New Netflix Plugin (1 Viewer)

[Johnathan Barker]

Hello All. I was working on a Netflix plugin to use in my setup at home to learn how to create media portal plugins and also the Netflix api. I was perusing the forums the other day and noticed that the current Netflix plugin is no longer being developed, so I thought I would see if anyone is interested in the one I have been working on. Based on the current rate of progress I expect to have to functional by monday or wensday at the latest. The only things I have left to add to it is the ability to Add and remove items to the instant queue (which both are about 95% implemented) and the instant watch functionality. I am also implementing a new feature that I call Personal Queues that allows you to have mutiple local queues setup so that each member in a family may have there own. I have also implemented Parental Controls on a per personal queue level (so each one has its own restriction level) and personal queue is secured via a personal Pin code. Additionaly the Pin Code for the personal queue marked parent may be used to access any of the other personal queues. If people are interested I figured I could release it to the public

 

[Aros62]

Of course we are interested! Netflix is available in Sweden this autumn, and I for one would like to use Netflix.

While you are at it, why not develop a plug-in for HBO as well?

 

[mpsam]

Absolutely. Thanks for taking it up.

 

[Johnathan Barker]

Thanks for the great idea. I will look into HBO next. Hopefully I will be able to post a couple screenshots of the netflix plugin later today

 

[Johnathan Barker]

Here are a couple screen shots. The first one is of the search results page. I currently have it cut down to 5 results to make debugging a bit quicker. The second shot is after selecting a title. and the third screen shot shows the configuration window on the personal queue tab which also has the parental controls.

 

[Johnathan Barker]

Unfortuantly it apears that at the moment there does not apear to be a publicly available api for the hbo go or the cinimax go services. It apears that it is restricted to there website or through one of the apps that they have created such as the xbox app. Also during my research I learned that it is impossible to even sign up for the service unless you are currently a paid subscriber through a cable company and this does not look like it will be changing any time soon. So in light of that I will not be working on a plugin for either service (hbo go and cinimax go) at this time. If you have found something different that proves those two points wrong please message email me directly or comment on here and I will re-examine the possibility.

 

[seco]

Out of curiosity why make completely new plugin when there is existing one with already support for many popular skins etc. ?

 

[tourettes]

Out of curiosity - are you going to use some external player or have you managed to hack the Netflix DRM so that MP internal player could be used to give better picture and audio quality in addition to have better integration / user experience that way?

 

[Johnathan Barker]

Out of curiosity why make completely new plugin when there is existing one with already support for many popular skins etc. ?

Like I said in my first post this started out as a simple project that I was planning on only using going to use here at home and I only recently realized that the old plugin is not being developed anymore. By the time I decided to make my plugin available a couple days ago most of it is already complete. As of this post the only things I have left to do is fine tune the search results and tweak the Player a bit. And then tie all the different parts of it together. It would take me longer to figure out the other persons plugin code then it would to finish the code I have already wrote. Although the part about the skin support is a great question. While I was developing it for my personal use it didn't matter as I only use one skin and just developed for that. But I don't think that alone is enough to warrant essentially starting over in the development process.

Out of curiosity - are you going to use some external player or have you managed to hack the Netflix DRM so that MP internal player could be used to give better picture and audio quality in addition to have better integration / user experience that way?

At this point I have been unable to hack the api enough to locate a direct link to the videos so I am stuck opening a browser to play the video from Netflixs website but I have been able to hack the javascript api enough to be able to form the links in my code instead of having to use the javascript api and redirects to get the video to play. I am still looking for a way to get the direct url for the video file so that I can use Media Portals internal player as that would be ideal.

 

[TLD]

I'll be trying it when it's available for MP 1.3.