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Anyone else notice... Netflix...

post #1 of 19
2/25/13 at 7:24pm
Thread Starter 
I saw something weird today while using the Windows 7 Media Center version of Netflix.

My wife was streaming something, and was telling me that she couldn't use the remote to pause it. So I hooked up a mouse and the display looked exactly like the Windows 8 Netflix app! That was kind of weird, because I don't have Windows 8 on that computer.

Anyway, we went out to dinner, and when we came back it was back to the normal Windows 7 Media Center Netflix interface.


On one hand, I think that is cool, because the Windows 8 Netflix is supposed to be much better at streaming (no stuttering) because it doesn't use Silverlight. I would welcome this, as sometimes Netflix is almost unwatchable from the stuttering. But, on the other hand, the Windows 8 Netflix interface doesn't accept remote control once you start playing the movie.

I wonder if was a flip-of-the-switch error, or if this something they are planning to roll out?
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post #2 of 19
2/25/13 at 8:20pm
Personally i use a wireless keyboard with touchpad built in and it controls the win8 netflix app just fine.

Whatever you are describing is still silverlight unless she happened to remote into a windows 8 machine over the network. Windows 7 will most likely never get a service pack that includes windows 8 app support.

Like I pointed out in a reply to someone elses htpc build thread, If you are serious about netflix on a htpc you should be using win8 as the netflix app supports 1080p and dolby digital + (5.1) where silverlight and media center are limited to 720p and stereo sound.
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post #3 of 19
2/25/13 at 8:56pm
Only if your ISP has singed up for Netflix Super HD can you get 1080p.
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post #4 of 19
2/25/13 at 9:00pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ikkuranus View Post

Personally i use a wireless keyboard with touchpad built in and it controls the win8 netflix app just fine.

I'd have no problem with this, but my wife would. She would just tell me to put it back on Windows 7. Surely Netflix will allow remote support in a future update? Otherwise, I'm going to have to come up with some elaborate EventGhost scripts if it's even possible. rolleyes.gif

Quote:
Whatever you are describing is still silverlight unless she happened to remote into a windows 8 machine over the network.

That is what was weird! My wife doesn't know the difference between an RDP and a PDF. She would not have been remoting into another system. She was using the standard Windows 7 Netflix app with a remote. That's why she called me to "fix it" because the remote wasn't responding in the Netflix app. It had the big round "back" button in the upper left corner (with the WMC back button and "green button" underneath. The progress bar was not the standard WMC one but the new Win8 Netflix app one.

Quote:
Windows 7 will most likely never get a service pack that includes windows 8 app support.

I don't know... What I saw today, there is no technical reason why Netflix couldn't activate the new interface for Windows 7. It's technically possible, because I saw it... and it appears that there is nothing they have to do within WMC to make it work. The only problem is the lack of remote control. if they fix that I would be in heaven with the new interface.

Quote:
Like I pointed out in a reply to someone elses htpc build thread, If you are serious about netflix on a htpc you should be using win8 as the netflix app supports 1080p and dolby digital + (5.1) where silverlight and media center are limited to 720p and stereo sound.

No doubt. I only have one copy of Windows 8 and it's on my laptop. I don't know if using a keyboard and mouse would pass the WAF test enough to switch, plus all the customization I'd have to go through to get back and forth between the WMC and Netflix apps.


Anyone heard anything good about Windows "Blue" and WMC? Or am I just delusional? biggrin.gif
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post #5 of 19
2/25/13 at 9:02pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gorath View Post

Only if your ISP has singed up for Netflix Super HD can you get 1080p.

My ISP gets SuperHD from Netflix. 50Mb/s fiber connection here. (sorry vladd... bragging again.)
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post #6 of 19
2/26/13 at 12:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gorath View Post

Only if your ISP has singed up for Netflix Super HD can you get 1080p.
You understand they have multiple bitrates for 1080p right. There's the standard one and the new super hd
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post #7 of 19
2/26/13 at 12:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Puwaha View Post

Surely Netflix will allow remote support in a future update? Otherwise, I'm going to have to come up with some elaborate EventGhost scripts if it's even possible. rolleyes.gif

Actually, all you would need is intelliremote. Intelliremote allows you to map keyboard keys to your remote buttons.

It is also great for mapping WMC plugins to buttons, so you can press a button to launch specific apps rather than go navigate through the menu. I do this with Softsqueeze, so I can launch Softqueeze from the remote and then control it from iPeng so I don't have to turn on the projector for navigation.
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post #8 of 19
2/26/13 at 12:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by brianjb View Post

Actually, all you would need is intelliremote. Intelliremote allows you to map keyboard keys to your remote buttons.

It is also great for mapping WMC plugins to buttons, so you can press a button to launch specific apps rather than go navigate through the menu. I do this with Softsqueeze, so I can launch Softqueeze from the remote and then control it from iPeng so I don't have to turn on the projector for navigation.

Links to all this stuff? I'd like to take a look at it.
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post #9 of 19
2/26/13 at 12:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sammy2 View Post

Links to all this stuff? I'd like to take a look at it.

Intelliremote application - http://melloware.com/intelliremote/

Softsqueeze for streaming content from Logitech Media Server (a.k.a. Squeezebox) - http://softsqueeze.sourceforge.net/

iPeng for iPhone/iPod - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ipeng-ue/id583668666?mt=8
iPeng for iPad - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ipeng-for-ipad/id396993109?mt=8

I used Media Center Studio to create the WMC plugin to launch Softsqueeze. I then used Intelliremote to map a WMC button, you can use any, to the GUID of the newly created WMC Plugin for Softsqueeze. I then created a button on the LCD of my Harmony remote that maps to the button I assigned Softsqueeze to. In my case, I think I mapped it to the "Yellow" WMC button, since I believe that was empty and not used. iPeng will control any Squeeze device, so that just needs to be registered with the Logitech Media Server.

Unfortunately, Media Center Studio is discontinued, but I think "Media Center Startup" can do the same thing although I haven't used it. - http://www.missingremote.com/guide/change-windows-media-center-startup-media-center-valve

Even more unfortunate as far as I am concerned is that Logitech is no longer developing the Squeezebox products and software. They released a version of LMS for Windows 8 last year, and that will be the last supported version.
Edited by brianjb - 2/26/13 at 12:43pm
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post #10 of 19
2/26/13 at 1:15pm
Thank you for the information.

At risk of taking this thread OT, I think assassin hosts an installer for Media Center Studio on his blog but I never grabbed it as I didn't want to spend that much time customizing the look of WMC because I don't look at it very long.. What I'm most interested in is launching Media Browser and possibly Fubar 2000 using a remote but that said Fubar 2000 is not really remote friendly.
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post #11 of 19
2/26/13 at 4:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Puwaha View Post

My ISP gets SuperHD from Netflix. 50Mb/s fiber connection here. (sorry vladd... bragging again.)
Apology accepted. biggrin.gif I would be bragging too if I could get it. What really sucks is that I have an office where I can get unmetered 1Gbps fiber (both up and down) for $350/mo but here at my house,a comparable connection would cost me 10x that. I currently have 20Mbps up/down at the office and I'm paying $90/mo.

Quote:
Originally Posted by brianjb View Post

Actually, all you would need is intelliremote. Intelliremote allows you to map keyboard keys to your remote buttons.

+1 on Intelliremote. I've been using it for years.
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post #12 of 19
2/26/13 at 10:25pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by brianjb View Post

Intelliremote application - http://melloware.com/intelliremote/

Ok, this sounds promising. Has anyone gotten it to work with Windows 8's Netflix app? If anyone has successfully gotten it to work well, then I'd be willing to invest the time and money to figure it out.
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post #13 of 19
2/27/13 at 6:46am
I don't have Netflix anymore (stopped using it years ago) so I can't test it. I might see if I can get another trial.
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post #14 of 19
2/28/13 at 12:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sammy2 
What I'm most interested in is launching Media Browser and possibly Fubar 2000 using a remote but that said Fubar 2000 is not really remote friendly.

There is an Intelliremote profile for foobar, so you should be able to just load that profile and not even have to do any of the keymappings yourself.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Puwaha 
Ok, this sounds promising. Has anyone gotten it to work with Windows 8's Netflix app?

I don't have Win8 on my HTPC, but I will plug my IR receiver into my laptop later if I get a chance and test it out.
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post #15 of 19
2/28/13 at 1:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by brianjb View Post

I don't have Win8 on my HTPC, but I will plug my IR receiver into my laptop later if I get a chance and test it out.

Ok, I decided to give this a shot real quick while I was thinking about it. First of all, Intelliremote works fine in Windows 8, and all my usual Windows commands work fine such as alt-tab, alt-f4, the Windows key, etc.

As for Netflix, the issue is with the lack of keyboard shortcuts for the program. I did some quick searching, and I can't find a list of keyboard shortcuts for the new Windows 8 version of Netflix. Without that, Intelliremote doesn't offer any advantage over using standard MCE buttons. I can navigate the videos, play, pause, stop, and return to the main screen, but I cannot FF, RW, or bring up the thumbnail screen like in the W7 MCE version. I also can't access the menu on the left. I assumed there were at least keyboard shortcuts for all these activities, but apparently Netflix based this almost entirely on mouse input. The only other thing I can think of is to program the Windows mouse movement commands into your remote. For anyone that has done that before, it isn't a great long term solution, but it is all I can think of at this point.
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post #16 of 19
2/28/13 at 2:03pm
Programming mouse movements into a remote is not a viable solution. Why did netflix think that people won't be connecting their computer to their HDTV to watch? Oh yeah, because they don't want you to see how bad it really looks.
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post #17 of 19
2/28/13 at 2:11pm
lol, at least it looks better than how it did with Silverlight.
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post #18 of 19
2/28/13 at 4:23pm
the way i understand Netflix Super HD is that it only applies to CE devices and not PCs
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post #19 of 19
2/28/13 at 4:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcantu1 View Post

the way i understand Netflix Super HD is that it only applies to CE devices and not PCs

It says here it works for the Windows 8 app.
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