Feature Request - Netflix WatchNow Support

[tschak909]

A most interesting development. Does someone want to take the SDK and dissect it?

I can help a determined developer create a native DCE device for it.

-Thom

[Enigmus]

The reason they are open sourcing the project is to allow for publicly or third party created modules to work on the system.  Another opportunity here would be to make the Roku into a MD by creating modules for it that allow it to interact with LinuxMCE.  The SDK is supposedly going to be coming out before the end of the year.  Should be interesting.

[Eureka]

From my understanding this cant be done in just software. Apparently the Netflix set-top box not only runs linux but it also is using a piece of dedicated hardware for the DRM stuff.... If i can find the old post ill put it up here...

-E

[JimmyGosling]

Hey guys, looks like this is a step in the right direction.

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/10/26/macs-getting-netflix-watch-instantly-with-silverlight/

Does this lend anything to possible LMCE support?

[tschak909]

No.

-Thom

[Enigmus]

Mono is planning on porting Silverlight to Linux.  That might get the Flix working.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9714669-7.html

[Enigmus]

Looks like Novell almost has a Silverlight client available.  That might help LinuxMCE view Netflix online.

http://www.betanews.com/article/Novell_and_Microsoft_sanction_Silverlight_workalike_for_Linux/1227124377

[hari]

there are no plans to integrate that silverlight _crap_. Feature requests are declined. If you come up with a patch, maybe.

[trimble]

I have a partial solution, which may ultimately work or prove to be a dead end. I need some advice:

I have an XP box which I can view Netflix on-demand movies on. With a gigabit connection to my core, I can use VNC to remote into it and also watch Netflix on-demand movies. Trouble is, the video is choppy and there's no audio.

As, of course, my MDs play movies all the time streamed across my LAN, I'm not sure why the Netflix video is choppy. I'm hoping there's a VNC setting to improve throughput. Not sure about the audio yet.

Any help appreciated.

Regards,
Mark

[tschak909]

The remote framebuffer protocol used by VNC is not optimized at all for playing video over a network. That's why it's choppy. You can't use it like that.

-Thom

[colinjones]

"remote desktop" type applications of any flavour are not intended for transporting video... to say the least it is highly inefficient. Whilst some may add in smarts to identify video, and retranscode it to make it smooth or at least less choppy, this is avoiding the point completely.... it is using a sledgehammer to crack a wallnut, and conceptually no different from seting up a video camera pointing at a screen displaying Netflix, then digitising the output and sending it over the network!

[trimble]

Yes, this approach does indeed appear to be a dead end.

The solution that I've settled on for now is simply to install Windows on one of my MDs and, when I want to watch a Netflix on-demand movie, just restart the box and preempt the netboot to load XP from the local hard drive instead.

Ultimately I plan to get a Roku box. That's the real solution.

Cheers,
Mark

[colinjones]

Are you aware that there is a reboot option on all MDs to reboot "locally"? Essentially this modifies the PXE boot config so that it fails, and then the MD will pass thru to the next boot option in the sequence.

If you set up your MDs BIOS to boot first from PXE then second from HDD, when you are running the MD, you simply choose the reboot local option and it will automatically boot Windows with no interaction. There is also a reboot tool for Windows, I believe (haven't used it) that allows this process to be reversed, ie you reboot Windows using it, and the MD will automatically boot up next time, with no interaction. Makes switching easier

[trimble]

Cool. I'll check out that MD reboot option. Thanks. :-)