The Roku ECP api provides a mechanism for querying the Roku device for the current state of the media player in the currently active channel. The URL http://192.168.1.1:8060/query/media-player ...returns a response that looks something like

<player state="pause">
   <plugin id="12"/>
   <position>1234 ms</position>
   ...
</player>

This works for most channels/apps including Netflix, HBO, Disney etc.

However, in testing, I've noticed that certain version of the Netflix Roku app - namely, versions xxx.5.3.xxx that run on "4K" Roku devices - return an incorrect response. For those app versions on those Roku devices, regardless of whether anything is playing, the response is always

<player state="none">
   <plugin channel="12"/>
</player>

The same URL query on the same device works correctly (returning the correct playback state and position) for other apps like HBO and Hulu and is correct with the Netflix app on other Roku devices not with Netflix v5.3.

This seems like a bug in a specific Netflix Roku version. Is the only solution to wait for Netflix to fix it in a later version? Has anyone else run in to this issue? I know Roku channel apps have a flexibility in what data they return and some return more than others, but this seems like an issue with a specific app version. Is there another Roku API that would be better used?