Find window previously opened by window.open

AFAIK, no there isn't..

A kind-of-dirty-but-i-guess-it-will-work hack would be to periodically reset the reference on the parent window from within the popup using window.opener, with something like this code:

    setInterval(function() {
        if(window.opener) {
            window.opener.document.myPopupWindow = window
        }
    }, 100)

In the parent window, you'll be able to access document.myPopupWindow, even after a reload (well, 100ms after the reload). This should work cross browser.

Try this:

var playerUrl = 'http://my.player...';
var popupPlayer= window.open('', 'popupPlayer', 'width=150,height=100') ;
if(popupPlayer.location.href == 'about:blank' ){
    popupPlayer.location = playerUrl ;
}
popupPlayer.focus();

It will open a blank window with a unique name. Since the url is blank, the content of the window will not be reloaded.