STV Import: NetFlix

[Muchacho]

Originally Posted by Brent

Once I loaded the Netflix Plugin to my server PC's SageMC, I added it to my Media MVP (SageTV SD Extender) doing the following

• turn on MediaMVP
• You should see the same menus you have on your SageTV server (as long as you are using the same Menu of course)
• On your MediaMVP, go to Settings>and SageMC Settings and select Import STVI (this is from the SageMC settings page not Detailed Setup) and select the same netflix-v1.1.xml that you imported on your SageTV server.

That's it. You should now be able to go to the main menu on your SageTV MediaMVP and The Netflix Menu item will now take you to the plugin. As mentioned before, selecting "Media Center" and left on your remote don't take you to the main menu as you would expect so on the MediaMVP, you need to hit the "back/exit" button (possibly multiple times) to go back to the main menu.

Thanks- I had done that and the plugin gets installed, however all the lists do not become populated when I type in my info on the placeshifter of my HD extender. Kinda strange.

[Morgan111]

Originally Posted by Morgan111

After seeing this thread I started looking at NetFlix and plan to switch from BlockBuster myself. The Watch It Now thing is great! Fantastic quality.

The import definitely needs some rewriting to make it SageMC friendly and consistent. I'll have to look through to see if I can understand how to get Watch it Now listings and do the best to launch it full screen and control it. But first things first. I'll work on porting the existing capabilities from the standard STV to SageMC and post that when I have something working.

That was great for DwarF to post the Java source. Unfortunately I am not a Java person and don't know how to build that if I need to add some additional functions or change something. If someone could point me in the right direction on that I would appreciate it! I've tried to contact DwarF but he must not be checking in here lately.

Morgan

I got an earlier start than I planned on. Here are a few screen that show some progress I have made. There are some changes required to the jar file to address some id's that have changed for a couple of channels, plus I have some other things that would be nice to add. I installed the Java development kit and tried to compile the Netflix source files but had errors. If anybody knows how to build the java source please send me a message.

Edit: Figured out how to update the Java. Fixed the channels, and more..

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...view10_81m.jpg

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...view11_2os.jpg

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...view12_EG1.jpg

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...view13_P42.jpg

[ejkeebler]

it looks amazing! i have been waiting anxiously for this update

[Brent]

Looks great so far Morgan. Thanks for your work on this!

[seaverd]

Morgan - Looks great - I can't wait to try your revised STVi!

Dan

[VikingCrown]

Morgan, I see the Watch it now option highlighted in that last image, did you manage to get that working? And if so how is the quality?

[mkanet]

Holy cow! No way! I thought this was an abandon addon. Man, this will certainly be a hit just like slimplayer and movietimes! Man, I can't wait!

[Addict]

Originally Posted by Morgan111

I got an earlier start than I planned on. Here are a few screen that show some progress I have made. There are some changes required to the jar file to address some id's that have changed for a couple of channels, plus I have some other things that would be nice to add. I installed the Java development kit and tried to compile the Netflix source files but had errors. If anybody knows how to build the java source please send me a message.

Edit: Figured out how to update the Java. Fixed the channels, and more..

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...view10_81m.jpg

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...view11_2os.jpg

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...view12_EG1.jpg

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...view13_P42.jpg

Wow, this is fantastic. Great job on the look...can't wait to see it in action!
AL

[LehighBri]

Originally Posted by Morgan111

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...view10_81m.jpg

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...view11_2os.jpg

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...view12_EG1.jpg

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...view13_P42.jpg

What SageMC theme are you using? Any chance you can post it? It looks great!

[mkanet]

Thats the iTV theme

Originally Posted by LehighBri

What SageMC theme are you using? Any chance you can post it? It looks great!

[MeInMaui]

Ok, I'm going to have to get Netflix now.

Nice work Morgan!

Aloha,
Mike

[Morgan111]

Originally Posted by VikingCrown

Morgan, I see the Watch it now option highlighted in that last image, did you manage to get that working? And if so how is the quality?

Well, at this point I can launch a Watch it now movie in a full screen browser window. I am trying to figure out any means to control the window or playback. There are some other similar efforts out there and I'm not sure what the capabilities are. So, the first release (should be within a week) should be able to start an instant play movie, but it will only be practical if you have a mouse handy, and definitely not on the extender. The good news is that the next release of Sage should support the file format for the trailer files. I had sent a sample to them. This should allow viewing of movie trailers on the extender. The first release will only support the RSS channels as is done now, but I do plan in the 2nd release to include a full genre and sub-genre listing as is included here.

I find the quality of the video to be pretty darn good at full screen. To me it looks about as good as my Comcast SD digital movie channels but in widescreen.

[mkanet]

Morgan, what do you mean by "instant play movie"? Will this next release require the next SageTV RC software? Does the video play in a little embedded window in SageTV.. then have the option to go full screen; or does it launch a completely separate video window... sort of how graphedit does.

Thanks again for all your efforts!

Originally Posted by Morgan111

Well, at this point I can launch a Watch it now movie in a full screen browser window. I am trying to figure out any means to control the window or playback. There are some other similar efforts out there and I'm not sure what the capabilities are. So, the first release (should be within a week) should be able to start an instant play movie, but it will only be practical if you have a mouse handy, and definitely not on the extender. The good news is that the next release of Sage should support the file format for the trailer files. I had sent a sample to them. This should allow viewing of movie trailers on the extender. The first release will only support the RSS channels as is done now, but I do plan in the 2nd release to include a full genre and sub-genre listing as is included here.

I find the quality of the video to be pretty darn good at full screen. To me it looks about as good as my Comcast SD digital movie channels but in widescreen.

[Brent]

Morgan,
Now you have me excited. Can't wait to see the first release!!!

By the way, have you seen this thread in the Greenbutton forums? A guy who goes by gobanjoboy is working on the same kind of thing for VMC. He seems to be using this "Netflix API" found at codeplex. It's over my head since I'm not a programmer by any means, but looks promising. I'm very happy to see you working on this. Craig (cncb) wrote something similar for Snapstream's Beyond Media a while back, but abandoned it when he stopped using Beyond Media. He's now a SageTV user by the way. Anyway thanks again for your work on this. I'd be happy to help test, document or whatever else you need that is non-programming related if you need the help.

[Morgan111]

NetFlix for SageMC... Take 1

OK. I have a export for SageMC that is ready for public consumption. Expect some big improvements for a future version. Find it here.

Thanks to Michael (MKANET) for helping me test the release and providing some great feedback..

[robogeek]

So I finally got me a Netflix account. Like many others, I prefer the default SageTV UI over the SageMC UI. So I took a stab at updating this plugin to fix some of the RSS channels that have changed on the Netflix site and to update the STVI to fix the thumbnails in newer versions of SageTV.

***IMPORTANT***
I don't think you can use this with the SageMC version of the Netflix import. If you have the SageMC Netflix import, backup your entire SageTV installation directory before continuing! If things go wrong, shut down SageTV and restore the backup.

To install, just install and configure everything as described in the first post of the thread. One thing that may not be clear to those that haven't installed this plugin before...Your Netflix ID in the Configuration section is found by logging into your Netflix account and clicking the RSS link at the bottom of the page. On the RSS page, look for the RSS links that have id=Pxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx...that's a P with a bunch of numbers after it. Copy the P with the numbers, and enter or paste that in for the ID.

Now that the base plugin is installed and configured, you can unzip the netflix.zip file into the SageTV\JARs directory to replace the netflix.jar file with the updated one. The updated one fixes a couple of RSS channels that have changed their URL. I only added the new Channel.class to the old .jar file and left everything else as it was.

If you are using a newer (ie. v6.0+) version of SageTV and you are having problems with repeated thumbnails when scrolling through the various movie lists, just unzip the NetFlix_Import_v1.1_updated.stvi.zip to the SageTV\STVs\SageTV3 directory. Remove the original Netflix stvi and apply this updated stvi.

That should do it. Now if somebody could take this and add the Play It Now feature to it, that would be awesome.

[Flips]

Awesome! Believe it or not, I came to the Sage forums tonight to specifically see if anyone had ported the netflix plugin to the standard stv yet.... strange...

Thanks for doing this. I will give it a try.

flips

[robogeek]

My update really isn't a ported version of the NetFlix plugin....meaning it's not a ported version of the SageMC version of the NetFlix plugin. It's just an update to the original NetFlix plugin that was broken due to some changes with SageTV and the NetFlix web site.

Another note about this update...I can't seem to get it to work on my MVP extenders, so I'm not sure if it's just me and I forgot something with my setup or if it's a problem with the plugin.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by robogeek

My update really isn't a ported version of the NetFlix plugin....meaning it's not a ported version of the SageMC version of the NetFlix plugin. It's just an update to the original NetFlix plugin that was broken due to some changes with SageTV and the NetFlix web site.

Another note about this update...I can't seem to get it to work on my MVP extenders, so I'm not sure if it's just me and I forgot something with my setup or if it's a problem with the plugin.

If I remeber correctly you will need to copy the Netflix properties to any client like a MVP trying to run it. I don't think the plugin was done correctly to recognize MVP/HD100 clients with their properties on the server.

Gerry

[band80]

I can't get netflix into my Online Services menu. I'm a newb with studio. Please see attached screenshot and let me know if you have any advice!

Netflix simply does not appear in Online Service.