HOW TO: Watch Youtube on your Popcorn Hour or Roku Digital Video Player with Mediafly

LATEST UPDATE (5/27/2010): There is now a way to get Youtube on your Roku. Check out this post for more info.

EDIT: Looks like Google has requested takedown on this method via MediaFly. Contact Youtube customer support here to lodge your complaints. The real kicker is they requested a takedown on MY Youtube channel.

Thanks to Mediafly it is easier than ever to watch Youtube videos from the comfort of your couch. Mediafly integration has been available to Popcorn Hour owners for awhile now, but now users of the Roku Digital Video Player (formerly the Roku Netflix Player) can acces it through the new Channel Store. While many Roku users are complaining that there is no Youtube channel and Popcorn Hour users have just recently lost their access to Youtube content there is a simple process to get Youtube videos back on your television. To do this you’ll need a Mediafly account as well as a Google Feedburner Account, so if you aren’t signed up for both go ahead and sign up before we start.

Step 1: RSSHandler

RSSHandler turns various Youtube collections into a video podcast feed. For the purposes of this tutorial we’ll be converting a Youtube channel, but you can make feeds for your Favorites, your Playlists, or any of the Youtube standard feeds. The site gives you all the details you’ll need to grab from Youtube to make your feed. To create one from a channel, simply copy and paste the channels url (example: http://www.youtube.com/user/meeksmixedmedia) into the site like the picture below:

Creating a Feed from a Youtube Channel

Make sure under ‘Format’ to select HD (MP4) to ensure your feed is of the highest quality. After that, simply click generate and wait for the site to do it’s magic.

Copy your feed link when the site is finished working.

On the page you’ll be brought to you’ll be presented with a link to your feed. Go ahead and Copy the link to your clipboard by right clicking it or selecting it and hitting CTRL + C. This feed, while accurate, will not be recognized by MediaFly so we’ll need to run it through one more site before we can add it.

Step 2: Feedburner

Once you are signed in to Feedburner paste the feed from the previous step underneath where it says Burn a Feed Right This Instant and then click Next.

Paste your feed into Feedburner

You’ll be brought to a page where you can title your feed and give it a unique URL. These will be filled in with information from Youtube but you can change them if you like. Once your done click Next.

Add a title and custom URL

Feedburner will tell you that your feed is live and give you the new feed URL. Copy it as you did in the previous step and we are ready to import it into Mediafly.

Copy the new Feed Link

Step 3: Mediafly

Go to the Mediafly homepage and sign in. Scroll to the bottom and click ADD YOUR RSS FEEDS.

Click on Add Your RSS Feeds

On this page you’ll simply want to paste your feed from Feedburner. You can post as many as you like, one per line. When you are ready click Import.

Paste in Your Feedburner Feed

It will take a moment to process your feed, when the button is available click Continue. On the page it brings you to you can add the feed to one of your existing channels or create a new one. Once you place it in a channel click Update then Continue.

Add the Feed to a Channel

That’s it. Now the Youtube channel should be available on your Mediafly-enabled device under Username’s Video Channels, where Username is obviously your Mediafly user name. Just scroll to the channel you added the feed into and you should have the latest videos ready to stream and play.

Run into any issues? Add a comment to this post and I’ll try to help you out.