Roku Network Remote - Introduction & Installation

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Tue Sep 24, 2013 11:57 pm
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Roku Network Remote - Introduction & Installation

Quick Links: Plugin v2.0.3 | GitHub Repository

Introducing the Roku Network Remote Plugin
This Indigo 6.1+ plugin allows Indigo to act as a remote control for a network-connected Roku streaming player. All commands/buttons found on the standard remote can be sent to the Roku as well as several additional commands found on the mobile applications.

Note that the protocol exposed by the Roku devices, and utilized by this plugin, does not allow for state information about the Roku to be obtained (such as what current application/channel is active or what screen the Roku is currently showing).

INDIGO 6 IMPORTANT NOTE: The Indigo 6 version of this plugin is end-of-life with respect to new development, however the latest stable version on Indigo 6.1+ is still available on the releases page and is working as expected at the moment. Please consider an upgrade to Indigo 7 to support further development of our favorite HA platform!

Hardware Requirements
This plugin should work with any Roku streaming player; you must be on Firmware version 2.8 in order to utilize the plugin's ability to download the channel icons for use on control pages.

The auto-discovery feature requires that the Roku and Indigo server be on the same subnet, though manual IP entry should allow remote control via a WAN interfaces (such as over a VPN connection).

Installation and Configuration
Downloading the Plugin Package
The latest version of the plugin is v2.0.3 and may be downloaded here.

Previous and pre-release versions of the plugin are available for download in the GitHub Releases section... those versions in beta will be marked as a Pre-Release and will not appear in update notifications. Once installed, you may use the Check for Updates option in the plugin's menu to check for and download updates.

Configuring the Plugin
Upon first installation you will be asked to configure the plugin; please see the instructions on the configuration screen for more information. Most users will be fine with the defaults unless an email is desired when a new version is released.

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Plugin Devices
Each Roku that you wish to control should be created as an Indigo Device:

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In the Device Settings you will need to select from the list of Roku devices found on the network or else manually enter your Roku's IP address. Note that if you ever lose connection with your Roku device, you may need to return here to find/enter the IP Address again if it has picked up a new address on the network (the plugin will attempt to find the IP address if it or the server is restarted). Please read the other configuration instructions on screen as you may be able to adjust to optimize the performance of your Roku hardware.

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Available Actions
  • Send Button Press
    This action will send a network command that is equivalent to pressing the button on the remote (some buttons included are not found on the physical remote, but usually included in the mobile apps).
  • Send Keyboard Text
    This action will send text to the Roku as if it had been typed in via the onscreen keyboard or the mobile application's keyboard. Only alphanumerics and a handful of punctuation are currently supported.
  • Launch Channel/Application
    This action will launch a particular channel on your Roku. Note that the list of available channels is loaded from your Roku device itself, so adding a new channel from the channel store will automatically add it to the list of channels from which you may choose in the action configuration dialog.
  • Perform Search on Channel
    This action will allow you to launch and perform a search on a channel in one step. It is currently only able to implement this as a series of keystrokes sent in a timed fashion to the Roku device and so care/testing is needed to ensure it works for you; you may leave the search text blank in order to navigate to the search screen but not actually perform a search. Roku has allowed some channels to be searched through ECP and the hope is that they will expand the offering; when/if this occurs the plugin will be updated to provide access to an integrated search method without relying on keystrokes.
  • Download Channel Icons
    This action will download all of the channel icons from the Roku (for channels currently added to the box). These will be saved in the format provided by the Roku devices (generally PNG, though JPG is an allowed format). The default directory is to the static images directory used by the Control Page Editor; however, you may override this in the action's settings dialog.

Posted on
Thu Nov 07, 2013 1:33 pm
RogueProeliator offline
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Re: Roku Network Remote - Introduction & Installation

v1.1.1 Released
A new version, v1.1.1, of the Roku Network Remote Plugin has been released. This is a minor update meant to bring the plugin inline with my other plugins:

  • Added ability to specify a debug level instead of just on/off
  • Updated the version checking code that could fail in certain circumstances
  • Changed the auto-discovery GUI slightly (no functionality changes)

Posted on
Tue Nov 19, 2013 9:43 pm
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Re: Roku Network Remote - Introduction & Installation

v1.1.3 Released
A new version, v1.1.3, of the Roku Network Remote Plugin has been released. This is a minor update:

  • Better recognition of networked Roku devices when adding a new device

Posted on
Sun Dec 08, 2013 9:05 pm
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Re: Roku Network Remote - Introduction & Installation

v1.1.4 Released
Roku Network Remote has been upgraded to v1.1.4, with the following changes:

  • Improved format and sorting of device configuration and action dialogs/menus to make them easier to use

Posted on
Sat Jan 25, 2014 11:07 pm
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Re: Roku Network Remote - Introduction & Installation

v1.1.6 Released
Roku Network Remote has been upgraded to v1.1.6, with the following changes:

  • Improved error handling in the event the plugin receives an expected or error response from the Roku device
  • Moved the plugin download and version check URL to a new web server

Posted on
Wed Mar 12, 2014 8:28 pm
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Re: Roku Network Remote - Introduction & Installation

v1.2.7 Released
Roku Network Remote has been upgraded to v1.2.7, with the following changes:

  • Fixed a bug which could prevent the Download Channel Icons action from successfully retrieving the icons

Posted on
Thu Jul 03, 2014 3:02 pm
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Re: Roku Network Remote - Introduction & Installation

v1.2.9 Released
Roku Network Remote has been upgraded to v1.2.9, with the following changes:

  • Fixed the version check URL to point to the new plugin host
  • Updated the about/help URL to the new forum URL

Posted on
Thu Oct 30, 2014 8:56 pm
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Re: Roku Network Remote - Introduction & Installation

v1.3.11 Released
Roku Network Remote has been upgraded to v1.3.11, with the following changes:

  • Fixed an issue with retrieving channels on the latest Roku 3 software

Posted on
Tue Nov 04, 2014 1:48 pm
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Joined: Nov 13, 2012
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Re: Roku Network Remote - Introduction & Installation

v1.4.12 Released
Roku Network Remote has been upgraded to v1.4.12, with the following changes:

  • Lowered case text sent to Roku so it all passes validation
  • Reduced wait time when multiple commands are sent within a short period of time (such as navigating menus)

Posted on
Fri Mar 20, 2015 4:13 pm
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Re: Roku Network Remote - Introduction & Installation

v1.4.14 Released
Roku Network Remote has been upgraded to v1.4.14, with the following changes:

  • Added new event that will fire whenever the plugin is updated
  • Added a graphical window for checking for updates (found via the Plugin's menu)
  • Added ability to perform a generic network search to aide in finding Roku devices/troubleshooting
  • Added ability to send an arbitrary command to the Roku; this may be used for debugging or testing

Posted on
Mon Oct 05, 2015 9:53 am
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Re: Roku Network Remote - Introduction & Installation

v1.5.17 Released
Roku Network Remote has been upgraded to v1.5.17; this is a minor update with the following changes:

  • Added support for unicode characters (international alphabets) throughout plugin
  • Added debug capabilities and friendlier error messages

Posted on
Fri Feb 05, 2016 8:08 am
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Posts: 2501
Joined: Nov 13, 2012
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Re: Roku Network Remote - Introduction & Installation

v1.5.19 Released
Roku Network Remote has been upgraded to v1.5.19; this is a minor update with the following changes:

  • Changed minimum Indigo version to v6.1 (a download of the older release which works on v6.0+ has been added to the first post, thanks to Carl for confirming the working version)
  • Minor internal changes

Posted on
Wed Jul 13, 2016 8:49 pm
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Posts: 2501
Joined: Nov 13, 2012
Location: Baton Rouge, LA

Re: Roku Network Remote - Introduction & Installation

v1.6.19 Released
Roku Network Remote has been upgraded to v1.6.19; this is a minor update with the following changes:

  • Migrated all code and update checker to GitHub; no significant functionality change in this release, but you must install it to continue to get notifications of updates.

Posted on
Sat Nov 12, 2016 11:00 pm
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Posts: 2501
Joined: Nov 13, 2012
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Re: Roku Network Remote - Introduction & Installation

v2.0.3 Released
Roku Network Remote has been upgraded to v2.0.3 and may be downloaded here; this update has the following changes:

  • Full support for Indigo 7
  • Indigo 7 is required for this and all future plugin versions

Posted on
Thu Oct 05, 2017 9:17 pm
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Posts: 2501
Joined: Nov 13, 2012
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Re: Roku Network Remote - Introduction & Installation

v2.2.0 Released
Roku Network Remote has been upgraded to v2.2.0 and may be downloaded here up updated via the Check for Updates option in the plugin; this update has the following changes:

  • Reorganized Actions under Device Actions sub menu
  • Fixed unicode/ascii conversion issue when logging
  • Misc. minor enhancements

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