Channels & viewing

[Chris-K]

I can smell porky pies???

When asked why Roku doesn't return many search results, Roku say they can't search data without permission from providers (and so a Roku search can't find majority of streams)

We are also lead to beleive that providers have to provide the app that works with Roku devices. Rather than the blindingly obvious solution of Roku making their devices work with existing TV apps. So a lot of streaming apps are not supported. Hence we have no CBS Reality catch up.

The BBC would not provide a BBC iPlayer app specifically for Roku and then deny them access to BBC programming.

So who is lying?

[Strega]

I'm not sure if I understand your question, but Roku OS, android, and various other TV systems are all different, so different apps are written for each OS.  (Though certain parts of apps may use shared code if the content provider writes them that way.)

The app has to know how to display video, interact with the remote, make network connections etc. on each OS.  In addition, if the OS supplies some kind of search, an app has to know how to provide searchable data to the OS.  Here is a list of (some?) apps that support searching on Roku.  (Last update was over half a year ago though.)

https://support.roku.com/article/235044948#!

And here is something about setting up search:

https://partnersuccess.roku.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010967913-What-is-the-process-for-setting-up-Ro...

[Chris-K]

I'm not sure if I understand your question

I'm not talking about phone apps so I've tried to clarify my question

[Strega]

I didn't assume that you were talking about anything involving phones.  (My mention of Android was in reference to Android TV, one of the many other streaming platforms.)  So hopefully my answer still makes sense.

[Chris-K]

I didn't assume that you were talking about anything involving phones.  (My mention of Android was in reference to Android TV

That's academic, Roku doesn't use any of the standard TV app OS. It seem to rely on providers writing a custom so for roku, which is why I noticed immediately it's so poorly supported, meaning loads Android TV apps are not available for roku

[Strega]

Roku was shipping players years before Android TV existed. As far as I know, in the US, Roku has (by a wide margin) the most people using its streaming OS.  In other parts of the world, Tizen, and WebOS are dominant.  FireOS, and Playstation are also significant worldwide players and AndroidTV is popular in Europe.

I’m still not sure I understand your original question about lying and search results though.  Streaming is a somewhat more complicated world than the days of analog TV.  However, availability of TV programs is much higher than ever.  Even back in the golden age of TV, we had to deal with PAL vs SECAM vs NTSC, recorded onto multiple tape and disc formats.  Fortunately, all the hardware these days is incredibly cheap, so if ~50 times as much TV as you could ever watch is not enough, you can pick up a few more streaming players and make it at least 70 times.  Each streaming player costs less that what a single movie on a Laserdisc used to cost.

[Chris-K]

You do seem to be struggling to understand my opening post for whether reason. It's pretty plain English but some people won't hear what they don't want to hear.

The BBC will not provide a player for Roku and not give them access to the data, that's an irefutable fact.

[Strega]

I believe your “irefutable fact” is actually your assertion.  I see a huge variation in app functionality, quality, and design on Roku.  I see no evidence that this variation is due to anything nefarious.  And the list I provided you earlier shows that many content other providers do indeed omit a search feed, so I don’t see why the BBC couldn’t possibly as well.

[Chris-K]

I believe your “irefutable fact” is actually your assertion

So you are suggesting that BBC support a roku app but deny then access to data. Bizarre. 

[renojim]

It's not necessarily that they're denying them access.  They may just not be interested in creating the data Roku requires.  Roku doesn't do the work for the search; they require each provider to do it and submit some kind of file or link to everything formatted properly, etc.