I noticed that too.I uninstalled and reinstalled and nothing shows up in my watch-now queue.Turns out you have to not only uninstall through the control panel but also manually by searching for everything on the uninstall list.I did this, reinstalled it and now everything is working normally concerning the queues.Now I am having a problem with the streaming.Some movies work,some don't.

I completely uninstalled and rolled back, no dice, cant stream anything now.  will debug later tonight, btw like the code change for the queues

jboutcast:

I noticed that too.I uninstalled and reinstalled and nothing shows up in my watch-now queue.Turns out you have to not only uninstall through the control panel but also manually by searching for everything on the uninstall list.I did this, reinstalled it and now everything is working normally concerning the queues.Now I am having a problem with the streaming.Some movies work,some don't.

I was looking over the read only code this morning and noticed some of the hardcoded pages in the app no longer point to the proper pages on the netflix site. I'm not sure if the read only code is behind the actualy code and im not familiar with the code either to know everything, but the one place  i found http references to netflix it was wrong. Netflix changed the default page for things like the top 50 watch now to begin with "Wi" instead of the older longer names.

This type of thing, while not common is exactly how netflix could screw with unauthorized apps. Its a relatively simple process to change a few page names and upset vmcnetflix. The only thing keeping them from doing it more often are legitimate users who bookmark pages.

I'd like to join the developer list. I'm not sure how much time i can devote, but i think the app needs some more dynamic ways of dealing with things like this. Searching the code, then editing it for minor netflix site changes then recompiling so everyone can reinstall is a bulky process and im sure it is wearing on Eric doing so many support fixes ALL the time. I still think reworking things to function sort of like an antivirus programs auto updater would help alleviate a bunch of work and tremendously speed up fixes. Any active project developer could update soemthing like an mdb file and the app would see a new modified date, download it and use it instead of hard coded urls and parseing strings. Again, i have no clue of how the actual parseing is done but having the app load an outside "definition" file for how it should parse could help compartmentalize a major error prone part of the app and make quick non-compiled changes be easier. There have been enough changes by netflix where the type of things thier changing should be recognizable enough to pull out for a parse config file.

jboutcast:

I noticed that too.I uninstalled and reinstalled and nothing shows up in my watch-now queue.Turns out you have to not only uninstall through the control panel but also manually by searching for everything on the uninstall list.I did this, reinstalled it and now everything is working normally concerning the queues.Now I am having a problem with the streaming.Some movies work,some don't.

I did this too - at least, I call myself doing it. :) I followed the uninstall instructions, rebooted, reinstalled vmcNetFlix, rebooted, and reset my user/pass, and still no Instant Queue. I have UAC disabled, also, and added *.netflix.com to Trusted Sites, and added an exception for the Download Service to the Windows Firewall (still doesn't work with the firewall off, so no joy). I'm pretty much stumped, and I really don't want to reinstall Vista if I don't have to.

jennyfur:

....But yes, my DVD queue is very large. Like 230 movies large. My instant queue is practically non-existent though.

230 movies!?!?! i would be lucky to find even 10% of that on a good day! Seriously though, how do people find that many unseen movies to add to thier que? It's going to take years to cycle through that many via mail.

Since this appears so prevalent i have another suggestion. I'm not sure how many people actually use the vmcnetflix plugin to log on and manage thier in the mail ques, but maybe pulling those features out would increase load times and reliability? I would imagine most people are using this app in order to view watch now movies on thier tvs, not so much for que managment. Even i don't manage my watch now que form the app. Most of the time it's quicker to just pull up the site, search and add stuff to my instant que there. Maybe if i had a keyboard hooked to my 360 it would work better, but the process and load times via an extender just aren't conduscive to manageing ques.

I could be wrong about that and maybe most people do like having que managing abilities. However hvaing a "lite" version could be something to think about where the only thing in it is the watch now stuff and the functions to support it e.g. searching, instant que, etc..

Thats basically what I had done until the latest build however the latest build deals with the ques very nicely and efficiently, cost no more than a couple seconds even with a large list.

I have  a problem I would appreciate any input on.  I have two Vista Ultimate machines.  First one has no extenders and is pre-SP1.  VMCNetflix is working fine on that one.  The second one has SP1 (with very little other software loaded) and two Xbox 360 extenders.  I cannot get VMCNetflix to play a streaming movie.  It will play downloaded movies and the extenders will also. 

 

I am on 1.1.3 (version with URL password encoding).  I can play Watch Now movies through IE7 on both machines.  The symptom on the second machine is that is just keeps repeating the playback screen with Done, Restart, Delete and shows the filename at the top (eventually saying it cannot find video file).  

 

I tried disabling UAC, uninstalling VMCNetflix, uninstalling my extenders, reinstalling my extenders and reinstalling VMCNetflix but I still get the same results.  I tried lowering the Bitrate for Streaming also, even though I get 1440 no problem on the first machine.

 

I've been pulling my hair out and would appreciate any help.

eluttmann1:

I'm wondering if it's possible that the addition of URL encoding of the password is causing issues ... those having issues, would it be possible that you have some special (anything but alpha numeric) characters?

- EricL

Not the case with mine.

Actually I just let it go the other day, took about 8 mins with the spinning disk and then it finally showed up.

I can see movies in Watch New, but not Watch Now.

nogoer:

jennyfur:

....But yes, my DVD queue is very large. Like 230 movies large. My instant queue is practically non-existent though.

230 movies!?!?! i would be lucky to find even 10% of that on a good day! Seriously though, how do people find that many unseen movies to add to thier que? It's going to take years to cycle through that many via mail.

Since this appears so prevalent i have another suggestion. I'm not sure how many people actually use the vmcnetflix plugin to log on and manage thier in the mail ques, but maybe pulling those features out would increase load times and reliability? I would imagine most people are using this app in order to view watch now movies on thier tvs, not so much for que managment. Even i don't manage my watch now que form the app. Most of the time it's quicker to just pull up the site, search and add stuff to my instant que there. Maybe if i had a keyboard hooked to my 360 it would work better, but the process and load times via an extender just aren't conduscive to manageing ques.

I could be wrong about that and maybe most people do like having que managing abilities. However hvaing a "lite" version could be something to think about where the only thing in it is the watch now stuff and the functions to support it e.g. searching, instant que, etc..

I add, edit my DVD que from this app.  I'll probably use it to add to my instant que for the fall 360 Netflix update for my Kids to watch movies on their 360 with me controlling what they can watch.  I'll have to wait and see what works best, but this app works fast on my setup for all the functions and I would be in the full user camp and not interested in a lite version.  It is an excellent idea though.

BTW, I did some cleanup of apps etc on my box and this has been rock stable since then, even on the 360.

-Robert

nogoer:

jennyfur:

....But yes, my DVD queue is very large. Like 230 movies large. My instant queue is practically non-existent though.

230 movies!?!?! i would be lucky to find even 10% of that on a good day! Seriously though, how do people find that many unseen movies to add to thier que? It's going to take years to cycle through that many via mail.

Yes, exactly. It will take years. And it took years to get to that many... I've been a Netflix member since 2001. That's 7 years of accumulated movies, without even adding more than a 2 a month to get to that point. I also don't watch that many that often. And I use the recommendations frequently, as well as have a lot of friends on the service who do reviews/friend recommendations that I often end up adding movies as a result (and funny enough, most of them have WAY more in their queues than I do). Netflix has a wide variety of foreign movies and anime that I would otherwise never even know about. I also add movies to my "saved list" when they're out in theaters if I know I probably won't bother to spend the $ on a theater ticket. That way I won't forget about them by the time they hit DVD.

Also, some of these things are series disks. A lot of anime, or TV series I never got to see while they aired. You burn through them more quickly than movies, and you can add an entire set to your queue with just one click. They add up fast. And of course every once in awhile you purge a bunch from your list, I've been known to delete a ton that I'd realized I just kept reordering lower in my queue repeatedly over the years.

Like you, I also prefer managing my queue from the website. I guess it's nice to have the option to do it in vmcNetflix though, even though I don't use it. I'm sure some people do use it though. However my primary use of it is just Watch Now.

jennyfur:

nogoer:

jennyfur:

....But yes, my DVD queue is very large. Like 230 movies large. My instant queue is practically non-existent though.

230 movies!?!?! i would be lucky to find even 10% of that on a good day! Seriously though, how do people find that many unseen movies to add to thier que? It's going to take years to cycle through that many via mail.

Yes, exactly. It will take years. And it took years to get to that many... I've been a Netflix member since 2001. That's 7 years of accumulated movies, without even adding more than a 2 a month to get to that point. I also don't watch that many that often. And I use the recommendations frequently, as well as have a lot of friends on the service who do reviews/friend recommendations that I often end up adding movies as a result (and funny enough, most of them have WAY more in their queues than I do). Netflix has a wide variety of foreign movies and anime that I would otherwise never even know about. I also add movies to my "saved list" when they're out in theaters if I know I probably won't bother to spend the $ on a theater ticket. That way I won't forget about them by the time they hit DVD.

3 movies at a time
2 times a week
gets you ~300 movies a year.
I don't have cable and didn't bother to hook up an antenna

Well obviously I wasn't starting with a completely empty queue, people always add a bunch when they first join. But I hardly even watch two a month lately so they've just been adding up. I too don't have cable. Especially unnecessary when over the air HD is free and I've got an HTPC ;)

But anyways, the 1.1.3r3 version of vmcNetflix runs great on my PC. Probably the smoothest version so far. No load times longer than about 15 seconds (except sometimes when starting the actual movie, but it's still a reasonable wait). However, on the extender, I'm still getting the codec error. Only now when I say yes to reinitialize, it just sits at the spinning circle indefinitely. I will try again to completely uninstall and reinstall/add extender over again to see if that helps.

I uninstalled 1.1.2r3 and installed 1.1.3r3. Cannot find it on my PC,but it is working great on my 360.Watch now queues and instant now queues load up right away. Watched 4 movies and documentaries and just had to restart my 360 once when a movie failed to initialize.Movie worked after the restart.Just can't figure out why vmcNetflix is not showing up in  Media Center.

Update on the extender. After deleting it and readding it twice, it did something it's never done before. Usually when it asks to clone the license it just moves through the menus itself and I haven't been able to click anything (this was true in all prior versions as well). Well this time it let me actually answer the prompts myself. I thought that would be a good thing, that maybe the codec error was more like a DRM issue due to using a separate license instead of cloning the one from the PC (because it always stated it god a new one). Eager, I waited to see what would happen next. But alas, it just hangs at the spinning circle. Won't even run at all. I went back to the dashboard, then tried to run the extender session again and use the program. Still nothing. So what looked promisnig at first, didn't result in anything good. Guess I'll uninstall the extender again and hope it just picks up a new license like it usual does. What's the license limit Netflix imposes, anyway? Assuming it imposes one. I don't want to go beyond it.

jennyfur:

What's the license limit Netflix imposes, anyway? Assuming it imposes one. I don't want to go beyond it.

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