Netflix Manager v2.0 w/Play now support

[lifterus]

Originally Posted by whiskaz

Yea... not sure about the one out for MCE now but... be curious as to how well it works.

How exactly do you intend to manually remedy the full screen issue w/ girder? There's no key combo that will make it work... it requires a mouse click. I guess you can use girder to control the mouse but... not sure that's very elegant either. Let me know what you had in mind though!

I swear the fullscreen issue w/ this plugin is less a resolution problem and more a focusing issue. It seemed inconsistent w/ clicking in the IE window it created/registering the command with MP. I modified the code to simply use the correct coordinates for where the button was on my screen and sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn't - sometimes it would register an event in the MP log, sometimes it wouldn't.

I didn't so much just "intend" to do it, as I actually did it in reality . Did it months ago (check earlier on the old thread) using a non-MCE remote and the UIRT-USB device. Worked flawlessly and I used it quite a lot. Elegent or not, the command registered 100 times out of a 100. My girlfriend was even able to use it without my help. I don't remember the exact settings. I'll check the old GML and get back to you. I'm pretty sure I was able to target the actual fullscreen button. Not just the window. I had play/pause and Stop working as well.

A few weeks ago I re-did my HTPC. I installed Vista and bought a real MCE remote. I started to re-do the girder/MP/Netflix plugin and I did have focus problems. I think the fact the MP recognizes every button the MCE remote, so this was causing issues. I'll have it figured out tonight.

Again, elegent or not, it works and it features everything you could want within the limitations Netflix has placed. And it's massively more usable than the SageTV or the Media Center one that just came out. My only gripe is that it's for MP. Nothing against MP or anything - I just find MCE's "My Movies" to be the best solution for DVD ripping/viewing and was never able to match that on MP or Meedio. So I now have to load MP from within MCE.

EDIT: Here is a screenshot of the Girder target settings to target the fullscreen button:

[whurlston]

whiskaz/nerd1701, I think I may have solved all the issues. I think I have found a way to play the movie in a regular WMP activex player giving us full control of the player including ff/rew/seek capabilities. I also found a way to download streams that are a higher bitrate than can be handled by one's internet connection. It would mean a longer buffering time before being able to watch the movie without interuption but much higher quality for slower connections. I should have some sample code by the end of the weekend.

[lifterus]

Originally Posted by whurlston

whiskaz/nerd1701, I think I may have solved all the issues. I think I have found a way to play the movie in a regular WMP activex player giving us full control of the player including ff/rew/seek capabilities. I also found a way to download streams that are a higher bitrate than can be handled by one's internet connection. It would mean a longer buffering time before being able to watch the movie without interuption but much higher quality for slower connections. I should have some sample code by the end of the weekend.

You sir, are my new hero!

I've actually been able to play them in WMP in the past. You check the source of the movie's HTML page and within it gives you the 3 .ASF links for the different "Watch Now" streams (low med & high quality). Didn't even realize that information could be obtained from the RSS feeds.

[whiskaz]

lifterus:

Interesting! I don't know girder well enough to determine from that screenshot how it locates the Fullscreen button, but I believe you! I couldn't figure out how to determine my mouse coordinates when I was clicking the button - had to use Javascript with IE in fullscreen, then took those coords and plugged them into the Netflix plugin code, recompiled, etc. It would've worked if not for focusing issues. Sometimes it would go, sometimes it wouldn't. Then the logic would get out of whack and it would think it was in fullscreen when it wasn't (because it missed focus the previous go around) and so forth.

Whurlston - excellent! Details!

My HTPC had to be shipped out for repair (mobo on my Shuttle seems to have bit the dust)... so I probably won't be looking into this much until then, but I'm curious anyway.

[whurlston]

lifterus, the information is not in the RSS feeds but I have some code that will find all watch now movies with their watch now page. The page can then be scraped to get the stream info and the streams can then be downloaded. There is a catch to downloading the streams but I've got that problem solved. The only issue I see is there may be a popup within WMP asking for your username and password to download the rights to play the file. I think I may have this solved as well. I will know in the next day or two.

[lifterus]

Awesome. Just one warning though. I read somewhere that Netflix was putting user accounts on hold for downloading the streams. Probably false rumors, but you never know. The reason being (presumably) because it bypassed their hour counter. Now that we have unlimited use available for everyone on all but the cheapo plan, perhaps they don't care anymore so long as the DRM isn't being tampered with.

[whurlston]

Not a problem. I think I know how to report the time watched, if it works I can implement it. If not, I think I at least know how to report that the full movie was watched. Since plans are unlimited now, I may just report that every time. I'm not messing with the DRM at all so that part will not be an issue.

[MacMini]

Any progress on getting the Full Screen button to work at different resolutions (1080x1920 in my case?)

Or a suggestion what exactly to edit:-)

[JDizzy]

Must say, pretty slick!

Once I got my Netflix info entered this works as intended.
Fortunately I have mouse support included with my remote (Firefly) and can move curser down to
click on fullscreen. It would be nicer if there was a way to use a button on mouse though.

Keep up the good work!

[uncertainty]

Originally Posted by MacMini

Any progress on getting the Full Screen button to work at different resolutions (1080x1920 in my case?)

Or a suggestion what exactly to edit:-)

Same, I would like to know what to edit in order to get full screen support to work correctly for 720x480p.