Netflix for OnlineVideos (1 Viewer)

[Ministerk]

Netflix for OnlineVideos

Where can I get this?
This is a site in the OnlineVideos plugin, enable Netflix from the "Manage Sites" view inside OnlineVideos. Also update your sites after you have enabled it to get the latest version.

Countries
I do not know if this works everywhere but it looks promising.
Confirmed to work in: Sweden, Finland, The Netherlands, Canada, UK, France, Denmark, Germany
Does not work in: ?

BrowserPlayer
Netflix uses the BrowserPlayer, not the ordinary MP/OnlineVideos player, it's basically an internet explorer window showing the actual Netflix web site playing the content you have earlier selected in OnlineVideos.
The BrowserPlayer is compatible with MP1 and MP2, but not the standalone player.

Player controls

• Play
• Pause
• Step forward and backward in the video (with right and left key/buttons)
• Stop (exit browser, press stop/esc/back/b)
• Use "0" to toggle the Netflix video playback OSD

Configuration
Prerequisites

• Internet Explorer 10+ installed. (Remember Edge is not IE!)
• Silverlight must be installed on the computer
• Silverlight must have the "Enable download and updates to components required for protected content playback" setting enabled.
• And of course a Netflix subscription
  • Enter Username (email) and Password in site context menu
• Disable Test participation

Settings
Configure the following in the netflix site context menu

• Username
• Password
• Show loading spinner
  • Show the loading spinner in the Browser Player
• Enable Netflix Info/Stat OSD
  • Enable info and statistics OSD.
  • Toggle OSD with 0 when video is playing.
  • Do not enable this if you need to enter 0 in parental control pin

Languages

For everybody that wants to watch netflix with different languages:
I've now found a way to have different profiles for the respective languages. That's almost what I tried some time ago but here comes the difference.
Whereas creating profiles with prefered languages does not change the playback language the solution is much simpler.
Just watch a movie and manually switch to the desired language. Keep that movie running for more than 5 minutes and that should be it.
Netflix saves the language after 5 minutes and uses that for every other movie watched with that profile.
Other profiles won't be affected by that which allows to have different profiles for different languges.

Features

• Profiles
• Browse My List (Not kids profiles)
• Manage My List, add/remove (Not kids profiles)
  • In titles listings (use context menu)
  • In every titles subcategories
• Continue Watch (previously watched titles)
• Netflix Home
• Browse Characters (Kids profiles only)
• Browse Genres
  • And browse Sub Genres (Not kids profiles)
• Titles subcategories
  • Watch Now/Play (i.e. the next episode to watch or play the movie)
  • Browse seasons of shows
  • Browse and play trailers
  • Find similar titles
  • Title Details
    • Creators
    • Directors
    • Cast
    • Genres
    • Tags (This movie/show is...)
  • Add/Remove from My List (Not kids profiles)
• Search (from the hidden menu)
• Fully translated
  • Uses the language setting of the owner/first profile
  • Defaults to generic english expressions if translation not available

Other
Context menu?
You open the context menu by pressing F9 on your keyboard or the i/info/more/... button on your remote.
When you configure Netflix for OnlineVideos, open the site context menu (i.e. in the site listing goto and select "Netflix" without entering and press F9 or i/... on remote) and enter credentials, enable or disable features.

Tips'n'tricks for smoother playback

• Turn on hardware acceleration in silverlight settings
  • Open "Microsoft Silverlight Configuration" in elevated mode (right click and run as administrator)
  • Playback tab
  • Check hardware acceleration
• Reduce frame rate when not being in focus
  • See General GUI Settings
• Set the correct refresh rate to your display (depending on country)

Problems
First check Prerequisites!

Then check if you have the latest version of the Netflix util by doing an site update (manage sites from the (hidden) side menu of OnlineVideos).

If you have problems seeing contents or get errors, sometimes it just helps to try again or change the profile (even to the exact same profile). Finally try to restart MP and remove cache and cookies from internet explorer.

Problems with timeouts? Or does the player window close before the actual video start to play - try setting a higher "Webrequest timeout" in OnlineVideos configuration and BrowserHostWaitTimeout in the iexplore.exe.config file (found in [MP-INSTALL-PATH]l\plugins\Windows\OnlineVideos)

Do the power scheduler send the computer to sleep while watching Netflix? Add "iexplore" without quotes in PowerScheduler -> Processes -> Processes to prevent standby while watching, see Power Scheduler

Still does not work?
Report here, but first check if it works as expected in Internet Explorer (not Edge) on the same computer.

You can see what's happening in the browser player while loading if you disable the loading spinner in the Netflix context menu. This can be good to report in a bug report

System specs
Fill out your System Specs

Collect logs:

Edit the iexplore.exe.config file (found in [MP-INSTALL-PATH]l\plugins\Windows\OnlineVideos)
Change the WriteDebugLog value to true

Also check the log path in the above mentioned config file
MP1:

<add key="DebugLogPath" value="C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\log\OnlineVideos.WebAutomation.BrowserHost-DEBUG.log" />

MP2:

<add key="DebugLogPath" value="C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MP2-Client\Log\OnlineVideos.WebAutomation.BrowserHost-DEBUG.log" />

You also might want to enable verbose logging in site setting.

Use the WatchDog, pick the second alternative and reproduce the error.

 

[te3hpurp]

Yeeaaah !!

Works like a charm, at least in Finland. Me Like !!

Huge thanks
Br,

 

[azzuro]

@cehes : cela peut t’intéresser ( this can insterest you )

 

[p750mmx]

Works in The Netherlands

TYVM

 

[cehes]

Hello, there !

what a great news. We just have netflix in France (yes we are late !) and i'd really like to know if it works.
What should i do ? Just test ? I wouldn't like to waste my free month of netflix...
Is that ok with HD content ?


Many many thanks for this great idea !

@azzuro : je suis sur le coup comme tu vois, je viens juste de voir ce post. je t'avoue que je préfèrerai un plugin dédié

 

[Ministerk]

We just have netflix in France (yes we are late !) and i'd really like to know if it works.
What should i do ? Just test ? I wouldn't like to waste my free month of netflix...
Is that ok with HD content ?

I can't guarantee that it will work with French Netflix, if we look at the other Netflix implementations for Mediaportal there have been problems with supporting more than a handfull of countries. I do not know how the other plugins work, but this solution only get the information needed from the Netflix websites (well not entirely true it uses api calls, but the addresses to those services are constructed by parsing html, embedded js and json).
We now know that it at least work in three european countries and not only in Sweden, that's a good sign.

TL;DR
It might or might not work with French Netflix, but I think it looks promising for the European countries.
If your subscription include HD quality videos, then you can watch the HD content in OnlineVideos also.

 

[cehes]

Many thanks for this quick and detailed reply.
The Netflix price is so low that there is no much risk to try it.
I'll register to Netflix ASAP and tell you how it goes.
The fact that you did not build a plugin but parse an existing web page is a good idea and can lead to better compatibility.

Once again many thanks for your works

 

[rspierenburg]

It works well here in Canada. Just a couple of notes though. On my system it doesn't start in fullscreen mode, is it possible to change that? And when I stop the movie it closes but Mediaportal is closed as well. Not sure if this is just settings that I haven't set properly or what.

 

[Ministerk]

On my system it doesn't start in fullscreen mode, is it possible to change that?

Is the BrowserPlayer in windowed mode or is the video content not maximized? In Sweden videos fill the whole browser window on Netflix hence there is no reason to send the video to full screen, but it's doable.

And when I stop the movie it closes but Mediaportal is closed as well.

I think this is the same problem that @te3hpurp and @emphatic experiencing. When the browser window closes the Mediaportal window should be restored, but if the browser does not close properly the Mediaportal window will not reappear. Do you see an OnlineVideos.WebAutomation.BrowserHost process in the task manager? If so if you kill it does Mediaportal reappear?

I did get this problem on my dev machine in the beginning of the development of this util, but I thought I sorted it out with a workaround (by navigating away from Netflix "OnClosing"). I have planed to contact @Jason Pyke about this issue, but I ping him here and now.

@te3hpurp as to your question in the request thread: No, it is no difference, programmatically, between the different ways of closing the browser.

Not sure if this is just settings that I haven't set properly or what.

No, no properties for you to set.

 

[vuego]

Thanks Ministerk
Is it possible to make the Netflix window launch on a secondary monitor? It's where I have MediaPortal running but the Netflix video seems to always show up on the primary monitor.

Is there any way to hide the password while typing and in MediaPortal's menu?