new account automatically on silverlight

[johnsonx42]

Well, it looks like I waited too long to sign up for NetFlix. I finally did so today, and I've been forced into Silverlight. I wasn't asked anything, but when I go into watch instantly (on a regular PC, I'm not talking about GB-PVR for the moment) and select something it prompts me to install the Silverlight player.

I'm curious, has everyone been moved to silverlight, or are older accounts still on the old player? Is there any way to get back to the old method?

I know from my other thread asking about this that the plugin will still work with silverlight, but clearly it doesn't work as well. Movies can't be downloaded for later viewing either, so I'll be dependant on streaming which is mostly fine until my son starts downloading some huge game or patch on his computer.

I suppose I'm stuck with silverlight then, I may as well get over it.

[whurlston]

There is no way to revert to the older player unfortunately, and downloading isn't an option because the Silverlight player actually streams the audio and video seperately. I looked into what it would take to write my own Silverlight player and it costs something like $10,000 for the initial DRM license and $5,000 for each new release that I would create. Definitely not an option for me. So the only thing I can offer is to launch IE to the movie page on Netflix's website.

[johnsonx42]

Well, I got it working in GB-PVR. I couldn't get anything to work without selecting the Silverlight player in the plugin config, and of course I had to install Silverlight (I was hoping maybe the plugin would still somehow be able to work with the old format, but it would just hang and crash after selecting a download).

Using it is alot like using Hulu, mouse definitely required. (thank goodness my remote has a mouse, I have no idea how people with regular MCE remotes manage to use silverlight)

For me at least Kiosk mode doesn't really work right (there's still a scroll bar on the right side of the screen), and I can't figure out how to exit it from the remote anyway so I just leave IE in full-screen mode (F11) with auto-hide enabled on the menu bars; once the movie starts I use the mouse to enter true full-screen mode. Again that's pretty much exactly like using Hulu...

The only thing that doesn't work so far is the Live Starz feed - it just goes to a blank screen then returns after a moment. Any ideas?

[whurlston]

When launching the Starz Live feed from the website, does it launch the Silverlight player or a different player?

[johnsonx42]

Sorry if it seemed like I was complaining about the plugin directly, just complaining about being forced into Silverlight and the downsides therein. I know your hands are tied by what Netflix does.

I looked into what it would take to write my own Silverlight player and it costs something like $10,000 for the initial DRM license and $5,000 for each new release that I would create. Definitely not an option for me.

Cheapskate! haha...

I wonder if perhaps other players for Silverlight will become available if it gets alot of market share. Given that ffdshow can now do quicktime and flv, they may be hard at work reverse engineering silverlight as we speak.

Perhaps even Microsoft will add Silverlight support to WMP; a strictly web-based player is not ideal for every situation, even MS has to know that.

[johnsonx42]

When launching the Starz Live feed from the website, does it launch the Silverlight player or a different player?

At first I was going to say it does nothing at all, just the blank screen, but upon further review I'd have to say it launches the internal player; for the briefest moment on the blank screen, at the bottom I see "Live STARZ TV Channel" along with the time, and then in smaller letters "Watch Starz streaming live from netflix" (it only shows for a split second, I had to hit Live Starz about twenty times to see all that)

[johnsonx42]

I found another bug related using the plugin with silverlight:

When choosing an episode of a TV show, the plugin only offers to download the video rather than watch it. This of course doesn't work with silverlight, so it just hangs and ultimately crashes. (edit: to be clear, watching a tv show that is a single entry works fine - it's only the ones where it says 'select an episode' (which is most of them of course) that come up with the 'Download' button instead of 'Watch')

In the more cosmetic category, if you've got the silverlight player selected then there's no reason to show the 'Downloads' and 'Cancel D/L' menu options.

[whurlston]

At first I was going to say it does nothing at all, just the blank screen, but upon further review I'd have to say it launches the internal player; for the briefest moment on the blank screen, at the bottom I see "Live STARZ TV Channel" along with the time, and then in smaller letters "Watch Starz streaming live from netflix" (it only shows for a split second, I had to hit Live Starz about twenty times to see all that)

So it's not working on the Netflix website? If it doesn't work there it probably won't work in the plugin. I'll double check it on my end though.

I found another bug related using the plugin with silverlight:

When choosing an episode of a TV show, the plugin only offers to download the video rather than watch it. This of course doesn't work with silverlight, so it just hangs and ultimately crashes. (edit: to be clear, watching a tv show that is a single entry works fine - it's only the ones where it says 'select an episode' (which is most of them of course) that come up with the 'Download' button instead of 'Watch')

K. I'll look into it. I may need you to test a couple of builds though since I no longer have access to a Silverlight enabled account.

In the more cosmetic category, if you've got the silverlight player selected then there's no reason to show the 'Downloads' and 'Cancel D/L' menu options.

Good point. I actually left the "Downloads" for people that already had previously downloaded files, but the "Cancel D/L" definitely wouldn't need to be there. I'll add an option to remove them.

[johnsonx42]

So it's not working on the Netflix website? If it doesn't work there it probably won't work in the plugin. I'll double check it on my end though.

Oh, I get it. I tried the Live Starz feed from the actual Netflix website on my regular PC, where it doesn't work either so I clicked "Problems with Player?". Now I see the problem - it says I need WMP 11 which I certainly don't have on the GB-PVR box. My regular PC is Vista so I thought I already had WMP 11 there, but that's beside the point...

I had simply assumed that the Starz Live stream would use Silverlight like everything else.

What is that they say again about assume... something about the first three letters? I forget....

edit: also, I now realize I answered your original question incorrectly - you asked what happens when I launch the starz feed from the WEBSITE, and I proceeded to tell you in detail what happens when I launch it from your plugin. you probably found my answer odd, and I found your response to my answer odd... yet even so, we've arrived at the answer.

[johnsonx42]

K. I'll look into it. I may need you to test a couple of builds though since I no longer have access to a Silverlight enabled account.

Thank you, and I'm happy to test.