Plugin :: PlayOn Hulu/Netflix Queue Importer

[Diego Garcia]

Quick question: when I look under Videos in the Sage client, I now have over 2,600 titles that are not the result of my putting videos into Sage's import directories. Looking at the path info for a typical entry they all appear to be coming from PlayOn via the UPnPBrowser.

As far as I know, these items are not in my PlayOn queue.

While I don't object to "free" content, having so many items makes it hard to find the handful of videos I did deliberately import into Sage. Is there a configuration option I can use to get rid of, or at least hide, these extra items?

[Diego Garcia]

Okay, I think I answered my own question. Those thousands of video clips come from the queue importer. To get rid of them I deleted the queue importer plugin, and removed the UPnPBrowser/PlayOn... folder from Sage's list of import folders.

But I'm still curious as to what those videos were. What does this plugin do for people who have PlayOn accounts?

[Diego Garcia]

Originally Posted by russellnewman

Originally posted on 09-23-2010
Deleted Files "not" being cleaned out by "Video Directory Rescan"
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...78&postcount=1

Any chance of getting an answer/reply soon?

Have you tried removing the plugin's import directory from Sage's list of import directories? That can be edited through Setup -> Detailed Setup -> Media Import Directories, as I recall.

[reboot_this]

@ evilpenguin

I have had your plugin installed for a while... Recently I have noticed that I had over 3000 "imports" in my video folders resulting from this plugin as others have experienced (see page 5 of this thread for the first instance of someone mentioning this snafu).

I attempted several changes to this plugin to alleviate the issue. These thousands of video imports were not from items in either of my Netflix/Hulu queues, so something was being problematic. I wanted to post in this thread, however I like others was "short" on having a log available to offer up for clues.

It took me a couple of days of changing/tweaking/uninstalling/reinstalling/etc. BUT I think I might have a fix for these erroneous imports showing up that are not within a user's queue...

The problem has nothing to do with your plugin (not at least in my situation of the over 3000 erroneous imports from Playon (ie. Netflix/Hulu)!

The last thing I tried was a "tweak" in the Playon server program settings. I clicked the "Test" button next to the Hulu login....and guess what... it failed! The user name was correct and the number of *s for the password seemed good. It was only when I re-entered my password and clicked "Test" that it worked!

I then restarted my SageTV server (or is it "service") went into the configuration on this Playon import plugin and forced an update. VOILA!!! NO more erroneous imports exist

I assume that at one of the "update the Playon software" times caused the Hulu password to get lost/corrupted or whatever but once I re-input the Hulu password everything else fell into place... It seems that if the Playon software doesn't have "good" login info, the Playon software defaults to "see" everything available on Hulu???

So is my "discovery" worthy of an entry into your FAQ for this plugin??? hehe

[lucasbuck]

I got 2000+ folders/files so I'm going to try your solution. Thanks for the advice, I'll let you know how it works!

[evilpenguin]

Interesting, i'll have to do some digging into that. It'd certainly explain why its random (PlayOn randomly fails to successfully log into Hulu).

[SWKerr]

Originally Posted by reboot_this

@ evilpenguin

I have had your plugin installed for a while... Recently I have noticed that I had over 3000 "imports" in my video folders resulting from this plugin as others have experienced (see page 5 of this thread for the first instance of someone mentioning this snafu).

I attempted several changes to this plugin to alleviate the issue. These thousands of video imports were not from items in either of my Netflix/Hulu queues, so something was being problematic. I wanted to post in this thread, however I like others was "short" on having a log available to offer up for clues.

It took me a couple of days of changing/tweaking/uninstalling/reinstalling/etc. BUT I think I might have a fix for these erroneous imports showing up that are not within a user's queue...

The problem has nothing to do with your plugin (not at least in my situation of the over 3000 erroneous imports from Playon (ie. Netflix/Hulu)!

The last thing I tried was a "tweak" in the Playon server program settings. I clicked the "Test" button next to the Hulu login....and guess what... it failed! The user name was correct and the number of *s for the password seemed good. It was only when I re-entered my password and clicked "Test" that it worked!

I then restarted my SageTV server (or is it "service") went into the configuration on this Playon import plugin and forced an update. VOILA!!! NO more erroneous imports exist

I assume that at one of the "update the Playon software" times caused the Hulu password to get lost/corrupted or whatever but once I re-input the Hulu password everything else fell into place... It seems that if the Playon software doesn't have "good" login info, the Playon software defaults to "see" everything available on Hulu???

So is my "discovery" worthy of an entry into your FAQ for this plugin??? hehe

When I had this problem it was just after a playon update. There was another playon update available by the time was troubleshooting and when I ran the test after that update I had the same error when testing the connections and had to re-key the password. I think you are on to something.

[Fuzzy]

Here's a somewhat simple request (I think), any way to assign a Channel Name to the Hulu imported shows (Channel Named 'HULU'). Might be easier to discern in the recordings list what is actually recorded, and what would be streamed.

[Fuzzy]

Oh yeah, and you'd also have to create the 'HULU' channel with AddChannel call (if it isn't already added). Said channel would not have to be viewable. My main reason for wanting this is to be able to use a 'HULU' channel logo. like this:

[clayfree]

Hope someone can point me in the right direction. I'm having trouble importing my Hulu queue. This in on an XP machine.

Last line of the log says:

"! /scrapeMode but /outputDir () isn't valid, exiting!"

Clay

EDIT: I adjusted the video directory and according to the log it's finding something now. I will let it run and update this post.

UPDATE: IT WORKS! Thanks EP for these great plugins. These add so much value to Sage. Looks like I'll have to try Hulu Plus now.

[Dreameriz]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Glad you like it. Forgot about Amazon VOD (never use it myself) but that should be easy to add.

any light on this ?

[jbrandon]

How can the watched status of a Netflix video be reset to the beginning, i.e. start from the beginning? I talked with Netflix and they do not know of a way to reset it from their side. Using the Netflix web interface you can drag the pointer back to the beginning and the video will start from there but with the playon interface the video starts at “0” no matter how much has been viewed and there seems to be no way to drag it back to the start.

I did try to reset the pointer via the web browser on Netflix but it does not seem to hold…

Jim

[matt91]

Originally Posted by jbrandon

How can the watched status of a Netflix video be reset to the beginning, i.e. start from the beginning? I talked with Netflix and they do not know of a way to reset it from their side. Using the Netflix web interface you can drag the pointer back to the beginning and the video will start from there but with the playon interface the video starts at “0” no matter how much has been viewed and there seems to be no way to drag it back to the start.

I did try to reset the pointer via the web browser on Netflix but it does not seem to hold…

Jim

There is a setting to start a video at the beginning of the video whenever it's restarted (versus restarting at the last position).

Is that what you're looking for?

This setting is under Browse Play On > Play On Info > Server Options > Restart PlayOn.

[Fuzzy]

It's a playong with netflix issue - playon has said they are 'working on it' for over a year now. don't expect it to be fixed. I have found that resetting the status via the web browser DOES work for me though - But I don't think rewinding works. Just fast forward to teh end, so it gets completely watched, then next time it is streamed, it'll start at the beginning...

[jbrandon]

Thanks for the information... Okay if it is a playon issue then all is lost – they seem very unresponsive to any request form Sage.

I went to Netflix and played (FF) amost to the end, played the last few seconds, the video retuned me to my queue page. If I replay the video in Netflix it starts from the beginning but not Sage.

I just tried your suggestion but it still starts from where it was left off within Sage. I am accessing the videos from the Videos/Titles part of the main menu but I tried from the Online/Netflix part. Still starts where I left off.

Does the queue have to be updated before it will show a reset? I did try to play another video hoping it would reset the status of the video in question but still started in the same place as I left off.

Any hope of getting native Netflix support within Sage?

Jim

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

It's a playong with netflix issue - playon has said they are 'working on it' for over a year now. don't expect it to be fixed. I have found that resetting the status via the web browser DOES work for me though - But I don't think rewinding works. Just fast forward to teh end, so it gets completely watched, then next time it is streamed, it'll start at the beginning...

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by jbrandon

Any hope of getting native Netflix support within Sage?

I gave up hope on that a LONG time ago, and now just use the web browser to view netflix. The quality is SO much better than PlayOn.

[phunny]

I have pandora configured n the playon server, I see in sage v7.x that it knows about PAndora but has a message about password not correct even though on the server it tests good and seems to be the right one. Should I be able to hear pandora stations via playon through sage? I can't seem to see that answer in the forum. Thanks

Andy

[Emsdad]

Hey EP, thanks again for this plug-in.

I just wanted to let you know that I experienced the "thousands of items downloaded" problem again.

It's been fine for a month, but for some reason it just did it again, and I don't know why.

I was wondering if you had any ideas as to why this is happening?

Thanks!

[ldw58]

Originally Posted by Emsdad

Hey EP, thanks again for this plug-in.

I just wanted to let you know that I experienced the "thousands of items downloaded" problem again.

It's been fine for a month, but for some reason it just did it again, and I don't know why.

I was wondering if you had any ideas as to why this is happening?

Thanks!

Ditto on the excellent plug-in (also for the excellence of MediaShrink)!

I also had the massive content download problem and it filled up my poor overtaxed system volume on WHS so I have been dealing with the fallout from that.

I appreciate the work & the tools! Thanks!

[bradvido]

How would I configure it to import the Comedy Central / Full Episodes?
I added it to upnpbrowser.toscrape

PlayOn/Hulu/User Queue/Sort By Date
PlayOn/Netflix/Instant Queue/Alphabetical
PlayOn/Comedy Central/Full Episodes

And from the log file (http://pastebin.com/UQPdLUjf), i see that it scrapes it well, but the content does not show up, even after forcing a scan in Sage.

Thanks for the help.