I went creating a channel today and under "Required Features" there is

• USB Support
• Roku 3 only
• Screensaver
• USB Support - Package
• Roku 3 only No Lanyard
• BTR No Lanyard
• Roku Game Remote

What is the difference between the 4 bolded choices? I did quick search in the forum and there was nothing for "lanyard"*. I would venture a guess "lanyard" in this context is not literally the purple lanyard that came with motion remote models.

(*) amusing - can't believe nobody over the years said "lanyard" in any context of any board!

Yep, a lanyard is the purple thing that goes around your wrist.

- Joel

RokuJoel wrote:

Yep, a lanyard is the purple thing that goes around your wrist.

Happy hour cheers, Joel!

Would you mind explaining the difference between the 4 bolded choices though, in the context of "required features": when will i be choosing which?

PS. couple of weeks later, the "no lanyard" entries mysteriously disappeared. Go figure.

This seems to shed some light on the lanyard mystery: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=89586&p=504962#p504970

Except it's unclear if the actual remote in use is taken into consideration or just the player model#. (Since remotes are cross-compatible, a non-lanyard-remote can be used with player that ships with lanyard remote - and vice versa).

EnTerr wrote:

This seems to shed some light on the lanyard mystery: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=89586&p=504962#p504970

Except it's unclear if the actual remote in use is taken into consideration or just the player model#. (Since remotes are cross-compatible, a non-lanyard-remote can be used with player that ships with lanyard remote - and vice versa).

Player model only as is sold in stores or online (or so that's my take on it, as far as I've been told). In the thread referenced, the 4230 doesn't come "default" with the wrist-strap, so it's excluded (via the Lanyard setting) from games that require it. IE, NO LANYARD.

C. Shawn Smith

*Edit* games that require the Lanyard (again, as I've been told) have vigorous motion with the game controller. Without the Lanyard, the game controller in some instances could "get away from you" and cause issues. IE, accidentally throwing it through your window, TV, knocking your 7-year old child unconscious (not that that has ever happened to me ), etc. To combat this liability, the Lanyard setting is set to insure that the player, as sold in stores and/or online that is equipped with it will get the game, but those that don't, won't, due to the possibility of said 7-year olds getting knocked unconscious.

To add an extra point of reference: I have a 4230 NO LANYARD and games that require it don't appear on the device, even though I have had a controller paired to it that DOES have a Lanyard.

C. Shawn Smith

So there's no way to adjust the settings on the Roku device to say you do in fact have a lanyard now, to get access to those games? That's a bad setup if so.

Komag wrote:

So there's no way to adjust the settings on the Roku device to say you do in fact have a lanyard now, to get access to those games? That's a bad setup if so.

As far as I'm aware, no. I don't think the remote can communicate to the Roku in that manner. I'll forward that request over to TPTB, though. Hopefully, it's possible in some manner.

C. Shawn Smith

Alternately what you could do is change it to 'recommended lanyard' and a disclaimer that you're not liable for end users killing people with thrown remote controls across the room - or some such.
The Nintendo Wii series have a display showing what the accessories are and what possible damage can be caused by misuse prior to loading a game.

destruk wrote:

Alternately what you could do is change it to 'recommended lanyard' and a disclaimer that you're not liable for end users killing people with thrown remote controls across the room - or some such.
The Nintendo Wii series have a display showing what the accessories are and what possible damage can be caused by misuse prior to loading a game.

Or the developer could just remove the lanyard requirement from the channel submission.

TheEndless wrote:

Or the developer could just remove the lanyard requirement from the channel submission.

Last i checked those flags got hidden from dev.console (curiously, one of them was the mythical creature "BTR no lanyard"). I believe this flag is a burden placed on the app reviewers, that they should enforce the "lanyard required" to CYA the Co, if there is anything resembling vigorous motion, e.g. (non-code-)golfing or ninja slicing.

(Warning - highly-speculative POV follows) I think the Co. have cornered themselves in this one in three steps:

1. someone said "why do we include these lanyards, nobody uses them - let's save 5 cents per player by not including them" - and so they did
2. a few months down the road after no-lanyard players went to market, a "brilliant" legal mind at the Co. decided having no lanyard is a liability and measures should be taken to protect the Co. It's possible there was a case someone spilled a glass throwing the remote and then asked Roku Co to pay the dry cleaning bill. Or it could be that the number of lawyers @ the HQ has reached critical mass, after which the generation of legal memos is a self-sustained chain reaction that requires no external stimuli no more. Regardless - while nobody may have used the lanyard, it had a good "i told you so!" protective potential.
3. top brass decreed to limit "dangerous" games only to lanyard remote. Then project management happened.
   
   Project Swing

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RokuShawnS wrote:

As far as I'm aware, no. I don't think the remote can communicate to the Roku in that manner. I'll forward that request over to TPTB, though. Hopefully, it's possible in some manner.

Actually... on third thought, aren't all the no-laynard game remotes of the "voice search" persuasion?

At first i thought, there is no way to distinguish them programmatically (if inner board is the same, can't guess the external shell). But this morning it downed on me it's only 2015 Roku 3 that came with a lanyard-less game remote (the one with motion sensors and A/B buttons) - and Roku 4 now.

If so, then lanyard-full and lanyard-less remotes necessarily differ from each other in innards (not only plastic mold), since the former don't have a microphone component and the latter do! Which necessitates different firmware versions between them - and since Roku player provisions them, it has to (and does) distinguish between them (see System / Remote) already!

So yeah, good news as possibility is concerned! Moreover the filtering can be improved to check the remote used right at app start - and that way work on a 4230 model with lanyard-y remote from 4200. Or conversely, decline on a 4200 player when user is wielding a 4230 voice remote ATM.

I think determining whether a game should be available based on a lanyard is a bad idea to begin with - since someone could easily remove the lanyard from their remote. Why would you truly want to limit your audience that way?

even if it has a lanyard, doesn't mean someone put it around their wrist.


nintendo is still in business, and a brazillion videos on youtube show lots of remotes wiimotes flying into TVs and other things.