RSS Feeds [EN]

NOTE: The Japanese version can be found here

DISCLAIMER: Given that we do not maintain 3rd party feeds, you may find that some videos and feeds may not work. For best results, use RSS 2.0 feeds using the Littlstar namespace. You can validate a non-authenticated link with the W3C Feed Validation Service.

Littlstar VR Cinema offers support for the playback of video-based RSS Feeds. We have extended RSS 2.0 with a Littlstar namespace, as documented below. While we also attempt to support other namespaces, please use the Littlstar namespace for maximum compatibility.  Please read through the instructions below and reach out to support@littlstar.com if you have any questions.

If you are a content provider and wish to support the Littlstar namespace, follow the guidelines below. If you wish to add additional support for premium feeds that require authentication, please contact partnerships@littlstar.com

Supported Platforms


360 Video360 Photo180Fixed FrameAugmented Reality
PS4YesNoYesYesNo
iOSYesYesNoYesYes

Viewing Feeds on Littlstar

  • Adding Feeds
    • Go to my.littlstar.com and log in with your Littlstar account
    • Go to your Feeds section
    • Insert the feed url into the Feed URL field and press Add.
      • Feeds must include http or https
  • Viewing Feeds
    • Open the Littlstar VR Cinema Application
    • Go to Library and log in with your Littlstar account
    • Go to your Feeds section. If the feed parsed successfully, it will show up as a folder (or folder thumbnail). 
      • If the feed is listed at my.littlstar.com but does not show up in the application, it's likely that the application failed to parse the feed. Please check to make sure the feed follows our standards.

Creating Feeds

RSS 2.0 Namespaces

We currently parse feeds that follow the modern RSS 2.0 as well as the following namespace extensions:

Example working non-Littlstar feeds:

Littlstar Namespace

Content creators can publish Littlstar specific RSS feeds with an extended Littlstar namespace. We make use of the following parameters.

Namespace Declaration

The namespace for Littlstar RSS is defined to be https://www.littlstar.com

<rss version="2.0" xmlns:ls="https://www.littlstar.com">

Elements

  • <title> (The name of the channel)
  • <link> (The link to the website corresponding to the channel)
  • <description> (The description of the channel)
  • <category> (The categories that the channels belong to)
  • <image> (Image to be displayed for the channel. Aspect Ratio should be 16:9 with a width of 720 pixels or less.)
    • <url> (The url of the image)
    • <title> (The title of the image. Not currently used but RSS required.)
    • <link> (The url of the channel’s website. Not currently used but RSS required.)
  • <item> (The section for a single video)
    • <title> (The name of the item)
    • <link> (The url of the stream. Important: this should be a direct link to the video, i.e. mp4/mov.)
    • <description> (The description of the item)
    • <category> (The category of the item)
    • <ls:duration> (Total running time of video in seconds)
    • <ls:image> (The url to a thumbnail for the item. Aspect Ratio should be 16:9 with a width of 720 pixels or less.)
    • <ls:content-type> (360, 180, ff, ar)
    • <ls:content-layout> (2d, ou, sbs, ou_fr, sbs_fr, hcap, jpg)
    • <ls:feed> (Boolean indicating if the item's url is another RSS feed, i.e. for categorization or folders.)

Content Type

  • 360: 360 degree video/photo
  • 180: 180 degree video
  • ff: Fixed-frame video
  • ar: Augmented Reality video

Content Layout

  • 2d: 2D Video
  • ou: Over/Under 3D Video (assumes the sub-images of the video are half-resolution and need to be stretched to fill the frame)
  • sbs: Side-by-side 3D Video (assumes the sub-images of the video are half-resolution and need to be stretched to fill the frame)
  • ou_fr: Over/Under 3D Full Resolution (each sub-frame is the full resolution and doesn't need to be stretched/scaled)
  • sbs_fr: Side-by-side 3D Full Resolution (each sub-frame is the full resolution and doesn't need to be stretched/scaled)
  • hcap: Augmented reality holographic capture video
  • jpg: Photo (JPEG)

Littlstar RSS Feed Example:

RSS Feed Example
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:ls="https://www.littlstar.com">
	<channel>
		<title>Example Feed</title>
  		<link>http://www.example.com/</link>
  		<description>A description of a feed of examples</description>
  		<category>News</category>
  		<category>Music</category>
  		<image>
  			<url>https://www.example.com/image.png</url>
  			<title>An Example Image Title</title>
  			<link>https://www.example.com/</link>
  		</image>
  		<item>
  			<title>The Example Title</title>
  			<link>https://www.example.com/video.m3u8</link>
  			<description>This is a video of examples</description>
  			<category>News</category>
  			<ls:duration>182</ls:duration>
  			<ls:image>https://www.example.com/image.png</ls:image>
  			<ls:content-type>360</ls:content-type>
  			<ls:content-layout>ou</ls:content-layout>
  		</item>
  		<item>
  			<title>The Second Example Title</title>
  			<link>https://www.example.com/video2.m3u8</link>
  			<description>This is a video of a second example</description>
  			<category>Music</category>
  			<ls:duration>189</ls:duration>
  			<ls:image>https://www.example.com/image2.png</ls:image>
  			<ls:content-type>ff</ls:content-type>
  			<ls:content-layout>2d</ls:content-layout>
  		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

Supported Video Extensions

  • Links must be direct to the video url and include one of the following extensions:
    • .mp4, .mov, .m4v, .m3u8, .mpd

Notes:

  • Feeds are required to follow the RSS 2.0 specification.
  • Dash streams (.mpd) are still in testing and are considered experimental
  • If a field is missing, we cannot guarantee that the content will appear appropriately in the application
  • Other optional fields that are part of the RSS 2.0 spec can be included but are not at this point planned on being used.
  • Category definitions are TBD
  • By default all RSS 2.0 feeds/videos that do not include the Littlstar namespace will be assumed to be Fixed Frame 2d.