SageTV / Netflix ... moving on?

[pingmustard]

My SageTV client just went down. Short of rebuilding things, one of the thing I wish had better integration was Netflix support and youtube support.

Is there any plugin that would enable either of this to work? I used to go through Playon plugin, but it's a bit disappointing -- UI was slow, search was non-existent. Also, Youtube doesn't seem to work, and it wouldn't be a problem if things just auto update, but I don't recall this feature being supported ? :T

I was contemplating of switching PVR setups... SageTV is a great piece of software, but I don't see a future with it, and what Google has shown thus far doesn't look very promising to wait for.

Thoughts?

[panteragstk]

I use sagetv to launch the WMC netflix interface with a batch file. I had to create a menu item of my own, but if you run Gemstone, you can easily add the menu item to your menu. I'll post the batch file if you want. Pretty easy to set up.

[pjpjpjpj]

With regards to youtube, this is the longest that Sage has probably ever gone without issuing a fix to get youtube working again. I'm sure they'll fix it when they get a chance....

Add to that the fact that evilpenguin's last PlayOn plugin update broke youtube compatibility (before it broke in native Sage)... though I have to wonder if he's waiting for Sage to fix the native function before he fixes the PlayOn plugin... I didn't think we used youtube in Sage much but this "outage" has shown that we use it in our house more than I thought....

[Fuzzy]

For the short term, the answer to the first may be the answer to the second. You might be able to do the same thing we do with netflix, launch WMC directly to the netflix plugin, with the WMC Youtube plugin... Never used it though, so I'm not sure how well/if it works.

[jnmfox]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I use sagetv to launch the WMC netflix interface with a batch file. I had to create a menu item of my own, but if you run Gemstone, you can easily add the menu item to your menu. I'll post the batch file if you want. Pretty easy to set up.

If you don't mind I would a copy of you batch file. Does your remote work with Netflix?

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by jnmfox

If you don't mind I would a copy of you batch file. Does your remote work with Netflix?

It's a WMC remote, so yes it does. If you use eventghost you can use the keyboard shortcuts and map them to your remote. Very simple.

[wayner]

I believe I saw that Opus4 released a Youtube fix today.

[will]

Originally Posted by wayner

I believe I saw that Opus4 released a Youtube fix today.

Do we know why it keeps breaking? What is YouTube doing (or Sage not doing) that causes these regular outages?

I would love to find out what so we can fix our own STVs in the event SageTV goes dark.

[wayner]

Well what we really need is for Sage and Youtube to be owned by the same company, then this wouldn't happen

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by wayner

Well what we really need is for Sage and Youtube to be owned by the same company, then this wouldn't happen

It likely doesn't in SageTV v8... of course, netflix is built in as well...

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I use sagetv to launch the WMC netflix interface with a batch file. ...

How do you launch the Netflix interface only? I could use that info! Do tell.

EDIT: Never mind, my browser did fully load the page ...

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

It likely doesn't in SageTV v8... of course, netflix is built in as well...

That would certainly be nice, too bad thats so far off, if at all for the GP.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by will

Do we know why it keeps breaking? What is YouTube doing (or Sage not doing) that causes these regular outages?

Keep in mind that YouTube has no API for getting access to videos and having them played outside of the official youtube players created by Google. You can get access to the feed apis, but that just returns URLs that can be played by the YouTube web/flash player.

So, for a product like SageTV to play YouTube videos without using the official Flash Player... you have to parse a fair bit of javascript/html to pull out the direct links for videos. If YouTube updates their site and changes the player html/javascript, then programs the parse the javascript/html may break. Given that sites like YouTube are fairly dynamic, this happens quite a bit... and then the developer has to reverse engineer again how the parse out the direct video links, which usually just takes some time.

I created a Java version of this some time ago, because I wanted to be able to directly play the youtube videos in Phoenix without needing to use the stock online videos player. I basically abandoned this after I realized how volatile the process really is... and I didn't want the wrath of the users coming down on me when YouTube no longer worked

On a side note, I've been playing around with GoogleTV (Sony's latest product) and I'm fairly impressed so far. My goal was to run SageTV as a pass through to the GoogleTV box, and then pull up Netflix or Youtube by hitting the home button... which shows a menu overlay on top of the existing SageTV UI... it gives the appearance of things being integrated, yet they are completely different.... and I get a native netflix experience and a native youttube experience that I don't have worry about breaking. I'll probably post more about my Netflix/SageTV/GoogleTV experience as I use it more, but initial impressions are pretty good.

[GbrNole]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Keep in mind that YouTube has no API for getting access to videos and having them played outside of the official youtube players created by Google. You can get access to the feed apis, but that just returns URLs that can be played by the YouTube web/flash player.

So, for a product like SageTV to play YouTube videos without using the official Flash Player... you have to parse a fair bit of javascript/html to pull out the direct links for videos. If YouTube updates their site and changes the player html/javascript, then programs the parse the javascript/html may break. Given that sites like YouTube are fairly dynamic, this happens quite a bit... and then the developer has to reverse engineer again how the parse out the direct video links, which usually just takes some time.

I created a Java version of this some time ago, because I wanted to be able to directly play the youtube videos in Phoenix without needing to use the stock online videos player. I basically abandoned this after I realized how volatile the process really is... and I didn't want the wrath of the users coming down on me when YouTube no longer worked

On a side note, I've been playing around with GoogleTV (Sony's latest product) and I'm fairly impressed so far. My goal was to run SageTV as a pass through to the GoogleTV box, and then pull up Netflix or Youtube by hitting the home button... which shows a menu overlay on top of the existing SageTV UI... it gives the appearance of things being integrated, yet they are completely different.... and I get a native netflix experience and a native youttube experience that I don't have worry about breaking. I'll probably post more about my Netflix/SageTV/GoogleTV experience as I use it more, but initial impressions are pretty good.

awesome! i was kinda waiting on someone to go the sage/goog tv passthrough route. as one simple question, were you able to control both devices with a single remote?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by GbrNole

awesome! i was kinda waiting on someone to go the sage/goog tv passthrough route. as one simple question, were you able to control both devices with a single remote?

Yeah, the gtv remote can control the sagetv ui as well (no extra ir blasters required there), but the gtv remove it limited in that I don't think all the sagetv buttons are mapped. When you setup the pass through unit, SageTV is not listed in the devices... so I used a type of Network Streamer, and then selected Hauppage MVP (which is a compatible remote to HD300, etc), and that appears to work.

I'm still playing around with the stuff... but so far the hdmi passthrough solution is fairly decent for my needs.

I haven't tried to see if my logitech remote can control the gtv unit, which would be more ideal for me.

[will]

Originally Posted by stuckless

So, for a product like SageTV to play YouTube videos without using the official Flash Player... you have to parse a fair bit of javascript/html to pull out the direct links for videos. If YouTube updates their site and changes the player html/javascript, then programs the parse the javascript/html may break. Given that sites like YouTube are fairly dynamic, this happens quite a bit... and then the developer has to reverse engineer again how the parse out the direct video links, which usually just takes some time.

So when Opus releases a YouTube fix is he updating the STV XML file or a compiled program? If it is in the XML file then this, in theory, would be something we could fix on our own, right?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by will

So when Opus releases a YouTube fix is he updating the STV XML file or a compiled program? If it is in the XML file then this, in theory, would be something we could fix on our own, right?

My understanding is that the "code" is in the xml.... and yeah, someone with the right skills could fix this as well.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by stuckless

My understanding is that the "code" is in the xml.... and yeah, someone with the right skills could fix this as well.

The YouTube video-finding logic is a combination of the online properties file and the STV. So, yes, anyone who knew how to edit those could fix it. However, finding the YouTube video links is a bit convoluted since they keep changing how the links are stored in the web page & thus my only advantage is that I wrote the convoluted code to find the links, so I'm in a better position to update it. Plus, it checks all the resolutions the video has & removes any not allowed and/or those the user wants to skip. Someone else could learn how to do it, though.

- Andy

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Opus4

The YouTube video-finding logic is a combination of the online properties file and the STV. So, yes, anyone who knew how to edit those could fix it. However, finding the YouTube video links is a bit convoluted since they keep changing how the links are stored in the web page & thus my only advantage is that I wrote the convoluted code to find the links, so I'm in a better position to update it. Plus, it checks all the resolutions the video has & removes any not allowed and/or those the user wants to skip. Someone else could learn how to do it, though.

- Andy

Yeah, I forgot about the properties... I did look at this once to recreate it in Java so that I could play the videos using a different player... What you did is really good... but I didn't want to be stuck maintaining it later, since after reviewing what has to be done, it a little fragile You are certainly the best person to maintain it (but what happens when Andy goes on vacation for a month -- and youtube changes )

[chiledog]

Originally Posted by stuckless

On a side note, I've been playing around with GoogleTV (Sony's latest product) and I'm fairly impressed so far. My goal was to run SageTV as a pass through to the GoogleTV box, and then pull up Netflix or Youtube by hitting the home button... which shows a menu overlay on top of the existing SageTV UI... it gives the appearance of things being integrated, yet they are completely different.... and I get a native netflix experience and a native youttube experience that I don't have worry about breaking. I'll probably post more about my Netflix/SageTV/GoogleTV experience as I use it more, but initial impressions are pretty good.

I would suggest using the Logitech Revue for pass through. It uses the Harmony remote DB so it has complete SageTV support. (when you switch over to pass all the keys on the remote control sagetv). It is really a nice solution (plus you can remap keys to anything, just like Harmony remotes).