Posts: 282
Joined: Feb 2009
Reputation:
0
While I take both of your points (jmarshall and bluecop) and I agree that it isn't the ideal solution, it seems to be the only realistic, sustainable long-term option IMHO. Keep in mind that I'm not rallying for abolishing the Python plugins we currently have; I think the current Hulu plugin is vastly superior to using the actual Hulu website (or god forbid, Hulu Desktop, blegh.) And as long as someone is willing to put in the work to make sure it's working properly, it blows Boxee's Hulu implementation out of the water... but realistically, it's simply a matter of time before Hulu either completely rework their player's encryption or Adobe updates RTMPE and we have to wait until highlandsun, et al. update libRTMP to support it.
In the interim, it would be great to provide fallback browser video. Say, you go to an episode in the Hulu plugin and get a script failed message. It would be great if I could pull up the context menu and choose "Play in browser" as an option, so I can watch the content no matter what. Or, better yet, error catching so it just falls back on in-browser video if it can't open the stream for whatever reason. Also, pointing to Boxee's CPU usage isn't entirely accurate; their built-in Flash Player does not use the hardware acceleration provided by 10.1. Although right now it's Windows/OSX only, I believe davilla recently added support for the CrystalHD card to 10.1 and there are signs pointing to VDPAU soon enough. And as for Netflix, there's currently no way to watch it in Linux regardless, so I don't think it's fair to count it against the browser method, but OSX/Windows users would finally be able to enjoy it.
Posts: 218
Joined: Dec 2009
Reputation:
0
We finally are getting Netflix in Canada and was maybe going to try it out but out of curiousity how does everyone watch it. By reading this I cant link Netflix within XBMC (trying to make things as easy as possible for the wife) Probably have to use my Wii I guess or somehow create a shortcut from xbmc to netflix on my pc
Posts: 282
Joined: Feb 2009
Reputation:
0
If you're on Windows, you can watch Netflix using Windows Media Center or Boxee. If you try to watch it on Boxee, beware; Netflix defaults to HD streams if your connection can handle it and Boxee's built-in Silverlight plugin doesn't support hardware acceleration. You'll need a decently beefy processor to cope with it.
Posts: 26,215
Joined: Oct 2003
Reputation:
187
Both just use the silverlight plugin for either webkit or mozilla.
This is no-go on Linux, and (IMO) a crap solution in general - see the thread that was linked as to why.
Also, I believe this aspect of both those other apps is closed source. Neat, aye?
Cheers,
Jonathan
Posts: 26,215
Joined: Oct 2003
Reputation:
187
That's not what I said at all. I was merely pointing out how stupid it is to require a webbrowser with proprietary plugins when all you want to do is stream video.
I have no problem with someone doing up such a solution for XBMC if that is the only way to go (indeed, even if it wasn't the only way to go I'd still have no problem with it.) I'd encourage anyone to give it a go should they have the time and inclination to do so. As always, any and all contributions to XBMC are welcome and we'll do what we can to assist.
Cheers,
Jonathan