I noticed unusual behavior in ECP keypress on one of my boxes, then saw that said 3100 model runs firmware 5.2.3180 (downloaded 16-oct) as compared to 4200 that is on 5.1.1241 (circa 7-oct). The oddity is that on 5.2 a /keypress can take long time (say 5 sec or timeout if cutoff set under that) and return HTTP status “202” while all previous fw (2000 series fw 3.1 included) it always returns fast and with 200.
@Roku*, what’s up - what are the news for 5.2?
PS. there is something fishy going on, channel launching takes very long time (Netflix and Pandora take 2000-3000ms for /launch to return), /keypress/Home was 2200ms - i am getting timeouts all over my app. And to top it off, the player lost connectivity for no reason - while still playing pandora and responding to IR remote but no ping, SSDP nor http. Will update if i observe more.
What Roku model are you using?
“RokuJoel” wrote:
What Roku model are you using?
Joel, not knowing the Roku models is unprofessional. Please print yourself copy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roku#Feature_comparison (if nothing else) so you don’t ask questions like that.
Quick check there will tell you 4200 is “Roku 3” and 3100 is “Roku 2 XS”. 2000 series is Roku HD/XD/XS from the MIPS platform. Hope that clarified it.
It’s usually easier to ask than to look it up on a chart or hunt through the documentation.
You might want to look over this thread if you’ve never seen it before –
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=44685
Basically it explains that for the best help or support from Roku, they ask you to be as descriptive as possible. This way you are helping them to help you. Now maybe most of the items on that list are not necessary for troubleshooting your issue, or you just might not think them to be relevant, but when I initially read your post here I thought it wasn’t as helpful as it could have been, and then reading your reply where you humiliate the person from roku trying to help you - that isn’t going to make him very happy either.
"Joel, not knowing the Roku models is unprofessional. Please print yourself copy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roku#Feature_comparison (if nothing else) so you don’t ask questions like that. "
Would it have been so hard for you to simply state it was a Roku3 and Roku 2 XS and move on? We both know RokuJoel goes out of his way to help and support users here, and he has to deal with a lot of irritating people - but here you are being one of them.
I would expect to see a short release notes or list of minor changes in the SDK documentation, or in the developer blog, or in a short notice here on the forum when 5.2 is finished being rolled out, just like Roku usually does. (patience)
“destruk” wrote:
Would it have been so hard for you to simply state it was a Roku3 and Roku 2 XS and move on? We both know RokuJoel goes out of his way to help and support users here, and he has to deal with a lot of irritating people - but here you are being one of them.I would expect to see a short release notes or list of minor changes in the SDK documentation, or in the developer blog, or in a short notice here on the forum when 5.2 is finished being rolled out, just like Roku usually does. (patience)
you are going on a tangent and wholesale ignoring what i replied you in private message. You want me to repeat it here, fine: First, i would understand if Joel is new here and/or volunteer. Neither is the case- he’s been around for a long time and is being paid to support the developers. I don’t know for a fact that he “goes out of his way” to help and support - i know RokuShawnS does but i have seen RokuJoel multiple times shoot answers from the hip, showing he did not read or paid attention to what was said. That is annoying and wastes others time and effort. I put an effort when i send my message, i checked and double-checked versions and models, if there is new firmware waiting and so on. I expect the courtesy of when saying it is model 3100 to believe me that IT IS that model - this is not like in live conversation, when you can say “which, which one?” and be told right away - if one is too lazy to spare five seconds to do the check and instead bounce message back just delaying the response by a day, i don’t pity that.
Second, as i told you - i did not use “marketing model names” because they are unreliable. What, with the latest announcements of recycling the “Roku 2” name. And with “Roku HD” model being used 3 separate times - in 2009, 2010 and 2012 models. Same for “Roku LT” with 2011 and 2013 different incarnations - you cannot rely on the marketing name to pinpoint the exact model. You can however trust the model number printed on the bottom. I cannot fathom working years for a company and not knowing by heart what their 3xxx and 4xxx series are. And to top it off, this is what is reported by the player itself - open root page on ecp port ( say http://192.168.1.25:8060/ ) and observe:
<root xmlns="urn:schemas-upnp-org:device-1-0">
...
<device>
<deviceType>urn:roku-com:device:player:1-0</deviceType>
<friendlyName>Roku Streaming Player</friendlyName>
<manufacturer>Roku</manufacturer>
<manufacturerURL>http://www.roku.com/</manufacturerURL>
<modelDescription>Roku Streaming Player Network Media</modelDescription>
<modelName>Roku Streaming Player 3100X</modelName>
<modelNumber>3100X</modelNumber>
...
Do you see there “Roku 2 XS”? Me neither.
Now about the “patience” - i don’t have it, because this firmware BROKE my app. There are odd errors popping up because of the changes made. I was unable to find any hint of these upcoming changes and that is why i am asking. And if you know something about it, please let me know - otherwise keep idle chat private. Yes, i am cranky because i have to scramble on zero advance notice, blow the dust and cobwebs off Xcode and release new app version to tip-toe around some unannounced 5.2 change - all while keep guessing, because i don’t know what exactly is changed and have no idea when 5.2 is rolled out everywhere. In the mean time i will be slapped with negative reviews and may have to yank the app from AppStore, losing literally nteens 
of dollars daily in the process. No, showing short release notes after the fact is not normal for the ecosystem, consider how the big platform makers give you advance disclosure of the things to come. And yes, normally i am nicer person and try to keep mean observations to myself.
“EnTerr” wrote:
“RokuJoel” wrote:
What Roku model are you using?
Joel, not knowing the Roku models is unprofessional. Please print yourself copy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roku#Feature_comparison (if nothing else) so you don’t ask questions like that.Quick check there will tell you 4200 is “Roku 3” and 3100 is “Roku 2 XS”. 2000 series is Roku HD/XD/XS from the MIPS platform. Hope that clarified it.
Actually my bad for not seeing that you had actually written in the model numbers in your post - probably eye strain or something, too much time staring at the computer monitor.
The thing is, and the reason why I asked in the first place, 5.2 is not released yet to the general public except on our very newest series of devices (not yet released for the original Roku2 and 3 hardware platforms) , so if you have it on a Roku2 XS or Roku3, you were probably authorized for a beta program at some point or are in a very early test-release group. Because the software is not yet released, the issue you are seeing is not currently affecting the majority of users, and may not be an issue in the most recent builds we are testing.
“RokuJoel” wrote:
The thing is, and the reason why I asked in the first place, 5.2 is not released yet to the general public except on our very newest series of devices (not yet released for the original Roku2 and 3 hardware platforms) , so if you have it on a Roku2 XS or Roku3, you were probably authorized for a beta program at some point or are in a very early test-release group. Because the software is not yet released, the issue you are seeing is not currently affecting the majority of users, and may not be an issue in the most recent builds we are testing.
Mmmm, it is possible that said Roku2 XS was enrolled for betas at point of time, i get fuzzy on which one, having half a dozen hopping around. If so, I am grateful (yes i am, grumbling notwithstanding) for experiencing those changes before general release so i can prep. Is there some secret place i am supposed to report my findings instead of using the forum? I think forum will be useful for others too (e.g. earlier pointed 3 popular ECP apps de/affected) but if i agreed not to talk about it, remind me so.
And also, if some info can leak on the networking changes in 5.2, please? (i see in forums discussed 5.2 is the M-Go addition but besides that)
I’ve filed a bug based on your postings.
“RokuJoel” wrote:
I’ve filed a bug based on your postings.
Make that two separate bugs, please. They are separate - #2 is about slowness in /launch, #1 is about error on re-launch. One might be fixed, one might be “works as intended” and bug trackers are transactional in nature - either have to fix or reject per item.
Ok, I’ll file one on that issue as well.
By the way, EnTerr, sometimes I do shoot from the hip, sorry about that, will avoid doing so in the future.
Joel
Hi EnTerr,
Engineering has reproduced the issue:
“The response seems to correspond to the end of the splash screen. It appears it is now waiting until launch finishes where before it was just returning immediately regardless of what happened.”
“Our recommendation is for the developer not to do a synchronous wait for response in the UI thread in their iOS app (NSURLConnection does support async requests, which would also properly handle other network errors). The timeout for NSURLConnection is also a configurable parameter.”
This issue will not be fixed in the upcoming 5.2 rollout.
“RokuJoel” wrote:
Hi EnTerr,
Engineering has reproduced the issue:
[…]
This issue will not be fixed in the upcoming 5.2 rollout.
- Joel
Can we commit on fixing it? Maybe in 5.3?
fw5.2 rolled out last week and i already received first email complaint and first bad review.
Strangely, i am not getting response from private messages to RokuJoel. Isn’t forum supposed to flag him of unread messages or did i send wrongly, i am not 100% of my operating abilities in the forum. Here are copies:
“EnTerr” wrote:
Re: Tracking issues - is there URL?
Sent: Tue Nov 26, 2013 2:02 pm
From: EnTerr
To: RokuJoel“RokuJoel” wrote:
No, we don’t have a public tracking system in place, there was a plan in progress to do so last year, but it didn’t completely happen (1/2 of the project, moving our SDK docs to Confluence did happen) . I’ll let you know when I know if there has been any progress, or you can ping me in a week or so, and I’ll see if we can jump start the public bug project again.
- Joel
The SDK as published now seems a good thing, since can click a link to see latest changes. Regarding public bug tracker, dev forum can be ok as long as somebody can regularly carry water back and forth to the inner tracker.
Speaking of which, what’s the status of this issue, have not heard on it (should’ve been separate item): viewtopic.php?f=34&t=63977#p411385
namely the "#1:ECP starting a started channel kicks “503 service unavailable”
?
“EnTerr” wrote:
Bump! Waiting for answer
Sent: Thu Dec 12, 2013 12:37 pm
From: EnTerr
To: RokuJoelBUMP, Joel.
Waiting for answer, from ucp.php?i=pm&mode=view&f=-1&p=70514
"Speaking of which, what’s the status of this issue, have not heard on it (should’ve been separate item): viewtopic.php?f=34&t=63977#p411385
namely the “#1:ECP starting a started channel kicks “503 service unavailable”
?”
In any event i am waiting 3 weeks now, someone who does dev.support please reply.
“EnTerr” wrote:
Strangely, i am not getting response from private messages to RokuJoel. Isn’t forum supposed to flag there are unread messages or did i send wrongly, i am not 100% of my operating abilities in the forum.
Messages will stay in your “outbox” (ucp.php?i=pm&folder=outbox) until they are read, so if they’re still in there, he hasn’t seen them, yet.
“TheEndless” wrote:
Messages will stay in your “outbox” (ucp.php?i=pm&folder=outbox) until they are read, so if they’re still in there, he hasn’t seen them, yet.
No, they are not in Outbox - but i was wondering what the meaning of said folder is.
Thanks for the pro tip!
@EnTerr : I took a look at the Bug reports after I saw your PM a few days ago, but didn’t have time to follow up on it with engineering or with you till now.
The two bugs I filed for this:
“Changes to ECP in 5.2 may break IOS and Android apps when channels are playing”
A fix has been checked but as far as I can tell has not yet been integrated into a firmware release pending further testing. Most likely target would be 5.4 firmware.
and
“Developer reports 5.2 ECP is 100x slower to respond than previous releases”
No changes checked in here as of yet, but there has been some active discussion, The current opinion is that this issue exists by design, and the recommendation if I understand correctly, is that the developer not wait for a response code from the Roku after sending a launch command, or, wait asynchronously if they intend to transmit data to a channel once it is launched.
“RokuJoel” wrote:
@EnTerr: I took a look at the Bug reports after I saw your PM a few days ago, but didn’t have time to follow up on it with engineering or with you till now.
…
No changes checked in here as of yet, but there has been some active discussion, The current opinion is …
Thanks for the update - i would like to participate in that discussion, will write down couple of arguments here by tomorrow.
About response time, may i humbly request when you don’t have the time, then bounce back right away with “ping me in a few days” short reply? That will avoid resentment building up and hopefully keep the ball rolling.
