Roku Developer Program

[EnTerr]

I just tried the YouTube channel that was officially announced by Roku yesterday. Congratulations on at last being able to fill that gaping hole in the streaming lineup! I have not explored it throughout but it looks nice overall and responsive! UI seems better than previous channels for the Tube.

But when i go to Search, i notice that keys sent via ECP keyboard (from a remote app, that is!) don't show up in the search field. Only way to type something is by using the Hulu+ style carousel. Why is that? I hope it is just an omission that will be easy to fix, once pointed. The keyboard of the "Roku" app does not work either, naturally.

By bringing the question here i assume channel was developed jointly by Roku Inc and YouTube division of Google - but if Roku Inc is not involved, please point me to where to bring the question.

PS. I also notice that the icon returned by ECP for the channel is different from the the one shown in Roku home screen. The apparently official one for the channel is on red background

whereas the ECP returned one ( http://my-roku-IP-here:8060/query/icon/837 ) is on white background, resembling


PPS. fw 5.3.4010 on 4200, <app id="837" version="2.0.10">YouTube</app>

[EnTerr]

bump!

[RokuJoel]

The channel was developed by YouTube, but we did have to do some work in order to run it on our platform. The only solution at the moment is to search in Youtube on your device and then use the remote play function to send the video to your device.

I've created a bug report on this.

- Joel

[TheEndless]

As for the different icons, I believe the ECP request returns the icon packaged with the channel, while the homescreen uses the channel store icon.

[EnTerr]

"TheEndless" wrote:
As for the different icons, I believe the ECP request returns the icon packaged with the channel, while the homescreen uses the channel store icon.

This is interesting - so now icons bundled are not relevant anymore? (there was SD and HD icons, when focused/de-focused...)
Other than for fw3 and ECP sake.

[TheEndless]

"EnTerr" wrote:

"TheEndless" wrote:
As for the different icons, I believe the ECP request returns the icon packaged with the channel, while the homescreen uses the channel store icon.

This is interesting - so now icons bundled are not relevant anymore? (there was SD and HD icons, when focused/de-focused...)
Other than for fw3 and ECP sake.

I believe the Sky boxes in the UK are still running the single row homescreen (FW 4.9), so they'd be used for channels on those boxes as well. But, for the most part, yes, they're only used for legacy devices and, apparently, ECP. They're also used for side-loaded channels. It's possible they might be used as a backup if the channel store is down or otherwise unavailable.

[RokuJoel]

"EnTerr" wrote:
This is interesting - so now icons bundled are not relevant anymore? (there was SD and HD icons, when focused/de-focused...)
Other than for fw3 and ECP sake.

Well... if you leave the focus and side icons out of the channel or the references to them out of the manifest, your channel, whether pubic or private, will generally fail to install on all newer devices. So they are required due to some firmware dependency, but not required for visual display.

- Joel

[EnTerr]

"RokuJoel" wrote:
The channel was developed by YouTube, but we did have to do some work in order to run it on our platform. The only solution at the moment is to search in Youtube on your device and then use the remote play function to send the video to your device.

I've created a bug report on this.

Couple of years later - what's the feedback from that report?

YouTube app still does not support remote keyboard. Every few weeks, I still have to field the "why doesn't your remote app keyboard work?" email question - and when i ask which channel that happens in, most always the answer is "YouTube". Somehow they don't seem inclined switching to the mobile YouTube app for casting, i suppose. I cannot quantify how many people are unhappy about ECP keyboard not working in YT, since only a small % bother emailing about issues. My seat-of-the-pants conservative estimate is that say 10% of Roku remote apps users are bothered by the issue, that's upwards of hundred thousand people unhappy about it.

And another question - where should i redirect further the unhappy customers re this specific complaint - any particular email or web page?