im also very interested in trying this out....  ive been using the on demand service quite a bit lately to watch some old tv shows i havent seen in ages.  would love to take it off the computer and run it on my media center via xbox360.

I posting mostly to mark the thread so I can find it easier in the future... but I will attempt to test the plug-in on my VMC and 2 v2 extenders (Linksys DMA2200 & 2100) within 24 hours of installing. Thanks for your work on this project, it's a long overdue!

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Silverstone HTPC 16m Case
ATI x1600 PCI-X
Core2 6300
3 GB DDR2
2 Pinnacle HD PCI Cards (800i)
2x80 GB SATA Raid OS Drive
2x750 GB non-raid storage drives

I have just been contacted by a kind soul (Anthony) who has taken over the My Netflix project and re-done it in MCML while adding support for Watch Now.

There are a few issues in the current build and I would recommend holding off until they are fixed (he is working on them as I type this) but I had the time now to tell you about this and I didn't want to miss out on telling you about the new project.

The two issues in question are related to moving to a least privilege registry read of the background add-in, and appropriately updating the gradient of the movie panel and pivot menu (they can vanish as a result of this bug).

With that being said, what Anthony has put together is much better than the my old project IMHO.

See: http://unmitigatedrisk.com/archive/2008/02/10/174.aspx and http://www.anpark.com/index.php/2008/02/10/new-vista-media-center-plugin-mynetflix-beta/.

Show the man some love and donate :)

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Ryan

It down loaded and installed very easily, and overall looks very good. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to support MCE extenders (XBOX 360).

Bill.:

It down loaded and installed very easily, and overall looks very good. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to support MCE extenders (XBOX 360).

I am running privates that fix that issue, the next beta release he does will work fine on extenders; though I have not yet tried watch it now I can confirm queue management works from the extender.

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Ryan

It seems I was a bit premature, it took a couple of minutes but the NetFix plug-in in avaliable from the extender. My problem now is how to set the Netflix username and password for the extender. I'll contact the author and get back to you.

Bill.:

It seems I was a bit premature, it took a couple of minutes but the NetFix plug-in in avaliable from the extender. My problem now is how to set the Netflix username and password for the extender. I'll contact the author and get back to you.

You will need the fixed version for it to work on the extender, it cant read the username/password for your account due to a permissions issue; this has been fixed though; download it again the version up there now has the fix.

BTW so far I cant seem to get watch it now to work on the extender.

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Ryan

Ryan Hurst:

Bill.:

It seems I was a bit premature, it took a couple of minutes but the NetFix plug-in in avaliable from the extender. My problem now is how to set the Netflix username and password for the extender. I'll contact the author and get back to you.

You will need the fixed version for it to work on the extender, it cant read the username/password for your account due to a permissions issue; this has been fixed though; download it again the version up there now has the fix.

BTW so far I cant seem to get watch it now to work on the extender.

I have confimed that at this time it does not support watch it now over the extender, he is exploring options that would enable this though.

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Ryan

Can't ask for too many options.  I'm about to try it out.  Exciting stuff!

gobanjoboy, regardless of how well this new My Netflix works, it appears to be Vista only.  So I'm sure there are many MCE 2005 users still looking forward to your work.

EDIT:  I just tried it out.  Very slick and promising.  The installer gave me an error, but seemed to work fine anyways.  Unfortunately the beta is somewhat unsuable at the current stage.  Mainly due to the fact that there is no fullscreen for "watch now" without a mouse (the author is working on that according to the release notes).  I shouldn't say "unsuable" - it's just that requiring a mouse somewhat defeats the purpose and negates any advantage over just using IE.  I look forward to the next version.

Also, it's missing a critical list: "Watch Now from My Queue".  I'm a user of the MediaPortal Netflix plugin, and I found that's the list I use 95% of the time.  Given what a limited content library "Watch Now" has, the movies in your queue are obviously the most important.  It's cool they just added "Superman" and some other big titles, but I've already seen Superman.  I have like 30 movies in my queue available for instant viewing that I haven't seen but want to.  Those are the ones I want easy access to.

From what I could tell, there's also no search capability.  The MediaPortal plugin can do this (and it can search just from Watch Now titles).  Before I give the wrong idea, I don't mean to pimp the MP plugin too much.  It has plenty of problems and most users can't get fullscreen on that either without a mouse.

My only other constructive critisism would be that the cake of this plugin is still queue management, while Watch Now is just the icing on the cake.  The Watch Now lists are last.  So that's an extra 5 steps every time you load the plugin.  I think Watch Now functionality is clearly far more useful and important than queue management to 95% of the users.  Queue management had a cool "gee-whiz" factor in 2004 or 05 when this plugin (and the Meedio one) came out.  But in all those years I've only used it a handful of times.  Managing the queue on the TV is not too important.  Watching movies on the TV is.  So naturally I would think the Watch Now lists should be first.

I'm certainly not complaining.  I know these plugins will be donationware at most.  So my gratitude goes out to both developers, and I will be donating to whichever one (or both) I end up using.

I agree with everything said here

lifterus:

Can't ask for too many options.  I'm about to try it out.  Exciting stuff!
EDIT:  I just tried it out.  Very slick and promising.  The installer gave me an error, but seemed to work fine anyways.  Unfortunately the beta is somewhat unsuable at the current stage.  Mainly due to the fact that there is no fullscreen for "watch now" without a mouse (the author is working on that according to the release notes).  I shouldn't say "unsuable" - it's just that requiring a mouse somewhat defeats the purpose and negates any advantage over just using IE.  I look forward to the next version.

Also, it's missing a critical list: "Watch Now from My Queue". 

I'm certainly not complaining.  I know these plugins will be donationware at most.  So my gratitude goes out to both developers, and I will be donating to whichever one (or both) I end up using.

agreed - i also got an error from the installer, but i clicked on continue and it seemed to continue to install with no problems.

i also am unable to watch movies in fullscreen without using the mouse.  but i also have another odd issue.  whenever i go to watch a "watch it now" movie, weather its via your plugin or by going directly through netflix.com, it pulls up the player screen and then a window pops up saying that i do not have the license for the movie (or something like that), so i click OK and i get another screen that says its acquiring the license, and after a few seconds, a "Play" button is available.  i click the play button and then the movie plays.  any idea whats up with that?  is everyone getting that?

and i also agree that it would be nice to have a view showing the watch it now titles from my queue.

but for me the biggest things that would make it a killer app for me are:
1) getting rid of the acquiring license windows
2) watching in fullscreen without using the mouse
3) watch it now support for xbox360 extenders

also - it would be really slick and intuitive if you were able to pause the movie using the pause button on the mce remote.  and since it is streaming content i can see where it would be tricky to fast forward and rewind but maybe you could jump back ahead in certain increments by using the skip buttons on the remote?  just a thought.

excellent work so far and i look forward to seeing how this progresses.

The acquiring license shouldn't happen more than once. This is a DRM issue with the Netflix player and has nothing to do with the plugin. I'd call Netflix and tell them what's going on (using IE, not the plugin of course).

The fullscreen is a no-brainer. He's fixing it according to the release notes.

Play/pause is also a no-brainer. I would assume he's adding that and I'm shocked it's not even there. It just needs to send a "spacebar" command.

The MC Extender thing is probably never going to happen with this version of the Netflix Player. The author of MyNetflix says he may have a workaround, but I doubt it would be legal.

Netflix just announced their player will be available on Xbox Live (and PS3), so there may not even be a need for MC extender support.

lifterus:

Netflix just announced their player will be available on Xbox Live (and PS3), so there may not even be a need for MC extender support.

the xbox 360 is not the only media center extender ...

I just bought the LinkSysDMA2100 Media Center Extender from Circuit City so I can watch my downloaded content and recorded tv shows. The DMA2100 is doing exactly what I want it to do now. But as for watching Netflix movies and content through the extender I do not know if this is possible. I have read this thread over and over again and it is still unclear as to,1) Are you able to watch movies through your extenders, 2) Is it a full screen. 3) Any other problems?

Also Vongo seemed like the next alternative but, Vongo does not have the library that netflix has. To bad the two companies are not merged.

True, but the vast majority are those with the Xbox 360.

IMHO, I haven't bought into the whole extender thing. You can find/build small quiet PCs for a similar price. There are $80 motherboard with integrated Nvidia graphics (many even have HDMI audio). And there are other ways to do a mult-room setup that aren't crippled by DRM issues (check out the HDMI matrix switch on monoprice.com).

Extenders are good for people with CableCARD Media Centers (all five of them). And for those who require wireless. Not much else though.

lifterus:

True, but the vast majority are those with the Xbox 360. IMHO, I haven't bought into the whole extender thing. You can find/build small quiet PCs for a similar price. There are $80 motherboard with integrated Nvidia graphics (many even have HDMI audio). And there are other ways to do a mult-room setup that aren't crippled by DRM issues (check out the HDMI matrix switch on monoprice.com). Extenders are good for people with CableCARD Media Centers (all five of them). And for those who require wireless. Not much else though.

pc is a horrible way to do things imo until softsled comes out (if ever).  maybe its me but the best thing media center offers is one recorded tv list, guide, scheduled recordings list that can be managed from any tv in the house.  i know you can get around the recorded tv list but not the other stuff (atleast seamlessly). 

its also great for the gamers too who can have their tv and games in one device.

i only have extenders (360's) in my house... with a centralized vmce server that they all read content from.