Plugin :: PlayOn Hulu/Netflix Queue Importer

[evilpenguin]

Locking down thread, for all futher issues use the new main thread...


Overview:

PlayOn Queue Importer is a Standard plugin that runs nightly to scan your Netflix/Hulu queues and imports all of the Movies/TV into SageTV for seemless navigation and playback though the Videos/Recordings menu. The content is still streamed, but bringing it into Sage's database like this allows it to be scraped for metadata and organized, searched, and navigated in new and exciting ways.

DEMO VIDEO

If you're having any problems, check out the FAQ post below...

Setup:

None Everything should work right out of the box. Once you install the plugin it'll automatically add its own import path and run the first scan. Then it'll rerun every night (1am by default) to add/remove content. There are some configuration options, but the defaults should work fine for most people.

Sage MyMovies Plugin:

See this thread for info on to get this content into the MyMovies plugin.

BMT:

To get the most out of this plugin you'll want BMT installed and configured to automatically scrape new content. Optionally, if you really want to crank things to 11, you can also set BMT to automatically move your imported TV straight into the Sage Recordings menu.

How it works:

The way the plugin works is that every night it scans your queues and for all the content it finds it creates a properly named, very small, dummy video along with a .playon file in its own private SageTV import path. Then on its next media scan, sage will find these new videos, import them, and pass them onto BMT for metadata scraping. Finally, when you go to playback one of these dummy videos Sage will see the corresponding .playon file, call UPnPBrowser to get the actual video link, and then play it back like an online video.

Check out this screenshot of the source code for more details.

Thanks:

Everyone be sure and thank PluckyHD for doing the heavy lifting on the Java side of the plugin

[evilpenguin]

Generating a Log File:

If you're not seeing any Netflix/Hulu videos being imported Sage TV i'll need to see a log file generated like this...

1. In the PlayOn For SageTV:Netflix/Hulu Queue Importer configuration menu, make sure that PlayOn AutoUpdate is set to true, and then click the Update Now button.
2. Wait a few minutes...
3. Grab the file ...\SageTV\SageOnlineServicesEXEs\UPnPBrowser.log file, zip it up, and attach it to this thread along with a post explaining the problem you're having.

However, if the videos are showing up, however when you play them back Sage is telling you that it is unable to download the video i'll need to see a log file generated like this...

1. Completely shutdown and restart SageTV.
2. Wait at least 2 minutes after Sage is fully started and then try playing back one of the PlayOn videos from the Imported Video or Sage Recordings menu.
3. Make a zip file that contains ...\SageTV\sagetv_0.txt and ...\SageTV\SageOnlineServicesEXEs\UPnPBrowser.log file and attach it to this thread along with a post explaining the problem you're having

FAQ:

Every time I try and play a something from Netflix/Hulu it plays back a video that says... “You shouldn't be seeing this, check to make sure you have the PlayOn plugin installed!”.

If you're seeing that video rather than the actual streaming one then it means you don't have the the latest PlayOn For SageTV: STVi (v1.4) plugin installed from the UI Mod section of the plugin manager.

If I'm watching a show off PlayOn on one extender and someone else starts a show off PlayOn on another extender, why does the first one stop?

PlayOn cannot stream more than one show to the same IP address at a time. And although you're watching on separate extenders, its your Sage Server that's doing the actual downloading so they all look like a single PC to PlayOn. And, even if I could get around that limitation, there's also the bigger problem that Netflix also won't allow you to stream multiple shows to the same WAN IP. All and all, I've deemed it not worth the effort and its just a limitation people are going to need to work around. Sorry!

[GKusnick]

I'd suggest allowing users to specify the run time to the minute (e.g. 1:37) so that you don't have background tasks kicking off right at the top of the hour when recordings are likely to be starting or stopping.

[VikingCrown]

So if you wanted it to only show up in videos, you would make sure BMT scraped for new media but did not bring it in as recordings? Also if it comes in as a recording, but the file has since expired will it be removed from the recordings screen?

[PLUCKYHD]

Great work on this ep I did very little you are the mastermind behind all of this.

Also ploxee will be able to filter online tv content as also smm will be able to have a netflix only view or include it in all other views.

Basicaly ploxee will include any tv shows from netflix or hulu in with your other recorded and imported tv. As well as it will filter out Any episodes you already own. This will allow a boxes type interaction will your owned tv shows and online ones. You should have full contol of what all you want to show i ploxeeeTV by team ortus.

Smm will the same for movies from both source in the next release as well as long ad you turn on mymovies mode and have mymovies collection manager monitoring the folder that this plugin is using for mymovies.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by Naylia

Fails on install, doesn't prompt for UI Restart or Sage Restart

It shouldn't prompt for a restart because it is adding a new jar. Can;t help on the fail...Without a server log.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by VikingCrown

So if you wanted it to only show up in videos, you would make sure BMT scraped for new media but did not bring it in as recordings?

Yep, and that's BMT's default. Personally, I don't bring them into Recordings menu because the plugin does such a nice job organizing the content in to folders...

Movies\Movie (1990).mkv
TV\Series\Season\Series S##E## - Episode.mkv

And you lose that when your make it a recording. Pretty soon that won't be an issue though as Ortus/Phoenix/Ploxee/MyMovies are planning on doing some rich metadata based organization that combines imported video/recordings.

Originally Posted by VikingCrown

Also if it comes in as a recording, but the file has since expired will it be removed from the recordings screen?

Yep, once something is expired in Netflix/Hulu its removed from your queue. Then on the next nightly scan the plugin will recognize that and remove it from the file system which Sage should pick up the next time it does its media scan.

[wrems]

You guys rock! Haven't installed this yet but I will. This plugin sounds sweet. Thank you and good job to both you and Plucky.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by wrems

You guys rock! Haven't installed this yet but I will. This plugin sounds sweet. Thank you and good job to both you and Plucky.

Thanks but I honestly deserve no credit on this I just helped with the plugin implementation side, evil is the genius and mastermind behind this I am still amazed at how well it works and what it does he really outdid himself.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Odd, UPnPBrowser v1.4 is showing up in my repository (I even deleted my dev.xml)


Also, make sure you update to the latest PlayOn STVi as well (which should also pull down UPnPBrowser v1.4).

EP,

I am not seeing 1.4 for my plugins either..Did you list that version as a dependency?

[evilpenguin]

Hmm, somethings gotta be caching the original download since I left the download filename the same. No problem, i'll just spin up a new release (v1.4.2) with a new filename and that should fix *everything*. Once it works, could you do me a favor and delete these posts, I hate having the first page a thread be flooded with wacky release problems

[Naylia]

Yay!! Plugin works great!

One thought - is there any way for the plugin to cleanup after itself? If I remove the plugin and delete the entries created in the specified folder, I still have all of the links in my Video->Titles section and all the tv shows in TV.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Once it works, could you do me a favor and delete these posts, I hate having the first page a thread be flooded with wacky release problems

I'd argue that prospective users are better served by leaving everything out there in plain view, warts and all, even after the initial problems have been cleared up. Watching how plugin devs deal with these sorts of issues can be useful info in deciding which plugins to install. So in my opinion users are entitled to see the entire history, not the sanitized version.

[evilpenguin]

Good call I should be deleting the videos on uninstall. As for the entires disappearing, that should just happen naturally once Sage sees the files are missing just like with any other imported video.

[toricred]

I'm no longer seeing the Hulu, etc. listings under Online. Is that normal? I'm trying to make sure it's seeing the playon server I've got running.

[banmj]

Originally Posted by toricred

I'm no longer seeing the Hulu, etc. listings under Online. Is that normal? I'm trying to make sure it's seeing the playon server I've got running.

I ran an update from system messages, and I m not seeing it anymore either.

[evilpenguin]

Hmm, Hulu/Netflix/PlayOn is still showing up in my Online menu Make sure that the PlayOn STVi is still installed, updated (v1.4), and enabled.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

I'd argue that prospective users are better served by leaving everything out there in plain view, warts and all, even after the initial problems have been cleared up.

Oh, if it was actually bugs with the plugin i'd let them stay because they could be relevant/regress. But this was just an issue of me accidentally zipping up the wrong directory for release and then prolly Naylia's Google Code CDN not updating the download fast enough. Very boring/mundane stuff taking up like 10 posts

[ohpleaseno]

This is going to drastically change how my children watch television.

Fantastic work. Thanks so much.

[talbot3]

Evilpenguin,

For some reason the upnpbrowser cannot create TV dummy files. I have firgured out that it will not create the file if it has to create nested folders to put the file in. For example if there is no \TV folder it will not add any TV files, but If I create the \TV folder and run the update, the files that do not have a season will be added (\tv\series\series-xxx.mk). If I then create the folder \tv\series\ and run the update, the files that correspond to that series will be create (\tv\series\season\series-xxx.mkv). I am thinking this is some sort of windows permissions issue, but I have not been able to resolve it. Any ideas?