Netflix w/ MCE

[drvnbysound]

I just saw this posted on AVS forum the other day:

http://www.cepro.com/article/hands_on_with...dia_center/K315

and was curious to find out if anyone is using it?

I have had limited experience with VCE personally, since I only have it on my laptop. I have ripped movies to my laptops HDD and had them pulled into MCE with cover art, etc. which I found pretty nice. However, again, since currently only on my laptop I really only use this when Im on work travel.

Since seeing the Netflix app added, I have tried to setup the MCE internet connection, with no such luck doing so as of yet. It seems that its a pretty common issue to have trouble with the internet connection of MCE. I have made another post about the connection problem over at TheGreenButton.com - hoping to see an answer soon.

 

[batwater]

Are you by chance running a proxy or content filter on your network? I had this issue, the guide, because of the XXX channels in the DirecTv lineup were getting tagged as porn and the whole microsoft domain was being filtered, once I unblocked that everything was fine.

BTW, I just installed the Netflix plugin, works great.

-Ben

 

[mdesmarais]

Does it stream HD?

 

[drvnbysound]

Are you by chance running a proxy or content filter on your network? I had this issue, the guide, because of the XXX channels in the DirecTv lineup were getting tagged as porn and the whole microsoft domain was being filtered, once I unblocked that everything was fine.

BTW, I just installed the Netflix plugin, works great.

-Ben

I dont have anything purposely proxy'ed or filtered.. simply a Comcast cable modem connected to a Linksys WRT54G. I have tried to connect both wired and wirelessly - both with no success. When I try the wired connection and use the VMC "TEST" option, VMC reports that an error has occurred and that it's searching for a solution (none ever found) and closes/restarts VMC. When I try to join a network (wireless) I get a timeout error.

 

[drvnbysound]

If anyone here could help troubleshoot this issue as well, it would be great.. I just figured that I would get a response from the guys a Thegreenbutton.com first, but nothing there yet either... Here is the message I posted over there:

I have never configured the internet connection (in MCE) before, so its not as if I had it previously working and its not now. I have Comcast internet service, connected to a Linksys WRT54G router. I am currently trying to connect via WIRED connection and having no success.

I searched through a couple of pages worth of a search on "internet connection" here and it seems that its fairly common to have the problem of not being able to connect with MCE. However, I was unable to find anything relating to my issue..

I have entered the Windows Media Center Setup > Setup Internet Connection, then selected that I have an "Always On" connection. When I get to the "TEST" page, and select TEST, I get an error message stating that MCE has stopped working, windows is checking for a solution, and MCE closes and restarts. No solution has yet to be found by Windows.

After reading some of the other member issues, I did remove Norton Anti-Virus and continue to have the same issue.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Did you disable the Windows Firewall?

It's reasons just like this one that I switched from MCE to SageTV. Another issue I was having was my Linksys media extender would not be able to find the MCE server and I was ALWAYS messing around with that.

 

[drvnbysound]

Did you disable the Windows Firewall?

It's reasons just like this one that I switched from MCE to SageTV. Another issue I was having was my Linksys media extender would not be able to find the MCE server and I was ALWAYS messing around with that.

Yes, I have disabled the Windows Firewall.

I dont plan to use MCE as a part of my HT, but have MCE installed on a laptop I travel with and would like to be able to use it then. It's certainly discouraging when I cant even figure out how to get the internet connection configured easily.

 

[Frunple]

Had the same problem , also posted at the green button, no resolution!
Actually had to reinstall the OS to fix it.

 

[drvnbysound]

Had the same problem , also posted at the green button, no resolution!
Actually had to reinstall the OS to fix it.

WOW! That sounds GREAT! Not exactly what I was hoping for. Did you have any other issues with VMC other than the internet connection?

 

[drvnbysound]

So I got on Dell chat, since VMC is installed on my Dell XPS laptop. After chatting and telling the tech about my problem for about 30 minutes, and the tech asking me to do about 3 things, which didnt help anything, she asked that she remotely connect to my machine. I allowed the connection, and about 1 HOUR later, still no resolution. She indicated that there was no major documented issue for fix to the issue.

I informed her that I had posted my problem on a couple of forums and that 1 person (above) had responded staying that he tried re-installing the OS and it worked after. (I personally have no idea why reinstalling the OS would FIX the problem.) In any case, the tech informed me that it currently looked like the only option I have to try and that its certainly not a guaranteed fix. :-( GREAT!!!

 

[batwater]

Don't know if this will work but you might consider going back a few months months on your system state, doing a restore, then check to see if you can get VMC configured to work with the guide for your cable provider, I think you said it was Comcast. If this doesn't work then try reapplying all of the patches that are now queued up because you've backed the system state off. I read some where at some point that this cleared up some issues becasue of 1/2 installed updates that corrupted things. I know there was a fairly recent upgrade that installed a new "TV Pack" for VMC. I'm running 64bit VMC and did not have any upgrade issues but I am using a dedicated HTPC that does nothing but feed my TV with content.

-Ben

 

[drvnbysound]

Don't know if this will work but you might consider going back a few months months on your system state, doing a restore, then check to see if you can get VMC configured to work with the guide for your cable provider, I think you said it was Comcast. If this doesn't work then try reapplying all of the patches that are now queued up because you've backed the system state off. I read some where at some point that this cleared up some issues becasue of 1/2 installed updates that corrupted things. I know there was a fairly recent upgrade that installed a new "TV Pack" for VMC. I'm running 64bit VMC and did not have any upgrade issues but I am using a dedicated HTPC that does nothing but feed my TV with content.

-Ben

Comcast cable internet service is what I was referring to. I do not have any sort of tuner card in the laptop. Simply trying to establish the internet connection in VMC. I may certainly try restoring to a previous date before doing a re-install though.

 

[TXFlatLander]

Does it stream HD?

Netflix does stream HD in 720p in addition to SD. You have to have the bandwidth to do it. You might also check out the Roku Digital Video Player @ www.roku.com. It will stream Netflix & Amazon Video on Demand, also in SD & HD. It is about $110 shipped. Minimum Netflix plan for streaming is the $8.99/month plan. I have had it nearly a year and love it.

On Netflix, the HD selection is not that great currently, but the SD is pretty good now that they added the Starz Play portfolio. On the Roku for Netflix SD viewing, you have 1 to 4 "dots", 4 being the best, of video quality on streaming. According to the Roku forums, the bandwidth requirement for each dot is 1 dot is 0.5Mbps, 2 dots is 1.0Mbps, 3 dots is 1.6Mbps, 4 dots is 2.2Mbps. I am not sure what the HD requirement is but it is more. Roku is going to be adding more channels to the box. I am crossing my fingers for Hulu.