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

[Brent]

Originally Posted by bclenney

I hope one day it'll be a fully functional addon again, of course

Me too. I really wish it was integrated into the extenders too.

[mkanet]

I could be wrong, but maybe Brainbone is looking into a next gen Netflix addon.

If most of us dont have the technical ability to contibute write code for this, I'm willing to bet there are plenty of people here who would gladly chip in and contribute money towards the development of this.

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by mkanet

I could be wrong, but maybe Brainbone is looking into a next gen Netflix addon.

"Looking into" is the proper description.

At this point I'm still exploring what options there are for "Watch Now" (basically down to Silverlight for SageTV clients and silverlight loopback and/or PlayOn for extenders), and bringing myself up-to-speed in writing add-ons for SageTV/SageMC (and this is a bit of a steep slope for me).

A potential problem with using PlayOn for Watch Now is that it would violate the Netflix API usage agreement, and not using the Netflix API keeps you stuck in this cat and mouse game we're currently playing. Perhaps keeping the "Player" as a separate plugin, with silverlight being the only official player would dodge this bullet.

I'd be happy to help others in the endeavor, so don't let my work on this dissuade any one else from jumping in. I don't have a large amount of free time, so this is something like chipping away at a granite block with a dull nail and a block of wood.

Note; This is something I would normally not say, and should go without saying, but now feel I must in response to tahoetim or anyone else that feels volunteer developers are some how obligated to keep bleeding out through their original donation: I'll be on vacation for ~1 week starting this Wed., and this means vacation from any hobbies as well. Also, note that any work I have done or may do on this is, to me, a hobby; So unless I'm actually collecting money from you, there is nothing that implies I should drop anything I do in real life to make Netflix work in SageTV.

(Edit: re-reading that last paragraph sure makes me sound like an ass... sorry of that's how you read it.)

[mkanet]

Hey Brainbone, have fun on your vacation. This plugin still works for me. BTW, you can count me in to collect money from me.

Originally Posted by brainbone

So unless I'm actually collecting money from you, there is nothing that implies I should drop anything I do in real life to make Netflix work in SageTV.

[bclenney]

I wish I could figure out why mine won't work fully. I've reinstalled it several times, checked, rechecked and rechecked my ID ad naseum. I've updated everything to the latest versions. I think I remember a post talking about turning up diagnostics higher for logging purposes. I may have to track it down to see if I can find an error message.

Brian

[tahoetim]

to brainbone and anyone else that thinks I am being an ass should re-read my post and not twist what I said...

I don't really care if the plugin is broken and don't expect the developer to support it forever. That's NOT what I said at all.


I do get pissed when I see others struggling with a plugin that is broken. Doesn't anyone else feel guilty that new users are wasting hours of THEIR free time? What about the money people spend on the sound card and patch cables, only to find out that you still need a pc to put anything in the queue?
I am tired of programmers here defending other programmer's poor "products". Again, if Morgan doesn't have time to support it, then TAKE IT OFF THE LIST OF PLUGINS or clearly mark it "no longer supported".

The admin of this board should have a policy to take plugins off the available list or somehow find a way to warn people that the plugin is not 100% operable.

I am not some kid, I am a 50 year old grown up with a family, vacations, and other things to do in my life too. Why do we defend the programmer's precious time and ignore the unsuspecting user's time?


What a joke!
I hit this thread everyday HOPING for a fix and all I get is bashed for speaking the truth. Ok, my town hall rant is done.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by tahoetim

What a joke!
I hit this thread everyday HOPING for a fix and all I get is bashed for speaking the truth. Ok, my town hall rant is done.

fwiw, I wasn't bashing you in any way - read my entire post as I was careful to not do that. Just trying to state the obvious.

I agree it would be nice to have at least a disclaimer at the top of the thread or on the download page for any items not working.

[tahoetim]

Brent,
I was directing my comments to Brainbonehead

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by Brent

fwiw, I wasn't bashing you in any way - read my entire post as I was careful to not do that.

I think it was directed at me. Granted, I may have asked for it... but I don't think my concern with tohetim's attitude was misplaced after reading the rather abrasive PM I received from him.

Anyway, my apologies for feeding into this. I'll keep quite on the subject from here out.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by tahoetim

I am tired of programmers here defending other programmer's poor "products". Again, if Morgan doesn't have time to support it, then TAKE IT OFF THE LIST OF PLUGINS or clearly mark it "no longer supported".

The admin of this board should have a policy to take plugins off the available list or somehow find a way to warn people that the plugin is not 100% operable.

I see what you are saying but it is easier said then done. I think it is ultimately up to the creator of the plugin to take it upon him/her self to remove the plugin if it is totally non-functional.

I don't think the administrators can decide which should or shouldn't stay. They may not use these plugins or know which are broken. If you look at all the plugins you have some going back to version 5 and version 4. The problem is some people still run those versions. The other point in having them available is more as a learning tool. I have downloaded many of the plugins to learn from and some with the intention of fixing them or updating them for the newer features. I haven't always uploaded the results because in doing so I feel you take on some responsibility. If not in keeping the plugin current then at least answering questions. Most of the work I have done have been in themes and there are some that probably don't work with the current version. I just haven't bothered updating or removing. I'll probably go ahead and clean up some of my mess now.

Other programmers have just left for whatever reason and their plugins are there as a remnant. The other question is how broken does it have to be to be removed? I agree the Netflix plugins has issues. But it works enough for me and others. People had issues configuring it before so those issues are to be expected.

I don't think there is a good answer here. Maybe just a hope that prorammers will clean up when they leave or are done. Also keep in mind the SageMC STV would have been a candidate for cleanup when mlbdude left and someone had to pickup the reins on that. For awhile it broke with every new default version so flachbar and then Mike stepped in to keep her afloat. Imagine if that was removed because it didn't work.

Gerry

[tahoetim]

Thanks Gerry.

I hope that you see my point. The Netflix plugin is in a class all it's own. It requires the user to purchase a subscription and some hardware to make it work.

I have tried many of the other plugins, themes, etc. The difference is that there is no financial downside to trying them and no real time lost to blow them back out when they don't work.


In my case Netflix worked perfectly the first time I set it up. Like others, the queue simply quit working suddenly. My Sage system has been up for months and I don't fool with it.

[Opus4]

Am I reading these posts wrong? It seems like some people are saying that this customization is still working for them. I don't use most customizations and don't closely follow these discussions, so I could have that part wrong.

I don't plan to remove customizations, since even something not working can be a useful reference for someone else. However, if the experienced long-time forum users here tell me that a customization is definitely broken, I can add a "non-functioning" warning to the first post & the download if the author is not around. I do see, however, that the author of this customization has already posted that he plans to work on this again but currently has no time to do so.


Note: if the name calling doesn't stop, those participating in making such posts may find their forum and/or subforum access restricted. This is forum rule #1. I see a mention of insulting PMs above, so those are included in this rule if they get reported to me.

- Andy

[mkanet]

Its working for me relatively good. I might be the minority though. However, I only use this plugin only sometimes for playing back watch now movies. I've never been able to manage my queue (changes do not save).

Originally Posted by Opus4

Am I reading these posts wrong? It seems like some people are saying that this customization is still working for them. I don't use most customizations and don't closely follow these discussions, so I could have that part wrong.

I don't plan to remove customizations, since even something not working can be a useful reference for someone else. However, if the experienced long-time forum users here tell me that a customization is definitely broken, I can add a "non-functioning" warning to the first post & the download if the author is not around. I do see, however, that the author of this customization has already posted that he plans to work on this again but currently has no time to do so.


Note: if the name calling doesn't stop, those participating in making such posts may find their forum and/or subforum access restricted. This is forum rule #1. I see a mention of insulting PMs above, so those are included in this rule if they get reported to me.

- Andy

[tahoetim]

Thanks Opus. I am done with this.

If you put the warning on this plugin, I will be happy. I am simply trying to help those that follow me, regardless of what Brainbone says here and privately.

If you feel that i have stepped over the line then take whatever action against me that you see fit.

You have my permission to read the PM's between him and I. I have nothing to hide and took it offline when he personally mentioned me here.

[bclenney]

removed- thought I had it fixed, but it's not.

[Morgan111]

Wow, a lot of activity here. As I said, there are just too many different issues from different people with growing and changing configurations and NetFlix web changes for me to try and tackle now.

The initial version was a bit of work and then getting a way figured out to integrate the WMP was a long and difficult challenge, and then the "loop-back hack" integration and then Silverlight... "2". Now there is Silverlight 3 and changes to the queue interaction that I cannot get valid acknowledgments from. I have invested a very large chunk of time in some of this that is now obsolete, with a lot of time needed to catch up to the new changes. It may be easier to start looking back at it when NetFlix and Microsoft stop their updates.

Originally Posted by Morgan111

Checking in for my occasional flogging (be gentle).


I've been working around the clock on a number of projects I am responsible for and just don't have the time needed to solve some of these issues. I would like to when I catch up on things, but it may take a while.

Brainbone, great to see you back and finding some of the Silverlight issues.
I had gone round and round with the queue issue after they changed it and have not figured out the secret to get valid responses to those requests. If you were looking to play with the jar code and such I can help you get it set up and answer questions. The apache libraries for web access is pretty horrible with limited info on it, but maybe you have more insight on that. I'd be ok if you wanted to take it over since I haven't had the time needed to support it and keep up with the changes.

Morgan

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by Morgan111

It may be easier to start looking back at it when NetFlix and Microsoft stop their updates.

I think using the Netflix API may be the way to go, since its much less likely to change. If there is any fear of the plugin not following the API usage agreement, requiring the user to apply for their own consumer key/shared secret and allowing the user to enter these in the application should get around this.

[sjrx0213]

Well, we're broken again it seems. Last night I could browse titles and launch the viewer. Today, nothing shows in the category browsing.

All login data is correct (ID, username, password), everything works from IE7.

I know we're in limbo status with the plug-in, but I figured I'd update this interminable thread.

[bclenney]

Originally Posted by sjrx0213

Well, we're broken again it seems. Last night I could browse titles and launch the viewer. Today, nothing shows in the category browsing.

All login data is correct (ID, username, password), everything works from IE7.

I know we're in limbo status with the plug-in, but I figured I'd update this interminable thread.

Ok, something changed for me today: Now I can see categories(that has never worked for me), but I still see nothing when I go to the categories. Shows that I have in my queue are no longer viewable - cant seem to watch ANY videos on Netflix now. The only thing I have changed is I updated my "online video version" so that Youtube and Google would work again per this thread:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...e+google+video

Then after I noticed it was broken I did something really stupid.. I tried to reload the stvi - so now I have *2* netflixs configs.. ugh.. no idea how to fix that now.

Does anyone still work that hasnt gotten the new online video version to fix google and youtube?

Oh, and to be more clear and give more information, when I bring up show listing in Netflix and then select a show it no longer gives an option to watch a show and not all of the show information comes up. It sits there saying "getting information" or whatever that message is that normally only stays on the screen for a moment in the director field.

[robogeek]

Same here...Now the Instant Queue no longer gives option to play the movies.

I looked at the source code, and I'm no Java programmer, but it looks like many of the URLs that were being used by the NetFlix plugin to browse categories are no longer available or have changed their formats. And some of the pages that are still available have changed enough of their HTML code which has broken the parsing of these pages.

Unfortunately, it looks like a significant rewrite of the plugin java code is what is needed to get everything working again. Maybe this time using the NetFlix API to prevent such easy breakage in the future.