[mythtv-users] Netflix under MythTV - Working

[Mark Knecht]

On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 5:33 PM, Allen Edwards
<allen.p.edwards at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks to input from this group, I now have Netflix Streaming Video
> working under MythTV.
>
> It is running under VMware-Player (free) running WindowsXP (not free).
>
> First, I have a copy of mainmenu.xml in my .mythtv folder under my
> home directory (dad).  In that I added this button
>
>  <button>
>     <type>VIDEO</type>
>     <text>Netflix Streaming VM</text>
>     <action>EXEC DISPLAY=":0.1"  /usr/bin/vmplayer
> /home/dad/vmware/WindowsXP/WindowsXP.vmx</action>
>   </button>
>
> I installed vmplayer from the website and followed the simple
> directions.  The install was extremely easy.  The only change I made
> from stock was to set ALSA Audio as the audio player.  I installed
> WindowsXP, the service packs, the extensions (which automatically
> downloaded and installed), and silverlight (from netflix web site).  I
> set the browser up to go to netflix.com as the home page and put the
> browser in the startup menu in WindowsXP.  I used VMware-Player
> program defaults of 512M memory and 40G HD max.  I didn't change
> anything except the audio option.
>
> When I click on the MythTv button for Netflix, it automatically goes
> to the netflix web site where I can pick my movie.
>
> My system is n AMD 5400+ with 2GB of RAM and a 6200 video card.  Audio
> out is spdif.  Netflix runs 85 to 90% CPU when run in Chrome. It is
> within 5% in IE one way or the other, not sure yet.  The screen is a
> 46 inch Sony LCD at 720x1280.
>
> VirtualBox doesn't work.  There is some interrupt timing bug or
> something. Nobody has Netflix running under VirtualBox with anything
> short of a computer that doubles as a space heater.  The most
> interesting post in the VirtualBox forum is the question: does anyone
> have this working with Netflix? No replies.
>
> Again, thanks to everyone who replied and especially Andrew Cover for
> the key tip to use vmplayer instead of VirtualBox.
>
> Allen

Hi Allen,
   I've been reading your posts with interest. I'm not doing much with
Myth right now but I did suggest earlier that vmware worked pretty
well for me anyway.

   I do get somewhat better numbers with my high-end system in terms
of CPU usage, but I'm dedicating more the the effort. My VM is 2
processor cores (out of 12 on an i7-980x) with 4GB of DRAM dedicated
to the VM. Windows Task Manager shows about 34% overall CPU (2*17% is
the way I think that tool reads. Correct me if I'm wrong.) top shows
the VM getting about 39% of 1 CPU, but the work is spread out across
all 12 cores and it's mostly system, not user.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29328985@N03

   That said it's very watchable and this machine anyway isn't tasked
very hard doing it.

Cheers,
Mark