New External App: Netflix Viewer

[Marbles_00]

Thanks for all the help guys, very much appreciated. I've left a review of the app on Netflix...gave it 5 stars all the way. Great stuff.

Yeah, I was comparing the irremote.ini.text file to your help.chm file to understand what is going on. I may make some changes to suit myself, but it is pretty trivial stuff now.

I found out last week that Netflix's API does not support Canadians, not sure why. I'm assuming they haven't gotten around to updating that API for your use, since the catalogue of movies is different. So as such, I'm not sure if all of the features will work or not (e.g. rating movies, queue management). Most of the features in my program do not rely on the API, so you shouldn't notice much of a limitation.

Is that the reason I'm not seeing coverart? I just thought you were scraping the artwork from the wrong address or something. Oh well, if that's the case, then I will just have to wait it out.

Thanks again.

[Snooze]

Hey marbles,

OK that explains it. You are correct, the free accounts do not have queues. I'm not sure why, but they got rid of that a few months back. As long as you don't open the program with open sgid=0 and don't select "My Queue" for your genre you should be fine.

The ini file has not been updated to include genre switching, Snooze is working on that. I don't use a hauppage remote, so I rely on Snooze for that. But if you open the options menu, you can select a genre in there to display. Again just stay away from "My Queue" until your account becomes fully active. You can also perform keyword searches using the search screen. All the info should be in the help file (press F1 on main menu).

Once you get a queue, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know if it is working for you.

Also - I found out last week that Netflix's API does not support Canadians, not sure why. I'm assuming they haven't gotten around to updating that API for your use, since the catalogue of movies is different. So as such, I'm not sure if all of the features will work or not (e.g. rating movies, queue management). Most of the features in my program do not rely on the API, so you shouldn't notice much of a limitation.

Thanks,

DH

Probably good points to add to your wiki. I didn't realize trials don't have queue's... that's not a good experience for their new subscribers IMO.

[Snooze]

If you want my current remote file, let me know.

[dhgb256]

If it was that easy... is "Recommendations" too much to ask?? LOL I don't have any snow to shovel at the moment so my mind is wandering!!!

EDIT: I notice after using filtering (ctrl B) and applying my filter preferences, my windows taskbar stays on top. If I force TX Desktop to the top, the windows task bar comes back on top after a few arrow clicks down... that happening to you DH? Do you autohide your task bar? I can try autohide mine, thats the way I usually have it, but I been moving into this newer machine I built 3 years ago and I been doing a lot of tinkering until now. I just solved a horrible standby issue that turned out to be old Saitek Joystick Software/Drivers. It was my gaming PC before.

Also, what do you think about filtering rated movies? Is that possible? I know we have the option to not download them, but is nice to re-watch sometimes, but otherwise get them out of the way.

Hey Snooze,

I know we've had this "recommendations" discussion previously. The recommendations are just movies rated 3.8 stars and higher. This can be gleemed from the database by sorting by user rating and then scrolling through the genres (now easier than ever with the ctrl-(right/left arrows). But if you want to see all of the high rated movies under a single heading, I can do that. I'll add it to the to do list.

If you get the task bar over the program, use the ctrl-shift-F feature to go to normal window and then press again to go full screen. That will clear it up. Also, make sure your mouse cursor isn't hovering over the task bar, this seems to cause problems for some reason. I think it is because of the transparent controls I added and the high refresh rate required for them. If it happens frequently let me know and I'll see if there is something I can do about it.

If I could figure out a way to filter out the rated films I would love it. I can't seem to figure out a simple way to determine which movies have been rated. Obviously Netflix knows this because they tell you on the site when you look at the recommendations how many movies have been rated, but I can't figure it out. I could use the API to check each movie one by one, but I only get 5,000 hits/user/day (for 11,000 movies), so that won't work. Good idea, but I haven't figure out how to do it yet. Actually I could do it by scraping the website with the view rated turned on and then again with it off and seeing which movies show up. That would likely add significant time to the database build, but it could work. I'll add it to the to-do list.

-DH

[dhgb256]

Thanks for all the help guys, very much appreciated. I've left a review of the app on Netflix...gave it 5 stars all the way. Great stuff.

Yeah, I was comparing the irremote.ini.text file to your help.chm file to understand what is going on. I may make some changes to suit myself, but it is pretty trivial stuff now.


Is that the reason I'm not seeing coverart? I just thought you were scraping the artwork from the wrong address or something. Oh well, if that's the case, then I will just have to wait it out.

Thanks again.

Actually I forgot about your cover art problem, when replying. Let me know if any of the following links work:

1 - http://www.netflix.ca/queue_files/70136510.jpg
2 - http://cdn-2.nflximg.com/en_US/boxshots/...136510.jpg
3 - http://cdn-9.nflximg.ca/us/boxshots/large/70136510.jpg
4 - http://cdn-9.nflximg.ca/ca/boxshots/large/70136510.jpg
5 - http://cdn-6.nflximg.com/en_US/boxshots/...136510.jpg
6 - http://cdn-3.nflximg.com/us/boxshots/ghd/70136510.jpg

If any of them redirect you to an image, please paste the address in your reply.

-DH

[dhgb256]

If you want my current remote file, let me know.

yes please.

-DH

[Snooze]

Ahh ya, we did discuss that before... no problem. I think your latest addition of recently watched will be a big bonus if there are two or more users using your app.

I think my mouse was on the task bar. Hang tight more testing.

[dhgb256]

Probably good points to add to your wiki. I didn't realize trials don't have queue's... that's not a good experience for their new subscribers IMO.

Yeah tell me about it, my test accounts all come without queues now too. So trying to test anything related to the queue is impossible.

[dhgb256]

Actually I forgot about your cover art problem, when replying. Let me know if any of the following links work:

1 - http://www.netflix.ca/queue_files/70136510.jpg
2 - http://cdn-2.nflximg.com/en_US/boxshots/...136510.jpg
3 - http://cdn-9.nflximg.ca/us/boxshots/large/70136510.jpg
4 - http://cdn-9.nflximg.ca/ca/boxshots/large/70136510.jpg
5 - http://cdn-6.nflximg.com/en_US/boxshots/...136510.jpg
6 - http://cdn-3.nflximg.com/us/boxshots/ghd/70136510.jpg

If any of them redirect you to an image, please paste the address in your reply.

-DH

Never mind, I looked back through the files BulkBagger sent me (from ontario) and I found the link: http://cdn-7.nflximg.com/en_CA/boxshots/...011067.jpg.

Please confirm the link works and I'll get my new release out.

Thanks!

-DH

[Snooze]

yes please.

-DH

I will upload it when we are done with this movie... I dont have my HTPC open to windows directory from a client.