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Author Topic: Unable to get Netflix in Theater View to work correctly  (Read 1734 times)

apostos

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Unable to get Netflix in Theater View to work correctly
« on: December 13, 2012, 08:55:18 am »

As a new J River MC user I’ve spent the last few months reading these forums and learning as much as I can about this program. I’m still very much in the “new user” camp though and still learning. For the most part I’ve had success with this program and my HT setup. One place I’m having trouble with though, is with the Netflix add-in, and I believe it is in part because I’m located in Canada.

Selecting Netflix from the menu in Theater View brings me to what I can only imagine is the US Netflix application home page. There are no recommended titles to display. Search appears to work. The titles page appears to populate correctly. Curiously the available titles are quite old (40’s, 50’s 60’s). Selecting a title on this page brings up another view featuring the current selection with the option to play. Selecting play brings up an information box with …. “Movie Unavailable. Our apologies – the movie you requested is not available at this time.” And underneath a link “Back to browsing”. At this point I can hit the back button on my remote and return to the previous view. Or I can get my mouse out and click on the link. If I click on this link I’m brought to the Canadian web site via the player window. But the window is incorrectly sized (too wide) and only a portion of the upper menu is available. There seems to be no way to resize this view to allow access to the missing menu items. I can scroll up and down but not side to side. If I select an item in this view the Canadian Netflix app appears to takes over and I can view content.

Clearly something is amiss.

Have I managed to mess something up? (There are a lot of settings!) Or is this a known limitation of the Netflix add-in specific to your non-US based customers. If the latter, any plans to make this functionality available? It’s always nice to have access to all of ones toys ….
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CountryBumkin

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Re: Unable to get Netflix in Theater View to work correctly
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2012, 11:07:28 am »

I don't know about the specific issues you are having regarding using Netflix outside of the USA but it works for well me in the US.
However, you may or may not know that you need go to the Netflix website and log into your account and set up your "preferences" (types of movies, years, genre, etc.) so that Netflix will put those into the "recommneded" listing you get on your computer/TV screen via MC. The other categories you can select from, such as Classics, Comedy, Action Adventure, etc., are just a listing of available movies from Netflix but not adjustble per your "preferences". For example if you go to Comedies you will see old moves from the 40s and 50s (like Abott and Costello) even if your preferences are set up to only show movies newer than the 80s. Preferences only affect the Recommended movies list. Also you select the categories you want to see from the MC Options page. One last thing, when you upgrade/change the movies in your Instant Queue (changes made on the Netflix website) you have to restart the computer (or maybe just restart MC) to see those changes you made on the website.
The first time you activate Netflix via MC program, you will get a Netflix log-in page. After you log-in a Windows popup box will come up asking if it is okay to let this program run (or somethign like that). But I guess you are past that stage if your getting some movies to show.

The issue with the screen size being wrong sounds like something that happened to me a few years ago (back in version 17). I had to set MC to use a screen setting like 766x1024 (I forget exact numbers now) in order to get through the first-time Netflix setup then I switched back to my normal dispaly settings and never had this issue again.
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apostos

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Re: Unable to get Netflix in Theater View to work correctly
« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2012, 01:37:10 pm »

Thanks for your response.

I was able to create a login through the MC interface when I first started using MC. In the version 18.0.78 (which I’m currently using) it’s under tools - options – services – Netflix and if I click on “Manage Netflix account…” I get a pop-up which affords me three options “Display information about  (my account) ….”, “Open account webpage” which opens my browser and correctly displays my Canadian Netflix account information and the last entry which affords me the option of deleting the connection to the account. There’s another box “Show Netflix search option” which works correctly within Theater View and is currently disabled. And lastly browsing categories which also appears to be working correctly but this again is part of the US offering and as such is not linked to my Canadian account. I’m aware of no other options regarding Netflix. Modifying my account via my browser has no effect as I am unable to access the Canadian home page via MC as you are able to do with Netflix’s US counterpart.

It doesn’t appear to me that screen resolution is the issue here as the Netflix app appears to be opening within MC’s Player and not within Theater view as expected. Altering the players display settings  attach – detach, etc. appears to have no visible effect on the image within the player interface and I can find no way to change the resolution of the player window.

I suspect the Netflix API is aimed at US customers and not their Canadian counterparts but I’d love to be proven wrong ….
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gpelts

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Re: Unable to get Netflix in Theater View to work correctly
« Reply #3 on: January 01, 2013, 09:17:15 pm »

Is Neflix compatible with JRemote? I'm a new user. I installed JRiver's Media Center on my HTPC and can search, browse my queue, and play movies using a mouse. However, I can't get the list of movies in My Queue to appear on the JRemote screen (or to play/delete a movie in my queue). Does anyone know whether/how this can be done ... and if not, how do I submit a feature request?
Thanks,
Greg
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nwboater

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Re: Unable to get Netflix in Theater View to work correctly
« Reply #4 on: January 01, 2013, 10:46:11 pm »

It's been a while since I tried Netflix from here in Canada but at that time it would not work for Canadian accounts, only US. What some do is to get a Virtual Private Network, such as 'VPN Authority', that makes your computer IP address appear to be in the US. I had hopes for Netflix but gave up on it because unfortunately Media Center's Audio DSP does not function with Netflix.

Happy New Year,
Rod
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gpelts

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Re: Unable to get Netflix in Theater View to work correctly
« Reply #5 on: January 02, 2013, 05:10:17 am »

I'm in the U.S. Netflix is working in JRiver Media Center but there seem to be no controls in JRemote to get it to work.
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