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

[Bandit]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Specifically what videos does it fail on.

Also, if you go 30-60 minutes in the same video folder without re-loading the list the links go bad and are no longer valid. In those cases try leaving leaving the folder and reentering it so that the video list gets regenerated with fresh links.

ep - Any video in HULU fails now. I watched, well started to watch "100 Girls" and stopped after 15 minutes or so, already saw the movie before and was just testing. Then I went to bed and tried on my HD100. Every video failed, no matter what one I tried. Said screw it, will mess with it in the morning. Morning same thing on the HD100, came downstairs to the Hd200 that worked and same thing, no video under any HULU section works.

[simonen]

Try force rebuild and reload of the STVi in setup>detailed setup>advanced>manage stvi plugins. Not sure if it will help or not, but worth a try.

[Bandit]

Originally Posted by simonen

Try force rebuild and reload of the STVi in setup>detailed setup>advanced>manage stvi plugins. Not sure if it will help or not, but worth a try.

If you were talking to me, yeah, already tried that, no change.

[chrisc983]

first off as everyone else said great job!! I've been waiting for this and I'm that much closer to buying another hd200. Now the issue I am having is with netflix. Video playback is fine but no sound!?!? I'm able to get sound with hulu and other online services, just not with netflix movies. I updated playon to latest version already.

Also, but less important is their a way to make a shortcut to that movies folder in SageMC or do I have to go to online services>movies? Thanks and again great job.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by chrisc983

first off as everyone else said great job!! I've been waiting for this and I'm that much closer to buying another hd200. Now the issue I am having is with netflix. Video playback is fine but no sound!?!? I'm able to get sound with hulu and other online services, just not with netflix movies. I updated playon to latest version already.

Also, but less important is their a way to make a shortcut to that movies folder in SageMC or do I have to go to online services>movies? Thanks and again great job.

You and me both. Even after that latest update that was supposed to fix Netflix sound.

[LehighBri]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

You and me both. Even after that latest update that was supposed to fix Netflix sound.

I would suggest reporting things like this on PlayOn's forums... seems like they continue to fight through Netflix-related issues.

UPDATE: In reading the PlayOn forums, I suggest you use the "support request" feature found in PlayOn Settings.

[tmiranda]

Just an FYI. I installed the latest version of PlayOn (dated 9/28/09 I believe) and can attest that WMP11 is no longer required and it works with IE8 installed.

[ldavis]

Evilpenguin,

I installed your plugin last night and it worked perfectly. Thanks so much for your effort. I saw your post a few pages back regarding Netflix episodic shows not working. You said that the proper fix for this was very difficult to implement and might take some time. You also indicated a much simpler fix by just dumping all episodes into the queue was much more doable but had obvious drawback for some users. Is there a way to implement this as an option or could I set up a custom online feed? Is so how?

[dinki]

Thanks again for all the hardwork put into this plugin. After a rough start with getting PlayOn to work, I managed to get it working much better on another PC. I can happily report that the plugin works great on both my HD200 and MediaMVP. I'm having issues with Netflix, but I'm most certain that it's PlayOn related.

I've noticed that the HD200 standalone offers many more programs (at least for CBS) than is displayed in the plugin. Does it somehow build it's own list whereas you have to manually add the feeds for the plugin? It'd be great to be able to browse all of Hulu rather than adding to the queue, but I'm definitely not complaining.

I hope that the Sage developers are watching this thread and see how much interest it has received. If this isn't an indication of an all out desire for a UPNP player within SageTv then I don't know what is!

[LehighBri]

Originally Posted by dinki

I've noticed that the HD200 standalone offers many more programs (at least for CBS) than is displayed in the plugin. Does it somehow build it's own list whereas you have to manually add the feeds for the plugin?

Yes, the HD200 standalone is a "true" UPnP client in that it discovers UPnP servers (PlayOn) and can browse through the structure of that content dynamically.

Originally Posted by dinki

It'd be great to be able to browse all of Hulu rather than adding to the queue, but I'm definitely not complaining.

Unlike the extenders, Sage PC clients do not currently have UPnP client capabilities, and thus you need to manually build the list of links that appear in Online Services. If you'd like to add more links, you can customize the 2 CustomOnlineVideo files in the "SageTV\SageTV\STVs\SageTV3\OnlineVideos" folder to your heart's desire. Open those files for many of the examples that EP built in... should be fairly straightforward to apply to other content you'd like to watch.

[sbelge]

what does this mean?
3. On the server, make a backup copy of SageTV3.xml!
4. Also on the server, copy that modified STV file, and overwrite SageTV3.xml with it.


and im confused - STV, SageTV MC, STVi etc....
what are the differences?

[ldavis]

Originally Posted by dinki
I've noticed that the HD200 standalone offers many more programs (at least for CBS) than is displayed in the plugin. Does it somehow build it's own list whereas you have to manually add the feeds for the plugin?

You can add these shows via the custom online video feeds properties file that can be found here:

C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\STVs\SageTV3\OnlineVideos\CustomOnlineVideoLinks.properties

To that end, I added the following line in my file:

xFeedPodcastCustom/CBSStarTrek=xPodcastCBSTVShows;"PlayOn:CBS:TV Classics:Star Trek:Full Episodes:+2"

It works but the title of the feed under CBS is "full episodes" and not "Star Trek". Any help understanding the syntax from someone who knows would be appreciated. I think that there are a lot of possibilities though once the syntax is understood.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by Mitch G

FWIW, I'm running this with ... my server where sage server, playon server and squeezecenter are all running.
This is a Core2duo processor running at 1.8GHz...
It works (mostly) fine.

Hulu is fine. Absolutely no problems.

Netflix, though, shows jerky playback on some movies.

How much RAM? I'm sniffing around for a new server.

Also, I don't have Netflix or Amazon VOD - anyone seeing video issues with any of the other sites included here (ESPN, CBS, etc.)? Any of those have higher-res video that could cause issues on barely-meets-minimum-specs machines?

Originally Posted by nyplayer

I have playon running on a another PC other than the Sage Server and it works perfectly no need to change any settings.

Does the PlayOn server need to be a Sage client, or just another PC on the network?

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by ldavis

It works but the title of the feed under CBS is "full episodes" and not "Star Trek". Any help understanding the syntax from someone who knows would be appreciated. I think that there are a lot of possibilities though once the syntax is understood.

Take a look at the other file, CustomOnlineVideoUIText.properties, and it should show you how to get the names to show up properly.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by ldavis

Is there a way to implement this as an option or could I set up a custom online feed? Is so how?

Its really easy, just open STVs\SageTV3\OnlineVideos\CustomOnlineVideoFeedLinks.properties and change this line...

#Movies
xFeedPodcastCustom/NetflixQueue=xPodcastMovies;PlayOn:Netflix:Instant Queue:Queue Top 50:+2

#Movies
xFeedPodcastCustom/NetflixQueue=xPodcastMovies;PlayOn:Netflix:Instant Queue:Queue Top 50:+3

[Mitch G]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

How much RAM? I'm sniffing around for a new server.

3GB RAM
and I was wrong it's a Core2Duo running at 2.2GHz.


Mitch

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

How much RAM? I'm sniffing around for a new server.

Also, I don't have Netflix or Amazon VOD - anyone seeing video issues with any of the other sites included here (ESPN, CBS, etc.)? Any of those have higher-res video that could cause issues on barely-meets-minimum-specs machines?

Does the PlayOn server need to be a Sage client, or just another PC on the network?

It can be any PC on the network no need to have Sage on it.

[ldavis]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Its really easy, just open STVs\SageTV3\OnlineVideos\CustomOnlineVideoFeedLinks.properties and change this line...

Wayyyy too cool. Now my daughter doesn't have to kick me off my computer to watch her Hanna Montana episodes.

[evilpenguin]

It'd be great to be able to browse all of Hulu rather than adding to the queue, but I'm definitely not complaining.

Originally Posted by LehighBri

and thus you need to manually build the list of links that appear in Online Services.

Its tricky because i have to walk a fine line between giving people access to lots of content and flooding the online services menu with content and making it impossible to navigate.

I think the best solution is half automated and half manual. For example, I dumped an online service feed with all of Hulu's content organized by network/studio, but it was incredibly difficult to navigate. First of all, there were just too many networks, about 50. Secondly, a lot shows weren't where you'd expect to find them.

I think the best thing to do is to take this list and use a little thought to customize it. But honestly, I don't really know a good way, so if anyone has any idea's i'd be open to them.

• Where should older TV shows go?
• How about more recent shows that are off the air?
• What about great shows, should they be buried in some random folder, or featured a bit more prominently?

I attached the list I made, if someone wants to take a crack at organizing it, feel free!

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Its tricky because i have to walk a fine line between giving people access to lots of content and flooding the online services menu with content and making it impossible to navigate.

FWIW - I've just started working on a better Online Video browser which (I hope) will make navigation easier. It's just begun and I have no ETA. My initial thoughts are to model it after the "malore" style 2-pane browser (Shows on the left and episodes on the right.) Suggestions welcome.