New External App: Netflix Viewer

[Snooze]

Did you try run it again now that all the info was downloaded? On a first run it has to swallow a HUGE chunk of info. I see what you describe after an movie database update, it does come up eventually though. On the second run it runs fine. I hope that is all it is for you.

[dhgb256]

Hi DH,

I have still to get this to work right. I suppose if I last updated the DB at 1:50am before my EPG update at 2am X-days ago it should work with the updateepg.bat, but I haven't so it is still updating when I am using it during the day. Is there something I can tweak so it will do it at a time I want? Maybe a using windows scheduler or can the databasebuild.log time be tweaked to do this?

Oh, and I wanted to show you what divx has been up to. Check out the netflix UI for connected http://labs.divx.com/connected/plugins
I had connected running with the netflix ui, it was kinda clunky at the login, but fun to use after that. I had to uninstall it though because my machine would not go into standby with the two services that run with it.

Open up the netflix tx viewer.ini file and set Time to renew=4 or higher. Then if you run the Netflix TX Database Build.exe fie using scheduler, or updated epg.bat, you should be OK. You'll want to run it everynight. Also, i had this problem a while back and it turns out that the file wasn't running because the directory info was wrong (so check that if you haven't).

I'll have to check out the divx plugin.

Thanks,

DH

[dhgb256]

Working better. I tried the new file and got to a screen that should have listed my queue, but was blank and no keys worked. I deleted the entire contents of the application folder and 're-installed' and then un-zipped the updated file again. Ran program and was prompted to log in and link the account. After responding it started to download the movie info. When that completed, I was left at the same black screen with the word "Rated" and the top and then "Starring", Director", "Genres", "Rating", "Length", "Year Released". No movie info is displayed and no keyboard functions seem to work. This was further than I had gotten before.

Edit - Found Databasebuild log was showing no success in building db. Edited my firewall / web filter to allow unfiltered access to the NetFlix site. Downloading files now, with over 4 hours left. Will update once complete.

I hate to make you do this twice, I'll be updating the newest version shortly, which will require a full database update, so you may want to wait a couple of hours.

[dhgb256]

New version out.

OK, I have some new additions to the program, but you probably will never see them The short form is:
- Improved reliability of database build (very consistent with # of movies found, prev. versions were unreliable). Added more info to install status screen.
- Added field to database in preparation for adding multishow listings.
- Fixed several memory leaks.

Me waxing eloquent :

I have improved the reliability of the database build. I have found through my experience with programming this that scraping the netflix website has been unreliable in figuring out how many movies are availalbe for instant watching. I have gotten anywhere from 4,000 to 7,500. So I was going to use the APi, but it doesn't allow enough queries (only allowed 5,000 calls per day and there are about 8,000 movies ). But wonderfully, I learned a lot about working with XML/HTML files while playing with the netflix API and I figured out how to download just the info I wanted from the website. It is MUCH slower on the initial build (took about 4.5 hours for the first build, but subsequent updates only take about 15minutes). Since running this on my computer as of right now 3 times in a row it found 7352 movies. That sounds about right, so I think I got it figured out!!! I also added some additional info to the install screen, so you can see what exactly it is doing.

I also added a column to the database. Unfortunately when i do this you need to do a full rebuild of the database. I will add the file to rapid share for those interested in saving 5 hours of your time. The reason I added it was to indicate which movies have multiple episodes. this is in preparation for adding the episode screen that I indicated in my to do list. So hopefully this is the last full rebuild for a while.

I found out that the web browser in .Net has a serious memory leak issues. When you open about 15,000 of them to build the database you run into memory usage of >200 MB So I fixed that. Memory usage is down to about 32 MB.

[Snooze]

Is there any way to make this run in the background so it isnt "on top"?

[dhgb256]

Is there any way to make this run in the background so it isnt "on top"?

The Netflix TX Database Build.exe program can be run in the background and can be minimized. Or do you mean the movie program itself?

[Snooze]

For me, DBB is on top of anything. How do you minimize it? It started when I opened it as a custom app in GBPVR.

[dhgb256]

For me, DBB is on top of anything. How do you minimize it? It started when I opened it as a custom app in GBPVR.

DBB has a normal window control box. Just click the minimize box, or press Win-m (minimizes all windows). If it doesn't minimize then you probably accidentally opened the Main movie program. If this is the case, then press alt-F4. Wait a minute for it to close out and then press alt-F4 again to close the main program. Then open DBB and you're golden.

[Snooze]

That did it. Thanks!

[highestbid]

I have a question/suggestion. Is there/could there be a setting that says I dont need the database. On most of my machines I am only interested in what is in my instant Queue. The remotes I use are really to weak for searching to be handy so I use a regular broswer to load up the queue then your plugin to quickly get to the queue from inside gbpvr.