Who owns the Netflix plugin for WMC?

[meatball]

Does anyone know who we need to bug about updating/fixing the Netflix plugin for WMC? Is it MS or Netflix?

My main gripe is the UI for watching television shows with multiple seasons. There's no way to skip to a specific season and you have to scroll from S01E01 on down to the episode you want every time you open up the show. That's not a big deal for some shows, but watch something like Married with Children or Cheers and it get's to the point where you have to hit your down arrow on your remote 200-250 times just to get to the show you want for the later seasons. That's insane.

Is there anyone we can go to about the plugin, or has it been abandoned by both sides? We use Netflix enough that I'm seriously thinking of ditching Windows/Media Center to go with XBMC or Media Portal.

[barnabas1969]

I've read that it was a joint venture between M$ and Netflix. Neither of them will help you with it though. They both point the finger at the other.

[mcewinter]

I'm very curious if Netflix will be in the download verion of MC (MC8?) since MS and Netflix seem to have washed their hands of the plugin.

[barnabas1969]

It would be very nice if M$ would make the plugin source code open to the public. Surely someone would pick it up and improve it.

[newfiend]

I think it will be in windows 8 the Xbox has its own app for Netflix still and it was updated with the new dashboard release. I see no reason for them to remove it from MC. even though it is in dire need of updating.

Sent from my WP7 using Board Express

[mcewinter]

It may seem stale but it's still more robust than some other interfaces out there.

[meatball]

Agreed, for the most part, it's fine. It's just the navigation in multiple season TV streaming that's awful. I'm watching Married with Children right now. There's 11 seasons and 259 episodes. As I'm getting near the end of the season 11, anytime I go in to watch an episode I can easily scroll over to it and then go to the episode list. At that point I have to start scrolling down the list from Season 1, Episode 1. 250 down arrow pushes later, I can finally watch the episode I want to watch.

I'm starting to go through batteries on the remote like crazy...

[barnabas1969]

I agree that the Media Center plugin for Netflix is better than the Netflix interface in my BluRay players. It has advantages and disadvantages compared to the one in my new Samsung TV.

It is odd though that it doesn't keep track of TV episodes like the other device do.

Meatball, can you press the down-arrow and hold it? I don't watch much TV episode stuff in Netflix. I prefer Hulu Desktop for that (with the Hulu Desktop integration plugin for Media Center).

[meatball]

Actually, I can, but it goes slower than if I push the down arrow as fast as I can. It's about half a second to a second delay to scroll to the next episode just holding the button down where I can push the button a lot faster than that.

[barnabas1969]

Have you tried, and are you aware of the Hulu Desktop software and the plugin to integrate it into Media Center?

Hulu Desktop is free, and can be downloaded from Hulu.com. It allows you to watch Hulu without opening a browser. Then, there's a free little app (here) that will make it work pretty well with Media Center (but not on extenders). Lots of those old shows on are on Hulu.

[meatball]

Yeah, we use that as well, but use Netflix a good deal. We've 'cut the cord', so 90% of our viewing is OTA & Netflix, and then occasionally Hulu and some podcasts and such I download.

[barnabas1969]

Well, I guess an alternative would be to watch the Netflix episodes on another device. If you have a BluRay player, a TV with an embedded Netflix app, or a Roku box... they should remember the last episode you watched. Their interfaces are a little clunky compared to the Media Center app (especially fast forward and rewind), but they do keep track of episodes correctly.

You could also use an XBox, of course, but if you've cut the cord, you probably don't want to pay for an XBox Live Gold account either.

[meatball]

Yeah, we have an XBox as well and use that on occasion, but it's just silly that noone will take ownership over the plugin. Back when Netflix was first starting, they were trying to get their client on everything. Now that they're successful, they don't care about long term support on the smaller client install bases. If you go to Netflix's support page and dig around long enough, you can find a page saying they don't support the plugin, you need to contact MS.

[barnabas1969]

Yeah, I've called them about it. They referred me to Microsoft. I didn't call M$, but I've read about others who did. They always tell the caller that it's Netflix's problem. I haven't called M$ for more than a decade. The support I received back then was abysmal. From the support responses I read on M$'s website, I can tell that it hasn't improved... and it's been moved off shore.

[EmirOfGroofunkistan]

yeah, watching Top Gear with 17 seasons is not fun. The best workaround I've found is to use something like this http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Enhanced-M ... 000&sr=1-1 and move the cursor side to side at the bottom of the list. It scrolls the episode list the way you'd like it to - the way it should using a standard remote. You can get this remote regularly for about $35 if you watch for deals.

[gpatlanta]

yeah, watching Top Gear with 17 seasons is not fun. The best workaround I've found is to use something like this http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Enhanced-M ... 000&sr=1-1 and move the cursor side to side at the bottom of the list. It scrolls the episode list the way you'd like it to - the way it should using a standard remote. You can get this remote regularly for about $35 if you watch for deals.

+1 was about to post the same thing. I switch and do that when I need to. Not a great User Experience, but better than using the remote.