Netflix Control: A Netflix Silverlight Remote Control Script

[panteragstk]

Did you follow the instructions? (See bolded below)

Yes. I only have his netflix silverlight control running. It works in IE mode only, but not when I open the player through sage.

Are you sure Netflix Control is running (green H in the systray)?

Yes.

When the player is opened through Sage, is the "Full Screen" button completely visible? If not, please take a screen shot of what you see and post it here.

The button is completely visible.

Is SageTV running in Fullsreen Exclusive Mode? (If it is, it could be causing issues)[/

No fse.

This problem only happens when I open the internet explorer window/netflix player within sage. If I open it through the netflix website it works fine.

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

This problem only happens when I open the internet explorer window/netflix player within sage. If I open it through the netflix website it works fine.

Interesting. Please take a screen shot of the Netflix Player, immediately after Sage opens it, and post it here.

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

s not "grabbing" or recognizing that the player is open when using through sage.

Just to clarify: When you say "not grabbing", I assume you mean that Netflix Control never clicks on the Full Screen button?

[gplasky]

It may be a focus issue. You may need to add an event or something into Eventghost to make sure the browser windows has focus and that Sage or something hasn't grabbed focus.
panteragstk-if you mouse click on the browser window after it comes up in Sage does it work?

Gerry

[brainbone]

In case it is a focus issue as gplasky points out, please try the attached exe in place of netflix_silverlight_control.exe.

This one is modified to focus the IE window immediately after its opened.

If this doesn't work, I'd still like to see a screen shot... and why not post your EventGhost XML file as well.

Edit: Attachment removed to avoid confusion

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by gplasky

It may be a focus issue. You may need to add an event or something into Eventghost to make sure the browser windows has focus and that Sage or something hasn't grabbed focus.
panteragstk-if you mouse click on the browser window after it comes up in Sage does it work?

Gerry

No the control .exe never works when launching from sage. I thought it might be a focus issue as well, but it doesn't work.

I've attached the requested screen shot and the eventghost .xml. Hope this helps.

[brainbone]

Looks like you haven't added any remote bindings to the EventGhost file. Either way Netflix Control should still be clicking on the "Full Screen" button.

Sorry, I should have been more clear about the screen shot. Could you wait for the "Full Screen" button to become visible and take another one?

Thanks.

[panteragstk]

That is odd. When I open eventghost I can see the buttons I've assigned to your netflix control commands. An example would be. HID.Button.180 assigned to Netflix Silverlight Control: Jump Ahead. Like I said though, it isn't eventghost that is the problem. My remote works great if the player is launched through netflix.com, but not when it is launched through sage.

[brainbone]

Place the attached in the "netflix_player_buttons" folder, replacing the one that already exists. Please let me know if it works on a player launched from Sage, and still from one launched from the Netflix site.

Oh, and your xml file was fine. I mistakenly opened one of my own "test.xml" files. Sorry for the confusion.

[brainbone]

Updated to v0.9

- Made changes to hopefully resolve an issue where player button locations were not always properly detected. This resulted in the Netflix Player not going into full screen.

See top post for details and download.

[panteragstk]

it still won't work for me. where can I learn to edit the autohotkey scripts so I can try to help fix this?

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

it still won't work for me. where can I learn to edit the autohotkey scripts so I can try to help fix this?

http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/

Copy netflix_silverlight_control.ahk from the src folder to the same location as netflix_silverlight_control.exe. Delete netflix_silverlightcontrol.exe. Install autohotkey. Now double click "netflix_silverlight_control.ahk" and make sure it works the same as the exe did. Open it in whatever text editor you prefer (I just use notepad). Edit at will. To compile to exe, simply right-click the .ahk file and select "compile".

Does the cursor move to the "full screen" button location?

After the changes to 0.9, (you also need to replace all the button graphics, not just the new exe) the script will attempt to click on the "full screen" button in the screen shot you sent me. I'm not sure why it wont on yours, but if the cursor at least gets to the "full screen" button location, then its probably just a timing issue.

[panteragstk]

I see what you are saying, but for some reason the script isn't acknowledging that the player has started. I wonder why?

[brainbone]

panteragstk,

Please drop the attached exe in the same folder as your v0.9 netflix_silverlight_control.exe and run it in place of netflix_silverlight_control.exe. Try to run a netflix viewer window from Sage, waiting a minute or two for the script to time out looking for the "full screen" button. Then post the debuglog.txt file that was generated.

Let me know if you have autohotkey installed. If so, I'll likely send you any other debug/test scripts uncompiled.

Edit:
(note: this is not for general consumption. It is only for use in debugging)

[brainbone]

Attached is a version of the v0.9 netflix_silverlight_control.exe for testing a change in the way jumping ahead/back in the time line works.

This exe requires that version v0.9 of netflix control has been previously installed. It will not work with v0.8 or v0.6.

The major change is simply that a click, hold, and drag is used while navigating to a new position in the time line rather than simply a single click, allowing the Netflix timeline thumbnail images to appear. Also, pressing your jump forward/backward buttons more slowly will jump smaller amounts, allowing finer control.

To use; update to v0.9, if you haven't already, then apply this test by replacing the v0.9 netflix_silverlight_control.exe with the one attached, and adding the contents of "netflix_player_buttons" folder.

Please give feedback on how you like this method of navigating the time line. It will help me decide which method to use going forward.

Edit: Forgot to add the updated button images. If you tried earlier and noticed the update didn't seem to correctly find the current position in the time lime, re-download and try again.

[SteveD]

Is it possible to use your silverlight control on a secondary display. I ask because I use my sage server as entertainment center in the living room with mediamvp in the bedrooms. I want to feed the audio form the secondary sound card and video from the second head on the video card back into the capture card put netflix on the mvp while still being able to tune to other channel on sage

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by SteveD

back into the capture card put netflix on the mvp while still being able to tune to other channel on sage

At this point, no. However, Morgan is working on that possibility. Look to the discussion starting at this post. While it may not be obvious from the discussion, it is about giving the SageMC Netflix Import the ability to control Netflix Control directly. If this is done, the MVP/Extender would have the ability to control Netlifx through the Netflix Import.

Edit:
After reading your question again I see a problem. While it may eventually be possible to control Netflix Silverlight from an Extender/MVP, I don't think it will be possible to have the SageTV server both serve Neflix Silverlight to an Extender while at the same time play other other channels.

[SteveD]

Yes it can. the capture of the video will be occuring on the second display ( video capture card) where IE is is launched. I do it now. The problem is that I need the silverlight program to go to fullscreen on the second display and control it. IE will always launch from the second display/ capturecard

[brainbone]

Ok. I stand corrected. I'll see what I can do to get netflix silverlight control working on multi-display systems.

Note that, until Morgan is able to get the Netflix STVi relaying remote commands from Sage to Netflix Control, using your remote from the MVP would be problematic.

I'm also trying to wrap my head around controlling two netflix players at the same time (one on each display)... and the more I think about it, the more I want to avoid the situation.

[brainbone]

After some quick tests, I'm going back to my original position.

The problem is that while the Netflix Silverlight Player is in full screen mode, no other window can be activated. So, for example, put netflix in fullscreen on your second display, then go back to sagetv on your primary display. Bringing focus to SageTV on the primary display will cause the Netflix Player on the second display to drop out of full screen.

There would need to be a reliable way to control SageTV on the primary display without having it ever become active, or a way of blocking the Silverlight Player from detecting a change in focus (or whatever event(s) cause the player to drop out of fullscreen).

Running two netflix players on the same system would be out of the question.

I'll still work on getting Netflix Control working on multiple displays, but I fear the end result may not be all that satisfactory.