected a bug that caused some Nielsen-related components to be active even though the Theme RAFNielsenEnabled parameter was disabled. .
• Replaced the missing default value of "actor" for the Direct Publisher Role parameter.
• Modified the behavior of the Theme AdPreload parameter so that it controls VAST ad preloading when a Springboard screen is displayed. .
This update will only become active for SDK channels after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
February 7, 2019
Update 466
• Important:This Update modifies the behavior of the Theme TrailerStyle "off" option.
• Important:Channels using the Programmable Button "channel" Function or the video ad ChannelAppId parameter should install this Update.
• Added the "no video" option to the four Theme TrailerStyle parameters.
The new "no video" option performs the same function as the old "off" option did,
by preventing any trailer video from playing.
As of Update #466 the "off" option will prevent any trailer video from playing (as it did before)
AND it will also prevent the display of any trailer background image or overlay.
• Updated the Programmable Button "channel" Function and the video ad ChannelAppId linking function
in order to maintain compatibility with the Roku Channel Store.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
February 4, 2019
Update 465
• Added support for Deep Linking using roInputEvent in order to support new Roku testing requirements.
This allows an already running channel to deep link to content in the channel without requiring a channel launch delay.
• Added support for Deep Linking to MRSS content.
Please see the
Deep Linking documentation for more information.
• Added trailer-related "irc" MRSS tags.
Please see the
MRSS Elements documentation for more information.
• Corrected a bug introduced several updates ago that prevented the STAR key from activating the Search function in grids.
• Corrected a bug that prevented the Vertical List Header parameter from being edited if the Vertical List was located in a Grid Row.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
January 17, 2019
Update 464
• Added the Theme AdPreload parameter to allow video ad preloading to be disabled.
Changing this parameter to "False" may cause delays in video ad playback.
• Added the Theme AdStackingLimitMidroll parameter to allow the stacking limit for midroll ads to be adjusted independently of prerolls and postrolls.
• Corrected a bug that caused audio streams to crash the channel if the Length was 0 and the remote control fast-forward or rewind button was pressed.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
• Added the Content TrailerName and TrailerUID parameters to Picture, Text, and Programmable Button items.
These two parameters allow the items to have Trailer-style videos displayed in their parent lists or grids.
Video items have had these two parameters since Update 460.
• Added the Content TrailerBackgroundUrl and TrailerOverlayUrl parameters to Video, Picture, Text, and Programmable Button items.
These two parameters allow the items to have background images and transparent overlays displayed in their parent lists or grids,
as well as on Springboards for Video items.
• Added the Content BackgroundImageUrl, BackgroundVideoUID, and BackgroundVideoName parameters to Grids, Grid Rows, Horizontal Lists, Vertical Lists, and MRSS items.
These parameters display images or videos in the background of grids and lists.
The parameters override the Theme BackgroundImageUrl and BackgroundVideoUIDparameters, and are themselves overridden by Trailer parameters in children.
• Added the Content ListTrailerName, ListTrailerUID, ListTrailerBackgroundUrl, and ListTrailerOverlayUrl parameters for grids and lists.
These four parameters allow grids and lists to have Trailer-style videos, background images, and transparent overlays displayed in their parent lists or grids.
• Added the Theme BackgroundImageUrl, BackgroundVideoName and BackgroundVideoUID parameters.
These parameters display images or videos in the background of grids and lists.
• Added the Theme BackgroundVideoLoopLimit, and TrailerVideoLoopLimit global parameters
to manage bandwidth consumed by looped videos.
• Added the Theme BufferPictureOpacity parameter.
• Added the Theme PosterScreenPosition parameter which can be used to adjust the vertical position of the posters on a Horizontal List screen.
• Added the Theme ShowDebugClientId parameter to display the Client ID.
The ShowDebugVersion parameter no longer displays the Client ID.
• Added the Theme ShowDebugRida parameter to display the RIDA (Roku ID for Advertisers).
The ShowDebugVersion parameter no longer displays the RIDA.
• Added the Theme TrailerBackgroundIgnoreVideo parameter which allows Trailer background images to be displayed both before and after trailer background videos instead of only after.
If the background image matches the Trailer video's BufferPictureUrl image,
this provides the appearance of the Trailer video's buffer picture being displayed a second or two sooner than it otherwise would.
• Added the Theme TrailerOverlayOnBufferPicture parameter which allows Trailer overlays to be displayed over buffer pictures when a video is starting.
• Added the Theme TrailerOverlayWhenPaused parameter which allows Trailer overlays to be displayed over paused videos.
• Re-added support for the Content PlayDuration parameter which has been broken since Roku Firmware/OS 8.1.
• Changed the behavior of Springboard posters so that an empty frame is not displayed if no PosterUrl has been provided.
• Added the experimental Theme PosterScreenExplode parameter which enables additional Horizontal List poster animation when the poster is selected.
Use with care, this experimental parameter may cause channel crashes.
• Corrected a bug that prevented ITVC query variables from being expanded into MRSS feed/playlist URLs.
• Corrected a bug that displayed a black screen instead of video when passwords were used with Springboard screens.
• Corrected a bug that caused the optional Springboard Preview button to ignore the PlayStart parameter.
• Demo Channel for Update 463: https://my.roku.com/add/U463
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
November 16, 2018
Update 462
• Added support for the BufferPictureUrl parameter when used in MRSS Playlists configured as Grid Rows.
• Corrected a bug that caused the channel to crash if an In-Channel Purchase was cancelled at the same time that the Roku Channel Store returned an error.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
November 12, 2018
Update 461
• Worked around a Roku OS issue that affected the built-in default 9-patch buffer screens for poster-style video trailers.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
November 12, 2018
Update 460
• Added support for trailer videos displayed in the selectable posters or in the background of Grid, Horizontal List, Springboard, and Vertical List screens.
Trailer videos are specified using the new video item TrailerUID parameter or any existing video item Springboard "Trailer" button.
Several new Theme TrailerStyle parameters control whether the trailer is displayed in a poster, in the background, or in a custom location.
Poster Trailer
Background Trailer
• Added the Theme BusySpinnerEnabled parameter which may be used to disable or enable the busy spinner without requiring a new Pkg file.
• Added the Theme GridBubbleDebounceTime parameter which may be used to reduce the delay before displaying Grid bubbles under certain circumstances.
• Corrected a bug that caused the channel to crash during an In-Channel Purchase if the Roku Channel Store returned an error.
• Corrected a bug that caused Vertical List Small Icon URLs to be displayed in the Header.
• Corrected a bug that caused playlist passwords to be applied to each individual item in the playlist.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
• Added audio support to Picture items.
This allows audio content to be playing in the background while a single image is displayed or while a multi-image slideshow is displayed.
• Added the Theme VideoPrebufferingEnabled parameter.
This is a new parameter for Instant TV Channel that has not been extensively tested yet,
however it is expected to reduce video stream loading time under certain circumstances.
• Added Theme rsg_version and splash_rsg_optimization parameters to support upcoming Roku firmware releases.
• Corrected a bug that allowed HLS streams to restart while the Theme AutomaticPauseTime "Is anyone watching?" dialog box was displayed.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
September 25, 2018
Update 458
• Added a customizable Rating widget to the video screen.
The widget can be enabled, disabled, and configured from the Theme page.
Vertical and horizontal wipe-animations with adjustable speeds are supported.
Basic Rating Widget, Medium Font
Multiline Rating Widget, Small Font
Customizable Colors
Fully Customizable Text
• Modified the Theme ShowDebugIfSerialNumber parameter to accept the RIDA (Roku ID for Advertising) and Client ID if the device firmware is 8.1 or higher.
• Modified the Theme ShowDebugVersion parameter to display the RIDA (Roku ID for Advertising) and Client ID.
If the device firmware version is less than 8.1 then the RIDA and Client ID debug lines will both contain the device serial number.
• Replaced the PublisherID and SerialNumber elements for In-Channel Purchase receipts stored in S3 with ClientID and RIDA elements.
If the device firmware version is less than 8.1 then the ClientID and RIDA elements will contain the device serial number.
• Modified the "%DEVID" macro variable so that it returns the Client ID instead of the device serial number if the device firmware is 8.1 or higher.
• Added the "%RIDA" macro variable which returns the Roku ID for Advertising.
If the device firmware version is less than 8.1 then the "%RIDA" macro variable will return the device serial number.
• Corrected a bug that caused the channel to hang after playing a "Preview" video.
• Corrected a bug (again) that caused the channel to crash if a Dropbox URL was used for a poster.
The use of Dropbox is not recommended due to Dropbox bandwidth limits.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
September 5, 2018
Update 457
• Corrected a bug that displayed Vertical List Small Icons (SmallIconUrl) at an incorrect resolution.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
August 30, 2018
Update 456
• Corrected a bug that causes larger channels (approximately 700 or more items) to crash at launch if the channel contains video ads,
the Theme AdStartTime parameter is "0" or "1",
and the Theme MrssPreload parameter is "True".
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
August 22, 2018
Update 455
• Corrected a bug introduced in Update #454 that caused a crash if the Theme splash_video parameter was used.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
August 20, 2018
Update 454
• Corrected a bug that caused a crash if a Dropbox URL was used for a poster.
The use of Dropbox is not recommended due to Dropbox bandwidth limits.
• Changed the behavior of the old AutomaticPlayControls SDK1 "pause+skip" option
so that remote control UP and DOWN allows skipping ahead and back to next or previous video.
This provides backwards-compatibility with old SDK1 autoplay lists,
but does not affect new autoplay lists.
See the
How to Configure Automatic Playback help article
for more information about the AutomaticPlayControls parameter and autoplay lists.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
August 6, 2018
Update 453
• Worked around an issue that prevented Programmable Button "Channel" and "Home" Functions from working correctly on all device models.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
July 25, 2018
Update 452
• Corrected a bug that caused a channel crash if an audio content item had an Album specified but no Artist.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
July 23, 2018
Update 451
• Corrected a bug that caused a channel crash if an audio content item had a Length of 00:00:00 while Live was "False".
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
July 9, 2018
Update 450
• Modified how plain MRSS feed items are stored in order to support duplicate items in separate feeds.
• Added support for all Roku-documented audio stream formats such as "aac", "ac3", "dts", "flac", and others
in addition to the already supported "mp3" and "wma" formats.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
July 2, 2018
Update 449
• Corrected a bug that caused Schedules to drop the final "relative" event, if "relative" events were used.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
June 18, 2018
Update 448
• Improved the loading speed of channels with large numbers of Video Ads.
In order to take advantage of this speed increase the Theme AdStartTime parameter must be set to 2 minutes or more.
• Added the Theme BusySpinner_X and BusySpinner_Y parameters to allow the spinner to be adjusted to any postion on the screen instead of being centered.
• Corrected a bug that caused the spinner to appear larger on 720p displays than on 1080p or 4k displays.
• Corrected a bug that caused a crash if the Services Last.fm API Key parameter was blank and a live audio stream was played.
• Changed the behavior of Schedules so that only the remote control BACK key can exit the Schedule, but not the UP key.
• Corrected a bug that prevented the optional Schedule countdown screen from responding to remote control button presses.
• Corrected a bug that caused video buffer pictures (BufferPictureUrl) to be prematurely removed, causing a blink, if a previous picture was waiting to be faded.
• Corrected a bug that prevented the splash screen from obeying the Theme splash_time parameter.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
June 1, 2018
Update 447
• Added the AdsEnabled parameter to MRSS & Playlist items.
This allows video ads to be disabled for specific MRSS feeds or playlists.
Only newly-created MRSS & Playlist items will have the AdsEnabled parameter.
In order to use AdsEnabled with existing MRSS & Playlist items it will be necessary to copy the old MRSS metadata into a new MRSS or Playlist item,
and then delete the old item.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
May 21, 2018
Update 446
• Added the Content Vimeo Import button to allow Vimeo videos to be imported as individual file URLs and other metadata instead of using "vm://" URLs.
This works around the Vimeo API rate limit issue and eliminates intermittent channel outages caused by Vimeo API failures.
The Vimeo Import button is located next to the Stream 1 Url of video items on the "Content" page.
The button is only present for SDK channels that have a Vimeo Access Token configured on the "Services" page.
The button is available to all previous Updates that support Vimeo Access Tokens.
• Added the Theme BoxCast Order parameter to select the chronological order of BoxCast videos ("Broadcasts") loaded from BoxCast playlists ("Channels").
Please see the
Using BoxCast with Roku help article for more information.
The BoxCast Order parameter will be active only after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account,
and is only applicable to channels using the SDK publishing method.
May 18, 2018
Update 445
• Important:SceneGraph channels containing lists with AutomaticPlay = "schedule" should apply this Update.
• Added a workaround for an issue that may affect channels which use schedules.
This workaround allows scheduled videos to be resumed in-progress which may otherwise be started at the beginning of the video regardless of the scheduled start time.
• Added support for BoxCast playlists.
Please see the
Using BoxCast with Roku help article for more information.
• Corrected a compatibility issue which under certain circumstances would prevent album and artist name retrieval from SHOUTcast audio servers.
• Added an option on the "Services" page to prefer either Artist or Album artwork when using Last.fm for audio metadata.
• Improved the startup time for Last.fm metadata retrieval for audio streams.
Please see the
Audio Streaming with SHOUTcast and Roku help article for more information about audio streaming.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
May 10, 2018
Update 444
• Corrected an issue with the BoxCast module using a function call that is not present in Roku device OS versions prior to 8.1.
Please see the
Using BoxCast with Roku help article for more information.
• Corrected a bug that caused the channel to crash if an MRSS feed did not specify a duration for an item.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
May 7, 2018
Update 443
• Added support for BoxCast.
Please see the
Using BoxCast with Roku help article for more information.
• Corrected a bug that prevented the Search function from being used if Springboards were disabled.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
April 20, 2018
Update 442
• Added support for MRSS Feeds that contain both MP4 and HLS streams so that the StreamFormat parameter can be used to select the desired format.
• Corrected a bug that prevented the backup MRSS poster from being displayed when no poster was present in an MRSS feed.
This update is applicable only to channels using the SDK publishing method,
and will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
April 16, 2018
Update 441
• Caution:Channels currently at Update #439 or #440 that contain a Grid should be updated using a clone.
This Update replaces the Theme GridScreenHorizontalMarginPercent parameter (introduced in Update #439) with GridHorizontalMargin.
If an existing channel uses GridScreenHorizontalMarginPercent,
the percentage value of GridScreenHorizontalMarginPercent should be applied to 1920 in order to calculate the value for GridHorizontalMargin
which will maintain the same horizontal poster margins.
Example: 5% x 1920 = 96
• Caution:
MRSS items in Grid Rows can now be configured using DisplayAsSeries to display as a Series List or as a nested Horizontal List.
Existing MRSS items in Grid Rows may need to have their DisplayAsSeries parameter set to "True" in order to continue to be displayed as Series Lists.
• Renamed the Theme GridScreenOverhangHeightHD parameter to GridVerticalMarginTop.
• Added the Theme GridListNameSize parameter to allow the font size of Grid Row Names to be changed.
• Added the Theme GridVerticalWrap to control Grid poster scroll wrapping when the top or bottom Grid Row has been reached.
• Added a 'Top' description to Grids which can be used alone or with the existing 'Bubble' description.
Multiple new Theme parameters (all beginning with "GridTopDescription") have been added to configure the 'Top' description.
Please see the
Using Roku Grid Screens help article for screenshots and links to sample channels.
• Renamed the Theme GridScreenDescriptionVisible parameter to GridDescription and changed the available options in order to support a choice of
'Bubble' description, 'Top' description, both, or none.
• Added the Theme GridBookmarkColumn and GridBookmarkRow parameters to optionally force Grids to always start at same row and column on entry.
• Added the Theme FontSizeTiny and FontLineSpacing parameters.
• Added the Theme DialogBackgroundImage parameter to allow a custom 9-patch image to replace the default purple Dialog background.
The
Sample Images page contains sample blue and grey 9-patch background images.
• Added the Theme MrssShortDescriptionLine2 parameter to allow MRSS feed descriptions to populate the ShortDescriptionLine2 parameter.
• Added the Keys and CDNs Vimeo SDL2 Description parameter to allow Vimeo descriptions to populate the ShortDescriptionLine2 parameter.
• Added support for unlimited nesting of Horizontal Lists, Vertical Lists, and Grids within Grid Rows.
• Modified Deep Linking behavior for Series List "Season" mediaType in order to support new Roku testing requirements.
• Added support for text parameters for which a color is also specified, so that a color of "#000000" will prevent the text from being displayed.
This can be used to remove the Runtime/Date/Rating line from the Grid 'Bubble' description.
• Removed "Screen" from all Theme parameter names starting with "GridScreen" and "ListScreen" in order to shorten excessively long names.
This applies to all Update levels, including pre-SceneGraph levels.
It has no effect on parameter values or channel operation.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
April 2, 2018
Update 440
• Worked around an issue that causes Horizontal Lists to become unresponsive to left and right RC keypresses under certain circumstances.
• Added the GridRowStyleCustom_X and GridRowStyleCustom_Y parameters to Grid Rows so that custom poster sizes can be specified.
• Added the Theme ListScreenBackgroundPosterOffset parameter which controls the vertical offset of the selectable background poster if the Vertical List ListStyle parameter is set to "vertical-background".
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
March 26, 2018
Update 439
• Free demo channels for new Grid features are available:
my.roku.com/add/GD1,
my.roku.com/add/GD2,
and my.roku.com/add/GD3.
Please see the
Using Roku Grid Screens help article for more information about using Grids with Instant TV Channel.
• Added GridRowScale and GridRowStyle parameters to Grid Rows.
This allows each Grid Row to have different poster sizes and can be used to build "Hero" Grids.
• Added support for the Theme GridScreenDescriptionVisible parameter which can be used to disable Grid description bubbles.
• Added the Theme GridScreenHorizontalMarginPercent, GridScreenHorizontalSpacing, and GridScreenVerticalSpacing parameters.
• Added the Theme GridScreenRowCounter parameter which can be used to disable the Grid row counter.
• Removed Theme CounterText Grid parameter. Counter colors are configured using GridScreenListNameColor.
• Removed Theme UpBehaviorAtTopRow Grid parameter. Grids continuously scroll at the top and bottom.
• Added the Theme splash_extended parameter to work around a Roku firmware issue that may cause a black flash shortly after the splash screen loads.
• Changed the way that Vimeo information is displayed when the Theme ShowDebugVideoStatus parameter is set to "yes" so that it is easier to monitor Vimeo rate-limiting.
• Added missing support for manually-set Springboard LeftBreadcrumb and RightBreadcrumb.
• Corrected a bug that prevented posters with keyed "S3://" URLs from being displayed.
• Corrected a bug that prevented SRT subtitle files for video content items older than Update 314 from being displayed.
• Corrected a bug that prevented the logo overlay from being displayed if a video exited to the Springboard and then resumed from the Springboard.
• Corrected a bug that caused banner ads to disappear under certain circumstances.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
March 15, 2018
Update 438
• Theme Buffer Bar parameters now control progress buffering bars for all videos.
• Custom Buffering Text is now available for all videos instead of only for AutoPlay videos.
• Added the Theme BufferPictureUrl parameter which may be used to configure a channel-wide buffer picture for all videos that do not already specify a buffer picture.
• Added the Theme OverlayUrl parameter which may be used to configure a channel-wide bug/logo overlay image for all lists that do not already specify an overlay.
• Added Theme BufferText (Buffering Text) parameters which may be used to configure channel-wide buffering text options for all lists that do not already have these options specified.
• Cleaned up unused SDK1 parameters and descriptions.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
February 27, 2018
Update 437
• Corrected a bug that caused duplicate subtitle track names to appear on the Roku Accessibility - Captioning Track screen.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
February 22, 2018
Update 436
• Caution: This update adds support for logo bugs specified with the HDOverlayUrl parameter which is available
in any Horizontal List, Vertical List, or Series List.
In previous updates the logo bug specified by HDOverlayUrl could only be displayed in AutomaticPlay-enabled Lists.
As of this update the logo bug specified by HDOverlayUrl can be displayed in video items in any List type.
Existing channels may need to set the Theme OverlayEnabled parameter to "False" in order to prevent
the Instant TV Channel logo bug from being displayed if the default value of any HDOverlayUrl parameters have not been cleared.
• Added the Theme Font parameter and associated size parameters to allow a custom TrueType font to specified.
• Added an automatic low-memory check before displaying background images.
• Added the Theme MemoryCheckEnabled parameter to disable the automatic device memory check and allow memory-consuming features to be enabled on low-memory devices.
• Added the Theme AdPodLimit parameter to limit the maximum number of ads in an AdPod. Default value is "0" which allows any number of ads.
• Added the Theme AdMidrollInterval parameter as an alternative to configuring midroll positions separately for each video.
• Improved VAST ad processing time when using large weights.
• Added the Theme KeyboardNormalText and KeyboardHighlightText parameters for Password and Search keyboard text colors.
• Improved visibility of the highlighted symbol on the Password and Search keyboards.
• Removed most "SD" parameters from Content items.
Content items created prior to this Update may still have "SD" parameters although these parameters are ignored and can be left blank.
Theme "SD" parameters are still required.
• Corrected a bug the caused schedules to fail if a filler was interrupted to play a scheduled video.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
February 8, 2018
Update 435
• Corrected a bug that caused Registration and Linking to pause indefinitely if Registration was enabled on the top-level folder of a channel.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
February 7, 2018
Update 434
• Re-added support for splash_screen_sd and mm_icon_focus_sd to avoid Static Analysis errors.
• Improved randomization of Registration and Linking registration codes.
• Corrected a bug that caused Registration and Linking to crash if a Partner ID was not provided.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
February 5, 2018
Update 433
• Corrected a bug that caused a crash when Registration and Linking is used with Google Analytics.
• Added Deep Linking support for audio-only content items.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
January 26, 2018
Update 432
• Added the Theme BackgroundImage and BackgroundImageOpacity parameters to support a channel-wide background image.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
January 23, 2018
Update 431
• Corrected a bug that caused AutomaticPlayControls to always be "full" regardless of the actual setting.
• Corrected a bug that caused AutoPlay lists to be exited early if an Intro or Outro was played.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
January 22, 2018
Update 430
• Added support for Banner Ads.
• Corrected a bug that prevented content caching if Theme MacrosEnabled was set to "False".
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
January 17, 2018
Update 429
• Added workaround for Roku OS update that prevented video linking-ads from transferring control to the target channel.
• Corrected a bug that caused videos with %NULL or # as the stream URL to display an error message instead of behaving as a zero-length video.
• Corrected a bug that caused the video ad AdBufffering parameter to be ignored.
• Corrected a bug introduced in Update #428 that caused a channel to crash when attempting to display a banner ad.
Banner ads are not yet supported, but will likely be re-added in the next update.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
January 15, 2018
Update 428
• Added support for simple Splash Videos on the Theme page.
Only available for "Commercial" channel types.
• Added support for Periscope.TV live streams.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
January 10, 2018
Update 427
• Added support for Intros and Outros.
• Disabled the Right-Directional button for live streams without transport controls.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
January 4, 2018
Update 426
• Added support for Subtitles. Subtitle selection is controlled by the remote control STAR ("Option") button.
• To meet new Roku certification requirements, fast-forward and rewind controls are disabled when Live is set to "yes",
but can be re-enabled by setting Live to "yes+controls".
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
January 1, 2018
Update 425
• Converts existing Classic, Vertical, Grid, and Series channel types into SceneGraph channels.
Please review
What Is SceneGraph? before
updating Classic, Vertical, Grid, or Series channel types.
• Added support for Registration & Linking.
• Corrected a bug that caused Scheduled Playlists to display a black screen instead of video.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
December 22, 2017
Update 424
• Corrected text screen OK button appearance.
• Updated support for Brightcove HLS streams.
• Added Theme MrssPreload parameter to allow background MRSS feed and CDN/OVP playlist preloading to be disabled.
• Added Services Brightcove ListPoster parameter to control which Brightcove assets ("Poster" or "Thumbnail") are used for List Posters.
Previously the larger Brightcove "Poster" assets were always used for ListPosters.
The default Brightcove ingest profile setting for the "Poster" assets may cause performance problems or instability on lower-end Roku devices.
• Corrected a bug that caused a crash if Google Analytics was enabled while an audio stream was played.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
December 15, 2017
Update 423
• Corrected a bug that caused URL-specified overhang artwork to be displayed incorrectly under certain circumstances.
• Added the Theme FadeInTime, FadeOutTime, and BufferBarFadeInTime parameters.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
December 14, 2017
Update 422
• Corrected a bug in the MRSS parser.
• Added the Theme MrssMaximumItems parameter. Default value is 50 items. Does not affect Vimeo playlists which are still limited to 50 items maximum.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
December 12, 2017
Update 421
• Corrected a bug that caused a crash if Theme MacrosEnabled was set to False and no macros were present.
• Corrected a bug that caused a crash when attempting to display a receipt for an item with a free trial period.
• Corrected a bug that prevented All Items Product IDs specified on the Roku Billing page from being purchasable.
• Corrected behavior of Springboard Purchase button Button Display parameter.
Previously the Purchase button would always be displayed if no Product Identifier was specified even though the Button Identifier was purchased.
• Cleaned up debug messages displayed when Theme ShowDebugICP is "yes". (ICP = In Channel Purchase)
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
December 4, 2017
Update 420
• Added Theme parameter BusySpinner to support custom busy spinner artwork.
The Developer Mode parameter on the Account page must be changed to "Advanced" in order to use this parameter.
• Corrected a bug that caused the busy spinner to be displayed incorrectly on Text screens.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
November 27, 2017
Update 419
• Added support for Vertical Lists.
• Display additional debugging information if Theme parameter ShowDebugInfo is enabled.
• Added support for Deep Linking with free and paid content in the same channel.
• Corrected the behavior of Breadcrumbs on Springboard screens so that the names of the previous two levels are displayed.
• Corrected a bug in the processing of multiple Director names on the Springboard.
• Corrected a bug affecting the operation of the "Top" and "Restart" Programmable Buttons.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
November 17, 2017
Update 418
• Corrected a bug that prevented the TitleSeason parameter from being displayed in the Springboard.
• Added support for Breadcrumbs to improve backward compatiblity with Legacy SDK.
• Added Theme MacrosEnabled parameter to allow macro processing to be disabled in channels that do not use macros.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
November 8, 2017
Update 417
• Corrected the behavior of Deep Linking mediaType "season" so that the parent list of the selected video is displayed instead of immediately playing the video.
• Added GridScreenBackgroundPosterOpacity and GridScreenFocusBorderColor parameters to the Theme page.
• Added support for Grid background posters based on the focused poster. To enable Grid background posters set the Theme GridScreenBackgroundPosterOpacity parameter to a non-zero value.
• Removed various unused SD parameters from the Theme page.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
November 6, 2017
Update 416
• Added support for passwords.
• Loading speed improvement for large MRSS & playlist-based grids.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
November 4, 2017
Update 321 (Legacy)
• Bugfix for Roku OS 8.0 issue preventing Vimeo (and other CDN) playlists from loading.
This issue is not present in SceneGraph (Update 400 or higher) versions.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
October 29, 2017
Update 415
• Corrected a bug that affected the Content AdsEnabled and Theme BufferPictureEnabled parameters in older Updates.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
October 26, 2017
Update 414
• Added new debugging support using Theme ShowDebug... parameters.
• Added support for CloudFront-hosted configuration files.
• Added AutomaticPlay support to Series Lists and MRSS Playlists.
• Added support for Brightcove analytics.
• Corrected a bug where the "ordered" AdOptimize option was not recognized.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
October 16, 2017
Update 413
• Added support for Brightcove CDN. The newer Brightcove "Policy-Key" authentication method is being used now.
Brightcove is discontinuing support for the "URL-Enabled Authentication Token" method as of January 1, 2018.
For existing channels using Brightcove it will be necessary to provide a "Policy-Key" generated from your Brightcove account.
Please see the
Using Brightcove with Roku help article for more information
about using Brightcove with Roku.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
October 11, 2017
Update 412
• Added new Theme BufferPictureEnabled parameter which replaces the obsolete BufferPictureVideoScreenEnabled parameter.
This parameter can be used to globally disable all buffer pictures, even if BufferPictureUrl parameters are specified.
• Added support for Theme BufferPictureTextEnabled parameter.
This parameter can be used to globally disable text that would otherwise be displayed on top of buffer pictures.
• Removed obsolete Theme BufferPictureAfterMidrollEnabled parameter.
The buffer picture, if present, is always displayed after midrolls.
• Removed obsolete Theme BufferPictureVideoScreenDelay parameter.
This delay was a workaround for an SDK1 bug.
• Removed obsolete Theme OverlayVideoOnly parameter.
The logo or "bug" overlay, if provided, is always present on video screens.
• Corrected problem (again) with preroll ads playing when a bookmarked video started.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
October 10, 2017
Update 411
• Added support for Google Analytics.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
October 9, 2017
Update 410
• Improved grid loading speed.
• Added support for Vzaar CDN.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
October 2, 2017
Update 409
• Added support for Deep Linking.
• Corrected problem that prevented ads from being disabled for specific videos.
• Corrected problem with ad repeat limit not being obeyed.
• Corrected problem with preroll ads playing when a bookmarked video started.
• Corrected problem with HD videos not playing on low-memory devices caused by unpatched Roku OS bug.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
This update will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
September 25, 2017
Update 408
• This is the first SceneGraph version.
Currently SceneGraph is only available for NEW channels.
A SceneGraph update for all existing channels will be available soon.
• Existing Classic, Vertical, Grid, or Series channels can be converted to SceneGraph on a case-by-case basis.
Please contact for more information.
• Some features are not yet available in SceneGraph:
Vertical Lists (available in U419)
Passwords (available in U416)
Registration & Linking (available in U425)
Intro/Splash Video (can be implemented using autoplay instead) (available in U428)
Subtitles (available in U426)
Banner Ads (available in U430)
Vidillion "DAG" Ads
Brightcove CDN (available in U413)
Viddler CDN
Vzaar CDN (available in U410)
CloudFront (available in U414)
March 30, 2017
Update 320
• Changed the behavior of the remote control STAR key initiated Search function so that it behaves the same as the Springboard and Programmable Button initiated Search function.
From a Springboard screen found by the Search function, the remote control BACK key will now return to the Search screen.
• Changed the naming convention for Pkg files so that the Instant TV Channel Update number (for example "320") is included in the automatically-generated filename.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
This bugfix will only become active after the updated package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
March 7, 2017
• Added support for embedding Roku-specific Direct Publisher parameters within the Instant TV Channel Notes or Description parameters.
This allows older (created before February 9, 2017) items that do not contain Direct Publisher parameters to be used within Direct Publisher channels.
The format is identical to that used to embed Roku parameters in Vimeo descriptions.
March 6, 2017
• Added support for embedding Roku-specific parameters within the Vimeo description field.
Please see the
Using Vimeo with Roku help article for more information
about using Vimeo with Roku.
• Corrected a bug that prevented individual Vimeo videos (not albums) from appearing in automatically-generated categories
if a DirectPublishId value was not provided for the video.
• This bug fix only affects Direct Publisher channels that use individual (not in albums) Vimeo videos.
February 21, 2017
Update 319
• Corrected a bug that incorrectly caused autoplay behavior in non-series lists if the Springboard was disabled.
This bug only affects channels that have the Theme SpringboardEnabled parameter set to "False".
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
This bugfix will only become active after the updated package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
February 18, 2017
Update 318
• Corrected a bug introduced in Update #314 that prevented streams from playing on SD displays if more than one bitrate rendition was provided.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
This bugfix will only become active after the updated package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
February 16, 2017
• Modified splash screen handling for "Free" and "Unlimited" channel types to comply with new Roku requirements.
The full-screen "Created using Instant TV Channel" splash screen has been replaced with an overlay containing an "Instant TV Channel" message on the lower portion of the splash screen.
• It may be necessary to change custom splash screen artwork for "Free" or "Unlimited" Roku channels.
Please review the new splash screen before submitting any channels for approval.
• Repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to replace the splash screen in your "Free" or "Unlimited" Roku channel.
• This change applies to ALL Instant TV Channel Updates.
A channel update is NOT required.
February 12, 2017
Update 317
• Minor update to add support for Credits and ExternalIds to Direct Publisher Series Lists.
• Removed default Direct Publisher description text to improve the usability of Vimeo Parameter Override with Direct Publisher channels.
Please see the
Using Vimeo with Roku help article for more information
about using Vimeo with Direct Publisher channels.
• Repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are NOT required,
but any Direct Publisher channels that include Series Lists many need be regenerated
if you use production credits or external IDs in your Series lists.
February 11, 2017
• Minor update to correct Direct Publisher feed generation for series.
• Repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are NOT required,
but any Direct Publisher channels that include Series Lists should be regenerated.
February 9, 2017
• Added support for Direct Publisher channels.
There is now a icon on the Channels page that generates a Direct Publisher feed for any existing or new channel.
Please see the
How to Create a Direct Publisher Roku Channel walk-through for more information.
February 7, 2017
Update 316
• The Theme DeepLinking options are now visible for both "Basic" and "Advanced" developer modes,
and the Deep Linking Content UID is always displayed below the poster on the Content page.
• Repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are NOT required.
February 4, 2017
Update 315
• Due to Roku requiring that deep linking support is present in all public channels,
the Theme DeepLinking options are now available for all channel types instead of only for the "Commercial" channel type.
• Repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are NOT required.
January 30, 2017
Update 314
• Added support for multiple subtitle tracks specified for video items on the Content page.
• Added support for "dash" StreamFormat.
• Changed the behavior of macros so that more than one macro substitution can be applied at a time to an individual item.
• Changed the behavior of the Theme BufferPictureTextEnabled parameter so that it only applies to non-autoplay videos and to autoplay videos with AutomaticPlayControls="Full".
The BufferPictureTextEnabled parameter is usually set to "False".
• Corrected a bug that prevented videos from being used with banner ads unless IgnoreVideoAdsEnabled was set to "True".
• Corrected a bug that caused the channel to crash if Vimeo responded with an HTTP error for a vm-style URL.
• Corrected a bug that caused the AudioLanguageSelected parameter to be overriden by the device language selection.
• Corrected a bug related to Series Lists in Grid Rows that caused a crash under certain circumstances.
• Corrected a bug that prevented Trailer buttons from being used.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
New features in this update will only become active after a new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
September 26, 2016
Update 313
• Corrected a bug related to CloudFront invalidation keys on the Services page.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
New features in this update will only become active after a new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
September 12, 2016
Update 312
• Added AWS CloudFront Configuration Acceleration to the Services page.
Using CloudFront will greatly improve channel startup time for customers that have poor Internet connectivity to the AWS S3 "US East" region.
• Allow modification of Configuration Storage S3 keys while they are in use.
This allows key replacement, and allows easy migration of the configuration bucket contents to a different AWS account.
Incorrectly modifying Configuration Storage S3 keys or bucket contents may cause a Roku channel to stop working.
• Added support for percent-style escape sequences within macros.
Please see the
Changing URLs and Text using a Macro help article for more information about using macros in Instant TV Channel.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
New features in this update will only become active after a new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
August 29, 2016
Update 311
• Added beta support for Periscope live streams. Videos only display in portrait mode, video rotation is not supported by Roku.
This feature may eventually stop working if changes are made by Twitter to Periscope systems.
• Added In-Channel Purchase support to MRSS items. All items in an MRSS Feed or Playlist will have the same Product Identifier.
• Added MRSS Actors, Director, Ratings, and Categories to MRSS Feed and PlayList items.
See the
Using MRSS Feeds and Playlists and
MRSS Elements help articles for more information.
• Added the Video Content Item AudioLanguageSelected parameter.
• Added the Video Content Item EncodingType and EncodingKey parameters for PlayReady DRM support.
• Added the Video Content Item VideoAdsEnabled parameter so that video ads can be disabled for individual videos.
• Changed the behavior of the Search function when initiated from a Springboard button or a Programmable Button so that multiple consecutive searches are possible.
• Added the Theme ShowDebugIfSerialNumber parameter to restrict the visibility of debug screens to Roku devices with specific serial numbers.
• Added the Theme BufferBarDirection parameter to support vertical and backwards (right-to-left) moving buffer bars.
• Added the Theme AudioUserAgent parameter for additional compatiblity with TuneIn and SHOUTcast audio streams.
• Perform query variable substitutions on URLs before passing to Google Analytics.
Previously URLs were sent to Google Analytics before any query variable substitutions were made.
• Modified the behavior of Google Analytics so that it records video content IDs under "Event Label".
Previously the "Event Label" value was the same as "Event Action" for most events.
• Google Analytics debug screens are displayed if ShowDebugInfo is set to "yes".
• Added the "%DHEIGHT", "%DWIDTH" and "%EXTERNALIP" query variables for use with VAST ad tags.
See the
Query Variables help article for more information.
• Added the "goto" Springboard button which supports jumping to any location within the channel.
• Added the "play all" Springboard button for video/audio content items which supports auto-play of all videos in a List or Grid Row.
• Added the "goto" option to the Programmable Button Function parameter to support jumping to any location within the channel.
• Added the "deeplink" option to the Programmable Button Function parameter to support jumping to content items within other Roku channels that support Deep Linking.
• Modified Programmable Buttons to allow conditional execution based on the new Condition parameter.
Please see the
Programmable Buttons for Roku Channel Automation help article for more information on Programmable Buttons.
• Modified the DoNotDisplay parameter to allow conditional hiding of items based on the new Condition parameter.
This is useful for creating staging areas that are visible only to Roku devices with specific serial numbers,
or to hide content items before, after, or between specific dates and times.
• Added Intro and Outro parameters for individual Video/Audio items and MRSS/Playlist items.
Intros and Outros can be any list or content item in the content tree.
• Added the ability to drag-and-drop content tree icons instead of cutting-and-pasting UIDs for Springboard Trailer buttons,
for the new Springboard "goto" button,
for the new Programmable Button "goto" function,
and for the new Video/Audio Content Item Intro and Outro parameters.
• Changed the Video Content Item Rating parameter to allow any text to be used as the rating.
• Changed the behavior of left-right Springboard scrolling so that the Springboard screens for Series Episodes can be scrolled through.
• Corrected a bug that prevented series bookmark bars in playlists from being displayed properly.
• Optimized Vimeo API requests to reduce Vimeo rate limiting. New Vimeo Rate Limiting debug screens are displayed if ShowDebugInfo is set to "yes".
• Added the Vimeo "Maximum Width" and "Maximum Height" parameter on the Services page to work around Vimeo 4K encoding problems or to limit Vimeo bandwidth.
• Added Control items and support for simple substitution-type macros for text and URL parameters.
• Added the Video Item FPS parameter to provide support for 60FPS streams.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
New features in this update will only become active after a new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
June 10, 2016
Update 310
• Changed the behavior of AutoPlay lists with mode "Once" so that the first item in the list is played
when reentering the list after previously exiting from the final item in the list.
This prevents AutoPlay-Once lists from becoming trapped at the final item in the list.
• Changed the behavior of nested AutoPlay lists to allow the remote control REWIND key to traverse the complete list hierarchy in the reverse direction.
This allows multiple nested AutoPlay lists, including MRSS playlists, to behave as a single large AutoPlay list.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
New features in this update will only become active after a new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
May 31, 2016
Update 309
• Updated Vidillion video ad support to Vidillion SDK version 1.6.7.
• Corrected a bug in AutomaticPlayRandomize that caused the 1st video in the playlist to be repeated under certain conditions.
See the
How to Configure Automatic Playback help article for more information about randomizing autoplay lists.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
New features in this update will only become active after a new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
May 5, 2016
Update 308
• Corrected the operation of the Theme AdStackingLimit parameter so that it does not apply to ads with AdType ending in "2".
• Modified Google Analytics to use HTTPS URLs.
See the
Google Analytics for Roku Channels help article for more information about using Google Analytics.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
New features in this update will only become active after a new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
April 9, 2016
• Corrected a bug that prevented Springboard button labels from being edited in video and audio items that were created prior to Update #285.
• An update is not required, however you must repackage and upload the channel to your Roku Developer Account in order to correct this bug.
This bug fix will only become active after the new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
March 21, 2016
Update 307
• Added the Theme AdStackingLimit parameter.
Please see the
Placing Advertisements in your Roku Channel documentation for more information.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
New features in this update will only become active after a new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
March 4, 2016
Update 306
• Increased maximum image upload size from 512K to 1024K in order to better support FHD (1920x1080) splash screens.
Use with caution, larger images may exceed the 2048K Pkg maximum file size.
Roughly 200K is reserved for code, the balance can be used for images.
• Updated Vidillion video ad support to Vidillion SDK version 1.6.6.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
New features in this update will only become active after a new package file has been published in your Roku Developer Account.
February 29, 2016
Update 305
• Added the NielsenEnabled and NielsenGenreDefault Theme parameters, and the NielsenGenre Video Content Item parameter to support Nielsen DAR (Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings).
• Added support for using Brightcove "Custom Fields" to specify an external SRT subtitle/caption file for Brightcove videos.
Please see the
Using Brightcove with Roku help article for more information.
• Added the Theme AutomaticPlayRandomize parameter to randomize AutomaticPlay-enabled lists.
• Added support for using more than one Vimeo account with Access Tokens in a single channel.
Access Tokens can now be specified in each Vimeo URL.
Please see the
Using Vimeo with Roku help article for more information.
• Added the AutomaticPlayTextPrefix and AutomaticPlayTextSuffix parameters to the options available for AutomaticPlay-enabled lists.
• Added the "search" option to the Programmable Button Function parameter.
Please see the
Programmable Buttons for Roku Channel Automation help article for more information.
• Added the Theme splash_fhd parameter for 1920x1080 (1080p) splash screens.
• Removed Theme splash_sd_x, splash_sd_y, splash_hd_x and splash_hd_y parameters.
• Increased maximum image upload size from 200K to 512K. Use with caution, larger images will increase the Pkg file size.
• Allow VAST ads to be optionally paused using the AllowPause parameter.
• Corrected a compatibility issue that intermittently prevented COMPLETE trackers from being generated for RAF-Partial video ads.
• Worked around a bug that intermittently caused duplicate trackers to be generated for RAF-Partial video ads.
• Worked around a bug that caused a channel to freeze under certain circumstances if the CDN generated continuous HTTP errors.
• Corrected a bug that occasionally caused a channel crash if a content item was being edited while the same content item was being viewed.
• Capitalized default Springboard button labels in Theme editor to reduce "P3" complaints from Roku QA.
• Changed the default value for the Theme BufferPictureScreenDelay parameter from "0" to "2000" to reduce problems with Roku TV and stick devices
that intermittently display a black screen instead of video when the SD and HDBufferPictureUrl parameters are used.
If no instances of AutomaticPlayControls are set to "full", then BufferPictureScreenDelay can be safely set to "0".
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
November 17, 2015
Update 304
• Added 'repeat no exit' as an AutomaticPlay option for MRSS content items.
• Corrected a bug that caused the splash_video parameter to interfere with VAST video advertisements.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
October 27, 2015
Update 303
• Corrected a bug introduced in Update #302 that prevented Brightcove playlists from loading.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
October 18, 2015
Update 302
• Added the MRSS trackidsubtitle parameter and custom XML tag to allow access to EIA-608 subtitles with MRSS/XML playlists.
See the
Using MRSS Feeds and Playlists and
MRSS Elements help articles for more information.
• Added support for Brightcove Cue Points in order to support midroll video ads in Brightcove content.
See the
Using Brightcove with Roku help article for more information about using Brightcove as your CDN.
• Improved the loading process for Vimeo playlists.
See the
Using Vimeo with Roku help article for more information.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
October 9, 2015
Update 301
• Changed the default value of the Roku Advertising Framework IncludeRAF parameter to "False" for compatibility with
Legacy Devices (Roku devices manufactured prior to July 2011).
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required only if you modify the value of IncludeRAF.
September 21, 2015
Update 300
• Added support for the Vzaar video platform.
See the
Using Vzaar with Roku help article for more information.
• Removed NWM as a VASTMode video ad processing mode option and the default has been changed to "RAF-Full".
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
September 10, 2015
Update 299
• Corrected a bug that caused the channel to crash if Google Analytics was enabled while VASTMode was set to "RAF-Full".
• Prevent interactive and other non-MP4 and non-HLS video ads from being requested if VASTMode is set to "RAF-Partial".
Interactive video ads currently require that VASTMode be set to "RAF-Full".
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
August 31, 2015
Update 298
• Added the MRSS midrolls tag so that video advertisement midroll positions can be specified in MRSS feeds.
See the
Using MRSS Feeds and Playlists and
MRSS Elements help articles for more information.
• Allow URLs to be used for the Theme ListItemHighlightHD and ListItemHighlightSD parameters for Vertical Lists.
Previously URLs could be specified in the editor but they were not used by the channel unless they were moved into the Pkg file.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
August 20, 2015
Update 297
• Corrected a bug that under certain conditions caused the background color to change when an In-Channel Purchase occurred.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
August 14, 2015
Update 296
• Corrected a bug that caused incorrect bitrate selections for larger (approximately 1GB or more) Viddler and Vimeo video streams when using ABR shortcut URLs like vr://, vm://, etc.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
July 28, 2015
Update 295
• Added the All Items Product Id and All Items Purchase Type parameters to the "Roku Billing Settings" screen
to allow up to two Product IDs and Purchase Types to be applied to all content items in the channel without having to specify them individually for each item.
Additional Product IDs and Purchase Types can still be assigned to individual content items.
• Added the IgnoreInChannelPurchase parameter to Video Content Items.
When set to "True" this parameter causes any In-Channel Purchasing parameters that would normally apply to the item to be ignored,
allowing the item to always be available without a purchase.
Any Purchase buttons configured for the item are still displayed.
• At Roku's request, changed In-Channel Purchase user data collection so that only email address, first name and last name are collected.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
July 16, 2015
Update 294
• Modified the Search function so that individual Series episodes are searched if the parent Series does not match the search query.
Previously individual Series episodes were never searched.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
July 7, 2015
Update 293
• Corrected a bug that prevented the display of individual video runtimes for Brightcove, Viddler and Vimeo playlists used as Grid Rows.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
July 2, 2015
Update 292
• Reduced the loading time of Vimeo Albums, Portfolios, and Channels.
See the
Using Vimeo help article for more information.
• Modified the behavior of Vimeo Album and Portfolio feeds/playlists so that they appear in the Roku channel in the same order as when "Manually" arranged in the Vimeo account.
Previously the playlist was always displayed in order from newest to oldest video.
• Modified the behavior of Grids so that when returning to a Grid after navigating left or right between Springboard screens the Grid item corresponding to the most recently viewed Springboard screen is highlighted.
Previously the orginally selected Grid item was re-selected.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
June 18, 2015
Update 291
• Corrected a bug that caused a crash if Search was enabled and the Search (STAR) key was pressed while viewing a Picture Screen item in an AutoPlay List.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
June 12, 2015
Update 290
• Added support for loading Vimeo videos and metadata by ID by using a vm:// URL.
• Added support for loading Vimeo albums, portolios and channels as MRSS playlists.
See the
Using Vimeo help article for more information.
• Added the Theme AutomaticRestartTime parameter to allow content lists to be periodically reloaded on unattended Roku devices.
• Added the Programmable Button "restart" function to allow content lists to be programmatically reloaded on unattended Roku devices.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
June 1, 2015
Update 289
• Added support for Roku Advertising Framework ("RAF") for VAST video ads.
• Added the Theme VASTMode parameter to select between Nowhere Man (NWM) and Roku Advertising Framework (RAF-Partial and RAF-Complete) VAST support.
NWM is the original VAST version that has been supported by Instant TV Channel since Update #182.
NWM and RAF-Partial support the AdBuffering, SDBufferPictureUrl, HDBufferPictureUrl, and BufferPictureTimer parameters for custom ad buffering screens.
RAF-Complete uses RAF's built-in ad buffering screens.
• Added the Theme IncludeRAF parameter to allow RAF code to be removed from the Pkg file to provide compatibility with "legacy" Roku devices.
• Added the Theme DeepLinkingSpringboardEnabled parameter to allow the Springboard to be shown prior to playing a video launched with Deep Linking.
If left at the default value of "False" then the Deep Linking video will be played immediately without displaying a Springboard.
• Added 12 new Theme parameters related to modifying the Focus Outline and Description Background on Grid screens.
See the
Using Roku Grid Screens help article for more information and a brief walk-through.
• Increased the maximum Pkg file size to over 1500K.
• Corrected a bug introduced in Update #285 that crashed the channel if an audio/MP3 stream was played.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
May 18, 2015
Update 288
• Added mkv, mka, and mks as options to the StreamFormat parameter in all content items.
• Corrected a bug that caused the channel to crash when an item was selected if SpringboardEnabled was "False".
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
May 12, 2015
Update 286
• Corrected a bug that caused the channel to crash when an item in a grid was selected.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
May 11, 2015
Update 285
• Springboard buttons are now user defined, and can be added, removed and positioned separately for each content item.
Default button labels are still defined in the Theme editor, but each button label can be individually changed within the Content editor.
Only Video/Audio Content Items added on or after Update #285 have user-definable Springboard buttons, earlier content items still have pre-positioned Springboard buttons.
• Added optional "Preview" and "Trailer" Springboard buttons.
• Per Roku's request, support has been added for the "In-Channel Purchase" method of purchasing or upgrading content.
This feature can be used with
Programmable Buttons or with user-defined Springboard buttons.
See the
In-Channel Purchase help article for more information on how to use this feature with your Roku channel.
• Per Roku's request, support has been added for Deep Linking using two new Theme parameters.
Deep Linking can be enabled by setting the Theme DeepLinkingEnabled parameter to "True".
Video ads within Deep Linking content can be enabled or disabled using the Theme DeepLinkingAdsEnabled parameter.
Deep Linking video ads must be located within the same parent list as the Deep Linking video content. (This requirement has been removed as of Update 508)
• Added the Theme Editor EraseBookmarks parameter which can be used for testing or to permanently dieable bookmarks within a channel.
• Added the Theme Editor ShowDebugIcp and ShowDebugStoreCatalog parameters which can be used for testing In-Channel Purchasing.
• Added automatically generated comments for video ad RepeatLimit, StartTime, and Weight parameters and for In-Channel Purchase Product Identifier parameters.
• Corrected a bug that caused series episode progress bars to be displayed incorrectly.
• Corrrected a bug that caused a autoplay BACK request to be lost if a postroll ad was present.
• Corrrected a bug that caused the position in a parent list to be lost under certain conditions if a child was a Series List.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
March 12, 2015
Update 283
• Per Roku's request, support has been added for the "In-Channel Upgrade" method of upgrading a Roku channel.
This supplements the existing Programmable Button "Channel" option that allows multiple new channels to be installed from within an already-installed channel.
The In-Channel Upgrade option supports automatic deletion of the pre-upgrade channel, but is restricted to a single upgrade channel for each pre-upgrade channel.
Both options integrate with Roku Billing Services.
See the
In-Channel Upgrade help article
and the
Programmable Buttons help article
for more information on how to use this feature with your Roku channel.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
March 2, 2015
• Updated the Wowza Live Streaming
walk-through help article to cover Wowza Streaming Engine and Wowza Streaming Cloud version 4.1.
February 23, 2015
Update 282
• Corrected a bug that caused the video to be all black (but sound was OK) if an invalid SDOverlayUrl or HDOverlayUrl logo URL was provided.
• Corrected a bug that caused the remote control to become non-responsive if passwords were used with SpringboardEnabled set to "false" and a valid password was not provided by the viewer.
• Added new query variables %ADVERTISINGID, %CHANNELID, %CHANNELTITLE, %CONTENTID,
%CONTENTTITLE, %COUNTRYCODE, %ISADIDTRACKINGDISABLED, %PUBLISHERID and %USERID.
See the
Query Variables help article for more information.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
January 19, 2015
Update 281
• Worked around a Roku 6.1 firmware compatibility issue that prevented Dropbox from being used for poster storage.
• Worked around a Roku 6.1 firmware compatibility issue that intermittently prevented BufferPictures from being used in specific situations.
• Removed unnecessary "Please Wait" messages that were displayed when loading the Springboard/Detail screens for live audio content.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
January 16, 2015
• Roku's recently released 6.1 firmware update causes excessive playlist loading delays to occur in Instant TV Channel Updates #264 and earlier.
This bug was eliminated in June 2014 with Instant TV Channel Update #265.
If your channel uses playlists and is at Update #264 or earlier you may need to update now.
• Roku's recently released 6.1 firmware update may cause playback problems for some HLS streams.
Setting your HLS stream's Bitrate parameter to "0" may resolve this issue.
HLS streams should usually have the Bitrate parameter set to "0" because the HLS metadata already contains bitrate information.
Please visit the Roku Developer Forum for more information: http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=82277.
January 12, 2015
Update 280
• Added support for Brightcove API responses that simultaneously contain HLS and MP4 streams.
Previously a channel would only recognize the MP4 streams when a Brightcove response contained a combination of HLS and MP4 streams.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
December 29, 2014
Update 279
• Added support for video content stored on Viddler.
See the
Using Viddler with Roku help article for more information about using Viddler as your CDN.
• Added support for Brightcove VOD HLS content.
See the
Using Brightcove with Roku help article for more information about using Brightcove as your CDN.
• Corrected a bug that caused the audio buttons on Springboard/Detail screens to stop responding after the Search button was pressed.
• Corrected a bug that caused the channel to crash if a Brightcove API call did not return a stream URL.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
December 12, 2014
Update 278
• Added the Slideshow parameter to Picture Screen content items.
Allows a directory of images to be provided instead of an image URL.
The specified directory must support indexing or listing.
• Added support for Registration & Linking to video items contained in AutomaticPlay-enabled and Scheduled lists.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
November 22, 2014
Update 277
• Added support for LiveRail video ads.
Please contact before attempting to use LiveRail video ads.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
November 20, 2014
Update 276
• Updated VAST related code to Roku Ads version 1.1b177.
Includes improved handling of redirected trackers.
• Added the Content Editor AllowPause parameter for video ads.
• Removed the Content Editor AllowSkip parameter for VAST and Vidillion video ad types.
See the
Placing Advertisements in your Roku Channel help article for more information about using video ads in your Roku channel.
• Changed the behavior of Horizontal and Vertical Lists so that when exiting from a Springboard screen the focused item in the List corresponds to the most recently viewed item in the Springboard screen.
Previously, if the remote control LEFT or RIGHT button was used in the Springboard screen,
when returning to the parent List the originally selected child item was still in focus instead of the new child item selected by the LEFT or RIGHT button.
• Changed the behavior of selectable banner ads so that the previously focused Horizontal List item is brought into focus again after the video ad has completed.
• Corrected a bug in episodic list progress bars that previously required having to exit and then re-enter the list in order to update the progress bar.
• Corrected a bug in the Springboard screen that caused the displayed Release Date and Length to gradually shift to the right.
• Corrected a bug that prevented the overlay image or logo bug from being displayed over buffer pictures.
This behavior can be changed using the Theme Editor OverlayVideoOnly parameter.
• Modified the Search function to include Text and Picture screens in search results.
• Added customizable buffering progress bar support for all buffer pictures displayed using the SDBufferPictureUrl or HDBufferPictureUrl parameters.
• Reduced the number of events recorded using Google Analytics in order to improve accuracy by reducing data loss caused by rate-limiting.
See the
Google Analytics for Roku Channels help article for more information about using Google Analytics.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
October 2, 2014
Update 275
• Corrected a bug that prevented secure s3:// URLs from being used for Picture Screen items.
See the
Using Amazon S3 for Secure Content Storage help article for more information.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
October 1, 2014
Update 274
• Added the MrssPosterSelect parameter to the Theme Editor to select which poster to use if an MRSS feed contains more than one poster for each item.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
September 29, 2014
Update 273
• Added scheduling support for Series List items in Grids to allow individual Grid items to be simulated live streams.
• Added support for Itunes image elements in MRSS feeds.
• Corrected a bug where apostrophes were incorrectly displayed in SHOUTcast album titles.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
August 12, 2014
Update 272
• Corrected a bug related to Vidillion ad tracking.
Any channels built with Updates 264 through 271 which use Vidillion ads should apply Update 272 immediately.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
August 5, 2014
Update 271
• Added support for the ChannelAppId parameter to clickable banner ads,
to permit linking to other Roku channels when the remote control OK or STAR key is pressed while the video ad is being played.
See the
Advertisements help article for more information.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
July 29, 2014
Update 270
• Corrected a bug that caused the channel to crash if the "Clear" or trashcan button in the Search screen was clicked
before there was any search text to clear.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
July 25, 2014
Update 269
• Corrected a version 3.1 firmware compatibility issue affecting top-level Grid channels running on older (pre-2012) Roku devices.
Does not affect Grids in Classic channel types.
• Corrected a bug that caused the channel to crash if an MRSS item's Url parameter was blank.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
July 21, 2014
Update 268
• Added Brightcove Analytics support.
• Added the Theme SpringboardVideoPlayAgainButton parameter with a default value of "play again" to allow modification of the play button label for items that have already been played.
Previously the play button label for items that were already played was set by the SpringboardVideoResumeButton parameter which has a default value of "play from beginning".
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
July 14, 2014
Update 267
• Increased the maximum size of video ad URLs to 5000 characters in order to support larger VAST tags.
• No change to Brightscript code.
July 8, 2014
Update 266
• Allow the special variables %CLOCK and %TODAY to be used in breadcrumbs.
%CLOCK displays the local time, for example "9:01 PM".
%TODAY displays the local date, for example "Monday, July 7, 2014".
• Allow video ads to be associated with individual Grid Rows.
• Corrected a bug that caused "UNKNOWN" to be displayed for both breadcrumbs in any new list created prior to updating an old channel to Update 264 or higher.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
June 27, 2014
Update 265
• Corrected a bug introduced in Update 264 that caused the channel to crash when attempting to play MRSS content under certain circumstances.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
June 26, 2014
Update 264
• Added the AllowSearch parameter to ads, which permits the Search function to be accessed while a video ad is playing.
• Added the BreadcrumbLeft and BreadcrumbRight parameters to lists and video/audio items,
which override the automatically-generated breadcrumb values controlled by the Theme Editor BreadcrumbEnabled and GridScreenBreadcrumbEnabled parameters.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
June 9, 2014
Update 263
• Added the ChannelAppId parameter to video ads, to permit linking to other Roku channels when the remote control OK or STAR key is pressed while the ad is being played.
• Added the IgnoreVideoAdsEnabled parameter to video ads, to permit individual ads to override the global Theme Editor VideoAdsEnabled parameter.
This permits non-ad content configured as an "Ad" item to be included in a premium channel where the content/ad would otherwise be excluded by the setting of the VideoAdsEnabled parameter.
• Added the ShareRegistry parameter to the Theme Editor to allow channels with identical Roku Dev IDs (e.g. cloned channels) to have independent bookmarks, registration tokens, and other persistent data.
This is applicable to clones published as separate channels, or to channels built from cloned "template" channels.
• Allow ShortDescriptionLine1 and ShortDescriptionLine2 to be edited if a video is in a Grid, for use with the search feature.
• Enabled the search feature (the remote STAR button) for Picture Screens, Text Screens,
and Videos in AutomaticPlay-enabled lists with AutomaticPlayControls set to "pause" or "none" ("pause+skip" was already supported).
• Adjusted video ad playback logic to more accurately report invalid URLs returned from ad providers.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
May 31, 2014
Update 262
• Added a customizable buffering progress bar to videos in AutomaticPlay-enabled Lists when the AutomaticPlayControls parameter is not set to "full".
Multiple BufferBar parameters have been added to the Theme Editor to support color, size, and position options.
• Improved error handling when videos in AutomaticPlay-enabled Lists become unavailable during playback due to network issues.
The image pointed to by HDBufferPictureUrl or SDBufferPictureUrl and/or the AutomaticPlayBuffering text is now displayed during rebuffering events instead of the video screen.
• Improved error handling when network issues occur during loading of S3 configuration files for individual content items.
The Theme Editor UnavailableContent message is now displayed instead of attempting to continue to process the channel.
• Corrected a bug introduced in Update 260 that prevented the Title from being displayed above the buffering progress bar for videos in Grid Rows containing only one video.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
May 22, 2014
Update 261
• Increased the number of search results beyond 9, and added a "more results" button to the Search screen.
• Corrected a version 3.1 firmware compatibility issue affecting older Roku devices which limited search results to 1 item.
• Added the Theme Editor SearchMoreResultsButton and SearchWaitLabel parameters.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
May 20, 2014
Update 260
• Added an optional search button to the Springboard/Detail screen, controlled by the Theme Editor SpringboardSearchButton and SearchScope parameters.
• Corrected a bug introduced in Update 259 that caused the channel to exit to the Roku Home screen if the STAR key was pressed while in the Search screen.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
May 19, 2014
Update 259
• Added a channel-wide search function that is activated by pressing the STAR key on the remote control. New search-related parameters
SearchScope, SearchBreadcrumbLabel, SearchHistoryLabel, SearchResultsLabel, SearchExitButton,
SearchNoResults, SearchNoSearches, and SearchResultsLimit are located in the Theme Editor.
• Modified springboard screen logic so that if the SpringboardVideoPlayButton parameter is blank,
then the "Play" and "Play All" buttons will both use the SpringboardVideoPlayAllButton text for their button labels,
and Series Lists will only be able to play all episodes, not individual episodes.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
May 12, 2014
Update 258
• Corrected a bug that caused an MRSS-generated Grid Row to use SD and HDListPosterUrl instead of SD and HDPosterUrl for the Grid artwork.
• Minor changes to network retry logic for huge channels.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
May 5, 2014
Update 257
• Added the Theme Editor SpringboardEnabled parameter to allow Springboard/Detail screens to be optionally disabled,
so that video items are played immediately after selection from a List or Grid.
• Improved bookmark logic for Series Lists.
• Display the Theme Editor UnavailableContent error message when trying to load a nonexistent playlist URL into a Grid Row.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
April 25, 2014
Update 256
• Corrected a bug that caused the channel to crash under certain circumstances
when playlists were being loaded into a Grid Row and an unavailable video in the playlist was selected.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
April 9, 2014
Update 255
• Corrected a bug that caused the channel to crash under certain circumstances
if Breadcrumbs were enabled and a Springboard was scrolled left or right.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
April 4, 2014
Update 254
• Added the Theme Editor AutomaticPauseTime, AutomaticPauseTitle,
and AutomaticPauseBody parameters to allow AutomaticPlay-enabled Lists and live streams
to be automatically paused if nobody is watching in order to conserve CDN bandwidth.
• Corrected a bug that prevented the back button in an AutoPlay-enabled list
from skipping over a Channel Programmable Button when the target channel was already installed.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
March 31, 2014
Update 253
• Added support for individual Brightcove video items in MRSS feeds using bc:// URLs.
This is in addition to Brightcove playlist MRSS support that has been present since Instant TV Channel update 185.
See the
Brightcove and
MRSS help articles for more information.
• Added the gridrowtitle element to the Instant TV Channel MRSS specification.
See the list of
MRSS Elements for details.
• Minor changes to Google Analytics logging of VAST ad tracker events.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
March 20, 2014
Update 252
• Corrects a problem with VAST ad processing that exists in previous updates 248 through 251.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
March 17, 2014
Update 251
• Added the ChannelSetupTimer parameter to Channel Programmable Buttons
in order to facilitate cross-linking & advertising of other Roku channels in AutoPlay-enabled Lists.
• Changed AutomaticPlayErrorEnabled parameter default to "True".
• Modifications to AutomaticPlay processing to allow playback to continue when isPlaybackPosition occasionally provides inconsistent position information at the end of a video.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
March 5, 2014
Update 250
• Modified the logic for the Theme Editor AdOptimization parameter so that the parameter only applies to
"preroll", "vast preroll", "vidillion preroll",
"midroll", "vast midroll", "vidillion midroll",
"postroll", "vast postroll", and "vidillion postroll" ad types.
All other ad types are always randomized if there are multiple ads of the same type present at a particular level of a channel.
• This update only affects developers with "Commercial" channels that contain video ads.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
March 3, 2014
Update 249
• Modified the VAST tracker URL handler to support a wider range of characters.
• This update only affects developers with "Commercial" channels that contain VAST video ads.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
February 24, 2014
Update 248
Substantial changes related to video ads are included in this update.
All developers updating a channel containing video ads should thoroughly test a private version of
the channel to verify that video ads are working as expected before publishing the channel to
the public Roku Channel Store.
• Updated VAST video ad processing to support YuMe version 1.1.3.
• Added the Theme Editor AdOptimize parameter to improve fill rate by selecting from multiple
video ad providers until the ad request is filled or all providers have been tried.
Options include "off", "random", and "ordered".
• Added the Content Editor StartTime and AllowSkip parameters for video ads.
See the
Ads help article for more information.
• Send the "Vidillion ad request" event message to Google Analytics for all filled and unfilled Vidillion ad break requests.
Use in conjunction with the "No Vidillion ads available for this ad request" to calculate Vidillion fill rate.
See the
Google Analytics help article for more information.
• Automatically limit Vidillion ad frequency as determined by the RepeatLimit parameter to a minimum of 5 minutes.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
February 9, 2014
Update 247
• Modified AutomaticPlay processing to allow playback to continue (the UnavailableContent dialog is not displayed) if a spurious Roku isRequestFailed message is generated at the end of a video.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
February 3, 2014
Update 246
• Added support for %hh-style escape sequences to allow the insertion of special characters into the AdBuffering parameter.
For example, %0a will insert a newline character.
This can be used to position the text or to provide multiple lines of text on ad buffering screens.
• Content Editor MRSS passwords now protect the entire Playlist or Feed at entry, instead of the individual MRSS items.
This is consistent with how passwords for Series Lists are already handled.
• Added custom MRSS elements to support passwords on individual MRSS content items.
See the
MRSS Elements help article for details.
• Modified the behavior of repeating AutoPlay-enabled lists so that the remote control REWIND key continuously loops through all content items instead of stopping when the first content item in the list is reached.
• All AutoPlay lists now obey the PlayDuration parameter if it is provided.
Previously only non-AutoPlay lists or AutoPlay lists with AutomaticPlayControls set to "full" obeyed the PlayDuration parameter.
• Modified the handling of video ads so that preroll ads will be played even if the Video Content Item's PlayStart parameter is non-zero.
Prior to this update if the beginning of a VOD item was skipped by using PlayStart then preroll ads would not play.
• Corrected a bug that caused the channel to crash if the password screen within a Grid was exited without providing the password.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
January 27, 2014
Update 245
• Added the Theme Editor VideoAdsEnabled parameter to control the display of video ads for premium channels,
and to allow separate premium (ad-free) and standard (ad-supported) channels to be maintained and synchronized from a single Instant TV Channel instance.
See the
Advertising help article for more information.
• Added support for Brightcove Live HLS streams using the special bc:// URLs.
See the
Brightcove help article for more information.
• Added the Content Editor TrackIdSubtitle parameter to support SMPTE-TT and 608/708 closed caption formats.
• Corrected a bug where passworded MRSS Series in a Grid crashed the channel.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
January 14, 2014
• Enabled the use of the Content Editor PasswordEveryTime parameter for Horizontal, Vertical and Series list items, including the top channel-level list.
Applies only to newly created items and requires an "Unlimited" or "Commercial" channel type.
January 10, 2014
Update 244
• Enabled S3 content URLs to be used in MRSS feeds.
See the
MRSS Feeds and
S3 Content help articles for more information.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
January 6, 2014
Update 243
• Updated bookmark behavior for AutomaticPlay-enabled lists so that the bookmark is cleared if a video item is played to within TailSeconds (Theme Editor parameter) of its end.
This guarantees that the video item will restart from the beginning when a repeating AutomaticPlay list loops around and plays the item again.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
December 31, 2013
Update 242
• Corrected a problem where a black screen would occassionally display on top of a Grid screen in low device memory situations.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
December 30, 2013
Update 241
• Added the %VER query variable for use in content and video ad URLs.
See the
Query Variables help article for more information.
• Added support for %hh-style escape sequences to allow the insertion of special characters into Title, ShortDescriptionLine1,
and ShortDescriptionLine2 text fields.
For example, %0a will insert a newline character.
This can be used to position the text or to provide multiple lines of text when the
Title or ShortDescriptionLine parameters are used with buffering screens.
• Added the Theme Editor OverlayVideoOnly parameter to control the display of the overlay (logo bug)
image with buffering and picture screens.
If set to "True" then the overlay image only appears with non-ad video, but not on buffering or picture screens.
Default is "False" in order to be consistent with previous behavior.
• Enabled the use of the Content Editor PasswordEveryTime parameter for "New MRSS or Playlist" content items.
• Enabled the use of the Content Editor HDOverLayUrl and SDOverLayUrl parameters for "New MRSS or Playlist" content items.
• Corrected a problem where a black screen would occassionally display on top of Horizontal and Vertical lists in low device memory situations.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
December 4, 2013
Update 240
• Enabled the operation of the Theme Editor AdStartTime parameter.
Although it has been present since Update 226, it had no effect on ad playback.
See the
Advertisements help article for more information.
• Increased the number of allowable characters for the Content Editor Stream Url parameter from 256 to 5000.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
December 2, 2013
Update 239
• Added custom MRSS elements to support HD and SD versions of posters, BIF files, and ABR (Adaptive Bitrate) stream URLs.
See the
MRSS Elements help article for details.
• Added the ScheduleTimeZone Theme Editor parameter to provide "gmt" and "local" timezone options for schedule-enabled lists.
• Changed the Google Analytics Event Label for no-fill ad events from "Error" to "Status".
See the
Google Analytics help article for more information.
• Modified the %SPLASH URL placeholder to handle .png and .gif splash images in addition to .jpg images.
• Corrected a bug that caused scheduled monthly items to crash the channel under certain circumstances.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
November 14, 2013
Update 238
• Added the AutomaticPlay "repeat no-exit" option to the Content Editor.
Loops an AutomaticPlay-Enabled list and prevents it from exiting unless the remote control HOME key is pressed.
See the
Automatic Playback help article for more information.
• A minor change was made to how Vidillion URLs are generated.
• Added the GoogleTrackingVideoHeartbeat parameter to the Theme Editor.
Sends an event message to Google Analytics every 60 seconds while a video is being viewed
so that the Google Analytics Real-Time "active visitors on site" figure
and "Locations" map is accurate.
See the
Google Analytics help article for more information.
• Improved responsiveness of remote control BACK and UP keys during processing of large linear playout schedules
and large grids.
• Corrected a bug introduced in Update 232 that caused the standard buffering screen for Series Episodes
to be hidden even if there was no SD or HDBufferPictureUrl specified.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
November 11, 2013
Update 237
• Added the SHOUTcastEnabled parameter to the Content Editor. Allows SHOUTcast processing to be disabled for non-SHOUTcast audio streaming servers.
See the
SHOUTcast help article for information about using SHOUTcast with your Roku channel.
• Added the playallbutton MRSS/XML element to allow custom MRSS feeds to control the display of the "Play All" button on Series Springboard/Detail screens.
• Modified the Springboard/Detail screen Title field to contain both the Artist and Title parameters if the content is audio and the DescriptionStyle is not "audio".
• Bookmarks within AutomaticPlay-enabled lists now restore the position within individual video items instead of always starting at the beginning of the last played item.
• Changed the minimum value for the Content Editor Ad RepeatLimit parameter to 1 minute, and changed the default value to 5 minutes.
• Added the Theme Editor AutomaticPlayErrorEnabled parameter to optionally display the UnavailableContent error message if a problem occurs during playback of a video in an AutomaticPlay-enabled list.
• If Vidillion video ads are in use in a channel, all video playback errors, including errors that occur in Ads and in AutomaticPlay-enabled lists, will display an UnavailableContent error message.
• Prevent the Registration and Linking screen from appearing until after the splash screens and splash video have completed.
• Added the Content Editor PasswordEveryTime parameter. If "True" requires that a password be entered every time instead of being remembered.
• Changed the Google Analytics "Event Label" parameter, which was a duplicate of the "Event Action" parameter, to track the Content Editor ContentID of VAST and Vidillion ads.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
November 7, 2013
Update 236
• Added support for audio track metadata, including album artwork, when using SHOUTcast live audio streams.
See the
SHOUTcast help article for more information.
• Added the Last.fm API Key parameter to the Services page to provide access to Last.fm Web Services.
• Added the SpringboardRuntimeLabel and SpringboardReleaseDateLabel parameters to the Theme Editor.
• Added the URL placeholder %SPLASH which can be used to quickly redisplay
the channel's splash image as a Picture screen (with HDPictureUrl or SDPictureUrl)
or as a Buffer screen (with HDBufferPictureUrl or SDBufferPictureUrl).
• Corrected a bug that may cause the channel to crash when the video being played is within a list or grid created prior to update 220.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
October 31, 2013
Update 235
• Modified the handling of midroll video ads
so that the behavior of the SDBufferPictureUrl, HDBufferPictureUrl, and BufferPictureTimer parameters
are consistent with their behavior for preroll and postroll video ads.
• Added the BufferPictureTextEnabled parameter to the Theme Editor to control the display of Title and
AutomaticPlayBuffering text on top of images specified by the SDBufferPictureUrl and HDBufferPictureUrl parameters.
• Added support for the BufferPictureTimer parameter to VAST video ads and Vidillion video ads.
• Added a check for BACK and UP remote control requests while waiting for the BufferPictureTimer to expire.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
October 25, 2013
Update 234
• Corrected a bug where a video ad with no AdBuffer text and no BufferPictureURLs may cause the channel to become non-responsive
if the user clicks BACK or UP during the video ad buffering period.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
October 24, 2013
Update 233
• Added the VerticalTitle parameter to Lists,
Picture and Text items,
MRSS Feeds and Programmable Buttons that are children of Vertical Lists.
Used along with ShortDescriptionLine1 to allow separate text strings to be displayed for the selectable items and beneath posters in Vertical Lists.
Video and Audio Content Items continue to use the Title and ShortDescriptionLine1 parameters for this purpose.
• Corrected a bug where a "Back" Programmable Button may cause the channel to become non-responsive.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
October 18, 2013
Update 232
• Prevent the Splash screen from reappearing after the optional Splash video is played.
• Display the optional HDBufferPictureUrl and SDBufferPictureUrl images
even if the Stream Url parameter is %NULL.
• Added the URL placeholder %BLACK which can be used to quickly display
a solid black Picture (with HDPictureUrl or SDPictureUrl)
or Buffer screen (with HDBufferPictureUrl or SDBufferPictureUrl).
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
October 17, 2013
Update 231
• Added support for Brightcove Live HLS streams.
• Removed unnecessary "Wait" box which appeared at channel launch under certain circumstances.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
October 15, 2013
Update 230
• Added a special Stream URL %NULL which can be used to play preroll and postroll ads without playing a corresponding Video Content Item.
• Added special URLs pkg:/images/splash_hd.jpg and pkg:/images/splash_sd.jpg which can be used redisplay the Splash image as a Buffer or Picture screen.
The URL's extension must be .jpg, .png or .gif to match the uploaded Splash image's filename extension.
• Bug fix correcting a problem where a bad URL or video encoding may cause an AutomaticPlay-enabled list to exit prematurely.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
October 14, 2013
Update 229
• Improved the internal handling of Picture screens (equivalent to the Roku SDK roImageCanvas) to
reduce brief black screens that appear throughout the channel between other screens.
• Added support for additional Vidillion URL formats for preroll, midroll and postroll video ads.
• Bug fix correcting a problem where the AutomaticPlayTextColor parameter was ignored under certain conditions.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
October 9, 2013
Update 228
• Eliminated the brief black screen that appeared immediately after the Splash screen.
• Added Vimeo support to the Theme Editor splash_video parameter.
• Bug fix for the Programmable Button "Channel" function, resolving a problem caused by Update 226.
• Bug fix (again) for Picture screens that occasionally detected a phantom OK remote key press.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
October 7, 2013
Update 227
• Added a scrolling option for Text Screens.
• Added Video Ad Position %POS and Content URL %URL Query Variables for use with video advertisement URLs.
• Bug fix to prevent the remote control PAUSE key from briefly freezing the video
screen on older Roku models when AutomaticPlayControls is set to "None".
• Bug fix to prevent invalid Vidillion ad URLs from crashing the channel.
• Bug fix (again) for Picture screens that occasionally detected a phantom OK remote key press.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
October 4, 2013
Update 226
• Added support for Vidillion preroll, midroll, and postroll ads.
• Added "Midroll" and "Midroll2" options to the AdType parameter for Ads.
• Added Midroll Position parameters for video items.
• Added SDBufferPictureUrl, HDBufferPictureUrl and BufferPictureTimer
parameters to Ad, MRSS and Video Content Items in order to allow buffering screens to be hidden
without using Picture Screens.
• Added the AdStartTime to the Theme Editor.
Determines the minimum number of minutes to wait after the channel is launched before playing the first ad.
• Changed internal handling of zero hh:mm:ss length to eliminate "0m" display on Springboard screens.
• Overlay images now shown in the Content Editor poster window.
• Bug fix for Picture screens that occasionally detected a phantom OK remote key press.
• Bug fix to prevent Picture screens from crashing the channel when scheduling and Google Analytics are used at the same time.
• Bug fix to prevent "preroll" and "postroll" ads from occasionally
being played instead of "preroll2" and "postroll2" ads.
• Bug fix for a problem introduced in update #213 related to grid loading optimization when a Grid Row has been previously bookmarked.
• Bug fix for problem where a top-level AutomaticPlay-enabled list
with a nested Schedule-enabled list could cause a stuck black screen when exiting the Schedule.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
September 12, 2013
Update 224 - 225
• Bug fix for nested Vertical Lists.
Unlimited nesting of Vertical Lists with ListStyle set to "vertical-background" is now possible.
• Added support for query variables %RND, %SEQ, %TIME, %TOKEN,
%DEVID, %MODEL, %FWVER, %DTYPE and %DMODE used in content and video ad URLs.
See the
Query Variables help article for more information.
• Re-added support for AutoPlay (AutomaticPlay set to "once" or "repeat")
MRSS feeds and playlists used as Series Lists within Grids which was inadvertently dropped from Update #221.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these updates to your Roku channel.
September 9, 2013
Update 223
• Added the SpringboardSubtitleDefault, SpringboardSubtitleOffButton,
and SpringboardSubtitleOnButton parameters to the Theme Editor to control the text
displayed on the Springboard/Detail screen's Subtitles button when video subtitles are used.
• Added the Theme Editor EraseRegistry parameter to assist with testing persistent
variables like bookmarks and passwords.
• Changed the behavior of the Roku remote control REPLAY button when used in an AutomaticPlay list.
If the AutomaticPlayControls parameter is not "full",
the REPLAY button will now rewind to the position (in seconds) specified by PlayStart instead of rewinding all the way to position 0.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these updates to your Roku channel.
September 7, 2013
Update 222
• Bug fix to prevent channel from crashing if all rows in a grid have DoNotDisplay set to "True".
• Bug fix for nested AutoPlay List premature exit issue introduced in Update #220.
• Bug fix to prevent Content Editor from displaying Overlays in AutoPlay Lists with AutomaticPlayControls set to "Full".
• Changed how the Content Editor displays Programmable Button icons when used with the DoNotDisplay parameter.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these updates to your Roku channel.
September 5, 2013
Update 221
• Improved loading speed for MRSS feeds used as Series Lists within Grids.
• Added the SpringboardLeftRightEnabled parameter to the Theme Editor,
which allows the remote control left and right buttons to be disabled in Springboard screens.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these updates to your Roku channel.
September 3, 2013
Update 220
• Added a "schedule" option to AutomaticPlay which allows a
channel to act as a playout server by generating a live stream using video-on-demand content.
See the
Automated Playout help article for details.
• Added "daily", "weekly", "monthly", "leader",
"follower", "filler", and "relative" scheduling options for all Content Items
when AutomaticPlay is set to "schedule".
• Added an on-screen Programmable Button item that has five selectable functions:
"back" (identical to the BACK button on a Roku remote control),
"exit level" (exit the current level or list),
"top" (jump to the top of the channel),
"home" (identical to the HOME button on a Roku remote control),
and "channel" (jump to another channel).
See the
Programmable Buttons help article for more information.
• Added Comment and Notes parameters to all Content Items.
• Added Color, Position, and Font Size options for Automatic Play buffering text.
• Added support for %hh-style escape sequences to allow the insertion of special characters into Roku multi-line text fields.
For example, %0a will insert a newline character.
• Allow banner, preroll and postroll ads to be specified within Series Lists.
• Changed behavior of the PlayDuration parameter so that it stops video playback instead of only
affecting the maximum time shown on the progress bar.
• Removed the unnecessary PictureLoadingTimer parameter from Picture Screen items.
• Automated Content Editor synchronization of ShortDescriptionLine1 with Title.
• Changed the remote control BACK button behavior so that it completely exits all nested AutomaticPlay levels instead of just one level.
• The Header parameter of a Vertical List is now used as the List's selectable Title when
its ShortDescriptionLine1 parameter is blank and the List is nested inside another Vertical List.
• Corrected a bug that caused channels to crash if a Series List's "choose a new episode" button
was selected when the ListStyle parameter was set to "arced-landscape" or "flat-category".
• Corrected a bug which caused the Content Editor to hang when trying to delete a content tree item with a blank name.
• Corrected a bug related to Brightscript's Rnd() function not working correctly when
generating temporary file names for grid posters.
• Corrected a bug related to ad timing which prevented ads from running under certain conditions.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these updates to your Roku channel.
June 28, 2013
• Increased the maximum Theme Editor file upload size from 100K to 200K
in order to accomodate larger splash images.
• Corrected a bug that caused the Content Editor to be displayed incorrectly when
changing the browser zoom level. Content Editor display problems may still occur with extremely small
browser zoom levels.
June 25, 2013
• The numbering system used for Pkg files has been updated to incorporate the
major and minor version numbers along with the build version number.
This may require you to manually increment the build_version number
in the Theme Editor if you need to re-download an existing Pkg file that
has the old numbering system.
• Added a Developer Mode setting to the Account page.
"Basic" Developer Mode displays only the most commonly used parameters
in the Theme and Content editors.
"Advanced" Developer Mode displays all parameters in the editors.
June 25, 2013
Update 219
• Changed the Content Editor HDBranded parameter default value to False.
• Added support for HLS and M4V VAST preroll and postroll ads requested by YuMe.
• Added automatic centering for Splash screens and Picture screens
if the X and Y offsets are "0".
• Corrected a bug introduced several updates ago
which caused the splash screen color to be ignored for non-Commercial channels.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these updates to your Roku channel.
June 13, 2013
Update 218
• Added the ListScreenHeaderText color parameter to the Theme Editor.
• Minor modifications to the Content Editor.
• An update is required to add the new Theme Editor parameter to your Roku channel.
Repackaging and uploading to your Roku Developer Account are not required.
June 12, 2013
Update 217
• Display an error message if a channel is deleted from its Instant TV Channel account.
This message was already present but was inadvertently hidden by the splash screen as of update 203.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
June 10, 2013
• Minor modifications to the Content Editor.
June 7, 2013
Update 216
• This update replaces the default poster URLs and splash screen.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
May 29, 2013
• Renamed "Instant Roku Channel" to "Instant TV Channel".
May 14, 2013
Update 215
• Eliminated an intermittent problem where the splash video began playback
a few seconds before the splash screen was removed on pre-Roku 2 devices.
This update is only necessary for Commercial channels using a splash video following
the splash screen.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
May 8, 2013
Update 214
• Changed the behavior of the remote control Back and Up buttons
in AutoPlay postroll ads so that they exit to the menu
instead of continuing with the next ad or list item.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
May 3, 2013
Update 213
• Added the AdBuffering parameter to the Content Editor to allow
the display of custom text for each ad while it buffers.
• Adjusted the behavior of the Theme Editor's AdRepeatLimit
parameter so that it applies separately to each of the 4 video ad types.
• Added automatic bookmarking for Grid Rows.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
April 29, 2013
Update 212
• Corrected a bug introduced in update #210
where preroll ads from higher-level lists or folders are ignored
for videos in lower-level lists or folders.
This bug only affects Commercial channels using preroll ads.
• Added 2 new preroll and 4 new postroll AdType options to the Content Editor.
• Added the PostrollBuffering parameter to the Theme Editor.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
April 26, 2013
Update 211
• Corrected a bug where sequentially viewing multiple live streams causes
the Roku device's Springboard screen to freeze under certain conditions.
This bug only affects channels using video with the Live Content Editor
parameter set to "True".
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
April 24, 2013
Update 210
• Loading speed improved.
• Corrected several bugs related to Content Editor reports.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
April 15, 2013
Update 209
• Added the global SingleItemListBypass parameter to the Theme Editor.
This parameter allows Horizontal Lists that contain a single item to be bypassed
directly to the detail/Springboard screen of the single item.
• Brightcove URL-enabled tokens may now be included in bc:// URLs, which
will override any token specified on the Instant TV Channel Services page.
See the
Brightcove walk-through
for more information.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
April 5, 2013
Update 208
• Added a Brightcove Parameter Override option to the Services page that allows
Instant TV Channel Content Editor parameters, if present, to override
Brightcove parameters.
• Added
Instant TV Channel-specific Elements
to the MRSS playlist XML parser to permit population of more Roku-specific
parameters than is possible with common MRSS variants and extensions.
• Corrected a problem where live mp3 audio streams sometimes took an excessively long time to buffer.
• Display only the 4-digit year if the ReleaseDate parameter for an MRSS feed or playlist is in ISO-8601 ("2012-01-01T12:00:00Z") format.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
March 25, 2013
Update 207
• Added the HDOverlayUrl and SDOverlayUrl parameters to the Content Editor.
Displays a watermark bug/logo in lists with AutomaticPlay enabled
if AutomaticPlayControls is set to False.
• AutomaticPlayBuffering and AutomaticPlayText parameters now control the buffering text
regardless of the AutomaticPlayControls setting.
Delete the default AutomaticPlayText parameter value to restore the previous behavior
of no buffering text when AutomaticPlayControls is set to false.
• Added optional Vertical List breadcrumbs for Roku2 Firmware 4.8 and later devices.
Corrected a bug preventing the playback of Brightcove playlists that was
accidentally introduced in update #206.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
March 18, 2013
Update 206
• Improved grid loading speed.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this update to your Roku channel.
March 11, 2013
Update 205
• Added an optional Exit / Menu button to springboard screens.
• Improved optional splash video screen compatibility with Roku3 devices. Commercial channels with splash page artwork smaller than
1280x720 or 720x480
may need to adjust splash
X and Y parameters after applying this update.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this patch to your Roku channel.
March 4, 2013
Update 204
• Corrected a bug introduced in Update 203 where displaying the optional Debug screen
caused the channel to exit afterward if only a single splash screen was shown.
This only affects channels that have the Theme Editor ShowDebugInfo parameter set to "Yes".
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this patch to your Roku channel.
February 25, 2013
Update 203
• Addressed the splash screen issue discussed in the
Roku Developer Forum
concerning the manifest file.
Splash screens on Roku2 devices appear instantly when the channel is started,
eliminating the previous 2 to 3 second delay.
Splash screens on older devices are unchanged.
• You may need to re-enter your splash screen parameters after applying this update.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this change to your Roku channel.
February 14, 2013
Update 202
• Improved specific content provider compatibility
in order to reduce the likelihood of required updates in the future.
• Changed the Content Editor HDBranded parameter default value to True.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add the content provider compatibility change to your Roku channel.
February 14, 2013
Update 201
• Improved specific content provider compatibility.
• Added the splash_video parameter to the Theme Editor.
• Allow vertical_background to be used for
ListStyle parameter within non-top-level Vertical Lists.
• Corrected a bug that caused the channel to exit when parsing a badly-formatted poster URL.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these changes to your Roku channel.
January 28, 2013
Update 200
• Improved specific content provider compatibility for playlists used as MRSS feeds.
• Improved compatibility for Dropbox URLs used for streams and posters.
• Corrected a bug that may prevent a Picture item from being used in an Automatic Playback enabled list.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these changes to your Roku channel.
January 23, 2013
Update 199
• Added new Content Editor tree icons to indicate the status of the
DoNotDisplay and AutomaticPlay parameters.
• Corrected a bug that prevented the splash screen from being displayed properly
if the top level of the channel had the
AutomaticPlay parameter set to either once or repeat.
Otherwise the splash screen displayed correctly.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required
to add the splash screen patch to your Roku channel.
The Content Editor icon change does not require any action.
January 16, 2013
Update 198
• Allow specific content provider URLs to be used as preroll ads.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this change to your Roku channel.
January 15, 2013
Update 197
• Loading speed enhancements.
May provide noticeable loading speed improvement for larger channels.
• Display the custom splash screen for Commercial channels earlier in the boot sequence.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these changes to your Roku channel.
January 14, 2013
Update 196
• Corrected a bug preventing Selectable Banner Ad playback that was introduced in Update 195.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this patch to your Roku channel.
January 7, 2013
Update 195
• Added the AutomaticPlayBuffering and AutomaticPlayText parameters to provide
control over the buffering bar text for Lists and MRSS Feeds with AutomaticPlay enabled.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these changes to your Roku channel.
January 5, 2013
• Added hls (HTTP Live Streaming) support for MRSS Feeds.
Previously MRSS Feeds would be unplayable
if the StreamFormat parameter was changed from the default mp4 to anything else.
January 4, 2013
Update 194
• Added the global AdRepeatLimit parameter to the Theme Editor.
Prevents any preroll video from being replayed within a specified time limit.
Does not affect banner ads.
• Added the ListItemHighlightHD and ListItemHighlightSD
parameters to the Theme Editor
to provide customization of Vertical List item highlight image.
• This update only affects Commercial channels containing preroll videos
and channels containing Vertical Lists
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these changes to your Roku channel.
January 3, 2013
Update 193
• Added the RepeatLimit parameter to video advertisements.
Prevents individual preroll videos from being replayed within a specified time limit.
Does not affect banner ads.
• This update only affects Commercial channels that contain preroll videos.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this change to your Roku channel.
December 31, 2012
Update 192
• Lists with Automatic Playback enabled (including MRSS Feeds and Playlists)
will skip invalid URLs and continue with the next valid URL
instead of exiting Automatic Playback mode.
• This update only affects Lists that have Automatic Playback enabled.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this change to your Roku channel.
December 28, 2012
Update 191
• Added the Brightcove Maximum Height parameter to the Services page to work around any 1080p encoding problems.
Set to 1079 or lower to prevent 1080p rendition selection,
otherwise set to 1080 or higher to allow normal rendition selection.
• Bookmark the video playback position even if remote Home button is pressed.
Previously playback position was not saved if the Home button was pressed while a video was playing.
• Removed PositionNotificationPeriod from Theme editor. Internal value now used is always 1 second.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these changes to your Roku channel.
December 20, 2012
Update 190
• Added episode numbers to MRSS Feeds and Playlists with Episodic displays.
• Added the EpisodeSynopsisColor parameter to the Theme Editor.
• Both changes only affect MRSS Feeds and Playlists that have a ListStyle of flat-episodic or flat-episodic-16x9.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these changes to your Roku channel.
December 19, 2012
Update 189
• Improved specific content provider compatibility.
• Video preroll ads can now be used in Grid channels. Ads were previously available for Grids,
but not for top-level Grid channels.
• New Theme Editor parameter GATrackingLogExit re-enables
Google Analytics tracking of channel exit event which was inadvertently
removed in Update 188.
• Picture, Text, and Grid titles now appear correctly in Vertical Lists.
• HDSmallIconUrl and SDSmallIconUrl now available for all child items in Vertical Lists,
defaults provided by Content Editor.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these changes to your Roku channel.
December 18, 2012
Update 188
• Text and Picture item ShortDescriptionLine 1 and 2 are
displayed in the item's Grid call-out box
(instead of Title and Description which do not exist for Text and Picture items)
when Text or Picture items are used in a Grid.
• Changed Brightcove API requests to use encryption for token protection.
• HD icon that appears next to quality dots is now displayed if a multi-bitrate MP4 URL stream is 720p or higher and HDBranded is set to True.
This overrides the Quality parameter and also determines if the stream is available for SD displays.
• Cleaned up screen sequencing to eliminate occasional between-screen flashing.
• Removed unnecessary "Retrieving" message when channel is exited.
• Removed unnecessary IsHd parameter from Content Editor.
• Improved remote control responsiveness during loading of large (100s of items) MRSS feeds on slower pre-Roku2 devices.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these changes to your Roku channel.
December 14, 2012
Update 187
• Display the focused item's Description parameter in MRSS or Playlist roPoster (selection) screens that have a ListStyle of flat-episodic or flat-episodic-16x9.
• Corrected a bug where "- Not Selected -" was displayed as the Springboard movie rating when no rating was selected.
• Added automatic multi-bitrate capability for specific content provider instead of always playing the highest bitrate video.
• Changed operation of remote control Back button on Text screens (see previous update).
• Removed unnecessary screen flashing that occurred when nesting non-autoplay lists within autoplay lists.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these changes to your Roku channel.
December 11, 2012
Update 186
• Changed operation of remote control Back button when used in
Automatic Playback screens without on-screen controls
to conform with Roku's standard action of exiting playback.
The remote control Rewind and Fast-Forward buttons retain their original
functions in Automatic Playback screens without on-screen controls
of skipping back or ahead by one video.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this change to your Roku channel. This update was requested by Roku but is only required if you are using Automatic Playback within a public channel.
December 10, 2012
Update 185
• Added support for Brightcove's Video Cloud platform.
• Added video ad preroll support to Grids.
• Removed the annoying flashing screen that occurred when attempting to play a broken Stream Url.
• Swapped "User Defined Value" and "Event Label" Google Analytics parameters.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these changes to your Roku channel.
December 5, 2012
Update 184
• Improved specific content provider compatibility for playlists used as MRSS feeds.
• Corrected a bug that prevented exit from nested autoplay lists.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these changes to your Roku channel.
November 30, 2012
Update 183
• Updated Instant TV Channel's
WordPress plugin
to support registration expiration,
subscriber messaging,
multiple simultaneous widgets,
limiting the number of registered Roku devices per subscriber,
and limiting the number of renewals per device.
• Added support in Brightscript for the updated WordPress plugin.
• Added password and registration support to Picture and Text content types.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these changes to your Roku channel.
November 26, 2012
Update 182
• Added a "preroll" option for ads, including VAST support, for Horizontal and Vertical Lists.
• Improved start-up performance for slow or congested Internet connections.
• Added the reload parameter to the Picture content type for use with webcams.
• Removed Resume button from Springboard screen when content Length is not provided and content has played through to end.
• Corrected minutes remaining displayed on Resume button when minutes remaining are greater than 60.
• Documented Roku remote keypress functions when used with Automatic Playback at
http://www.InstantTvChannel.com/roku/autoplay
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these changes to your Roku channel.
November 15, 2012
Update 181
• Compatibility update for pre-Roku2 devices, correcting a bug affecting update 180.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required.
November 8, 2012
Update 180
• Added a new "Picture" content type
which provides a jpg, png or gif picture screen and optional delay timer
in any horizontal or vertical list, including Automatic Play enabled lists.
• Added a new "Text" content type
which provides a multi-paragraph text screen, optional delay timer, and optional button
in any horizontal or vertical list, including Automatic Play enabled lists.
• Added the AutomaticPlayControls parameter to display the standard buffering bar
and on-screen controls on AutoPlay screens. Default is True (on).
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these changes to your Roku channel.
October 25, 2012
Update 179
• Modified AutomaticPlay so that
"bad" URLs are skipped without displaying an error message.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this change to your Roku channel.
October 16, 2012
• Changed the "Channels Served" banner at the top of the
Instant TV Channel web site so that it excludes channels
that haven't been packaged for upload to the Roku Channel Store.
October 14, 2012
Update 178
• Corrected a Brightscript bug preventing URLs from being used as theme items including banner logos.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account to apply this patch to your Roku channel.
October 4, 2012
Update 177
• Added the DoNotDisplay option to all Content Types.
Useful for temporarily removing a Content Item, List or Grid from a channel without deleting it from the Content Editor.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this change to your Roku channel.
Only affects new channels or new items added to existing channels. Items already in an existing channel will not have DoNotDisplay available.
October 2, 2012
Update 176
• Improved specific content provider compatibility for MRSS feeds.
• Improved error handling when content URL is invalid.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add this change to your Roku channel.
October 1, 2012
Update 175
• Added support for Vertical Lists (roListScreen in the Roku SDK).
• Added a new top-level channel type, "Vertical".
• Corrected stuck breadcrumbs in Springboard bug (breadcrumbs displayed even if EnableBreadcrumbs was false).
• Corrected MRSS in Lists bug (could not have an MRSS feed in a list).
• Revised Content Editor icons for
Horizontal Lists
and Series .
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these changes to your Roku channel.
September 15, 2012
Update 174
• Cleaned up specific content provider URLs reported to Google Analytics.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these changes to your Roku channel.
September 14, 2012
Update 173
• Corrected problem with Google Analytics visitor tracking.
• Corrected problem with UI responsiveness when Google Analytics is enabled.
• Improved specific content provider compatibility.
• Added audio-only (MP3) content AutoPlay pause capability.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these changes to your Roku channel.
September 4, 2012
Update 172
• Added Google Analytics tracking.
See
http://www.InstantTvChannel.com/roku/analytics
for more information.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add Google Analytics tracking to your Roku channel.
August 28, 2012
Update 170-171
• Removed progress bar from AutoPlay / Automatic-Play.
• Improved remote keypress functions for AutoPlay / Automatic-Play.
• Added support for non-US S3 buckets using Instant TV Channel S3:// URLs.
• Update, repackage and upload to your Roku Developer Account are required to add these features to your Roku channel.
August 22, 2012
Update 169
• Corrected regression bug related to responsiveness of Grid UI.
August 21, 2012
Update 167
• Renamed "Linear List" to "Horizontal List"
in the Content Editor
in order to align Instant TV Channel terminology with Roku terminology,
and in preparation for support of Vertical Lists (based on Roku's roListScreen)
in a future update.
This
article
attempts to clarify the terminology.
• Added the AutomaticPlay Content Editor parameter
for use with lobby and kiosk loop applications,
or to "daisy chain" multiple short videos together into a single long video.
Applicable to Horizontal Lists, Series, and MRSS Feeds.
• Corrected problem in Brightscript code related to handling of SSL poster URLs.
• Improved poster loading speed.
August 10, 2012
Update 166
• Corrected problem in Brightscript code related to Registration and Linking
when the optional Partner Id was not provided.
• Added the EraseDeviceToken parameter in Theme Editor to assist with testing
Registration and Linking.
• A WordPress plug-in that implements Registration and Linking is available
here.
August 7, 2012
Update 165
• Updated Content Editor template.
ShortDescriptionLine2,
displayed on Roku devices as the description in Grid callout boxes,
is now editable for MRSS Feeds located within Grid Rows.
• No change to Brightscript code.
August 3, 2012
Update 164
• Corrected Content Editor template.
Initial MRSS Feed HD PosterStyle
(the poster displayed for MRSS items if the MRSS feed does not specify its own poster)
recommended size was for SD dimensions instead of HD dimensions.
The correct HD dimensions were displayed if the PosterStyle selection was changed.
This has no effect on actual channel content,
this only affects the recommended MRSS poster size displayed in the Content Editor.
• No change to Brightscript code.
August 1, 2012
Update 162
• Improved UI responsiveness during loading of huge RSS / MRSS feeds.
• Added password control to RSS / MRSS feed items.
• Added registration & linking control to RSS / MRSS feed items.
• Improved bookmark handling for Series / Episode lists.
• Updated default Grid overhang slice images.
July 30, 2012
Updates 154-157
• Added support for RSS / MRSS content feeds in Grids and Grid Rows.
• Added "Display As Series" feature to RSS / MRSS feeds.
• Optimized RSS / MRSS loading speed.
• Fixed problem with Dropbox HTTPS content.
July 25, 2012
Updates 152-153
• Added support for RSS / MRSS content feeds.
July 17, 2012
Updates 150-151
• Added optional PLAY ALL button to episode springboard.
• Added support for Audio Content Items within Grid lists.
July 14, 2012
Updates 148-149
• Added support for HTTPS (including S3) list posters.
July 12, 2012
Updates 145-147
• Corrected behavior of Series lists inside Grid lists.
July 4, 2012
Update 144
• Initial public release.
Instant TV Channel is not affiliated with nor endorsed by Roku Inc.
Lists many need be regenerated
if you use production credits or external IDs in your Series lists.
icon on the Channels page that generates a Direct Publisher feed for any existing or new channel.
Please see the
to allow content lists to be programmatically reloaded on unattended Roku devices.
which provides a jpg, png or gif picture screen and optional delay timer
in any horizontal or vertical list, including Automatic Play enabled lists.
which provides a multi-paragraph text screen, optional delay timer, and optional button
in any horizontal or vertical list, including Automatic Play enabled lists.
(roListScreen in the Roku SDK).
and Series 
.