wkearney99 wrote:

TheEndless wrote:

RickRansom wrote:

That being said, threatening to return your Rokus for Chromecasts, just because you don't want to have to remember that the kitchen Roku is the one that starts with 33, while the family room Roku is the one that starts with 36, seems a bit overly dramatic.

Hmmm, insulting others because of a product's limitations seems a bit overly dramatic. And entirely unnecessary.

Roku provided a way to distinguish between different devices by including their serial number. Saying you won't use the device, because you don't want to have to remember enough of a serial number to identify which is which seems extreme to me. That's my opinion. If you took it as an insult, I apologize.

wkearney99 wrote:

Where did I say I was going to return anything? I said I'll just buy more Chromecasts instead of more Roku devices.

Your first post clearly stated that you'd buy Chromecasts instead of Rokus. Given the context of the post, I took that to mean you'd be returning your Rokus in favor of Chromecasts. I guess I misunderstood what you were trying to say, so again, I apologize.

Depending on your router, you may be able to assign a different host name to your device there.
I run DD-WRT firmware and I assigned a specific hostname to my Roku through a dhcp-host command.
Not sure if that's the kind of name the OP needs for this specific application, but figure it might be of use to some.
ApK

ApK wrote:

Depending on your router, you may be able to assign a different host name to your device there.

Which won't help in this situation as that's not read by the client software when determining how to show the name of the Roku. Curiously when the Roku requested a DHCP lease for itself from the FIOS router it registered the name 'NP-1GJ3xxxxxx' in the router's DNS. Which, again, isn't used by the tablets when listing it as a Cast destination.

Changing it in-between would require hacking into how SSDP multicasts are handled. This is non-trivial. Certainly not something that should be necessary when the device is already name-able. It's more of a simple matter than the firmware in the device isn't taking the steps of using the name. All software is a work-in-progress; one hopes Roku will get around to correcting this missing element.

OK, I found a "fix" for this. I am running into the same issue and found a workaround. In Allcast if you long press the Roku in the list of players it let's you assign persistant unique names to each device. You should be able label one "Kitchen" and one "Mancave".

jntdroid wrote:

Hi - currently my Android phone will only do music and photos through the Roku app, which is great. But for videos I use an app called AllCast. It works great to stream local videos to my Roku. But we just picked up a Roku 3 (in addition to our Roku 2 XS), and the problem is they're both labeled "Roku Streaming Player" in the AllCast app, so we just have to guess and hope to get it right each time we stream a video. I know the official Roku App automatically recognizes the devices, I'm guessing by serial number, to differentiate them in the Roku App.

Bottom line question - is there somewhere to change the label/title from "Roku Streaming Player" ? I'm pretty savvy and have gotten into developer mode to see, but there's not much in there. This isn't a huge issue, but if it's a simple tweak, it would be great. Thanks in advance

Hello everyone, I also had this issue. It is very simply fixed... Open AllCast and just hold down on the roku player and voila you can now rename it.

Hope this helps.

Norris04 wrote:

OK, I found a "fix" for this. I am running into the same issue and found a workaround. In Allcast if you long press the Roku in the list of players it let's you assign persistant unique names to each device. You should be able label one "Kitchen" and one "Mancave".

Ah ha I did not see your post sir.

What is AllCast? I'm new to ROKU. Is that a channel, or a setting on the actual device? Please explain.

tjc2005 wrote:

Hello everyone, I also had this issue. It is very simply fixed... Open AllCast and just hold down on the roku player and voila you can now rename it.

Hope this helps.

Norris04 wrote:

OK, I found a "fix" for this. I am running into the same issue and found a workaround. In Allcast if you long press the Roku in the list of players it let's you assign persistant unique names to each device. You should be able label one "Kitchen" and one "Mancave".

Does this fix rename the Roku for all other DIAL apps, or just the AllCast app?

I have a Roku 3 and a Roku 2 XS. I have noticed the same issue, even after renaming both of my Rokus appropriately on https://owner.roku.com/

They would appear in DIAL/Chromecast dialogs with their "Roku Streaming Player xxxxxxxxxxxx" names, which was inelegant and kind of confusing. I could never keep straight which one was which!

But something's changed recently -- at least with my Roku 3. Perhaps with the most recent software update which also introduced the full screen mirroring option? (which would make sense.)

Except the assigned name only appears for the Roku 3, and not the Roku 2. Yes, this is a step in the right direction, at least I can easily discern between the two now, without having to reference a Post-It note And I'm holding my fingers crossed that the Roku 2 gets the same fix, even if it doesn't ever get full screen mirroring.

tigerkz wrote:

What is AllCast? I'm new to ROKU. Is that a channel, or a setting on the actual device? Please explain.

It's an app in the Google Play Store for Android devices: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... cast&hl=en

Norris04 wrote:

OK, I found a "fix" for this. I am running into the same issue and found a workaround. In Allcast if you long press the Roku in the list of players it let's you assign persistant unique names to each device. You should be able label one "Kitchen" and one "Mancave".

For what it's worth, I tried this, and while it let me rename the Roku 2 there, I didn't see that change populate to any other service other than the AllCast app itself. I primarily fling video from my Android tablet or the Chrome browser on my laptop. And the name for the Roku 2 remains "Roku Streaming Player xxxxxxxxxxxx," even though I renamed it with AllCast. Is your suggested "fix" supposed to do more than that?

mike_ekim wrote:

Does this fix rename the Roku for all other DIAL apps, or just the AllCast app?

In my experience, as stated above, it just seems to affect the AllCast app, which kinda defeats the purpose of the exercise (at least for me.) I'm looking for a way to specifically rename how the Roku appears as a DIAL service, on other apps, services and platforms. After its most recent update, the Roku 3 appears properly... and the Roku 2 does not.

I actually would have switched to the Roku Streaming Stick for this better support, but that device is RF only and not IR, which breaks compatibility with my universal remote (which I love.) So I'm sticking with the Roku 2 XS for now and maybe one day will justify upgrading that one to a Roku 3 as well. For now, all I'm hoping for is that the Roku 2 XS gets the same or similar "fix."

I notice that in addition to AllCast, another app I use on Android, called AirAudio, has also introduced the ability to rename a Roku. Tap and hold the Roku's icon in the app, and rename it. This tells me that the renaming of Roku devices on our account at Roku.com doesn't necessarily rename how all of them get broadcast on a LAN. So these app developers are giving us a way to manually rename them in their apps.

Now, I picked up another Roku 3 (a refurb on woot.com) and I was able to rename it, via my account at Roku.com. The new name appeared properly to my Android OS and Google Cast in Chrome. It just needed a reboot to show up.

But the Roku 2 XS's name doesn't change, regardless of what I try, it seems. I was able to rename it in AllCast and AirAudio, but that's it. It shows up as "Roku Streaming Player 13B39L002114" in all the other places. What's that all about? Does the Roku 2 XS not support device renaming in the way the Roku 3 does?

Weird.

Fofer wrote:

I notice that in addition to AllCast, another app I use on Android, called AirAudio, has also introduced the ability to rename a Roku. Tap and hold the Roku's icon in the app, and rename it. This tells me that the renaming of Roku devices on our account at Roku.com doesn't necessarily rename how all of them get broadcast on a LAN. So these app developers are giving us a way to manually rename them in their apps.

Now, I picked up another Roku 3 (a refurb on woot.com) and I was able to rename it, via my account at Roku.com. The new name appeared properly to my Android OS and Google Cast in Chrome. It just needed a reboot to show up.

But the Roku 2 XS's name doesn't change, regardless of what I try, it seems. I was able to rename it in AllCast and AirAudio, but that's it. It shows up as "Roku Streaming Player 13B39L002114" in all the other places. What's that all about? Does the Roku 2 XS not support device renaming in the way the Roku 3 does?

Weird.

It's just a change in the latest firmware, which is available on your Roku 3 but apparently not (yet) on your 2XS, see Enterr's post here:
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=66535#p459466

The 'rename' function in the AllCast and AirAudio apps just allows you to identify a particular Roku inside that app. It does not change anything on the Roku, your network, or the cloud. Check your firmware versions in the 2XS and 3, I'm betting the 2 has an older version of 5.x and the 3 will be at 5.6 build 60 (or greater).

Eventually, I would expect that all the modern Rokus (Rokus that can run firmware 5.x today) will support the name assigned on Roku.com. Apps may also need to be updated to look for and use that information.