I know that Netflix, Hulu and Pandora are not natively supported on XBMC (as they are plugins) but I think they are popular enough services where they should be actively developed in the community for the upcoming releases (Frodo...).
Thoughts?
I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I don't see the advantage to doing this (and I can see several disadvantages).
Because these services are external, and can (and often do) change outside the XBMC schedules, having support for them in the core would generate either broken systems or unnecessary churn. These external services are, I think, a perfect example of what addons do well; they're independently updateable, well-defined and well-separated chunks of functionality.
Very good points.
I guess I am looking for a Home Theater Solution but XBMC is merely a skin-able Video/Music Player with data scraping out of the box. The problem with the plugin's is they are not nearly as actively developed as the media center itself.
Example:
In order to play Netflix it's easier to and almost necessary to go to my Xbox360 (particularly for my girlfriend). XBMC Flicks is not elegant at all.
Pandora breaks every other day (literally) and you can't add channels.
The Hulu app works good but the navigation leaves something to be desired (however, it's the most usable).
I guess I'm suggesting this to keep XBMC competitive with other solutions:
Broadly speaking, the problem with this suggestion is that the nice people at Netflix/Hulu/etc have not directly contacted us and asked to become part of XBMC. One presumes there are a number of reasons for this, chief among them being DRM. Because of the way XBMC is developed, the current players would take a lot of work to be able to play nice with the DRM of Netflix, particularly in Linux. That's typically why you only find Netflix on SoC solutions, like Boxee's Box, where the actual player is closed to allow for better DRM support.
To put it another way, the day Netflix natively works in Ubuntu without hacking is the day it becomes a more likely possibility for XBMC.
I'm sure the add-on devs that work on these will be more than happy if folk jumped in and helped out. Due to the reasons natethomas gives, we cannot have this stuff in core, so there's not a lot we can do other than supporting the awesome addon devs that do all the hardwork.
You don't necessarily have to be a python coder to be able to help out - I'm sure they'd be happy with a dedicated testing + QA team for example.
Cheers,
Jonathan
And for another reason why these services should not be (IMHO) in XBMC core:
"Sorry, Netflix is not available in your country... yet"
- Netflix
"Sorry, currently our video library can only be watched from within the United States"
- Hulu
"We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S."
- Pandora.
XMBC has a LOT of users (and developers) outside US.
Quote:XMBC has a LOT of users (and developers) outside US
I am a user outside of the States.
(2012-06-07, 00:06)paavor Wrote: [ -> ]And for another reason why these services should not be (IMHO) in XBMC core:
"Sorry, Netflix is not available in your country... yet"
- Netflix
"Sorry, currently our video library can only be watched from within the United States"
- Hulu
"We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S."
- Pandora.
XMBC has a LOT of users (and developers) outside US.
Very good point. You've all convinced me. I will try and help out where I can with the add-ons when I get time and skill
I have often thought about if say netflix did agree to build something that they create a external program.
You select netflix xbmc minimizes and netflix starts up. once you are done and exit netflix then xbmc comes back.
(2012-06-09, 05:31)intertan Wrote: [ -> ]I have often thought about if say netflix did agree to build something that they create a external program.
You select netflix xbmc minimizes and netflix starts up. once you are done and exit netflix then xbmc comes back.
You can sort of do that today. Use Launcher to invoke "firefox
http://www.netflix.com". This will minimize XBMC and open Firefox to the Netflix homepage. When you are done with Netflix, simply close the browser and XBMC is restored to fullscreen.
I was mainly after a "partnership" with xbmc and netflix to join up and develop something together. I just figured if netflix is worried about drm the external start up might solve that situation.
It also that these partnerships are not free boxee and others pay netflix a fair bit of cash to be able to access there content and being free and having no real revenue other than donations we can't really afford that money changes hand too make it worth while for both companies
And also being outside the US my self I can't use any of them
(2012-06-09, 07:21)artrafael Wrote: [ -> ] (2012-06-09, 05:31)intertan Wrote: [ -> ]I have often thought about if say netflix did agree to build something that they create a external program.
You select netflix xbmc minimizes and netflix starts up. once you are done and exit netflix then xbmc comes back.
You can sort of do that today. Use Launcher to invoke "firefox http://www.netflix.com". This will minimize XBMC and open Firefox to the Netflix homepage. When you are done with Netflix, simply close the browser and XBMC is restored to fullscreen.
You could do this same thing with the Hulu desktop app. You'd have Hulu's full couch experience and be able to exit back to XBMC.
why on earth would we lift a finger to help spread geolocked drm infestation? Netflix and hulu should be actively worked against, not facilitated, by anyone supporting floss.
(2012-06-09, 07:21)artrafael Wrote: [ -> ] (2012-06-09, 05:31)intertan Wrote: [ -> ]I have often thought about if say netflix did agree to build something that they create a external program.
You select netflix xbmc minimizes and netflix starts up. once you are done and exit netflix then xbmc comes back.
You can sort of do that today. Use Launcher to invoke "firefox http://www.netflix.com". This will minimize XBMC and open Firefox to the Netflix homepage. When you are done with Netflix, simply close the browser and XBMC is restored to fullscreen.
Totally!! I think ALA is one of the greatest add-ons. It's not the most elegant solution in the world, but it lets you run anything your box supports with software outside of XMBC (say, the OS).... I use it for Skype, Google Earth (which is awesome on a huge screen), a benchmark program and I also use it for my comic book collection. Everything integrates perfectly with XBMC if you can live with that quick blink as the programs swap places in the foreground.