Netflix stopped working when profiles rolled out

diskmon

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Netflix stopped working when profiles rolled out

#1

Post by diskmon » Fri Aug 02, 2013 5:13 pm

Since the new Netflix profiles rolled out, if I try to play something through the Netflix interface on WMC, I get the screen that says "Netflix Site Error" and "We were unable to process your request." It may be just a coincidence that these errors started when the profiles were activated. Does anyone know how to fix this?

staknhalo

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#2

Post by staknhalo » Fri Aug 02, 2013 6:03 pm

Contact Netflix AND Microsoft.

mClever

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#3

Post by mClever » Fri Aug 02, 2013 8:54 pm

yeah, me too makes it to play something fine after selecting play brings up choose profile then error. Hope they still care about media center Netflix app to fix. Found nothing on Netflix about it.

skunks

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#4

Post by skunks » Fri Aug 02, 2013 11:56 pm

Same here :-\. I don't know that they will keep updating the WMC app. Hopefully there is a workaround for this, I need my Netflix!

Edit: I'm quite surprised I haven't seen more of this when searching on the internet. Is the app that unpopular, or are people just not reporting it yet?

staknhalo

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#5

Post by staknhalo » Fri Aug 02, 2013 11:59 pm

Again, you guys need to be contacting Microsoft AND Netflix, not just posting about it here!

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#6

Post by makryger » Sat Aug 03, 2013 1:12 am

I do like the idea of profiles. Was wondering how they would integrate it into media center... turns out, not too well.
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#7

Post by STC » Sat Aug 03, 2013 1:51 am

/thanks his TV for having Smart Hub.
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#8

Post by raynewman » Sat Aug 03, 2013 2:05 am

I just contacted Netflix and they said they never even known about netflix on wmc.
But they said they advised microsoft on the application interface and it is up to them how it is used. :-(

diskmon

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#9

Post by diskmon » Sat Aug 03, 2013 2:34 am

thanks raynewman for touching base with netflix - i'm not surprised that they are deferring to microsoft

i searched microsoft's site and really couldn't find who would seem likely to actually respond to this message - any ideas?

this is a big loss - sure, I can use my samsung smart hub, but it really is a clunkier interface, and it takes away my one-device-for-all system

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#10

Post by steve4cr » Sat Aug 03, 2013 3:05 am

Mine still working on 2 PCs. I created profiles on the web but they don't show on WMC.To the guy who says contact Netflix & Microsoft. Do you mind if we chatter here? Who knows maybe someone will come with some kind of workaround. We know it is a MS/Netflix product. But neither company is going to "Jump" on the WMC issue.

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#11

Post by EvilRSA » Sat Aug 03, 2013 3:17 am

I'm getting a bit of the run around. I called Netflix, and I was up front with them in admitting I know that Netflix did NOT create the Netflix plug-in used within Media Center, and I believe it was Microsoft that created it. They agreed with me, but said Netflix and Microsoft used to work together in maintaining the plug-in, till about 2 years ago, when Netflix migrated to Silverlight. It was at that point that Microsoft stopped communicating with Netflix regarding the maintenance of the plug-in (according to Netflix anyway...)

Netflix gave me a support number for Silverlight (U.S. number 866-234-6020) and suggested I give them a call. The fact that Media Center's Netflix plug-in wasn't working correctly was news to the agent I was speaking to. They then asked if I could read them the error messages, which I did, I told them about the "Something's wrong" message and then the two Script errors, and which point she documented the issue, and transferred me to "Warranty Support", claiming they may want to connect to my system and see if there was anything they could do. I was then transferred over, where I again explained everything to the "Warranty Support" agent. They pretty much asked me point blank, "What do you want us to do about it?" where I explained that Silverlight support has suggested they might want to remotely connect to my system and document the errors, when they asked "what are you getting for error messages", and while again running through the errors, where I think I made it to the 3rd error message before they hung up on me, or the line died, not sure.

Long and short of it is....Kinda worried that neither side really seemed to want to take ownership of the plug-ins maintenance.

I hope something gets resolved though, I have FIVE HTPC's all running Windows 7's Media Center, and they all feel quite a bit less impressive with Netflix broken on them all.

P.s. does anyone know if there's a better number to be contacting Microsoft at besides the one the Netflix agent game me.

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#12

Post by blupupher » Sat Aug 03, 2013 5:34 am

skunks wrote:...

Edit: I'm quite surprised I haven't seen more of this when searching on the internet. Is the app that unpopular, or are people just not reporting it yet?
The profiles thing is just rolling out so not everyone has it yes. As more users get it, more complaints will come.

As for who's responsibility it is to fix it, MS and Netflix always pass the buck, with neither side wanting to claim a problem on their end.

I hope they get it figured out, I love netflix on my 3 HTPC's. If not, guess Netflix will loose a customer (not that it really matters to them, I think WMC usres are a small number compared to mobile devices, where this seems to work fine),

edit: I delete all but my first account and it is working now.

diskmon

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#13

Post by diskmon » Sat Aug 03, 2013 12:44 pm

I tried deleting all but the first profile, but then Netflix's interface is still dumb enough to ask me every time which profile is being used (even though there is only 1) and it won't work.

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#14

Post by xtracaf » Sat Aug 03, 2013 4:22 pm

I had the same problem when speaking to Netflix.....a CSR with no clue on what to do or say. I was not in the frame of mind to do more runaround with Microsoft. I did cancel all Netflix profiles but one and WMC started working again.

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#15

Post by barnabas1969 » Sat Aug 03, 2013 7:18 pm

OK, so I tried watching a movie. When I choose to play the movie, I get a dialog asking me to choose a profile (inside the Silverlight player). The profile choice only seems to work with a mouse (I couldn't use my remote). So, I picked up my keyboard (that has a touchpad mouse) and selected a profile.

Then, it displays an error message that says, "Something's not quite right. Please try that last step again."

There are two buttons. One says "Let's try again" and the other says "Cancel".

I chose, "Let's try again" ... and my movie started playing.

Is this what everyone else is seeing?

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#16

Post by barnabas1969 » Sat Aug 03, 2013 7:20 pm

staknhalo wrote:Again, you guys need to be contacting Microsoft AND Netflix, not just posting about it here!
I've tried that in the past. All you get is the run-around. It's a waste of time.

Maheeb at Microsoft (in their support center located in India) won't know what you're talking about, but he'll gladly take your credit card information (unless you have a retail version of Windows that was purchased within the last year). Then, after an hour or two on the phone, he'll finally figure it out and tell you that the plugin is no longer supported. And you PAID for this non-answer!

Susie at Netflix (actually an American!) probably won't be aware that the Netflix plugin for Windows Media Center even exists (and she's never heard of "Media Center" before... and will INSIST that you must be watching Netflix in a browser), but she'll find it in her knowledgebase after a while... and she'll tell you to call Microsoft... because they wrote the plugin and support is Microsoft's problem.

So, you're just SOL.

Here are my opinions:

1) There's no point in buying a retail version of Windows. The "support" you receive isn't worth the price difference between the OEM and retail versions.

2) Every time I've ever called "support" (either at Microsoft or at the manufacturer of the PC) that had something to do with Windows or a PC that I bought (I've only bought ONE pre-built PC in my life, and it was the most expensive piece of crap I've ever owned)... I knew more about it than the person on the other end of the phone and it was a waste of my time. The only productive calls I've ever had to those organizations is when I call as a corporate customer, and I get to speak to people who are much higher up on the food chain from the normal "support" people.

3) My experience as a consumer tells me that the "support" people only know how to follow a flow chart that tells them standard responses to your problems (which you could do all by yourself on a website). I understand that this probably resolves 95% or more of the problems that their customers call about, but, in many cases, it leaves more tech-saavvy people hanging without a resolution. Unfortunately, companies like this have no escalation process for retail customers. If you're a business customer at a large organization, then you get a much different experience.
Last edited by barnabas1969 on Sat Aug 03, 2013 7:52 pm, edited 5 times in total.

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#17

Post by barnabas1969 » Sat Aug 03, 2013 7:28 pm

I logged-in to Netflix (in a browser), and signed in. Then, I clicked the "Netflix" icon in the upper-left corner to take me to their home page.

Next, I clicked the smiley-face icon on the top-right, and chose "Manage profiles".

Finally, I deleted all profiles except mine (I even deleted the "none" profile). My son won't be happy about this... he apparently created his own profile somehow.

Now, the netflix add-in in Media Center works just like it did before.

EDIT: As you can see from the time when I posted my posts, it took me 10 minutes to figure this out. Are you all running Silverlight 5, with the KB2656405 and/or KB2656411 update uninstalled?

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#18

Post by steve4cr » Mon Aug 05, 2013 4:13 pm

UPDATE:

Turns out I an getting the same error as others. I dumped my new profile and back to normal. Hopefully MS will address this.

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#19

Post by jnorkus1 » Tue Aug 06, 2013 9:02 pm

I created a post on the Microsoft Community site, so We all could start ranting and raving there as well. Someone at MS will help, I hope


http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... 5822428683

barnabas1969

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#20

Post by barnabas1969 » Wed Aug 07, 2013 12:02 am

jnorkus1 wrote:I created a post on the Microsoft Community site, so We all could start ranting and raving there as well. Someone at MS will help, I hope


http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... 5822428683
Wishful thinking. There have been many other rants, raves, phone calls, etc. about the Netflix plugin. It has been abandoned by Microsoft. It's a shame, really, because it could be far superior to every other Netflix player.

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