What if XBMC could... (add Netflix/Hulu/Whatever-you-want to the library)

Demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH8YmxsHNWQ&hd=1

Having online content in XBMC's library has always been a dream for me. Other media centers are focused on this (Boxee for example), but no other media center is a stable, fast, and sexy as XBMC, so I want to stick with it

XBMC currently has no native support for this. Plugins are your only option. But I hate how slow it is to navigate to and through them. I want all of my media in my library!
So I've been slowly developing a program that lets you add anything to your library.

My goal is that any source that you can add to XBMC (such as upnp, plugins, http, ftp, etc) should be able to be scanned to the library.

In development, I've had success adding content from these sources:

• PlayOn (inludes Netflix/Hulu/CBS/Vevo, and more)
• Bluecop's Hulu plugin
• Yahoo music video's plugin
  

I've only tested these sources, but in theory, it should work with any source.

If others have considerable interest in this, I will release it to the public once it is stable.

Let me know your thoughts.

You beat me to it - definitely on my list of must haves...

A big thumbs up from me :-)

theDeadMan

The main problem with this (as I'm sure you've discovered in your travels) is ensuring that the URLs are stable. For UPnP this is in general not the case, and I suspect for many addons it's not the case either.

Reason is that in the online world, very few URLs are stable, and hence, you often need to manufacture a "stable" URL that is basically a wrapper on a search function that finds the URL_at_time_of_play (if it exists). Essentially you need a unique identifier that you can use.

The way I see this occurring would be a way for addons to supply XBMC with said unique identifiers, and a way for XBMC then to ask the addon for the actual URL when required. It would also need to have a way of telling XBMC when those unique identifiers are no longer valid.

XBMC would then have to handle multiple identifiers for the same piece of content (as you could have multiple sources for the same episode for instance) and allow the user to choose (in addition to auto-selection based on quality or previous selection etc.)

I'm not convinced that using the existing addon API is appropriate for this, or whether it's better to define a new interface that more clearly differentiates between browsing the addon and "scanning" the addon.

Cheers,
Jonathan

jmarshall Wrote:The main problem with this (as I'm sure you've discovered in your travels) is ensuring that the URLs are stable. For UPnP this is in general not the case, and I suspect for many addons it's not the case either.

Reason is that in the online world, very few URLs are stable, and hence, you often need to manufacture a "stable" URL that is basically a wrapper on a search function that finds the URL_at_time_of_play (if it exists). Essentially you need a unique identifier that you can use.

The way I see this occurring would be a way for addons to supply XBMC with said unique identifiers, and a way for XBMC then to ask the addon for the actual URL when required. It would also need to have a way of telling XBMC when those unique identifiers are no longer valid.

XBMC would then have to handle multiple identifiers for the same piece of content (as you could have multiple sources for the same episode for instance) and allow the user to choose (in addition to auto-selection based on quality or previous selection etc.)

I'm not convinced that using the existing addon API is appropriate for this, or whether it's better to define a new interface that more clearly differentiates between browsing the addon and "scanning" the addon.

Cheers,
Jonathan

This topic is trying to resolve this in a uniform way: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=95417

bradvido88 Wrote:If others have considerable interest in this, I will release it to the public once it is stable.

Let me know your thoughts.

I'd definitely be interested in this. I watch a few things via plugins, but I mostly forget to watch them. If there were references in my main library that would be great. Most specifically I'm interested in The Daily Show and Colbert Report, but I could imagine some others too.

To get around any changing URLs, my program automatically updates a URL when it changes in the source.

There are still a few quirks I have to work out... but it's definitely increased the WAF in my household.

Looking forward to this.

This is a great idea, keep up the good work

This is the only thing I miss from boxee! Thanks for the hard work, I look forward to trying it out!

why woudnt we =)