STV Import: NetFlix for SageMC (v2.1) 28-Feb-09

[Mitch G]

This "<title>-Ready" thing sounds like what I was seeing. First see if watch instantly works via the netflix website using IE. I believe I had to do the reset DRM thing along the way as well before it worked for me.
(Also, I am using it via an HD extender which also required disabling the nvidia drivers on my graphics card.)


Mitch

[Morgan111]

Originally Posted by boognish

Well after getting it installed today I am having a few problems. The same thing that happened to lovinghdtv happened to me. Im sorry i dont know what episode i picked but I will wait for his testing results before I create a debug log. also i chose a movie to download and it seemed to be working.. it got to about 73% and just disappeared from the list. Any clue on why it would do that?

Edit: ok i tried the same movie again and it finished downloading.. now when i press watch it now the player opens and just says volcanoes on the sea:imax -ready but does not start playing. I have always been able to use watch it now before so not sure what may have changed. The wife just took over the tv so ill have to wait a while to play around again Ill report back

Try playing that file in your netflix download directory directly from Windows Media Player and see if it is any different.

[Morgan111]

Originally Posted by boognish

Well after getting it installed today I am having a few problems. The same thing that happened to lovinghdtv happened to me. Im sorry i dont know what episode i picked but I will wait for his testing results before I create a debug log. also i chose a movie to download and it seemed to be working.. it got to about 73% and just disappeared from the list. Any clue on why it would do that?

Edit: ok i tried the same movie again and it finished downloading.. now when i press watch it now the player opens and just says volcanoes on the sea:imax -ready but does not start playing. I have always been able to use watch it now before so not sure what may have changed. The wife just took over the tv so ill have to wait a while to play around again Ill report back

Make sure you have enough room for the file on your SageTV drive and wherever your download directory is located. Probably not the problem, but something to verify...

[Mitch G]

BTW, I must say the download capability is very nice. Being able to select something off the queue and have it play within 30 seconds (at 1600 bps) is very satisfying.
Although it takes a while for a queue of, say, 20 TV shows to complete downloading, it does give my server something to do while I'm sleeping.


Mitch

[Mitch G]

Originally Posted by Mitch G

<snip>
Is there anyway to access the Watch Instantly queue from the netflix site?
Or, make watch now work when selecting instantly watchable movies from the normal queue?
<snip>

BTW, movies that come in both disc and watch instantly format can be played from the DVD queue. It wasn't working for me before - but I think that may have been due to my DRM issues.


Mitch

[Naylia]

Is there a way to change aspect ratio during playback? I saw that something had been released for extenders, but I find that there are some films that seem to be flagged incorrectly and being able to Aspect Ratio Toggle would be nice.

[mkanet]

I dont really want to say too much about an upcoming feature.. but lets just say that there's a good chance he *might* will be able to control that in the next release...

Originally Posted by Naylia

Is there a way to change aspect ratio during playback? I saw that something had been released for extenders, but I find that there are some films that seem to be flagged incorrectly and being able to Aspect Ratio Toggle would be nice.

[Morgan111]

Originally Posted by Naylia

Is there a way to change aspect ratio during playback? I saw that something had been released for extenders, but I find that there are some films that seem to be flagged incorrectly and being able to Aspect Ratio Toggle would be nice.

That should be working now with the ASPECT toggle button on the extender remote. Or anytime a remote has the Aspect toggle button associated with a remote key. I am out of town this week and can't verify it, but I did check that on the Extender remote sometime before it was released.

Morgan

[Naylia]

I'm not using an extender, I'm playing back directly on the computer. I'll check that there isn't another command I should be mapping, but I'm almost definitely sure that the one called Aspect Ratio Toggle isn't doing anything. If someone else could confirm that'd be good.

[JDizzy]

First off, this is an awesome plugin!
I used to have problems with it but now it seems to be doing everything
as intended.

I find a lot of movies are coming in as 4x3 on my system. It would be nice to be able to stretch it horizontally. I am not using an extender either and am not sure what key command Sage wants to cycle through various aspect options.

I have started using Sage again just for Netflixs!

[thecgmguy]

Hi Guys,

Forgive my ignorance here...

I thought I installed everything correctly but it appears I haven't.

When I try to add the Netflix Menu, I see TWO options for EACH netflix menu...

New >> New Internal Screen >>

41: NetFlix Browse Genre
42: NetFlix Browse Genre
43: NetFlix Channel List
44: NetFlix Channel List
...
etc.

Also, when I go to the netflix main menu and click on a "Browse Watch Now Titles" I get a strange menu but the highlight function doesn't work... and the subtitle overwrites in the upper left corner (screenshot attached).

I'm sure this is simple but what could it be?

Finally, on a side note, a while ago, I was able to get this to work and the GUI interface actually had the same color scheme as the SageMC theme. Any ideas why it's not working now?

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by thecgmguy

When I try to add the Netflix Menu, I see TWO options for EACH netflix menu...

You might have accidentally imported it twice or tried to import a new version on top of an old version. Both those things can make duplicate menus. I'd just revert back to a fresh SageMC_169.xml and then reimport it.

[thecgmguy]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

You might have accidentally imported it twice or tried to import a new version on top of an old version. Both those things can make duplicate menus. I'd just revert back to a fresh SageMC_169.xml and then reimport it.

Thanks EvilPenguin. That was it.

Question though... Netflix Video Playback seems a bit choppy on both the IE player and custom player. Any tips on enhancing performance for a smoother playback?

Any/all feedback is appreciated.

[evilpenguin]

Two questions:

1) Are you playing it on a software client or an HD100.
2) Is it choppy when you play it manually straight through the netflix webpage?

[wbarber69]

hows about a way of enhancing the netflix plugin to be able to coordinate with the guide. I mean a way for us to go through the upcoming movies in the guide and then we could decide if we wanted to record said movie or add it to netflix queue. This would be good if we watched a movie recently and then we wanted to have access to it on a later date or perhaps even find that its one of the watch it now titles and be able to watch it whenever we wanted. It may be just me but I think this could be a good addon for this plugin

[thecgmguy]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Two questions:

1) Are you playing it on a software client or an HD100.
2) Is it choppy when you play it manually straight through the netflix webpage?

1) I'm using a software client:
- ATI Radeon 7500 S-Video Out
- 1.5 GHz Via C7 Proc
- 1 GB RAM
- Hauppauge 350
- Windows XP SP3
- IE 7

2) It's slightly choppy when I play it through the netflix page.

Perhaps video drivers?

[thecgmguy]

I think I may have found something that helps...

I opened WMP 11 and navigate to Tools >> Options >> Performance (tab) >> Advanced and enabled the "Turn on DirectX Video Acceleration" option. It's helped but it's still choppy. Any ideas?

[thecgmguy]

Originally Posted by thecgmguy

I think I may have found something that helps...

I opened WMP 11 and navigate to Tools >> Options >> Performance (tab) >> Advanced and enabled the "Turn on DirectX Video Acceleration" option. It's helped but it's still choppy. Any ideas?

Figured it out...

In addition to the steps above, I moved the IE Temporary Internet Folder to a larger partition. May have something to do with the block size for that partition.

Thanks for your help!

[JDizzy]

A question:

Is the Netflix site streaming in 5.1 sound or just stereo?

It is probably just my system (and I have noticed it with other 5.1 recording when listening in stereo), but, the sound effects are much louder than the dialog making it a wrestling match with volume settings.

In other words, when the actors are talking I have to increase volume, then all of a sudden something happens in background, or music starts playing and I have to turn volume down to keep at same level.

??

[Mitch G]

The audio is stereo. But, your system is probably applying pro logic or one of the other variants and sending too much to the rears.
Try choosing other sound modes (e.g. Pro Logic, Pro Logic II, Neo or whatever, etc.). Or, just choose stereo.


Mitch