Network Control

[gesmith1031]

Well my remote went kaput so I put together a quick UI in autoit. Script and .exe can be gotten here.

[booyah5]

Thanks! I've thought before about using autoit, but I never was motivated enough to learn that tool.

Good work!

[eri3k]

Well my remote went kaput so I put together a quick UI in autoit. Script and .exe can be gotten here.

Thanks, Glen. I took your very nice script and added a few goodies. Script and executable available here:
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/823516/rokuRemote_mod_.zip

[gesmith1031]

Well my remote went kaput so I put together a quick UI in autoit. Script and .exe can be gotten here.

Thanks, Glen. I took your very nice script and added a few goodies. Script and executable available here:
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/823516/rokuRemote_mod_.zip

Very nice! I like the reboot command.

[ProdigiousJuggalo]

Hi guys,

Good work! I couldn't help myself and had to take a crack at adding something to the script too.

Script and executable available right here

Here is a list of the changes I've made:

1. Removed the script pause issue. It drove me a bit nuts when I simply wanted to close the app, it previously required that I go down to the tray and right click and select to unpause the script and I could not see a benefit to having this function. So, now, it just runs and will close immediately upon clicking on the app's upper-right X button.
2. Relocated the Bit Rate and Reboot buttons to the bottom as I felt that they were a hazard waiting to happen so close to the "regular" buttons up top. I've put them under a label as "Roku Hidden Tools"
3. Created a label named "Settings" and moved the IP address text box into it.
4. The IP address box is now populated with the typical "192.168.1." that I believe most users will have. Now the user will only need to add the last digits of the IP. (ie: 192.168.1.121)
5. Under the Settings label, added a "Save IP to file" button just beneath the IP address entry box.
6. The app will now perform a check upon opening to see if a file (named RokuRemote.ini) exists that contains a user saved IP. If the file doesn't exist, the app notifies the user that a saved IP cannot be found with a MSGbox. Once the MSGbox has been accepted, the new default "192.168.1." will be in the IP box awaiting additional entry as described above. If the file does indeed exist, then the users saved IP will be extracted from the file and placed into the MSGbox and the remote will be fully functional upon the first button press without needing to enter anything further.
7. If the user clicks on the "Save IP to file" button, whatever is in the IP text box will be written to a file (named RokuRemote.ini). If the file doesn't exist already, it will be created. If the file already exists and contains an IP address from a previous save, it will be erased and the new contents of the IP text box will be saved, as should be expected of this function. Upon close of the app and re-opening, the new IP address saved will be populated automatically.

To anyone that hasn't check out what we're doing but is interested, here is a screenshot of the app as it looks now.


Yup,
Prodigious Juggalo

[calicommando]

wow. this is cool. thanks guys. what are the implications of all this? could this lead to something much bigger?

[ProdigiousJuggalo]

.

wow. this is cool. thanks guys. what are the implications of all this? could this lead to something much bigger?

As this is controlling the Roku box by sending command by means of telnet, I don't think it'll lead to much else but what you see here.

Anyway, I'm nearly done with coding 1 more set of enhancements. The basics will be the following:

Adding drop down (FILE, VIEW) style menus to handle "Settings" and Hidden Tools so that they aren't always visible

Added a status bar to show the currently set IP address

Adding a simple help FAQ file.

Expect this to be uploaded soon.

Yup,
Prodigious Juggalo

[gesmith1031]

wow. this is cool. thanks guys. what are the implications of all this? could this lead to something much bigger?

The only thing I'd want to change would be to code it in something like python so I can run it native on Linux laptop. Any feature I had planned or hadn't thought of seems to have been added by eri3k or ProdigiousJuggalo.

As it is, it runs fine in wine and I question how long the roku dev team will even leave telnet 8080 as it could be used for evil.

Do you have any suggestions of what you'd like to see added?

[ProdigiousJuggalo]

.

Anyway, I'm nearly done with coding 1 more set of enhancements. The basics will be the following:

Adding drop down (FILE, VIEW) style menus to handle "Settings" and Hidden Tools so that they aren't always visible

Added a status bar to show the currently set IP address

Adding a simple help FAQ file.

Expect this to be uploaded soon.

Yup,
Prodigious Juggalo

Here's the update I described above. Get it here.


Updated image of new interface is below.



Yup,
Prodigious Juggalo

[calicommando]

wow. this is cool. thanks guys. what are the implications of all this? could this lead to something much bigger?

The only thing I'd want to change would be to code it in something like python so I can run it native on Linux laptop. Any feature I had planned or hadn't thought of seems to have been added by eri3k or ProdigiousJuggalo.

As it is, it runs fine in wine and I question how long the roku dev team will even leave telnet 8080 as it could be used for evil.

Do you have any suggestions of what you'd like to see added?

Well, I'm not very savvy when it comes to the technical side of all this. I was thinking it seems like you're not too far from being able to interface directly with the Netflix or Amazon sites and be able to play movies directly from them. I'm probably missing some major obstacle.

[eri3k]

Well, I'm not very savvy when it comes to the technical side of all this. I was thinking it seems like you're not too far from being able to interface directly with the Netflix or Amazon sites and be able to play movies directly from them. I'm probably missing some major obstacle.

With the exception of making network remotes available on more platforms and in more programming languages, this is as far as it goes. The next extension of functionality I see for these network remotes will be when Roku makes on-screen keyboards available for searching the Amazon and Netflix catalogs. Reproducing the keyboard will be an interesting challenge.

If I understand you correctly, you are wondering whether it would be possible to instruct the Roku to start playing a particular title directly from the Netflix or Amazon website. Unfortunately there is no practical way to implement this since the available functionality is limited to reproducing discrete button presses on the remote.

In order to do what you describe the player would have to return information to the controller about the location of the cursor and the current display mode. However, my understanding is that Roku is not planning to extend the network control interface at this point in time.

[gesmith1031]

The only other thing I'd see me partaking in is possibly looking into creating an iphone app to do the same as the remote. The Roku SoundBridge has had a remote for some time now. I really like the boxee remote and wouldn't mind seeing something similar for the Roku Video Player. Again I only question how long will the dev team leave this open. If the soundbridge device has something similar then it may be promising?

[ProdigiousJuggalo]

.

The only other thing I'd see me partaking in is possibly looking into creating an iphone app to do the same as the remote. The Roku SoundBridge has had a remote for some time now. I really like the boxee remote and wouldn't mind seeing something similar for the Roku Video Player. Again I only question how long will the dev team leave this open. If the soundbridge device has something similar then it may be promising?

Seeing as how this has been done for Tivo, that seems entirely feasible.

Actually, I think it'd be a GREAT ONE/TWO punch if this functionality were to be integrated into the iRentMovie - Netflix Manager for iPhone app as posted by oxycodesolutions on this forum.

Yup,
Prodigious Juggalo

[-LD]

Cool stuff in here. Is there a method to jump right to a particular movie? Perhaps by queue number? If so, that would be a cool combo with an iPhone Netflix manager.

[eri3k]

Is there a method to jump right to a particular movie? Perhaps by queue number?

Unfortunately there no way to do this since the player does not return information to the controller about the location of the cursor and the current display mode.