Plugin: PlayOn in Online Services (Hulu, Netflix, Amazon VOD, etc.)

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

EP, can you take a look at my tempFeed.xml to see if there are anything wrong with it? For some strange reason, I'm getting an empty list for all the feeds on my HD100, yet works on the HD200.

Yeah, I took a look at it, the XML file looks good so i'm at a bit of a loss. If you're 100% sure that you have the exact same STV loaded on the HD200 and HD100 then there shouldn't be any difference. About the best I can think of is to check Sage's log to see if it has any XML parsing errors. Also, might be worth checking the STV file to make sure that the widget reference highlighted in this picture is working.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by kha

I found that the version of UPnP2Podcast.exe in the distribution works on my other machine running Vista. However, on SageTV HTPC running Windows XP I get the error message
"strict.pm did not return a true value at C:/Perl/lib/Carp/Heavy.pm line 300. BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at C:/Perl/lib/Carp/Heavy.pm line 300. Compilation failed at require at -e line 347."

Is it a compillation problem with UPnP2Podcast.exe? Are there additional component/library requirements that my OS may be missing?

Regards,
Michael.

Do you have ActivePerl installed on that machine (C:\Perl)?

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Yeah, I took a look at it, the XML file looks good so i'm at a bit of a loss. If you're 100% sure that you have the exact same STV loaded on the HD200 and HD100 then there shouldn't be any difference. About the best I can think of is to check Sage's log to see if it has any XML parsing errors. Also, might be worth checking the STV file to make sure that the widget reference highlighted in this picture is working.

STV seems to be exactly the same as the one you posted, so I assume the widget is working, plus the plugin works in the HD200 and the server client.

I think I'll delete all the settings for the HD100 in the Clients folder and start over with the default STV and import the plugin again.

Other than that, I'm not sure what else to do.

[tmiranda]

EP,

Did you have a chance to look at the .xml files I emailed to you?

Tom

[kha]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Do you have ActivePerl installed on that machine (C:\Perl)?

No. On htpc/SageTV machine I do not have ActivePerl and no C:\Perl directory. Do I have to install it?

Reagrds,
Michael.

[jpwegas]

I was able to get this plugin working on my Linux SageTV server, and usable from an HD200. (Note that the PlayOn software must still be running on a Windows box somewhere on your network.) I was able to view various videos (30 Rock, Simpsons, etc) successfully, but I don't have a Netflix account so was not able to test that. For those interested, the steps are:

• Follow the directions at the top of this thread
• Install Net::UPnP (and any dependencies if needed) for perl using CPAN or other tool
• Overwrite the Net::UPnP files you just installed with the version here
• Download the UPnP2Podcast.zip file attached to this post, unzip it, and place it in /opt/sagetv/server (or wherever the "top" of your SageTV install is). This modified version of the perl script will be used instead of the .exe included with the STVi.
• Either:
  • Make sure that /opt/sagetv/server (or wherever the "top" of your SageTV install is) is in the PATH of the user who runs the sagetv process
  • Make a soft link from someplace that is in your path to where UPnP2Podcast is installed (i.e. "ln -s /opt/sagetv/server/UPnP2Podcast /usr/bin/")
• Create a "dummy" link to deal with the path differences between Windows and Linux paths:
  • cd /opt/sagetv/server/STVs
  • ln -s SageTV3/OnlineVideos/tempFeed.xml 'SageTV3\OnlineVideos\tempFeed.xml'

That list is partially from memory, as I wasn't tracking everything at the time. If anyone else tries it, please let me know if I missed anything. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to compile the perl stuff into a standalone executable. If that was done a few of the steps could be collapsed.

A few notes on these steps for evilpenguin and anyone else interested, so that some of these issues can eventually get addressed in the main plugin:

• I had to create the fake file/link in the last step because the STVi wants to find the file at "/opt/sagetv/server/STVi/SageTV3\OnlineVideos\tempFeed.xml", which is obviously a path platform "mismatch" of the quotes and backquotes. I think there is a Studio function to "normalize" a path, so that it's appropriate for whatever platform SageTV is running on. I remember this being discussed for some other plugin in the past, but I don't remember the details. If that call is added to this STVi, then this step can be skipped in the future.
• My changes to the perl script include:
  • Sometimes the search string argument passed into the script from the STVi had quotes and some times it didn't. I wasn't sure why the STVi was doing this, but having quotes as part of the actual post-shell argument was causing problems, so the script removes them if they are there.
  • If the search string was not found, it generated a broken XML document, which caused the java XML parser to throw an exception. I reorganized how the output was generated a little bit. Now I don't see XML errors in this case, but I still see null pointer exceptions. I'm not sure what the right way to pass back an error state in the XML to let the STVi know the search string returned no results.
  • Getting it to run with "use strict" (not technically necessary to get things working)
• I realized while testing that if two extenders do something at the exact same time, the tempFeed.xml file might be incorrect or corrupted since all output goes to a single file. Perhaps each extender/client/etc could have it's own file to avoid this conflict? Or maybe the call to UPnP2Podcast only runs in a single thread, and there is no chance of a conflict? I wasn't sure but wanted to bring it up.

[evilpenguin]

Release Notes:

• Fixed missing time at end of videos that have commercials inserted.
• Added "Browse Hulu" to Online Services menu which takes advantage of the new sub-categories and so you can browse by Network and Genre.

The hardest part about this was writing the script that auto-generates the "Browse Hulu" menu, now that i've got the hang of it I should be able to make one for Netflix too.

As always, make sure to back up your customOnlineServices files, as this will overwrite them!

DOWNLOAD

[Taddeusz]

Getting an Invalid File ID error when I try to download it.

[LehighBri]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

Getting an Invalid File ID error when I try to download it.

Try this: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/down...do=file&id=342

[btrcp2000]

Great plugin! Now I can retire my replaytv that I used when sage occasionally misses the wife's shows because I'm "fixing" it.

Working well, except that some shows still have "no videos found" while others from the same source work fine. For example, Big Bang Theory doesn't have any, but the others in that same network category (forget which) work great. Anyone else noticing this?

[oddjob]

Amazing , it works great!

I checked my HD100 extender and I'm watching hulu shows.

thanks

[kchase56]

Originally Posted by HuMan321

I have finally fixed my issue and this works the way it is for most people. I am sharing this for the few that may make the same mistake as me now or in the future.
Running WHS I have always been worried about the small C drive. I found a symlink download from the Playon FAQ that was very easy to use and pointed it to a shared drive in my pool. I knew the symlink was working because I could see the online video file get created and start to grow in size before it errored out. I asked for help to remove the symlink to troubleshoot that portion of it and finally got an answer. I removed this link and now the file is generated on my C drive and works perfectly on even flv files.

I can see the file being created, but it never grows in size. I've tried changing the location of the Temp directory to another drive on my system, but I still get the same results.

I'm starting to think that this might be a problem with Windows Vista 32-bit.

Has anyone been able to run this import with Windows Vista 32-bit?

I'm really not sure what else to try. I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks,

Ken

[evilpenguin]

Release Notes:

• Fixed Hulu shows that began with 'The'
• Removed pointless quotes from links file
• Added graceful way to fail if there are no videos available.

As always, make sure to back up your customOnlineServices files, as this will overwrite them!

DOWNLOAD

[HuMan321]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Release Notes:

• Fixed Hulu shows that began with 'The'
• Removed pointless quotes from links file
• Added graceful way to fail if there are no videos available.

As always, make sure to back up your customOnlineServices files, as this will overwrite them!

DOWNLOAD

This is better than ever!!!
Thanks EP!

I don't know if this is a Playon question or not so I will start here. Does anyone notice that Playon does not give up the processor after you stop watching online video content? I have a quad core and see the playon server use about 25% or so when it starts up. It usually goes down a little and jumps back and forth. After stopping watching content the processor stays jumping up to 25% on the MediaMall server. I have waited wondering if it was finishing a buffer, but it never stops unless you stop Playon from the settings screen.

[Zippster]

Originally Posted by HuMan321

This is better than ever!!!
Thanks EP!

I don't know if this is a Playon question or not so I will start here. Does anyone notice that Playon does not give up the processor after you stop watching online video content? I have a quad core and see the playon server use about 25% or so when it starts up. It usually goes down a little and jumps back and forth. After stopping watching content the processor stays jumping up to 25% on the MediaMall server. I have waited wondering if it was finishing a buffer, but it never stops unless you stop Playon from the settings screen.

I noticed the same and monitored it, it did eventually go back down, upon reading around about it, best I could figure out was that playon continued to process the video you selected whether you quit it or not, so it would continue until complete.

[Zippster]

Nice work as usual EP, couple quick observations, typo in the main Hulu menu, says Browe Hulu, missing the s.

Also when browsing Hulu, when I go back, it takes me back to main menu vs subcategory's, so I have to select Browse Hulu again, then my category, and each time.

[lovingHDTV]

I just installed on my server but it is too weak to handle PlayOn. It's a Sempron 3300+ with 1GB of memory.

So I'd like to install PlayOn on my client box, which is plenty powerful enough to handle it. The issue being my client box is only on when I'm watching something. Is the disappearance of the PlayOn server going to cause fits for the sage server?

I assume I still have to install the STVi on the server and on the client to get this to work. It's just that the client will also be the PlayOn server, kinda wierd but that's what I got to work with.

I don't want to do this if it will cause issues on my server though.

thanks,
dave

[evilpenguin]

That'll work fine, just install PlayOn and the Plug-in on the client and don't install anything on the server.

[lovingHDTV]

Ok I got it going, but I see everything has both vertical and horizontal black bars. Is there a way to get PlayOn to not do this? I tried the different aspect ratio settings, hoping that fill would fix it, but it doesn't fill is the same as 16:9 for me.

I typically keep the aspect ratio set to source.

thanks,
dave

P.S. - in the end I just installed PlayOn on a different computer so that the kids could use it on the Wii upstairs.

[gibsonpa]

Originally Posted by Zippster

I noticed the same and monitored it, it did eventually go back down, upon reading around about it, best I could figure out was that playon continued to process the video you selected whether you quit it or not, so it would continue until complete.

I noticed the other day in the PlayOn settings there was a setting about video processing....I'm thinking it "may" determine if processing continues. Could be completely wrong..but thought of it when I read your post. Might be worth checking out.