Netflix on your TV with Beyond Media

The Snapstream blog has a pretty cool post about a new Netflix plugin for Beyond TV with screenshots. Thanks to both the Netflix API and built-in API with Beyond Media, a user was able to create a Netflix lookup and manager that works within the PVR software application. Cruising Netflix from the couch seems pretty cool as the Beyond Media software does interact with your DVD player, but kind of a bummer that you can't actually download movies or see them until they get mailed to you.

It'd be cool to see this plugin extended so that if I have say, Napoleon Dynamite, in my Netflix queue, the plugin would search my upcoming TV listings to alert me if anything I have upcoming in Netflix will be shown on a movie channel. A feature like that would help make both my Netflix and cable tv subscriptions more useful, and save me time and effort in the process.

Comments

[sMoRTy71]

Meedio, which I used for a while prior to switching to Windows MCE, also has a pretty nice Netflix plugin.

http://www.meedio.com/maid/detail.php?mode=detail&plugin_id={288BBA36-0437-4E95-99B5-1D3AA94972D9}

[Mike]

SageTV has a Netflix plugin and their current beta with placeshifting is pretty amazing.

Here's the link for the Netflix plugin.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=69

[Myles]

It's worth noting that this plugin is for Beyond Media, not Beyond TV. I've been taking a look at their APIs because I have Beyond TV and would like to add some functionality to it. Their Beyond TV API is basically a SOAP web service that allows you to view and change upcoming recordings and do various things with files you have recorded in the past. There is no way, that I can see, to actually build a plugin like this Netflix plugin for Beyond TV.

The Beyond Media SDK, on the other hand, allows you to create plugins just like this. However for that you obviously have to purchase Beyond Media -- something I'm thinking of doing because I'd like to add a Flickr plugin among other things to it, but not because I want any of the current functionality in Beyond Media. Once I figure out how well Beyond TV and Beyond Media integrate, I'll make my decision.

Also, it's pretty ridiculous to use forum software as an application addon directory. They desperately need something more like downloads.com with user comments, rating, searching, categories, tagging, etc.

[adam]

shit yeah, i can't wait to get home and install this.

[Kiyote]

This is great, but why no "watch instantly" movies? I'd really like to be able to browse, and then launch a movie directly from Beyond Media.