Roku Developer Program

[tommyg]

I've been reading through a number of forum posts for launching players from an external process. I’m trying to launch the Netflix player from an app that I wrote for the iPad but I can’t seem to figure out how to launch Netflix with the correct parameters. I can launch the channel but it just takes me to the main screen. I want to launch it with the media id and have it start playing the media or at least take the user to the Info panel that has the play button.

The only place I really see this being done is from the Roku Search.

I don’t see this documented anywhere so I’m wondering if launching other company’s players is something that is frowned upon or not?

Any help would be very much appreciated.

-tg

[tommyg]

Well. I’m a little disappointed that now one responded but really not surprised. That’s why I asked if this was frowned upon. Is it an unsaid rule that "if its not published then don’t mess with it!" or is it ok to continue poking and prodding.

I am making good progress on this and at some point I will figure this out but I really don’t want to go that route. If there was some official format that everyone could use it just seems like a major win for everyone. Empowering the dev community to expand the Roku's capability would kind of solidify the Roku Players position as the streaming box of choice. 😄

[destruk]

The problem with doing this is if you hardcoded a launch video option, and the video was taken offline (as Netflix changes their watch now library quite often) then your direct link would no longer work to the desired effect.
You can code it to launch the channel as you are doing, which is probably the best way long-term. If you research the built-in search for Roku, you notice their lists are not 100% current/accurate - ie
Search for "South Park" - you get the seasons, and you get the movie.
The Movie says it's only available on Netflix, however, if you go to Amazon video on demand separately on roku, you can watch it there too but the Roku home page search doesn't indicate anything else for that selection.