New External App: Netflix Viewer

[dhgb256]

DAMN!!!

Why did they have to change so drastically? This sucks. I know I haven't be here too often, but I would like to say thanks again for such a great application. To bad that Netflix just can't stick with something and keep both the US and Canadian common.

Hopefully one day this will work again.

Actually, I am hoping to get the Canadian version up and running after I fix the US version. Jakeson is setting up a VPN for me, so I can test the program on the actual Canadian site. So keep checking in on the forum, I'll post a message once everything is working again. I'm about 1/2 way done with the US version right now.

[dhgb256]

OK, everything should be back up and running with the new API version. I also fixed the episode lists, so I'm happy. Please test this verison for me, I really pushed this out, so I may have missed some stuff.

Canadian users DO NOT UPGRADE, this verions will not work for you!

-DH

[mikeh49]

Just tried out the latest version, and it looks pretty good. Set Queue Only=True in the ini file, and it started and loaded the queue quickly and smoothly. I have two programs in the queue with episodes, Survivorman and Wire in the Blood. Wire in the Blood has 23 episodes over six seasons. In the Episode list, they are just shown as episodes 1-23 with no season number info. When a episode is selected, the season number appears in the info text at the top of the screen. I guess this is OK, but seems different than what I remember from how it worked previously; I thought the season was displayed somehow in the episode list. This is not a big deal though, and it might be just the way Netflix has the program organized. All 6 seasons are one queue entry.

I tried this on my test box, so no remote control. Using the keyboard, the Windows taskbar pops up occasionally when hitting ESC to go back from the episode list to the queue. But, not every time. Seems like the first time going from queue to episode list it's OK, afterward it does it most times. Also occurs sometimes when hitting ENTER on a queue entry with episodes to go to the episode list. Sometimes you can get rid of the taskbar by clicking on the screen, but not always. This is in full screen mode, of course.

Let me know if this doesn't make sense.

All in all, pretty darn good for a re-design. It seems smoother than previous versions.

Thanks a bunch. Now if only the playback was smoother (a Silverlight issue, I'm sure).

[johnsonx42]

oh, nice, just tried to watch netflix last night with an older version (2.7.5 I think), and nothing at all worked... nice to see a new version already.

downloading now ....

ok, got it installed, so far so good in Queue-only mode, can now select episodes. I agree with mikeh49, it'd be nice to have some division between seasons. Spongebob (it's for the kids, I swear!) has 99 episodes all in one big list.

[dhgb256]

oh, nice, just tried to watch netflix last night with an older version (2.7.5 I think), and nothing at all worked... nice to see a new version already.

downloading now ....

ok, got it installed, so far so good in Queue-only mode, can now select episodes. I agree with mikeh49, it'd be nice to have some division between seasons. Spongebob (it's for the kids, I swear!) has 99 episodes all in one big list.

No judgement here, I have Wizards of Waverly Place in my queue

So right now my focus was on getting the program back up and running and with all the old functionality. Previously each season would show up separately in your queue and then my episode list would just be one season and each available episode for that season. Right now because of the consolidation done by Netflix, I have populated the synopsis text with the season and episode name, so you can at least tell when you move into a new season. Of couse this relys on Netflix giving me the season info in the episode long form name, which it mostly does. Hopefully that helps.

I have a long term goal of having two screen, the first would list the seasons and the second would download the episodes for just the season selected, but that would be a significant coding change and I am not up to it as of yet.

-DH

[dhgb256]

Just tried out the latest version, and it looks pretty good. Set Queue Only=True in the ini file, and it started and loaded the queue quickly and smoothly. I have two programs in the queue with episodes, Survivorman and Wire in the Blood. Wire in the Blood has 23 episodes over six seasons. In the Episode list, they are just shown as episodes 1-23 with no season number info. When a episode is selected, the season number appears in the info text at the top of the screen. I guess this is OK, but seems different than what I remember from how it worked previously; I thought the season was displayed somehow in the episode list. This is not a big deal though, and it might be just the way Netflix has the program organized. All 6 seasons are one queue entry.

See my response to Johnson

I tried this on my test box, so no remote control. Using the keyboard, the Windows taskbar pops up occasionally when hitting ESC to go back from the episode list to the queue. But, not every time. Seems like the first time going from queue to episode list it's OK, afterward it does it most times. Also occurs sometimes when hitting ENTER on a queue entry with episodes to go to the episode list. Sometimes you can get rid of the taskbar by clicking on the screen, but not always. This is in full screen mode, of course.

Let me know if this doesn't make sense.

All in all, pretty darn good for a re-design. It seems smoother than previous versions.

Thanks a bunch. Now if only the playback was smoother (a Silverlight issue, I'm sure).

The program should be sending the task bar to the background everytime you press esc, I'll check and see if I deleted some code when I set up the new episode list.

So let me ask you, has your playback gotten bad recently? About a month ago mine got horrible and now everytime I play a movie it constantly cycles the frame rate (you can check that using ctrl-shift-alt-m and selecting stream manager).

-DH

[johnsonx42]

actually I shouldn't really claim Spongebob is just for the kids... once we got Spongebob playing this afternoon and found some later episodes we hadn't seen before, my wife and I were enjoying it just as much as the kids were. We laughed at different jokes than the kids though, or at the same jokes but for different reasons.

But I digress. Thanks for the work on this. Always best to thank the programmer THEN tell him what he's not gotten right , a convention I neglected with my post above.

Regarding playback quality, all's been well for me so far, though I've not checked the frame rate via the method you mention. Most of the time it looks pretty much like a DVD or better.

[mikeh49]

It does seem that the "smoothness" has degraded recently. A few months ago my recollection is that it was very good, not it's seems to be back to where it was a couple of years ago. I'll check the frame rate as you suggest. The resolution looks DVD like, but the smoothness is nothing like playing back a GBPVR recording, even HD.

Regarding the episodes, it's OK the way it is; as long as Netflix provides the season info, it should not be a problem.

BTW, installed on the main HTPC and the taskbar issue is there as well. Not consistent, that I can tell, but fairly frequent, perhaps 50% of the time using the ESC key.

Again, thanks. Good job.

[dhgb256]

It does seem that the "smoothness" has degraded recently. A few months ago my recollection is that it was very good, not it's seems to be back to where it was a couple of years ago. I'll check the frame rate as you suggest. The resolution looks DVD like, but the smoothness is nothing like playing back a GBPVR recording, even HD.

Regarding the episodes, it's OK the way it is; as long as Netflix provides the season info, it should not be a problem.

BTW, installed on the main HTPC and the taskbar issue is there as well. Not consistent, that I can tell, but fairly frequent, perhaps 50% of the time using the ESC key.

Again, thanks. Good job.

Yup, I had deleted the code that moved the taskbar to the background when building the episodes list. Try this one and let me know if it works better.

-DH

[dhgb256]

Whoops, I forgot the file. Here it is.