[Original Thread] "My NetFlix" Plugin with Watch Now Support (1 Viewer)

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mpsam

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June 16, 2009
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Re: [plugin] "My NetFlix" Plugin with Watch Now Support

I like the idea of separating the instant watching from the 'other' lists. How about putting them on a second page with a button on the instant page that links to it.
 

ixian

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    Re: [plugin] "My NetFlix" Plugin with Watch Now Support

    WilE, have you given up on your XBMC move yet? :)

    I ran XBMC for years, and recently started using it again for one of my upstairs clients - it's an Acer Revo atom PC, and I find the XBMC "Live" OS (i.e. the one with XBMC on top of a stripped down, optimized Ubuntu build) performs the best on that hardware. Plus, you know, it's free :) I just updated to the Dharma 2 beta, in fact. I'm telling you all this just so you know I'm not trolling you.

    As fine as XBMC is at some things - first-rate skinning engine, media libraries are native, designed to be fully configured inside the application, a pretty decent UPnP client, etc - Netflix and Hulu support are not among them. I find your plugin, and Hulu Desktop (via the Multishortcut plugin) to be far better than the UPnP (via Playon) system that XBMC relies on. I've been working with it for weeks now and the best I can say about it is "clunky" - and that's when it works.

    What I am saying is UPnP via Playon sounds neat, and at first glance sure seems to support a lot more in the way of online media, but in day to day practice it doesn't live up to the hype. It's ugly, the interface to browse media is bare-bones and confusing, and at least 50% of the time if not more videos either don't play or play for a few minutes, then stop. It's not just me - their forums are full of experiences like this. Whether it's them, the XBMC UPnP client, some combination thereof (XBMC isn't even a supported client by them) I don't know but in the end I don't care either, it's not nearly stable enough to use day to day.There's no chance my wife would even attempt to use it, even assuming she remembered how and where to navigate to the UPnP sections in the first place.

    In MePo, on the other hand, all I do is set up a shortcut that says "Hulu" or "Netflix" and lo and behold, you click them and they launch exactly what they say they do. Everything works, and the browsing experience is much nicer.

    Your plugin really is superior to any other implementation of Netflix on any media center software anywhere. Seriously. The only thing that beats it is the native, proprietary versions Netflix themselves do for Windows Media Center, PS3, etc. It's a tremendous achievement and I hate to see you give up on it out of frustration because of burnout or whatever. Playon on XBMC is not the solution. Heck, if you are that enamored of it why not help with the MePo UPnP client - dev on that has started and stopped several times over the years.

    I'd really like to see you continue development of this and other plugins. If you need help, I can pitch in, even provide hosting for the search feature if needed - contact me if you are interested.
     

    WileECoyote

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    Re: [plugin] "My NetFlix" Plugin with Watch Now Support

    WilE, have you given up on your XBMC move yet? :)

    I ran XBMC for years, and recently started using it again for one of my upstairs clients - it's an Acer Revo atom PC, and I find the XBMC "Live" OS (i.e. the one with XBMC on top of a stripped down, optimized Ubuntu build) performs the best on that hardware. Plus, you know, it's free :) I just updated to the Dharma 2 beta, in fact. I'm telling you all this just so you know I'm not trolling you.

    As fine as XBMC is at some things - first-rate skinning engine, media libraries are native, designed to be fully configured inside the application, a pretty decent UPnP client, etc - Netflix and Hulu support are not among them. I find your plugin, and Hulu Desktop (via the Multishortcut plugin) to be far better than the UPnP (via Playon) system that XBMC relies on. I've been working with it for weeks now and the best I can say about it is "clunky" - and that's when it works.

    What I am saying is UPnP via Playon sounds neat, and at first glance sure seems to support a lot more in the way of online media, but in day to day practice it doesn't live up to the hype. It's ugly, the interface to browse media is bare-bones and confusing, and at least 50% of the time if not more videos either don't play or play for a few minutes, then stop. It's not just me - their forums are full of experiences like this. Whether it's them, the XBMC UPnP client, some combination thereof (XBMC isn't even a supported client by them) I don't know but in the end I don't care either, it's not nearly stable enough to use day to day.There's no chance my wife would even attempt to use it, even assuming she remembered how and where to navigate to the UPnP sections in the first place.

    In MePo, on the other hand, all I do is set up a shortcut that says "Hulu" or "Netflix" and lo and behold, you click them and they launch exactly what they say they do. Everything works, and the browsing experience is much nicer.

    Your plugin really is superior to any other implementation of Netflix on any media center software anywhere. Seriously. The only thing that beats it is the native, proprietary versions Netflix themselves do for Windows Media Center, PS3, etc. It's a tremendous achievement and I hate to see you give up on it out of frustration because of burnout or whatever. Playon on XBMC is not the solution. Heck, if you are that enamored of it why not help with the MePo UPnP client - dev on that has started and stopped several times over the years.

    I'd really like to see you continue development of this and other plugins. If you need help, I can pitch in, even provide hosting for the search feature if needed - contact me if you are interested.

    Hey Ixian,
    Thanks for the positive feedback, its nice to know your work is appreciated. But no, I've not given up on XBMC yet but let me explain what I mainly use it for...

    I have one media center in my main living room, and three clients upstairs. I run XBMC on the main media center and a client in my bedroom upstairs. The other two clients I still run MP.

    On the two XBMC boxes, I do not (or VERY rarely) use Netflix. They are mostly used for watching live TV or movies. The two MP boxes are my daughters (bedroom and shared den), and I still run MP on those mainly because she uses Netflix extensively and she is in love with the Maya skin. :)

    I do agree with you on most points. The PlayOn UPnP client is a freakin joke. Over the past month I have found it to be completely useless. Most of the video's I attempt to play dont work correctly, which is a complete shame because of all the available content.

    BUT, the good points about XBMC are REALLY good. I have found the TV client to be very stable, and the built in Movie and TV Shows plugins work perfect (at least for me.) I love the smooth flow of the skin and the skin graphics look so much more professional (to me anyway.)

    So, although I love some of the features of XBMC I will probably never give up completely on MP. My hope is that MP 2 will be as smooth (or smoother) and blow XMBC away. The downside is we are probably a year or so a way from a MP 2 solution :( The mixed solution works well for now and I will continue to work on My Netflix 2.0, possibly with the assistance of Hey_Me.

    Thanks again,
    Wile E.

    I like the idea of separating the instant watching from the 'other' lists. How about putting them on a second page with a button on the instant page that links to it.

    Hey mpsam,
    These are the menu items I had in mind...

    - Instant Queue
    - Search (Obviously instant only)
    - New Releases
    - Upcoming Releases
    - My Ratings (If you rate the instant movies.)

    Thanks,
    Wile E.
     

    mpsam

    Portal Pro
    June 16, 2009
    179
    75
    Re: [plugin] "My NetFlix" Plugin with Watch Now Support

    Hi Wile,
    I must first thank you for the impressive work that you have done on this plug-in. It was interesting to read your post about moving to XBMC earlier because I had considered XBMC when I had mostly movies and was running both it and MP. Then you wrote this plug-in and the choice was made for me. XBMC is pretty, but MP is beautiful. I like to say that it is never the place, always the people (that makes the difference). In this case, I guess it is not the software but the community that makes the difference. Look at how easily you ask for and accept recommendations. But it seems that other people decide and hand out what is 'best' for the users. Anyway I digress. Back to the matter at hand.

    When Moving Pictures is started, it gives a list of categories to choose from. I use Indigo as my skin.

    https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...13925-monochrome-v3-2-released-untitled-3.jpg

    In my case the list shows

    -All Movies,
    -Unwatched ..,
    -Recently Added,
    -My Wife,
    -My Daughters,
    -Jamaican,
    -Genre,
    -Certification
    -Year.

    My thinking is that you could do something similar but instead have a list of

    -Users in the MyNetflix Database representing the locally saved instant queue (I assume 2-5 for most people)
    -Recommendations (could be filtered for instant only),
    -New Releases,
    -Upcoming Releases,
    -NetFlix Top Picks (Could be filtered for instant only).

    Selection would bring you to the relevant list. From there the action menu could contain

    -Search
    -Switch View
    -Disc Queue
    -Discs At Home
    -Recommendations (If only instant is on the front page)
    -Rental History

    The assumption here is that the primary use will be to stream from Netflix and disc queue management functions being secondary and thus requiring an additional step. What do you think?
     

    sheish

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    January 20, 2009
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    Instant queue issue

    Hi,

    I just installed the mynetflix plugin and for most part I have it under control. But, there is one issue which is kind of blocking me. When I get into the info of the title and try to add it to the instant queue, it fails on me. Reports the error something like "failed to add <title> to instant queue". I can add a title to a DVD queue fine. Here are some log entries from the failure timeframe:

    ...
    ...
    2010-10-09 15:48:51.797484 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Authorize:NetFlixAuthorize: User is registered.
    2010-10-09 15:48:51.799484 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Authorize:NetFlixAuthorize: User is registered.
    2010-10-09 15:48:52.582529 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: MyNetFlix:DVDQueue: GetInstantQueue()
    2010-10-09 15:48:52.635532 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: SQLiteClient: Closing database: NetFlixDatabase.db3
    2010-10-09 15:48:52.635532 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: SQLiteClient: Closing database: NetFlixDatabase.db3
    2010-10-09 15:48:55.198679 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Authorize:NetFlixAuthorize: User is registered.
    2010-10-09 15:48:55.200679 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Authorize:NetFlixAuthorize: User is registered.
    2010-10-09 15:48:59.965951 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: SQLiteClient: Closing database: NetFlixDatabase.db3
    2010-10-09 15:48:59.966951 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: SQLiteClient: Closing database: NetFlixDatabase.db3
    2010-10-09 15:49:10.369546 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Authorize:NetFlixAuthorize: User is registered.
    2010-10-09 15:49:12.629676 [Info.][(2)]: SQLiteClient: Closing database: NetFlixDatabase.db3
    2010-10-09 15:49:22.126219 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Authorize:NetFlixAuthorize: User is registered.
    2010-10-09 15:49:23.155278 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: MyNetFlixMain:confused:howSearchMenu: Error adding Instant Title: Seven Pounds<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>

    <status>
    <status_code>400</status_code>
    <message>title_ref is missing</message>
    </status>

    2010-10-09 15:49:23.411292 [Info.][(2)]: SQLiteClient: Closing database: NetFlixDatabase.db3
    2010-10-09 15:49:36.948067 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Main: Exit requested
    2010-10-09 15:49:36.975068 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Main: Stopping FrameMove
    2010-10-09 15:49:37.000070 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: TexturePacker: disposing texture:1999
    2010-10-09 15:49:37.013070 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: TexturePacker: disposing texture:1998
    2010-10-09 15:49:37.014070 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: TexturePacker: disposing texture:1997
    2010-10-09 15:49:37.130077 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Main: Exiting
    2010-10-09 15:49:37.133077 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: MCE: Stopping MCE remote
    2010-10-09 15:49:37.140078 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: PlugInManager.Stop()
    2010-10-09 15:49:37.141078 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: PluginManager: stopping MediaPortal.Plugins.MPControlPlugin
    2010-10-09 15:49:37.152078 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: fonts.SafeDispose()
    2010-10-09 15:49:37.154078 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: TexturePacker:Dispose()
    2010-10-09 15:49:37.176080 [Info.][(2)]: SQLiteClient: Closing database: VideoDatabaseV5.db3
    2010-10-09 15:49:37.176080 [Info.][(2)]: SQLiteClient: Closing database: NetFlixDatabase.db3
    2010-10-09 15:49:37.192080 [Info.][(2)]: SQLiteClient: Closing database: NetFlixDatabase.db3
    2010-10-09 15:49:37.192080 [Info.][(2)]: SQLiteClient: Closing database: NetFlixDatabase.db3
    2010-10-09 15:49:37.193081 [Info.][(2)]: SQLiteClient: Closing database: MusicDatabaseV11.db3
    2010-10-09 15:49:37.195081 [Info.][(2)]: Playlist: Saving default playlist default.m3u
    ...
    ...

    Can somebody let me know what is going on and if there is something I can do to fix it.

    Thanks.
     

    WileECoyote

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  • October 14, 2008
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    Re: [plugin] "My NetFlix" Plugin with Watch Now Support

    Hey Sheish,
    Two things... First, always post the complete logs not just partial logs. I need to see the complete MediaPortal.log & Error.log files to be able to determine whats going on.

    Second, the Netflix account you are using, is it set up as a Sub-account in Netflix? If so, you can add discs to the DVD queue, but do not have the ability to use instant view (sorry, this is a Netflix limitation.)

    Wile E.
     

    sheish

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    January 20, 2009
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    Re: [plugin] "My NetFlix" Plugin with Watch Now Support

    Hi Wile E.,
    Thanks for the quick response. I did some lookup in the thread and found couple other people who had the same issue. So, the issue is limited to just the Netflix top 25/100 category titles only. When I find the title via search, I am able to add it to the instant queue. Is there a fix for that?

    About the sub-account, I am not sure if I understand this. When I configured the plugin, I did the authorization based on the "Authorize" button and *not* via the "Authorize Sub-account" button. Does that matter? How can I check with Netflix about this setting? Sorry if this is a basic question.

    I wanted to post the complete logs, but I didn't know how to attach a file to the reply. Sorry about that.

    -sheish
     

    WileECoyote

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  • October 14, 2008
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    Re: [plugin] "My NetFlix" Plugin with Watch Now Support

    I did some lookup in the thread and found couple other people who had the same issue. So, the issue is limited to just the Netflix top 25/100 category titles only. When I find the title via search, I am able to add it to the instant queue. Is there a fix for that?

    Hmmm, I thought this was fixed in 1.3. I will have to look into that issue...

    About the sub-account, I am not sure if I understand this. When I configured the plugin, I did the authorization based on the "Authorize" button and *not* via the "Authorize Sub-account" button. Does that matter? How can I check with Netflix about this setting? Sorry if this is a basic question.

    On the Netflix website you can create sub-accounts (for mailed dvd's only.) It sounds like your issue is not related to this though...

    I wanted to post the complete logs, but I didn't know how to attach a file to the reply. Sorry about that.

    -sheish

    When you click Reply or Quote buttons to respond to the thread, there is a plus sign [+] you can click on to attach files.
     

    sheish

    Portal Member
    January 20, 2009
    20
    0
    Home Country
    United States of America United States of America
    Re: [plugin] "My NetFlix" Plugin with Watch Now Support

    I did some lookup in the thread and found couple other people who had the same issue. So, the issue is limited to just the Netflix top 25/100 category titles only. When I find the title via search, I am able to add it to the instant queue. Is there a fix for that?

    Hmmm, I thought this was fixed in 1.3. I will have to look into that issue...

    About the sub-account, I am not sure if I understand this. When I configured the plugin, I did the authorization based on the "Authorize" button and *not* via the "Authorize Sub-account" button. Does that matter? How can I check with Netflix about this setting? Sorry if this is a basic question.

    On the Netflix website you can create sub-accounts (for mailed dvd's only.) It sounds like your issue is not related to this though...

    I wanted to post the complete logs, but I didn't know how to attach a file to the reply. Sorry about that.

    -sheish

    When you click Reply or Quote buttons to respond to the thread, there is a plus sign [+] you can click on to attach files.

    I have attached the logs zip file to help your investigation. I want to let you know that I installed the plugin using the old installer format file instead of the zip file based manual copy of the dll file. I am using MP 1.1 with Win7 as the OS. let me know if you would like to know any other details from my config.

    -sheish
     

    Bhurricane12

    Portal Member
    June 12, 2010
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    Re: [plugin] "My NetFlix" Plugin with Watch Now Support

    I feel really dumb for posting this but i have been looking for answer to this problem in the forum and couldnt find it.
    well, i installed the program and everything but when i go to play the instant movies, the mediaportal just pauses and doesnt do anything. It doesnt pop up any windows or anything at all. I am stuck on what to do. Thanks
    I use mediaportal 1.1.1.0 and StreamedMP 1.4.0.1967
     

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