STV Import: NetFlix

[mattdcknsn]

Originally Posted by stanger89

I don't think the netflix "app" is remote controlable.

I thought the netflix app was just IE running windows media player? I thought those were remote controllable.

[stanger89]

It's a little more than your typical WMP-in-webpage because it's got a completely different skin, you do have to install the "player". I agree though that I think it's using the WMP "engine".

[ARMYB77]

yeah aside from the skin it's just a IE-WMP interface. But i'm sure someone smart could integrate it into Sage so that the IE doesn't open and it plays through sage, it would probably require a WMP plugin though and using Java I don't know how hard that would be. There are 4 files (AxPlayer.ocx, AxVersion.ocx, SkinDLL.dll, and pxv4301) so i'm assuming that it would require using those files to integrate it into SageTV, and I don't know what the licensing is like for it.

Thanks
Armyb77

[ARMYB77]

Ok using he Page Source (View page source) in Watchnow and steeling the urls from it I was able to play a movie fine via Regular WMP (no Netflix Software needed) the biggest thing is there are multiple bit rates each has it's own specific URL to the Movie. VLC played it too but off course it was all over the place do to the DRM. WMP acquired the license first before playing. I don't have winamp but I'm going to install it and try it to see if it will play on that since there is already a Winamp plugin for Sage.

Thanks,
Armyb77

[ARMYB77]

Ok videos play fine on winamp too, the only issues is that because there is no buffer file created like in the Netflix UI on IE you can not pause fastforward or rewind until the whole movie is downloaded. The Netflix UI is jave based with a WMP engine. It seems like it would be pretty easy to set up a command that grabs the link from the movie page and then uses that to play the movie.

here is the entire line that the source page gives for the movies:

var WNPlaylistMovies = {"movies":[{"id":"6013221242","title":"Zoolander","streams":[{"url":"http://index.ehub.netflix.com/item/?x=0z9a3TW-kHoDBlQuNt_Wsg23232PqmE7kNytBXDpOSvgulNW3ieodiXItrqABnOYUnvzA4eRIXCIxN-wKWl4fm3KpdaSQqOHJHM.","bitrate":500,"dlid":482323274734,"requiredBandwidth":700},{"url":"http://index.ehub.netflix.com/item/?x=7p8kte2z76723232DmQrBNaFHWKnTkq9rwh97NnS5INmea5y7XlvOHFF6VfrX-k1YhTWl9snd1lVrNWFkNVEmS_BxZzWOp4CP0.","bitrate":1000,"dlid":983232214930,"requiredBandwidth":1400},{"url":"http://index.ehub.netflix.com/item/?x=IjPmmLqAsYKN8MOHZ_F8X232323rLWDH7ARmsOVrKzBkMVILH1QRqyB_s_UyasaMWS2wrRa_F9pc2JqSb9QNMql0zIy3Nh36Namo.","bitrate":1600,"dlid":35232323552,"requiredBandwidth":2240},{"url":"http://index.ehub.netflix.com/item/?x=hxkEBmPf8zfG_2Y6Lf_USDC_khbWQWb322323k4T8t5N4WevkEL71VmOWNAIyjDWJOUDNCVe1zpw_BzS2PPeZ-ChMKTbMO6sV-E.","bitrate":2200,"dlid":88632322071,"requiredBandwidth":3080}]}]};

I changed the info in here so no one can use my data, but basically if the plugin asked which bitrate you want Watch Now Movies to play on, then this code is pretty constant, I've looked at 10 different movies, and it's always in the same place, how hard would it be for a the plugin to grab that data and then send it to winamp to play using the winamp plugin? The streams are good for 24hours from what i've seen so you would need to add a autodelete file after 24hours for it. There is also a unintentional benefit that I won't say about using this method, but i'm sure you smart guys can figure that out by playing with it for a bit.

Any thoughts?
Armyb77

[ARMYB77]

Ok is there anyone that is willing to update this plugin to include the Watch-Now feature? It seems not too hard to me. It just requires the link to the movie and a specified bitrate. From there as long as you do a WebRequest with cookies the source will have the links and it should be easy to grab the link you wish to play. From there you can do an external WMP launch to play the video.

(wmplayer http://index.ehub.netflix.com/item/?x=0z9a3TW-kHoDBlQuNt_Wsg23232PqmE7kNytBXDpOSvgulNW3ieodiXItrqABnOYUnvzA4eRIXCIxN-wKWl4fm3KpdaSQqOHJHM. /fullscreen)

Any thoughts? or is everyone just happy with what they already have and see no need or want for this?

Thanks,
Armyb77

[bcjenkins]

If it is a java app.. Why can't you just call it up in Sage directly?

[ARMYB77]

Because i'm not a programmer and have no idea where to start.

Cheers,
Amryb77

[bcjenkins]

Me either, more of a question in general than directed right back to you.

B

[Flips]

Does this plugin still work with the latest version of Sage (6.1.9)?

I installed it and I can't get any of the feeds to show up, a force refresh doesn't work. I am able to search, but I can't see to add anything (or view for that matter) my que.

I tried to turn on debugging, but that didn't work. A file was never generated.

Anyone still using this plugin? I was really looking forward to using it, and finally got around to installing it.

Thanks,
flips

[Flips]

bump... anyone still using this plugin? If it still works, I would like to keep trying to tinker with it. But if it doesn't then I will give up.

Thanks,
flips

[HawgGuy]

It stopped working for me as well. Too bad.

[DwarF]

They changed the "api".

I'm not sure what the change was, but I have it localized in the code pretty well so it will not take long to discover it. I graduate in 1 week, so I will be able to spend time on this again. It's not working for me either, so you know I will fix it. I will also rebuild the entire STV and test it on the latest version of Sage (I need to upgrade anyways).

I'll look into playing trailers directly.

[DwarF]

I decided to procrastinate my homework and fix this plugin instead. It works again. The UI could stand to be niftier, but all features are there, minus viewing trailers.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by DwarF

I decided to procrastinate my homework and fix this plugin instead. It works again. The UI could stand to be niftier, but all features are there, minus viewing trailers.

There's still one issue that continues to plague this plugin. When scrolling through the listings the thumbnails for the covers still just continue to repeat themselves. What I mean is there are three graphic thumbnails of the covers for the first three movies. When I scroll to look at the next three in the listing the three covers that were originally showing just continue to repeat themselves. So in Comedy I see Little Miss Sunshine, The Devil wears Prada and Wedding Crashers. When I scroll to the fourth one, Click, I get the cover for Little Miss Sunshine, the fifth, Failure to Launch gives me The Devil wears Prada cover and etc. This is seen in every screen that has the cover graphics. Any chance to correct this? Also the "Add to Queue" text doesn't show up on the button to the left and below the cover. (If that is what belongs there. It's been a while since I used it.)

Gerry

[DwarF]

I do not experience the same issues. It is most likely due to a sage setting or possibly a video setting? I have viewed this plugin on a few different installations, and none of them exhibited your issue. I do not have a way to duplicate it.

To help debug, I was thinking about creating a STVi for you, that was hardwired to just show a movie listing (not dynamic from code) and see if that had the same problem. I haven't had time to create the STVi from hand. Each cover is actually a different file and is never referenced by a common name, which would hint of some form of caching. Each movie listing has the movie data, and the title image, which should come from your netflix cache directory. If the movie id is different, so should be the image representing the movie.

You could open up your netflix.properties file (in the cache directory) go get a movie id and open up the {movie_id}.jpg file to see if the image matches the listing. Beyond telling sage to use image {movie_id}.jpg for movie {movie_id}, there isn't much my code can control.

Hope that helps,
D

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by DwarF

I do not experience the same issues. It is most likely due to a sage setting or possibly a video setting? I have viewed this plugin on a few different installations, and none of them exhibited your issue. I do not have a way to duplicate it.

To help debug, I was thinking about creating a STVi for you, that was hardwired to just show a movie listing (not dynamic from code) and see if that had the same problem. I haven't had time to create the STVi from hand. Each cover is actually a different file and is never referenced by a common name, which would hint of some form of caching. Each movie listing has the movie data, and the title image, which should come from your netflix cache directory. If the movie id is different, so should be the image representing the movie.

You could open up your netflix.properties file (in the cache directory) go get a movie id and open up the {movie_id}.jpg file to see if the image matches the listing. Beyond telling sage to use image {movie_id}.jpg for movie {movie_id}, there isn't much my code can control.

Hope that helps,
D

The caching theory makes sense. If I go into each individual entry I see the correct image. It is only in the scrolling lists that this is exhibited. This had also been reported before by users other than me though. The only other issue I have is everything still has (loading) next to its title line. My queue listings, the title of each fideo. Actors, etc show (loading) instead of the actual actors. I've manually refreshed the queue and had left it up since yesterday. Any help would be appreciated.

What would the cached directory be? Looking at your code it looks like it would be c:\temp\netflix. I don't have that directory. All the cached images look to be in c:\temp. I have a show.properties file (don't know where that came from.)but I don't have a netflix.properties file anywhere on my C: drive.


Gerry

EDIT: Sorry-I know what the problem is. I am running your plugin from a client, not the server. When I browse to the directory in the config to set the cache directory it is browsing on the server. I need to be able to tell your plugin either everything is local or share out that directory and use a UNC path for it.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by gplasky

The caching theory makes sense. If I go into each individual entry I see the correct image. It is only in the scrolling lists that this is exhibited. This had also been reported before by users other than me though. The only other issue I have is everything still has (loading) next to its title line. My queue listings, the title of each fideo. Actors, etc show (loading) instead of the actual actors. I've manually refreshed the queue and had left it up since yesterday. Any help would be appreciated.

What would the cached directory be? Looking at your code it looks like it would be c:\temp\netflix. I don't have that directory. All the cached images look to be in c:\temp. I have a show.properties file (don't know where that came from.)but I don't have a netflix.properties file anywhere on my C: drive.


Gerry

EDIT: Sorry-I know what the problem is. I am running your plugin from a client, not the server. When I browse to the directory in the config to set the cache directory it is browsing on the server. I need to be able to tell your plugin either everything is local or share out that directory and use a UNC path for it.

And sorry one more time for wasting your time. I have discovered the problem and the problem is ME !

Wrong user name. My bad. Problem is though it picked up my user queue so it didn't dawn on me that could be bad. You might consider it having return an error if the user name and password login is not correct.

I was setting it up on the server and was in the netflix site to get my ID. Logged in and it was wrong. Forgot it was the email address. I was using my traditional user name I use at other sites. So after seeing that I knew O had it wrong on my client.

This fixed the (loading) message but I'm still seeing the repeating graphics in the scrolling list. I'll take a look at for me is the show.properties file. (not netflix.properties file.)


Gerry

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by gplasky

And sorry one more time for wasting your time. I have discovered the problem and the problem is ME !

Wrong user name. My bad. Problem is though it picked up my user queue so it didn't dawn on me that could be bad. You might consider it having return an error if the user name and password login is not correct.

I was setting it up on the server and was in the netflix site to get my ID. Logged in and it was wrong. Forgot it was the email address. I was using my traditional user name I use at other sites. So after seeing that I knew O had it wrong on my client.

This fixed the (loading) message but I'm still seeing the repeating graphics in the scrolling list. I'll take a look at for me is the show.properties file. (not netflix.properties file.)


Gerry

So as a follow up I am still seeing the repeating covers in every scrolling list. I have looked for options in Sage and tje only one I could find that related was "Optimized Image Loader". I have disabled this and I am still having the issue. I have confirmed in the show.properties file in the cache directory that the IDs for the shows are correct and nothing seems to be repeating in there to cause this issue. The ID shows listed for each field such as director, rating, etc. I also installed this on the actual server and ran it on a client there. I normally don't run a client on the server. Same issue. If the number of rows is odd the graphic will change out of the three on each full scroll. Going to any individual listing results in the correct graphic so it would appear to be a caching issue I cannot troubleshoot. I run Sage as a service so I don't know if that anything to do with the issue. I'll try bringing it up as an app instead of a service and see if that changes anything.

Gerry


EDIT: Doesn't make a difference if I run Sage as a service or as an application. I'm running the beta 6.2.4 but the same behavior was seen in 6.1.9 also.

Here's the same issue from March of 2006

Originally Posted by Humanzee

OK, I closed sagetv and updated from the latest download. The search results coming up null problem is gone. However, I still only get the first three cover art images and then they repeat as I scroll down the results.

[HawgGuy]

I have the same problem with repeating the first 3 graphics when scrolling. Was finally able to get netflix working again (yeah!) with this latest release.

SageTV 6.2.4