Discontinuing Support for Netflix Sept 2015

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n4mwd

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#101

Post by n4mwd » Wed Sep 16, 2015 1:28 pm

The only people who can remove something from WMC is M$ not Netflix. I'm not sure why M$ is whittling away at WMC and dropping functionality bit by bit.

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Doctor Feelgood

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#102

Post by Doctor Feelgood » Wed Sep 16, 2015 2:07 pm

n4mwd wrote:The only people who can remove something from WMC is M$ not Netflix. I'm not sure why M$ is whittling away at WMC and dropping functionality bit by bit.
Yeah - I expected it to be there, but dead. Being removed bothered me. So, I am guessing there was an update that is responsible. Think it can be reversed?

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STC

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#103

Post by STC » Wed Sep 16, 2015 2:40 pm

n4mwd wrote:...I'm not sure why M$ is whittling away at WMC and dropping functionality bit by bit.
That would be due to the cost of supporting a non-supported EOL product.
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#104

Post by gbwelly » Wed Sep 16, 2015 7:49 pm

STC wrote:
n4mwd wrote:...I'm not sure why M$ is whittling away at WMC and dropping functionality bit by bit.
That would be due to the cost of supporting a non-supported EOL product.
So, let me get this straight.... Are you telling me that at some point Microsoft actually supported Media Center? :)

I have blocked mcupdate and use BSEPG, so I shall run the addin until Netflix change something on the backend to prevent it working.

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#105

Post by genesound » Wed Sep 16, 2015 9:45 pm

I don't get it being called simply an unsupported EOL product. The WMC add-on for Win 8 was for sale and being sold as brand new product until very recently, in this calendar year.

I'm more inclined to call it fraud. They can't release a new product, then cripple their old one that someone bought a few months earlier so those people have to go out and spend more money. That's highly illegal and fraudulent. If it could get any traction, it might even make a decent class action.

Even Windows 7 is still supported, and WMC is part of it. This seems wrong, and very questionable as to legality.

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#106

Post by STC » Wed Sep 16, 2015 10:52 pm

It's old old code and the team that put it together have long disbanded. Bundling it in Win 8 does not mean you have a right to another 10 years of support and development. Having a third party app cease to function doesn't fall under their umbrella of love. They owe you precisely squat when it comes to anything that may be hanging off it.
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#107

Post by n4mwd » Thu Sep 17, 2015 12:00 am

STC wrote:It's old old code and the team that put it together have long disbanded. Bundling it in Win 8 does not mean you have a right to another 10 years of support and development. Having a third party app cease to function doesn't fall under their umbrella of love. They owe you precisely squat when it comes to anything that may be hanging off it.
They may not owe us any support, but what they did with the netflix app was not the lack of support, it was a deliberate tampering with the working program we already have. Netflix did not die a natural death as the result of non-maintenance, it was app murder by M$.

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#108

Post by STC » Thu Sep 17, 2015 12:24 am

I'm sure it was a malicious deliberate move to upset all NF WMC users. What other reason could it be?
They have put time and effort into sabotaging it.
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#109

Post by n4mwd » Thu Sep 17, 2015 2:30 am

Not a problem for me any more. I cancelled both the dvd and streaming. I don't believe that netflix is responsible this time, but unfortunately, they are the ultimate victims. There are a lot of cheaper/free alternatives out there so I guess I should thank M$ for giving me a push.

I thought it was interesting that they asked why I cancelled the dvd service, but not why I cancelled the streaming. I think they already know.

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#110

Post by genesound » Thu Sep 17, 2015 7:50 am

STC wrote:It's old old code and the team that put it together have long disbanded. Bundling it in Win 8 does not mean you have a right to another 10 years of support and development. Having a third party app cease to function doesn't fall under their umbrella of love. They owe you precisely squat when it comes to anything that may be hanging off it.
Meh, WMC wasn't bundled with Win 8, it was a separate add on that was sold separately with an additional charge until very recently. They sold WMC to people and within weeks were undermining and crippling it, perhaps even as they were still selling it. They actually should be responsible for that. The Netflix app death notices came from within WMC, not from Netflix, and the removal of the app was done by Windows Update.

Netflix wasn't exactly hanging off of it as unexpected 3rd party, WMC was designed to be exactly that kind of interface where external services were intended and encouraged to be used.

A product needs to be viable for a certain amount of time after it is sold as current. I know that in California there are laws covering certain things along these lines for 7 years, I'm just not certain it's applicable in this instance.

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#111

Post by gbwelly » Fri Sep 18, 2015 8:07 am

Media center isn't free, especially so on Windows 8.1 where it is a separate purchase. It included a Netflix addin.
When I noticed someone using Office 2007 yesterday I thought about how rude it would be if MS released an update which removed Excel 2007 from the Office suite because it was so old.

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#112

Post by STC » Fri Sep 18, 2015 12:28 pm

Unfortunately for everyone, Netflix is not an integral part of MediaCenter. It is an addon that does not interact with the core function of WMC.
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#113

Post by audinutt » Fri Sep 18, 2015 12:55 pm

Okay, I have 2 media center pc's
One using rovi (microsoft's guide) and the other with my manual guide import.
The one using microsoft's guide removed netflix yesterday and it's gone 100%.
To my surprise it works on the other media center pc (the one without rovi/microsoft's guide data)

I did a full system image backup so if something changes going forward I can (maybe figure out what changed)
I am thinking somthing to do with the mcupdate

-Richard

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#114

Post by 3rob3 » Fri Sep 18, 2015 1:11 pm

We already knew that mcupdate is the mechanism they would remove it with. I think time would be better spent looking for/developing an alternative. My guess is Netflix is looking to remove Silverlight streaming support, of which WMC was one of the few (only?) remaining. I think even if you figure out how to keep it in WMC, it will be on borrowed time anyway.

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#115

Post by zenischosen » Fri Sep 18, 2015 4:55 pm

From your PC with working Netflix, copy the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\Packages folder to the one that had it removed, overwriting any files. If you were receiving the September 15 message you will continue to get it, but Netflix will work. If it's a clean install, or if you recover Media Center using Task Scheduler the message wont be there. If Netflix disappears again, just recopy that folder again. It also does not seem to be removed if you don't have Service Pack 1.

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#116

Post by audinutt » Fri Sep 18, 2015 5:25 pm

zenischosen wrote:From your PC with working Netflix, copy the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\Packages folder to the one that had it removed, overwriting any files. If you were receiving the September 15 message you will continue to get it, but Netflix will work. If it's a clean install, or if you recover Media Center using Task Scheduler the message wont be there. If Netflix disappears again, just recopy that folder again. It also does not seem to be removed if you don't have Service Pack 1.
I can confirm this indeed DID WORK!

Thanks,
-Richard

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#117

Post by stuartm » Fri Sep 18, 2015 5:55 pm

If you put it back does it stay across subsequent nightly guide updates? The WMC interface is a lot less painful to use with a remote from the couch than using the browser interface. I will try to dig up the folder from a backup if it does keep working.

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#118

Post by zenischosen » Fri Sep 18, 2015 6:51 pm

I still have Netflix on all my PCs I tried it on. I have the files if you need them.

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#119

Post by stuartm » Fri Sep 18, 2015 11:02 pm

zenischosen wrote:I still have Netflix on all my PCs I tried it on. I have the files if you need them.
Thanks, If you could make them available to me I would really appreciate it. I only set Netflix up recently and I haven't imaged my disk since then so I don't think I have the files.

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#120

Post by Doctor Feelgood » Sat Sep 19, 2015 2:52 pm

stuartm wrote:
zenischosen wrote:I still have Netflix on all my PCs I tried it on. I have the files if you need them.
Thanks, If you could make them available to me I would really appreciate it. I only set Netflix up recently and I haven't imaged my disk since then so I don't think I have the files.
I'd appreciate trying them out, too - thanks!

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