Yeah, the HTML5 was key. It's way easier to listen to player events without really interacting with Netflix-specific stuff. I probably would have given up if I was doing it with silverlight. Actually, this is why this is only a chrome extension because Netflix uses silverlight in Firefox.
Wow right it was Silverlight... I think I raged so hard I blocked that out of my memory.
Not that the flash on Hulu or Amazon are any better. I did have some luck with YouTube's old player and injecting their js->flash API, but still, HTML5 was a damn relief.
My girlfriend and I tried using rabbit but we weren't happy with the performance. Their implementation is actually to open netflix on a virtual machine GUI and use browser tricks to try to make it seem like you're just controlling the computer like its your desktop. The performance tends to be bad because there is two hops, from netflix to their servers, and their servers to you.
I've messed with rabbit before. I wasn't a fan because in their implementation actually open netflix on a virtual machine GUI and use browser tricks to try to make it seem like you're just controlling the computer like its your desktop. The performance is horrible though because there is two hops, from netflix to their servers, and their servers to you.
In our case, we did netflix that we manually synced up and just do videochat on skype. Facetime doesn't work because it hijacks your sound, turns down all other audio sources and you can't turn it off. Silly apple.
The skype is nice because it puts a thumbnail of their face that stays hovered over the netflix even while it's in fullscreen.
Though I originally made it for me and my SO, it was surprising how many people have told me that they also have done the whole netflix, skype and "3, 2, 1, go" combo. Its interesting to think about things we could make that would better allow shared experience or emotional intimacy with people over distance.
This is pretty much exactly what myself and fiancee did - though for us, the '3, 2, 1, go' became part of the tradition, and we took it in turns to make up 'alternative countdowns' for programmes. Interesting the way that technical limitations can also translate to shared experiences.
Of course, the biggest issue was that netflix offerings in the US were very different to those in the UK, so we'd spend about an hour where one of us tried to find dubiously legal ways to watch a programme the other could watch fine on netflix.
Yeah it's like Cytube. My use case was that I'm in a long-distance relationship and we both are huge movie buffs. YouTube just simply doesn't have the content that we want. Netflix does but it doesn't allow embeds so it took a bit more trickery :)
Actually, there's another product that does that and somehow gets away with it. They actually open netflix on a virtual machine and use a ton of hacks to make it look like its you controlling it. The performance is horrible though because there is two hops.
