Based on the posts I just tried again and had no problems.  Anything I pick plays perfect.  I'm certainly not an expert of this product as I have only been using it a few weeks and the last update from Netflix only affected part of the users at first; so who knows. 

The only thing I have as advise (that isn't already said a hundred times in this thread) is monitor/evaluate the performance of the PC as it definantly affects the speed.  If you have Vista use ReadyBoost as this also helps speed, especially with startup times.  (Even though I have only used this product a few weeks it has been on two PCs with different performance etc).  I often had to reboot my older PC to clear up memory etc to help the performance of this app if I had been doing other tasks that didn't kill their resource use even after closing.

In my case, the issue is definitely not performance. This is a dual core machine with 2gb RAM that's only a few months old. It runs everything else just fine, including the latest video games. Since movies eventually play okay, the problem isn't with the player itself. It's something leading up to it playing, as if it's searching for something that isn't there, or timing out trying to do something. Perhaps it's firewall or anti-virus related. I have FFDshow installed but nothing else that I could imagine would even remotely effect MCE.

I'm trying to install this plugin for the first time and after several attempts, I'm about to give up.  When I try to play a movie on Vista Media Center, it just flickers to a screen that says 'Finish' and has buttons for done, restart, and delete.  Eventually, it'll say 'cannot play video'.  When I try to initialize the player on the PC, I hear the intro soundtrack to '2001:Space Oddysey'.  Is this normal?

When I do the same on the xbox, it keeps asking me to reinitialize and gives a codec error.  I've tried several reinstalls and still the same problems.  I can play the movies fine in IE7.  Any ideas?

It doesn't work anymore it worked great yesterday and at night but now it just doesn't work I cant even watch weed's.

I've tried using the Beta 1.0.28R2 without luck. I can watch ok from my VMC machine but not from the Extender.

When I start up the extender, it will ask me to initialize, but it does not ask the question about Cloning.

It does not ask any questions at all.

After about 30 seconds it says the extender has been set up and the movie menu comes up, but when I attempt to play one, it gives me an "Unknown Player Error. Would you like to re-initialize the player and try again?" I choose yes. After a while it says the player has been initialized but the same error comes up again.

I've tried uninstalling and re-installing, turning off my AV, etc. but no luck.

 

Frank

 jennyfur  I have FFDshow also.  That's not it.  I don't know what else to suggest except go into the player options and clear the cache.  That has helped me before.

snapcoyote Be very methodical.  Web browser, then local pc, then 360.  Verify each step works and then move to the next.  Detailed instructions are at the author's web site.  You will need to start it up twice on the local pc for it to get a message telling you it OK to begin extender setup before the 360 will work.  It's been said in this thread that they use 2001 to initialize the player.

_Frank_  Try clearing the cache and reseting the extender on the 360.  When you go back in it should ask you to use the clone.  At playback it may need to initialize a few times until it all sycs up again.

Hope this helps

-Robert

So now when I play it on my pc it trys to load it then shows "file" with a Finished button. Worked great the last 2 days, have restarted my pc and everything. Was able to watch the entire 2nd season of heroes as well as most of season 1 of weeds until today. Nothing really changed, I'm stumped.

Dasavior:

So now when I play it on my pc it trys to load it then shows "file" with a Finished button. Worked great the last 2 days, have restarted my pc and everything. Was able to watch the entire 2nd season of heroes as well as most of season 1 of weeds until today. Nothing really changed, I'm stumped.

I don't have any ideas.  Mine's working fine, extender and all.  Wish I could have helped.

-Robert

If playback is failing immediately, the player is not finding the file because you have the movie info cached and netflix has moved it. Go to settings -> movie player -> and clear the cache.

Because of the different CDN providers, different areas will have their cache info going stale at different times, hence the "works for me" reports.

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If you can't see the fnord, it can't eat you.

Was hoping that was my issue. Cleared the cache but still just comes up after clicking play saying "File" then a Done, Restart or Delete option, all of which do nothing.

Also, anyone know where my netflix movies are stored once I download them? Was going to do some playing around and see if it's possible to burn em to a disc or something, but can't find them anywhere.

Dasavior:

Also, anyone know where my netflix movies are stored once I download them? Was going to do some playing around and see if it's possible to burn em to a disc or something, but can't find them anywhere.

\Users\Pubic\Video\NetFlix

Search the thread for instructions on how to edit the registry to change the location if you want to move it.

To burn to DVD and play as a DVD in a standalone player (that's what you're after?), you'd need to crack Windows Media DRM. Just burning to a DVD to archive the file would be no problem, but you'd need a license check from NetFlix if you ever tried to play it in the future.

_Frank_:

When I start up the extender, it will ask me to initialize, but it does not ask the question about Cloning.

It does not ask any questions at all.

After about 30 seconds it says the extender has been set up and the movie menu comes up, but when I attempt to play one, it gives me an "Unknown Player Error. Would you like to re-initialize the player and try again?" I choose yes. After a while it says the player has been initialized but the same error comes up again.

CmraLvr2:

_Frank_  Try clearing the cache and reseting the extender on the 360.  When you go back in it should ask you to use the clone.  At playback it may need to initialize a few times until it all sycs up again.

Hope this helps

-Robert

Thanks for the tip Robert, but clearing the cache and resetting the Extender did not change anything. Maybe I should try 28R1 instead of 28R2?

Frank

[Update]

Well, I finally got it working. I had changed several setting, (bitrate, extender timeout) and finally it worked. I went back and reset those settings to their original values and it still worked, so I don't think that was the problem. I think it was just a case of needing to repeat it several times as mentioned in the instructions. What was (is) confusing is that during the setup it never asked me to clone so I thought the process was broken somehow.

Anyways, it working now. Fantastically useful.

Frank

 

Dasavior:

Was hoping that was my issue. Cleared the cache but still just comes up after clicking play saying "File" then a Done, Restart or Delete option, all of which do nothing.

I am having the exact same problem Dasavior.  It seemed to start yesterday, and the only system changes that I made were 3 Windows Auto updates this week.  I am not sure if one of those updates is causing some problems, but I have also had my extenders lock up several times while changing channels since installing those updates yuesterday.

I can't even get vmcNetflix to work in MC on my pc.  Same result.

Is anyone else experiencing similiar problems with vmcNetflix or live tv since installing this weeks updates? 

(Update for Windows Vista (KB955020) Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool - July 2008 (KB890830))
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=39987
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955020

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Dell XPS 420 - Vista Ultimate x86
2 x ATI Digital Cable Tuners
HDHomerun Tuner
1.75 TB storage

Xbox 360 + 40" Sony Bravia XBR4 LCD = Living Room
Xbox 360 + 50" Samsung Plasma = Media Room
Linksys DM2200 + 27" Sony Wega = Bedroom

I really like the tool and the download feature but I have found it to be increadably slow, launching and loading movie detials.  I don't use a extender, computer directly attahed to HDTV.  Computer is 7 months old with Vista 64 bit, 2 G ram and AMD dual core 2400BE processor.  I know it is not my internet connection since the MyNetflix is lightening fast in comparison.