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

[Surtr]

Originally Posted by Surtr

Instructions are on the first post of this thread... Are you having a specific problem?

Unrelated question to more experienced users of this: I just installed this on my MVP. Works great, but 2 questions: First, when I launch watch-now I have to exit out to the main menu then tune channel 1 to view the video. Is there any way to get the plugin to do this automatically? Second, whenever I use watch it now, I have to log on to the server with VNC and manually hit the "Full Screen" button; is there a way to have the plugin do this automatically?

Thanks!

-Justin

FYI in case anyone else has this problem. The reason my setup wasn't going directly to full screen and I had to manually tune the channel was I had accidentally set the player to IE instead of "Custom Player". Changed it and it works beautifully. Where do I donate?!

[vanchie21]

thanks Gerry I will try that. and this is probably on the first page but what files do I need to copy and where do they copy to?

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by vanchie21

thanks Gerry I will try that. and this is probably on the first page but what files do I need to copy and where do they copy to?

Unzip them to C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV. and keep the directory structure. That is true for almost all the plugins.

Gerry

[brainbone]

Trying the netflix plugin.

Clicking "Watch Now" with the viewer set to Custom asks for the bitrate, then nothing. I'm simply returned to the title information page. Using IE as the viewer works, but it sounds like the custom viewer has better integration.

What do I need to do to get the customer viewer working?

[HawgGuy]

Originally Posted by brainbone

Trying the netflix plugin.

Clicking "Watch Now" with the viewer set to Custom asks for the bitrate, then nothing. I'm simply returned to the title information page. Using IE as the viewer works, but it sounds like the custom viewer has better integration.

What do I need to do to get the customer viewer working?

Before you click Watch It Now, enter ctl-O for options and check what video player is configured. Mine was blank. After selecting IE, worked fine.

[brainbone]

So, is the custom netflix player not working for anyone? Is IE the only workable option?

Also, I get "cannot add to download queue" if I select "Download for later". Does this feature work for anyone?

[brainbone]

More information:

In my sage.netflix.log I get:
!!!!!!!!! dlPath = T:\Netflix
*** downloadShow T:\Netflix\0812091308-60029846.wmv - null
*** downloadShow null url, aborting...

When trying to download any title for later.

Also, it appears that I can't view or manage my queue.

I've checked my username, password, etc. and everything looks correct. Not sure what I've done wrong -- any help would be appreciated.

[gplasky]

Did you try using a UNC path instead of the drive mapping letter?

Gerry

[brainbone]

Yes, as well as trying a path on the local disk (c:\media\netflix)

Am I correct in assuming the "null url" is referring to a url that should be pointing to netflix servers? What would be causing it to be null?

Edit:
Never mind. Looks like my netflix account was switched to silverlight without my knowledge - vmcnetflix is no longer working as well... Guess I need to hold out hope for silverlight support in this plugin now.

[naburleson]

I am having the same problem once I choose "Watch it Now" and select the bit stream I get nothing, and it says it cannot download it for later, it wasn't until I upgraded to the newest version that it has stopped working. I can go and use the custom player to watch movies I have already downloaded to watch later that's why I don't see why the player is not working with the other movies.

[Morgan111]

Originally Posted by naburleson

I am having the same problem once I choose "Watch it Now" and select the bit stream I get nothing, and it says it cannot download it for later, it wasn't until I upgraded to the newest version that it has stopped working. I can go and use the custom player to watch movies I have already downloaded to watch later that's why I don't see why the player is not working with the other movies.

If you switch to using the IE player does it appear to use the same NetFlix player as usual from the website? (I assume there is a different look to the SilverLight version they have.)

[naburleson]

well after digging around some more it looks like I have been opted in to using Silverlight, I had it installed on the computer and I guess it saw that it was installed and thats what it uses now, on the plus side the loading and interface is much faster than the old, I just hope we an get the plug-in working for it soon. Thanks for the help guys. I am going to try to uninstall the silverlight and see if I can get it to work since I didn't Opt-in.

[LucidGoldfish]

when I click on download to watch it later, it says something about that not being available. Also the video quality is terrible compared to what I get on the xbox360. The only way that video will play is through IE. Does this mean that I have the silver light player installed? My remote doesn't work on streaming movies either, but my remote does work with WMP. I saw the message at the beginning that said remotes wont necessarily work with the streaming video, unfortunately because I don't seem to have the ability to download any movies to watch later I can't test it to see if that is the problem for me.

As far as the download it for later goes, is this a option that is supposed to be available at the netflix website directly. If so, I am unable to locate this option when at the netflix site.

When I go to play a movie, it is not within sagetv, I get a popup window with the movie playing.

What I don't understand, is if my problems are caused by using the silverlight player, why on earth would the video quality be bad? None of the hidef stuff seems to come in as hidef. My PC is more than capable. Running XP pro, with 9600GT video card, AMD dual core 5500e. If netflix is requiring silverlight, then why would it limit the the video quality?

I hope someone could help to answer these questions, even if there isn't a solution.
-Thank you

Great work Morgan.... thanks to you and netflix, I might be dropping cable soon, now if we could just get hulu.com to work directly in sage, life would be glorious... HA!

[simonen]

What is the latest Sage version this works with? I have tried 6.4.8 - 6.5.3 (Java 1.6.4) and I get a black screen when I switch to the Netflix STVi.

[Morgan111]

Originally Posted by LucidGoldfish

when I click on download to watch it later, it says something about that not being available. Also the video quality is terrible compared to what I get on the xbox360. The only way that video will play is through IE. Does this mean that I have the silver light player installed? My remote doesn't work on streaming movies either, but my remote does work with WMP. I saw the message at the beginning that said remotes wont necessarily work with the streaming video, unfortunately because I don't seem to have the ability to download any movies to watch later I can't test it to see if that is the problem for me.
...

I'm not at the point to switch over my NetFlix to SilverLight so I am not sure how obvious it is to know that your account is configured for SilverLight, maybe someone else could chime in on that.


I doubt the download for later would download if it was setup for SilverLight. But make that download path is a setup for a directory with write access.

The only reason I know of that netflix changes video quality is bandwidth.

[Morgan111]

Originally Posted by simonen

What is the latest Sage version this works with? I have tried 6.4.8 - 6.5.3 (Java 1.6.4) and I get a black screen when I switch to the Netflix STVi.

It should work with and of those Sage versions and of course that needs to be imported to one of the last couple of SageMC STV's.

Are you unzipping the whole Netflix zip file in its original structure to
\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV
and with Sage shutdown?

[simonen]

Yeah, my mistake. I am new to the SageMC and these plugins. I got it installed ok now.

I can see my queue and everything, including my instant queue, but nothing happens when I try to watch it. Is this normal now that they are using Silverlight?

[Jakebucky]

I have my default view set to the custom viewer, but it does not launch...is there something else I need to configure somewhere? I can use the IE {silverlight} but I prefer to use the remote if possible.

[wado1971]

I'm also having some problems using the custom viewer with 'WatchNow' (IE works fine). I noticed under /sagetv/sagetv/NetFlix exists a src.zip file which when extracted manually lists a /org/gnu/dwarf/sage/netflix structure where I find a NetFlixViewer.java file (among others). Was this file (src.zip) supposed to be extracted automatically? Is this causing my problems?

[mbowling]

I just installed this plug-in to try the Watch it Now feature. I've read all the warnings posted here not to install the Silverlight player. When I tried to use the Custom player nothing would play. When I set the plug-in to Internet Explorer Netflix prompts me to install Silverlight. Is there a Netflix player I can use that is not the Silverlight version? Or, is the best current option to use the Silverlight player in Internet Explorer and lose some control from the plug-in?