Plugin: PlayOn in Online Services (Hulu, Netflix, Amazon VOD, etc.)

[dinki]

Me again. It's been a while since I've posted but I've had varying success with the modified version. It seems that the plugin will work fine for a while and then suddenly stop working.

Last night I was able to watch several programs on Netflix without any problem; this morning, no videos found. Nothing, that I'm aware of, changed over night.

I can usually get it to work again if I rerun the UPNP2Podcast.exe and have it find the server and regenerate the cache file. The strange thing is that the previous cache file and the new cache file are identical. I am able to always detect my PlayOn server using UPNPInspector and Intel Device Spy for UPNP Technologies.

I'm posting my log file in the hopes that it might show something. Thanks.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by Doubledose

Just tried to watch a netflix movie tonight and the show got about 58 minutes thru and the audio and video quit, but my ethernet switch looked like it was still passing data and the green light on the hd2oo was still flashing and I could not get the picture and audio to come back on. I then restarted the clip from the begining and fast forwarded to close to that area and started watching it normally and again at just past the point it done it the first time it done it again. I have watched a few movies all the way thru and I have had several do this same thing. I thought I would post here first and if any one had any ideas and if not I may post over on the playon forums.
Thanks for any ideas or help
Wayne

Check your %TEMP% directory, I bet you're running out of space. Go ahead and delete any giant .flv files you see hanging around in there.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by dinki

Me again. It's been a while since I've posted but I've had varying success with the modified version. It seems that the plugin will work fine for a while and then suddenly stop working.

Last night I was able to watch several programs on Netflix without any problem; this morning, no videos found. Nothing, that I'm aware of, changed over night.

I can usually get it to work again if I rerun the UPNP2Podcast.exe and have it find the server and regenerate the cache file. The strange thing is that the previous cache file and the new cache file are identical. I am able to always detect my PlayOn server using UPNPInspector and Intel Device Spy for UPNP Technologies.

I'm posting my log file in the hopes that it might show something. Thanks.

Sorry, forgot I gave that to you, the folder cache going stale is a big problem so I had to take it out. I can send you an new version w/o it.

[dinki]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Sorry, forgot I gave that to you, the folder cache going stale is a big problem so I had to take it out. I can send you an new version w/o it.

That'd be great. Looking forward to testing it.

[Doubledose]

When viewing a netflix movie how are you suppose to fast forward thru the movie. When I use any of my fast forward buttons or speeds the status bar is showing it moving ahead but when I stop the FF it comes back to the point I started to FF. Is this normal?
Thanks
Wayne

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by Doubledose

When viewing a netflix movie how are you suppose to fast forward thru the movie. When I use any of my fast forward buttons or speeds the status bar is showing it moving ahead but when I stop the FF it comes back to the point I started to FF. Is this normal?

It's like live TV. Netflix is streaming it to you in real time, and you can't fast-forward into the parts that haven't been streamed yet. The best you can do is pause for a while to let it buffer, then fast-forward until you're caught up with real time again.

[evilpenguin]

There's a bug where the progress bar fills up too way fast making people think they should have more buffer than they do. I've submitted it to Sage and they think it'll be a pretty easy fix for the next beta.

[sic0048]

FYI - for those that haven't heard, Playon is going to move to version3 which will be a subscription based service (ie annual fee). Those that have previously bought playon with the lifetime license will still be able to get the basic content without "upgrading" to Version 3.

Here is the annoucement from Playon.

PlayOn Premium is coming! We will release PlayOn Premium on July 15th, 2010. It will include: Comedy Central (including South Park), NHL, TV.com, MTV.com, VH1.com, and more. It will be sold as an annual subscription -- $39.99 for the first year and $19.99/year thereafter. Your subscription will entitle you to all new content services over the course of the year (and we plan to release a lot), as well as functionality improvements (including a greatly enhanced and integrated Plugin experience, Gold version of the Wii, and much more). We will also be releasing iPhone support for PlayOn Premium which may carry a small additional fee.

Starting on May 20, 2010, we will no longer sell PlayOn as a lifetime license for a single fee. We will start selling PlayOn as a subscription ($39.99 for the first year and $19.99/year thereafter) on May 20, 2010. Customers who purchase PlayOn on or after May 20,2010 will automatically receive PlayOn Premium upon its launch on July 15th, 2010.

We will continue to honor the lifetime licenses for those that purchased PlayOn prior to May 20, 2010 (which we are now calling PlayOn Basic). Your PlayOn Basic will continue to work with the existing non-beta content (Hulu, Netflix, CBS.com, ESPN.com, CNN.com, YouTube, MyMedia and Plugins) as well as Amazon VOD, MLB.tv, and Pandora. After July 15th, 2010, The Daily Show and the Colbert Report will no longer be supported in PlayOn Basic as these are being launched out of beta as part of the full Comedy Central integration in PlayOn Premium. PlayOn Base will continue to receive new features and development support, but no new content will be added into the core (though you can always add more plugins).

To thank our loyal customers, if you purchased PlayOn prior to May 20, 2010, we will be offering a founding member discount for PlayOn Premium. You may upgrade to PlayOn Premium for only $4.99 for the first year ($19.99/year thereafter). Once you purchase the upgrade, you will receive a new license key which will unlock the new PlayOn Premium content. You may also cancel your subscription at any time, and go back to PlayOn Basic (be sure to save your original license key). We are sure you will enjoy the new content and features so much, you will never want to go back.

Between now and July 15th, 2010, you will see a number of content services in PlayOn listed as “Premium Preview” – this is to give you a sneak preview of some of the content that you will have access to as a Premium subscriber. Please note that this content will no longer be accessible after July 15th 2010. We hope you enjoy these previews and encourage you to upgrade on July 15th.

Why are we doing this? The annual subscription fee will fund continued development and support. We want to ensure that we can always give the latest and greatest content and service to our entire user base. The on-going subscription fee will allow that. Give it a shot – we think you’ll like what you see.

If you have any additional questions, please contact us at support@playon.tv

The good news is that it sounds like this plugin will still work in the future.

[evilpenguin]

I think that's actually pretty good news, the lifetime subsciption wasn't a sustainable buisness model and changing it up ensures PlayOn can be around and improving and maintaining their content library for a long time.

[sic0048]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

I think that's actually pretty good news, the lifetime subsciption wasn't a sustainable buisness model and changing it up ensures PlayOn can be around and improving and maintaining their content library for a long time.

I agree. I've also read some more and it seems that there is a money back "upgrade" guarantee for those grandfathered Version 2 licensees that whant to try Version 3. In other words, since I already puchased version 2 with a life time licenses, they cannot take that away from me. Even if I decided to "upgrade" to Version 3 and pay the fee, if I don't like it, Playon will allow me to downgrade back to Version 2. In other words, my Lifetime license will still be honored even if I want to try out Version 3.

I really cannot ask for anything more from Playon. They really seem to be going out of their way to satisfy their existing customer base.

Relatedly, if anyone is considering getting Playon, I would HIGHLY recommend that you get it now under the Lifetime Version 2 license. If you want to try out the Premium content of Version 3, you can do so risk free. If you don't like it, you can go back to getting just the basic Version 2 content for free.

If you wait and buy the Premium Version 3 license and don't like it, you won't get any content in the future because they won't allow new subscribers to get the Lifetime Version 2 license after May 20, 2010.

There is a special going on right now to get the Lifetime Version 2 license for $19.99. Sounds like a no brainer for anyone that has even considered using Playon in the past.

Here is a quote from one of the PlayOn Admins in a thread on the Playone site concerning all this.

An important clarification:

There is no such thing as a "lifetime subscription". It's really a one-time payment for a lifetime license of "PlayOn Basic", which will be forever limited to the content channels available at this time in PlayOn. (PlayOn Basic is essentially exactly what everyone already has now -- a regular installation of PlayOn.) "PlayOn Premium" will be a subscription-only product, and will constantly be updated with new content channels and special features, which will be unavailable in PlayOn Basic moving forward.

PlayOn Premium is not available yet.

Starting May 20, two things happen simultaneously:

1) We stop selling PlayOn Basic entirely, and only start selling PlayOn Premium. It's switched over completely. Users who will have purchased a PlayOn Basic license before May 20 will have a lifetime license, with no subscription fees. Users who purchase PlayOn after May 20 must purchase PlayOn Premium, which is only available as a yearly subscription ($39.99 for the first year, $19.99 per year thereafter).

2) Existing owners of PlayOn Basic will have the option to upgrade to PlayOn Premium for only $4.99 for an entire year, and $19.99 per year thereafter. This upgrade is risk free; if they elect to cancel their subscription, they can revert to their PlayOn Basic license at any time. This offer will exist for PlayOn Basic owners until mid-July, at which point the same upgrade will cost $19.99 instead of $4.99.

So, existing PlayOn owners will have around 2 months (late May to mid-July) to decide whether it's worth spending $4.99 for a year of new content, channels, and additional features. We will be previewing much of that special content for existing PlayOn Basic users during those 2 months, as well as after, so folks can make a decision as time goes on.

Buying a PlayOn Basic license before May 20 is probably a good idea, since that license will work forever, even if limited to our current channel selection (Hulu, CBS, Netflix, YouTube, and so on). Folks who buy after May 20 will never be able to revert to PlayOn Basic. If they cancel their subscription, they will also lose access to Hulu and the rest. We decided to allow PlayOn Basic owners to always be able to revert back, in case they upgrade to PlayOn Premium and then later cancel, as a way to thank the many customers who've been such early adopters of our product.

__________________

PlayOn Administrator

[dblaine2]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Is PlayON installed on the same PC as Sage Server?
Do you have Firewall/VPN/Anti-Virus running?
Can you watch PlayON on another client (Xbox, HD200, etc)?
What version of windows are you running?

Playon is installed on same PC as Sage. (I'm going to try install Playon on a different server to see if it acts the same).
No antivirus and Windows firewall is disabled
Windows XP SP3.

Dave

[mbowling]

Originally Posted by sic0048

PlayOn Premium is coming! We will release PlayOn Premium on July 15th, 2010. It will include: Comedy Central (including South Park), NHL, TV.com, MTV.com, VH1.com, and more.

I hope there are more content announcements for PlayOn Premium. I'm not seeing anything that might persuade me to pay the subscription fee.

[ipgguy]

Guys,

Thanks again for this fantastic post. Am currently running WHS, latest version of Sage and PlayOn and have two HD200 extenders. I've followed all the instructions above and can see my Netflix queue on my HD200 extender (firmware 2009120901) fine.

When I go to watch a movie from my instant queue, the movie buffers and eventually shows the first frame but then the screen goes black. I then press play anyways and the movie will play for the first 20 seconds and then stop. I tried waiting 5-10 mins and then playing again in case it was a buffering issue but screen remains black.

Hulu seems to work fine, so this is specific to Netflix.

Any ideas?

many thanks.

[Doubledose]

If I remember correctly I had the same problem and it ended up being a problem with playon. If look back a page or two in this thread there was some discusion about this also. Do an update with playon and try it again.
Wayne

[dblaine2]

Originally Posted by dblaine2

Playon is installed on same PC as Sage. (I'm going to try install Playon on a different server to see if it acts the same).
No antivirus and Windows firewall is disabled
Windows XP SP3.

Dave

OK, setup playon on another server (on the same subnet) and all is working as expected. So I am confused what could be causing the issue on the problem machine. I did uninstall Playon, being sure to delete c:\program files\media mall just to be safe, and reinstalling but the problems still persist.

Dave

[bigbill]

Make sure you are excluding the playon stuff from your Antivirus, mine acted the same way when Mcafee had its onaccess scanning its folders. I had to exclude the mediamallserver.exe and the temp folder where the transcoding is occurring, for me that was c:\windows\temp. yours may be a different folder. -Bill

[BKeadle]

FYI:
I was unable to play NetFlix movies. Turns out, I had to uninstall Silverlight 4, and re-install with Silverlight 3. Netflix tech support said that they'll eventually require Silverlight 4, and when they do, it'll be noted when you attempt to do a Watch Now video. So, there goes another few hours chasing my tail...but at least it's working now.

[BKeadle]

Hey EP - quick technical question: I see SageTV launching "ipconfig /all" about every minute (or less) when watching an online video. What's going on there?

[scott2020]

Hi
I searched the thread but didn't find anything recent about Netflix movie trailers. They used to show up until I updated yesterday. In the log it looks like it is trying to find "movies trailers" and maybe it should be "movie trailers"?

Scott

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by scott2020

Hi
I searched the thread but didn't find anything recent about Netflix movie trailers. They used to show up until I updated yesterday. In the log it looks like it is trying to find "movies trailers" and maybe it should be "movie trailers"?

Scott

Nice catch Feeds have been fixed, you should get them next time you load up a PlayOn video.