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[Justavian]

I've seen some discussion about Netflix Profiles, but i have not yet seen a solution to my problem.

MC retrieves the watch list / My List items for the first profile on Netflix.  This is great - it doesn't need any additional input to do that.  However, when i try to launch one of those movies, i am *always* presented with the list of profiles the first time i play something.  This may not seem like a big deal - and it isn't, provided i have a mouse.  However, i'd really like to use my Media Center Remote, and because Netflix will not allow selection of profiles via the arrow keys + enter, i'm basically out of luck.  Unless, of course, MC could use Firefox as the internal browser, which could allow me to solve this problem using Grease Monkey (i already wrote a script that just automatically clicks on the first profile) - or if i knew how to install a similar option with chromium.

So there's my question - Is there any way to make Media Center use FireFox when launching Netflix?  Or is there a way to get the chromium engine to load a grease monkey script?  I see how to do that with a full version of Chrome, and Wiki for Grease Monkey says that scripts can even be loaded into chromium.  But i'm not sure how to get MC to do something like that.

What's worse is that i don't understand how to even get MC to launch Netflix with anything but IE.  I set the Web Browser Engine to Chromium, but when i go to Theater View and then to Netflix, it just launches in IE anyway.  Am i missing an option there?  My default browser is Chrome.

Anybody have any ideas as to what i might be able to do?


-RP

[JimH]

You don't need to do anything to use Netflix.   Try using it from Theater View/Video.

[Justavian]

I don't think you actually read my post - i even mention Theater View.  MC is loading my watch list, but when i try to launch any of those movies, the browser asks for me to select a profile.  As specified, i'm trying to avoid using a mouse, and the only way to select a profile is to use a mouse (or a Grease Monkey script, which was the point of my post).

[glynor]

I don't think Jim knew what Netflix Profiles were, or how they impacted playback.

The real answer would be for JRiver to implement profile support somehow in their system.  But maybe, just maybe, you could pull it off using Trixie.

[JimH]

I know what they are but don't use them.

The Netflix API is limited and their support for developers isn't good.  I think their strategy must be to piggyback on device manufacturers and steer away from pure software solutions.

[Justavian]

I don't think Jim knew what Netflix Profiles were, or how they impacted playback.

The real answer would be for JRiver to implement profile support somehow in their system.  But maybe, just maybe, you could pull it off using Trixie.

In my search for a way to run user scripts with IE, i came across trixie.  However, i can't seem to find a safe link for a download from a site i trust.  The Trixie homepage no long exists, and the SoftPedia and PC World links also didn't work (because they just pointed back to the Trixie homepage).  Presumably the project is now dead, and will not be updated to support newer versions of IE.  So i had no way of actually downloading it to see if it would server my purpose.  The userscript in this case is VERY simple - only a few lines.  I'll look around a bit more and see if i can find a safe link for it.

The other solution, presumably, would be to eliminate the profiles from my Netflix account, or pay for a second account just for the HTPC.  Neither of those options are very attractive, but if i can't solve this with hacks like the Trixie solution, i guess i'll have to consider those.

[Justavian]

So close.  And yet so far.

Well, i took a chance on a link for Trixie that i wasn't 100% sure was safe, but it seems to install and run fine.  I was concerned that it wouldn't work with newer versions of IE, but it does.

The good news is that the script i wrote for Grease Monkey runs perfectly fine in IE.  If i bring up IE directly with that script attached, the netflix page works exactly as expected.  It skips the profile and goes into the main interface without any trouble.

The bad news is that it doesn't look like MC loads the Trixie add on at all.  I put in a script to just pop up an alert (which works fine in IE directly), but nothing shows up in MC.  I looked at the registry to see if there was some path to IE that MC was using to pass command line arguments or something, but i don't see anything like that either.

*sigh*  doesn't look like there's a solution to this one - unless someone else has some ideas?

[glynor]

In my search for a way to run user scripts with IE, i came across trixie.  However, i can't seem to find a safe link for a download from a site i trust.  The Trixie homepage no long exists, and the SoftPedia and PC World links also didn't work (because they just pointed back to the Trixie homepage).  Presumably the project is now dead, and will not be updated to support newer versions of IE.

Yeah, Trixie was kind of a disaster even when it was an active project.  I saw that it seemed to be dead when I looked around yesterday too.

Bummer.  I wondered if MC would load extensions to IE.  I kind of figured it wouldn't, since it doesn't load LastPass for me, but I wasn't sure if there was a way to hack it in.