Roksbox Tutorial

 

About This Tutorial


Roksbox gives you the ability to play your own videos and movies, listen to your own music, and show your own photographs on the Roku Digital Video player (from now on referred to as the Roku player). Your media can reside on your computer's hard drive, on an external drive, a USB device attached to your Roku player (XR and XD|S models), or on a network attached storage (NAS) device located on your home or local area network. Although Roksbox requires some initial setup work, once you get your media files properly configured, you will be able to enjoy all of your media files on the convenience of the Roku player.

Roksbox can use certain third party software to help organize your media files. All software mentioned in this tutorial is free to download and free to use. If you feel compelled to send a donation to the authors of the third party software, then please do so. The owners and developers of Roksbox are in no way associated with any of the third party software mentioned in this tutorial. All third party software mentioned in this tutorial has been chosen to be used with Roksbox because it is reasonably easy to use, and it provides the functionality necessary for Roksbox to work.

By using third-party software to organize your media files, you can use some of the best media organizers available to organize and keep track of your files. Then use Roksbox to play them on your Roku player.

All attempts have been made to make the setup and usage process as simple, easy, and flexible as possible. Because of the nature of the technology in using local media with the Roku player, some technical knowledge is required. However, this tutorial will assume that you have little technical knowledge, and will guide you through the process in a step-by-step fashion. If you already have some of the necessary infrustructure in place, you can skip through those steps that you already have in place. For some people, it will be very easy to get Roksbox running with the technology you already have in place, while for others, it will take some work to get everything you need set up. For those who are starting from scratch, just follow this tutorial step-by-step, and you will be playing your media on your Roku player before you know it.

 

Getting Started


If you haven't already done so, you will need to add the Roksbox channel to your Roku player.

Add the Roksbox Channel

 

Set Up Your Media


Media Server Option

  1. Install a media server on your computer or NAS device
  2. Organize your media folders and files within your media server
  3. Start Roksbox, and tell Roksbox where your media files are located
  4. Play your media files

 

USB Option (XR or XD|S models)

  1. Organize your media Folders and files on your USB device
  2. Plug your USB device into your Roku player
  3. Start Roksbox, and tell Roksbox where your media files are located
  4. Play your media files

 

Where To Go From Here


Once you've completed the setup of Roksbox, you can begin exploring some of the advanced features that make Roksbox so versatile. Here are some of the features that you can begin exploring.

Choose your Screen Styles

Turn Active Transitions On of Off

Creating Video Subcategories

Tips and Tricks

Add Additional Users to Create Multiuser Profiles

 

Additional Help


If you've followed this tutorial, and you can't get Roksbox to work, check the Troubleshooting Guide to diagnose the problem.

 

If you still don't have a Roku Digital Video Player, you can get Roku here.