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

[setherd]

OK I get nothing...I mean nothing. I unpack the files, I import the STVi and goto 3) Settings-> SageMC-> Extras-> NetFlix (Enter account information)

I have no option under Extras.

I tried it in client mode, in standalone mode, I tried it with 3 different versions of Sage MC. I tried it with no other imports loaded.

nothing I do will let me get past step 3 inthe instructions. (3) Settings-> SageMC-> Extras-> NetFlix (Enter account information))

I'm running 32bit vista BTW. UAC turned off.

any help is appreciated!

[gplasky]

Go to the Netflix Main screen and hit Alt-O or the "Options" button on your remote. With this latest version it no longer shows up in the SageMC-Extras menu.

Gerry

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Go to the Netflix Main screen and hit Alt-O or the "Options" button on your remote.

Of course, to get the Netflix Main screen you first need to add the Netflix Menu item to your SageMC menu. Detailed instructions, or a link to detailed instructions, on how to do this in the first post of this thread would probably be useful. As it is, a quick search to find such instruction myself returned a lot of paraphrasing that would likely frustrate many trying for the first time.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by brainbone

Of course, to get the Netflix Main screen you first need to add the Netflix Menu item to your SageMC menu. Detailed instructions, or a link to detailed instructions, on how to do this in the first post of this thread would probably be useful. As it is, a quick search to find such instruction myself returned a lot of paraphrasing that would likely frustrate many trying for the first time.

If you use Dynamic Menus (default STV) or SageMC (Dynamic Menus is built-in) this is a basic must know when working with plug-ins (STVIs)

Default or MC
At a Main menu that you wish to add menu access to a plug-in do a CTRL-O or a right-mouse click.
Default: Choose New-New Internal Screen
MC: Choose Main Menu Options-New-New Internal Screen.

Default or MC
Scroll down (or press the letter of the intenal screen name) until you reach the new screen name you are adding. In this case-Netflix Main Menu. (Follow the plugin instructions. It is usually the plugin name or a derivative thereof.)
Click on the name of the New Internal Screen.
Name it. (Type in any name you want) and click OK. In this case-Netflix.
Go to File-Save Menu File. (This is very IMPORTANT! If you don't save it you will NOT have that menu item the next time you start Sage.)

After you save it you should now see the new menu choice show up on the menu of the screen you started on. In this case-Netflix-is at the bottom of the menu. If there are too many menu items you may need to scroll down to see it.

If you don't like the location of where the menu item is:
Default or MC:
Highlight the menu item and do a CTRL-O. (Or right-click the menu item you wish to change.)
Default: Edit Menu Item-Move Item Up/Down
MC: Main Menu Options-Edit Menu Item-Move Item Up/Down

Choose Move Item Up/Down. Then click on the Move Up (or Move Down) button in the new dialog box. When it is where you want the menu item choose Close.

Go back and save the changes.
Default or MC
At a Main menu that you wish to add menu access to a plug-in do a CTRL-O or a right-mouse click.
Default: Choose File-Save Menu File
MC: Choose Main Menu Options-File-Save Menu File.

You can generally apply this process for adding any new plugin that requires a menu to access a new screen.

Gerry

[tnycman]

Originally Posted by Morgan111

Are you installing this on a server, client or Extender?

First you need to download the SageMC 6.3.8a STV and unpack it to the
Program Files/SageTv/SageTv directory while SageTV is shut down on that PC. The instructions for downloading it and installing it are HERE.

If that is all set then download and unpack the NetFlix plugin files the same way as the SageMC STV files. Follow the installation and configuration instructions in this threads 1st post. The NetFlix_SageMC.xml file should then be found in x:/Program Files/SageTv/SageTv/STV/Sage3.

We can go from there based on your status.

I'm "trying" to install it on a server... Didn't know it could be installed on Extender(that will be cool though) as I have two extenders.

Great, I installed the SAGEMC 6.3.8a, that part went smoothly.

Extracted the Netflix into my Crogram files/sagetv/sagetv. So far so good.

I was able to load the Netflix_sagemc.xml form the STVi.

If I go to the last step setting>SageMC> try to get to Extras nothing displays/happens...

Any idea.


Thanks a lots.

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by tnycman

If I go to the last step setting>SageMC> try to get to Extras nothing displays/happens...

For some reason, Netflix no longer shows up in SageMC/Extras. As a work-around you'll need to first make a menu item for Netflix (See gplasky's post for details). After that, you can change the Netflix settings by right-clicking the main Netflix menu.

[tnycman]

Originally Posted by brainbone

For some reason, Netflix no longer shows up in SageMC/Extras. As a work-around you'll need to first make a menu item for Netflix (See gplasky's post for details). After that, you can change the Netflix settings by right-clicking the main Netflix menu.

Great, thanks a lot... Got it now..

I love sagetv.. :-)..

[setherd]

thanks!

I had added the meun but I had used the wrong type. doh!

now to figure out why trailers play but movies don't......

[setherd]

got it working!

you can only get to the options scrren when you are viewing a movies details!

get my player setup and speeds.
silverlight seems to work perfectly but using IE it wouldn't go fullscreen.

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by setherd

silverlight seems to work perfectly but using IE it wouldn't go fullscreen.

The "Silverlight" setting uses IE, but also runs netflix_silverlight_control, and NetflixViewer to control the silverlight player in IE.

[tnycman]

I can only play trailers on my extender not the entire movies for some reason.. Anyone else has the same issue ?


Tim

[robogeek]

Originally Posted by tnycman

I can only play trailers on my extender not the entire movies for some reason.. Anyone else has the same issue ?

Are you using the server loopback hack? The extender itself will not play NetFlix movies since they are protected/DRM. Only the server PC or client PC can play the movies. To get them to play on the extender, you will need to pipe the video and audio output of the server to an input on your TV capture card in order to get NetFlix movies on the extender. Basically, you are playing the the movie on the server and capturing the server video and audio with the TV capture card so you can play it back on the extender. Check the first post of this thread for the loopback hack instructions under the Steps to allow viewing of Watch Now videos on an Extender section.

[Morgan111]

Made a few minor updates like the SageMC Extras menu. The Netflix.jar and xml import file are different. You will have to import this updated xml import file (after going back to an STV version before NetFlix was loaded).

2/28/09 Update 2.1

• Add SilverLight player support (includes Brainbones NetFlix Silverlight control v2 test 6).
• Fix missing year info due to website changes.
• Fix actor movies search from actor list on details page due to website chanes.
• Add button to add video to Instant Queue from movie details page.
• Add 3 new channels for Watch Instantly to channel list.
• Add Watch Now icons to search results.
• Remove Download for Later command button when the selected player option is SilverLight player.
• Fix missing NetFlix configuration from SageMC Extras Setup menu. (2.1a)
• Add option to delete a movie from Instant Q on movie details screen. (2.1a)
• Add button to display Instant Q from standard DVD queue screen. (2.1a)

[Morgan111]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Morgan, if its not too much trouble, is there any chance you could squeeze in a feature request that I'm sure everyone would love in the next immediate minor update?

- Sort movies by release year
- Sort by rating

You could have this sorting feature on the left hand side of all menus.

What do you think?

Sorting is provided when browsing DVD and Watch now genres by those properties. The website provides that sort feature, so the page groups are downloaded in that order. The channel listing and new addition listings are not provided with year data (or rating for channel listings). I would have to downloads the lists and then grab the detail data for each video and then sort it myself before displaying it. That would be really sluggish waiting for all of those requests.

If they make changes to the listing options I can look at adding it then.

[mkanet]

Thanks for the update and the explanation... Does this update also take care of the netflix_silverlight_control.exe issue not exiting after playback? Or does this require an update from Brain?

Thanks again for all your effort Morgan!

-Michael

Originally Posted by Morgan111

Sorting is provided when browsing DVD and Watch now genres by those properties. The website provides that sort feature, so the page groups are downloaded in that order. The channel listing and new addition listings are not provided with year data (or rating for channel listings). I would have to downloads the lists and then grab the detail data for each video and then sort it myself before displaying it. That would be really sluggish waiting for all of those requests.

If they make changes to the listing options I can look at adding it then.

[sorrowstyr]

Thanks to the documentation between this thread and a couple others, I am so close I can feel it...

I just updated to the latest version with the silverlight_control, and I have got the loopback working, and it kinda playing.

Here are my issues:
After selecting a movie in netflix with the "custom player", sagetv will change channels to Channel 1, and I can see a process in the task bar, but no video starts. (I think this is Netflixviewer.exe)

If go with "iexplore" as the player sage wont tune automatically, but when manually tunes I do see video, but it has all the IE buttons and scroll bars.

I would prefer the WMplayer, but has any one else seen this issue?


-Gary

Setup:
SageTV in Service Mode w/ interact desktop
Placeshifter Client on LAN (just until testing is done)
S-Video Loopback tuned to channel 1

[Morgan111]

Originally Posted by sorrowstyr

Thanks to the documentation between this thread and a couple others, I am so close I can feel it...

I just updated to the latest version with the silverlight_control, and I have got the loopback working, and it kinda playing.

Here are my issues:
After selecting a movie in netflix with the "custom player", sagetv will change channels to Channel 1, and I can see a process in the task bar, but no video starts. (I think this is Netflixviewer.exe)

If go with "iexplore" as the player sage wont tune automatically, but when manually tunes I do see video, but it has all the IE buttons and scroll bars.

I would prefer the WMplayer, but has any one else seen this issue?


-Gary

Setup:
SageTV in Service Mode w/ interact desktop
Placeshifter Client on LAN (just until testing is done)
S-Video Loopback tuned to channel 1

If you are a SilverLight users, your Viewer Selection on the Video detail screen should be set to "SilverLight". There are 3 options: Custom Viewer, Internet Explorer, and SilverLight. The first two are only for users that still have the WMP capability. The silverlight_control utility is only setup to be used when "SilverLight" is selected from the Viewer Selection.

Have you used the "SilverLight" selection?

[Morgan111]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Thanks for the update and the explanation... Does this update also take care of the netflix_silverlight_control.exe issue not exiting after playback? Or does this require an update from Brain?

Thanks again for all your effort Morgan!

-Michael

Michael, I appreciate the suggestions and recommendations, of which you have had many good ones. I need to check through all of the suggestions everyone has made and get more of these in as I get more time. The ratings filter is one that I personally want to have implemented soon.

The silverlight control still needs to be updated by the Brain. I think he is away this week.

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Does this update also take care of the netflix_silverlight_control.exe issue not exiting after playback? Or does this require an update from Brain?

That's all me.

I'll have time to get to that this weekend. Sorry for the delay.

[tnycman]

Thanks Robogeek.. I didn't know about loopback, anyway i been trying to get that working, let see what happens..