PlayOn UPnP MediaServer for Netflix, Hulu, CBS, ESPN, and Amazon VOD playback in XBMC

ethanmcdonald Wrote:The Netflix plug-in works pretty good but a better interface for browsing would be nice.

Agreed. Though I'd prefer the ability to abstract all these delivery mechanisms and just get to my content. If I want to watch a TV Show, I'd like to see all TV show content in one place, regardless of how it's being supplied; same if I want to watch Science Fiction content, I'd like to see all available movies, TV shows, and clips in a filtered view, allowing me to then browse or perform add'l filtering. (Either PlayOn provides a merged view for all available content, or another script/plugin interacts with PlayOn to make the delivery mechanism transparent to the XBMC user.)

ethanmcdonald Wrote:Right now the Free Netflix add-on for MCE is much nicer.

Sure, but it's only applicable to those with Vista MCE PCs, to be clear (and perhaps save another reader some research time).


As a counter, the PlayOn workaround, although kludgy, also adds YouTube, Hulu and CBS content, and is a much cheaper alternative to adding Netflix Instant Watch streaming to homes already running some UPnP client system (XBMC, Xbox 360,...), relative to buying multiple Roku Netflix Players.

I have PlayOn installed and with another extender I can view and play movies in my Netflix instant Queue, but with XBMC I can't view the movies only see the names. XBMC says: "Opening stream" then loads and goes back to the menu.

I was wondering if anyone could help.

I am trying to get this to work with netflix I just downloaded and installed playon, set the sources and signed up for a trial netflix account. However, I cannot get it to work with netflix. Youtube and hulu work fine.

I was wondering if I need to change any xbox settings?
any help would be greatly appreciated

if it helps it says something like this and then just stops trying to connect:

Quote:opening file
protocol:http
connecting to server 192.168.1.2[192.168.1.2]:63478...

lasts a few seconds then drops out

Switch to Atlantis Beta 2, the Beta 1 and 8.10 releases just won't start the Netflix stream.

Tried using the beta and getting the same thing..

could it be anything else?


maybe a stray file when I updated to the beta that needs erasing.

I've been using the 8.10 final Atlantis release with the Playon server and had very mixed results. Here is what I've experienced so far:

1. After first loading up the new T3CH release and Playon - Hulu, Youtube and ESPN work great. CBS didn't work.
2. Next day I kept getting an error stating the Hulu had an invalid user/password - although I had used the "test" button under Playon and these were reported valid. I was also able to log directly into Hulu via my laptop with no problems.
3. Loaded Playon on another laptop and everything worked great (except CBS, never has worked)
4. Signed back up for Netflix. Able to access the Queue but get a "too many failed items" error and my regular log reports:

13:55:08 M: 32907264 ERROR: CMPlayer::OpenFile http://192.168.0.10:63478/n-206721fb-6e6...output.mpg failed with code -1
13:55:08 M: 41828352 ERROR: Playlist Player: skipping unplayable item: 0, path [http://192.168.0.10:63478/n-206721fb-6e6...utput.mpg]

5. Going back to Hulu I now am able to start and watch some videos, but others stop playing after about 15 seconds.

I love this solution, but wish I could get some consistency with how everything works. I don't know if the issues I'm having relate to the Playon server or have more to do with XBMC. I don't get why I would have no trouble logging in one day and cannot the next. Also i'm unsure what I should do regarding the Netflix errors. Suggestions on what to try??

Thanks!

Cool! I got it to work with a old build.

XBMC + Hulu = Free Video on Demand!!

j/k

I got PlayOn working with the latest XBMC Windows build, once PlayOn updated to the latest version.

There seems to be some interaction issue that needs be worked on.
But then about a third of my files don't play back correctly on the latest XBMC builds.

I know they will get things worked out. I have complete faith in the devs.

I just wanted to post this to save everyone the trouble if they haven't seen this message. If you are having problems with playing netflix videos this could be why.

Taken from the playon site

Quote:"I can't play any of my Netflix Instant Queue movies. Why?"
It's possible that your Netflix account is using their new beta Silverlight player instead of Windows Media Player. You can verify this by visiting http://www.netflix.com/WiMessage?msg=58 and seeing if you are already signed up to test the beta Silverlight program. We are working diligently on a solution so that Silverlight accounts will work through PlayOn. Bear with us!

I called customer support at netflix and was told that this will be the new standard. So until playon fixes it ... netflix won't play any videos. Also doesn't work for my ubunto computer.
Now I can reinstall the new release of XBMC at least.

Hi,

This is a quick update of my experience with PlayOn and XBMC.

Following the instructions in this thread, I removed MS Silverlight (just in case) from my Vista 64 home server (repository of my DVD ISO's for XBMC) and I downloaded the 14 day trial of PlayOn.

Installation of PlayOn was simple, GUI driven. The installation allowed for my Netflix account and password to be entered and tested for validity. No problems.

I was surprised that there is no PlayOn thick client on the desktop. It runs in the background, and does not add anything to either to quick launch or the taskbar.

At my XBMC (XBOX running Atlantis 8.10 [beta3]), I activated UPNP, and did a quick reboot.

I went to Videos, selected to add a Source, UPNP, and was VERY surprised to see PlayOn listed as a choice. (... admit it, we usually are ready to do battle with a new XBMC feature, right? )

I added PlayOn at the highest level. This way I have CBS, Netflix Hulu, and a few other sources available to me in XBOX.

Selecting Netflix, I saw three choices (Alphabetical, Type, Top 50). I selected Comedy, Casino Royal.

Ah HAH !!! Finally an issue: playback at cache buffer set at 2048 was bursty.

I went to settings cache on XBMC and increased local network video to 4096.

Nice! Playback is good.

DirecTV... I am really starting to wonder why I pay so much for you!


Vincent

3 XBMC's, Harmony One, Harmony 1000.