Roku Developer Program

[EnTerr]

I AM ADDRESSING THIS REQUEST TO ROKU DEVELOPERS:

In Netflix channel currently there is no way to jump the beginning of the instant queue, one has to scroll with the arrows (or FF/RW to move by 5). It is a pain when one has queue of hundreds of titles.

It's even worse when ECP application like DVPRemote is trying to help with locating title in the queue. Since there is no way for it to determine on which title are we now (even when Netflix channel just started - it goes to last position it was before, which is unknown), one has to resort to kinky and awkward methods like asking user "are you positioned on title XXX now, so i can jump to YYY?" and if not, "please tell me which item ZZZ are you now on" (so that it can calculate the distance and direction and punch the keys to relocate). Which is horrible UI.

We asked before for way to ECP position while inside Netflix and answer was ETA unclear. I understand things have to be carefully thought out, prioritized, maybe strategized with ECP (we had a thread with discussion of ECP "channel feedback" where running app can report status back besides receiving keypress orders and i hope that is TBD soon).

So I am asking for something simpler here that won't affect ECP planning - something that will directly benefit human users with remotes too:

PLEASE MAKE PRESSING "INSTANT REPLAY" ON THE REMOTE WHILE IN NETFLIX JUMP TO THE BEGINNING OF THE INSTANT QUEUE

That's all, as simple as that. "instant replay" button is not used in the queue view anyway and this way people with long Netflix queues (mine is 200+) will have the option to do quick jump to #1 with their remote instead of scrolling pages and pages while keeping eye on position number indicator on top. Developers, on the other hand, will have better luck integrating Netflix API with Roku ECP.

[gonzotek]

+1. 🙂
EnTerr, have a look at the beta sdk, if you haven't already. There are some interesting new components for creating socket connections in apps. If I understand all the implications correctly, it's now possible for channels to serve content and even establish two-way communication(using the beta sdk and a Roku running the 3.0 beta firmware).

Nonetheless, "Jump To Beginning" in Netflix would still be great for all the reasons you've already addressed.

[kbenson]

Indeed. I finally got a chance to read the docs last night. That's a pretty expansive set of networking tools. I didn't think we'd see something like that, so I was pleasantly surprised.

It might be fun to write a simple web server just for kicks. 😉

[RokuKevin]

In fact one of the new sample apps is a simple web server...

--Kevin

[dynamitemedia]

Yes i saw the webserver that does look interesting

[kbenson]

"RokuKevin" wrote:
In fact one of the new sample apps is a simple web server...

Hehe, I read the BrightScript and Component references, but didn't have a chance to look at the new examples yet.

That's okay, we have some other ideas for how to use the new features...

[EnTerr]

"RokuKevin" wrote:
In fact one of the new sample apps is a simple web server...
--Kevin

Alas this is useless in the context of my question, since the Netflix channel is under Roku control.
But what are the chances of Netflix app getting this jump-to-queue-start feature?

[kbenson]

"EnTerr" wrote:

Alas this is useless in the context of my question, since the Netflix channel is under Roku control.
But what are the chances of Netflix app getting this jump-to-queue-start feature?

Heh, sorry for hijacking your thread. I'll agree that there seemed to be interest in this from multiple developers when you mentioned it a while back. I think rather than using the instant replay feature, if there's a way to take keyboard input without the keyboard screen present, that would be a useful workaround. I think people using a real remote have little reason to really NEED to find the first movie in a programmatic fashion, but apps that interface with the channel do. Using keyboard keys when on the main gridscreen could work well.

E.g.
ECP command for "s" might go to start of queue, "+","1","0" might move forward ten titles ("-" would move in reverse).

And there are plenty of characters available for other features...

[destruk]

Learn english please?

[EnTerr]

"kbenson" wrote:
Heh, sorry for hijacking your thread. I'll agree that there seemed to be interest in this from multiple developers when you mentioned it a while back. I think rather than using the instant replay feature, if there's a way to take keyboard input without the keyboard screen present, that would be a useful workaround. I think people using a real remote have little reason to really NEED to find the first movie in a programmatic fashion, but apps that interface with the channel do. Using keyboard keys when on the main gridscreen could work well. E.g. ECP command for "s" might go to start of queue, "+","1","0" might move forward ten titles ("-" would move in reverse).

Hmm, what you propose is a "scope creep". It requires significant changes (specification/integration/testing) and to me has no apparent use. My point of view is from "smart" remote (e.g. smartphone w/wifi) to be able to easily select show from instant queue (having the queue list by other means - Netflix API - since Netflix channel does not provide access to it). the device UI provides own navigation interface that does not need "scroll five right" or "scroll XX left" commands but will need to locate the item for playing on Roku if directed to do so. A simple sufficient way would be if there is "jump to 1" command and then using the existing commands to pinpoint (FF +5, RW -5, > +1, < -1).

Now about usefulness being able to jump to Instant Queue top movie, i happen to vehemently 🙂 disagree! I have 200+ movies in my queue and scrolling them screen by screen on Roku is PITA. They are sorted in order of preferences - with the need of order Neflix seems to also agree, since they provide you web UI to reorder the instant queue - on top of my queue are the movies i'd like to watch first - based on my taste or because they will "expire" (if you use Netflix you may have noticed some items in queue are marked with "available until ..." date due to licensing limitations). How do i (and other users) end up with long queue - simply by surfing Netflix's "you would like" suggestions and queuing for later.

There wouldn't be need of "jump to queue start" if the queue view was not wrapping-around - we discussed that in another thread - but it does wrap around as-is and i cannot just step on REW button until it reaches the start. This shortfall i find someone related to the Apple Mac menu good UI - see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menu_bar#Ease_of_use - where menu being always on top of the screen, it's very easy to "throw" the cursor against the edge of the screen, knowing that cannot overshoot the menu bar.