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

[brainbone]

Would you mind giving me a hand?

Is the silverlight control designed to be used with a client machine?

The silverlight control was designed to be used on a client (that's all I used it with), however since the netflix plugin had stopped working back when I was swamped with work (and I still am swamped, just a little less), I have not been able to test silverlight control recently.

I'm working on getting morgan's plugin running on my client again... assuming I can accomplish that (sounds like it should be possible since you say it launches the silverlight player) I'll see what's up with netflix control.

[Peter_h]

I have an idea of where to start. I sent you a PM.

[brainbone]

Morgan's 2.1b seems to have watch now working again... I haven't tested anything else yet.

Netflix Silverlight Control packaged with 2.1b also seems to still be working for the most part, but I've updated it to now exit when not in use since this caused troubles for some users. (sorry for the extremely long delay on this, mkanet).

If you would like to try it, unzip the attached (netflix_silverlight_control_v2_test7.zip) to your SageTV folder, replacing what you currently have.

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by Peter_h

I have an idea of where to start. I sent you a PM.

Thanks Peter. I was able to get things up and running just using the default distribution from Morgan. Just hadn't had time to test the update until now, and was a little put off from trying in the past based off some of the noise I was reading in this thread.


Lets see what we can do about your issues;
Since you say the silverlight player is going full screen, it sounds like netflix silverlight control is working, at least partially.

Give v2 test7 from my previous post a try. If it doesn't work, please open the "settings.ini" file and set debug to "true". Try it again, and then post the "debuglog.txt" file created.

[brainbone]

Netflix Silverlight Control v2 test8.

Changes:
Button locations were not always detected with Silverlight v3. Made image search less sensitive to compensate (thanks to xelfer for the idea).

Note, this is an update to Netflix Silverlight Control distributed with the Netflix Import, and will not stand on its own.

[robbc]

Originally Posted by brainbone

Netflix Silverlight Control v2 test8.

Changes:
Button locations were not always detected with Silverlight v3. Made image search less sensitive to compensate (thanks to xelfer for the idea).

Note, this is an update to Netflix Silverlight Control distributed with the Netflix Import, and will not stand on its own.

Thank you, that seems to have given me back my controls! Windows XP SP3 32 Bit, IE8, Silverlight.

Now to go research why the Instant Queue is not deleting or adding items properly...

[mkanet]

Hi Brainbone, would be possible to change the settings.ini file name to something a bit more descriptive; considering it's going in sageTV's main program directory? ie, netflix_silverlight_control.ini

[Peter_h]

Originally Posted by brainbone

Thanks Peter. I was able to get things up and running just using the default distribution from Morgan. Just hadn't had time to test the update until now, and was a little put off from trying in the past based off some of the noise I was reading in this thread.


Lets see what we can do about your issues;
Since you say the silverlight player is going full screen, it sounds like netflix silverlight control is working, at least partially.

Give v2 test7 from my previous post a try. If it doesn't work, please open the "settings.ini" file and set debug to "true". Try it again, and then post the "debuglog.txt" file created.

The V2 test8 fixed the controls for me. Thanks.

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Hi Brainbone, would be possible to change the settings.ini file name to something a bit more descriptive; considering it's going in sageTV's main program directory? ie, netflix_silverlight_control.ini

Yeah. Netflix Silverlight Control was intended to be run from its own folder, but even in that case the "settings.ini" name is too ambiguous. I'll rename it in the next version.

There's a couple of focusing bugs (sage doesn't always regain focus when closing the silverlight player) that I'm trying to sort out. I'll push out a new version after I do.

Please give v2 test8 a good workout and let me know of any other problems you may be having.

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by robbc

Now to go research why the Instant Queue is not deleting or adding items properly...

I've have yet to do any STV development, but if someone points me in the right direction, like setting up a build environment for this import, I'd be happy to look into it.

[Peter_h]

Originally Posted by brainbone

I've have yet to do any STV development, but if someone points me in the right direction, like setting up a build environment for this import, I'd be happy to look into it.

If you are willing to take a look, that would be great!

Do you have a client machine you can play with? Studio can be launched by hitting ctrl+shift+F12. It comes packaged with all server and client licenses. Just launch it and you can see all the code and everything that is going on.

I'm just starting with studio so that is about the extent of my knowledge.

Check out this post by Andy to get you up and running.

Getting Started with Studio

[brainbone]

I didn't think that studio allowed you to modify jar files, like netflix.jar.

Edit: found this. I'll see were it takes me.

[robbc]

more details on v2test8; volume control no longer works (from remote) and had one case where the silverlight player stopped, and was left on the blue netflix player active screen.

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by robbc

more details on v2test8; volume control no longer works (from remote) and had one case where the silverlight player stopped, and was left on the blue netflix player active screen.

Not sure on the stopping issue. Does it look like internet explorer is still open (running in task manager)?

For the volume, try moving the slider manually with the mouse, and then let me know if remote volume works. Also, when the remote volume is not working, does the mouse cursor at least hover over the mute button in the silverlight player?

[robbc]

RE: Stopping

IE8 is shown in the task list as is another unknown task (Silverlight controller?). Nothing responds and I have to kill SageTV. I recall it self-recovered when I just left it on the "Netflix player active" screen overnight.

I watched the same stream via FireFox no problems, multiple times so far.

RE: Volume control

I will test that in a bit, not at home right now.

[brainbone]

The "stopping" issues sounds like it may be related to the focus issue I'm struggling with. It seems that from time to time the silverlight player looses focus and falls behind one of the other items. In my case, it seems to be the taskbar, in your case it sounds like the black mask window I use to cover the background when stretching/cropping the IE window.

[mkanet]

Thanks so much! Working good so far. Honestly, I never had a problem with it other than it not autoclosing in the past.

Originally Posted by brainbone

Yeah. Netflix Silverlight Control was intended to be run from its own folder, but even in that case the "settings.ini" name is too ambiguous. I'll rename it in the next version.

There's a couple of focusing bugs (sage doesn't always regain focus when closing the silverlight player) that I'm trying to sort out. I'll push out a new version after I do.

Please give v2 test8 a good workout and let me know of any other problems you may be having.

[brainbone]

Happy to help. Glad that its working for some of you.

Just an update:

I've taken a break from tracking down the focus issue, and have started poking around the way Vista Media Center works with Netflix to see if there is any way to have more seamless integration into Sage. I've learned quite a bit about the player, like a custom skin is added to the player giving it a full screen look right off the bat, and document.getElementById("SLPlayer")["HostedPlayerControlScriptInterface_1"] in javascript will return a player object that I may be able to control without the need for emulating a mouse -- or not. The code to interact with the player is hosted on netflix servers, and secured by a developer key only usable from VMC. I can capture and examine the code, but I need to figure out a graceful way to inject it after the fact.

Perhaps registering as a netflix developer will open more doors...

[Peter_h]

Sounds exciting. Keep us posted.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by brainbone

Happy to help. Glad that its working for some of you.

Just an update:

I've taken a break from tracking down the focus issue, and have started poking around the way Vista Media Center works with Netflix to see if there is any way to have more seamless integration into Sage. I've learned quite a bit about the player, like a custom skin is added to the player giving it a full screen look right off the bat, and document.getElementById("SLPlayer")["HostedPlayerControlScriptInterface_1"] in javascript will return a player object that I may be able to control without the need for emulating a mouse -- or not. The code to interact with the player is hosted on netflix servers, and secured by a developer key only usable from VMC. I can capture and examine the code, but I need to figure out a graceful way to inject it after the fact.

Perhaps registering as a netflix developer will open more doors...

Registering as a developer WILL get you your own developer key for your application. It sounds like you're on the right track for a nice player integration.

Gerry