10-24-2015, 10:26 AM
I've been super busy both in and out of work lately so I've only just got around to revisiting this.
Firstly, thanks again for all the suggestions.
I think maybe the title of my thread is misleading. I don't really want a media centre in the sense that that is all it does, so I want a dedicated interface to access all my stuff. I'm quite happy to have a "lounge PC" because, although I have plenty of other ways of doing it, I may also want to browse the web or whatever. However, because of my inability to get broadcast TV through my aerial, there are a couple of things that are fairly important for it to be able to do.
1. Receive live UK Freeview TV
2. Watch UK TV Channels' "catch-up" or "on demand" archives
3. Watch Netflix (this is the major portion of my viewing)
4. Access my own collection of videos and music
Thanks to PS3, Smart phones, Chromecast and other internet connected devices I can do just about all of this already. But I can't quite do it all on one device - at least, not without occasionally having one of the other devices also switched on. It just makes sense to me that I should do it all on a PC, and I'm afraid with Windows, it's always been very, very easy.
Last night I blew away my Windows 10 installation and installed LL properly. I did this because I'd installed Kodi on my Live session and had a breakthrough. When installing the NetfliXMBC add-on forced me to install the Chrome browser, I revisited all the services I had previously tried with Firefox in Chrome.
I must say, that Kodi + NetfliXMBC is a dreadfully ham-fisted and awkward way of browsing Netflix, but thanks to this revelation that Netflix works in Chrome I can forget about Kodi. I'm happy to use web browsers, file managers and standalone media players (VLC has been all I've needed for years) to launch my entertainment.
I'm a lot happier now, but still frustrated. Despite the fact that all the TV "on demand" services seem to use Flash Player for their streaming content, even in Chrome some work and some don't. I would conclude that this is down to their implementation and there's nothing I can do about it, if it weren't for the fact that they all work fine in Firefox and Chrome on my Windows laptop - so it still must be a Linux "problem".
Interestingly (or maybe not) with the exception of Netflix, which works in Chrome but not in Firefox, all the others show the same behaviour (no errors, just doesn't play).
Work:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer
https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/
https://tvplayer.com/watch/
http://www.tvcatchup.com/
Don't:
http://www.channel4.com/now
http://www.channel5.com/demand5
http://uktvplay.uktv.co.uk/
If anyone knows of anything I could do to get these last few stragglers working I'd be happy to hear it.
Firstly, thanks again for all the suggestions.
I think maybe the title of my thread is misleading. I don't really want a media centre in the sense that that is all it does, so I want a dedicated interface to access all my stuff. I'm quite happy to have a "lounge PC" because, although I have plenty of other ways of doing it, I may also want to browse the web or whatever. However, because of my inability to get broadcast TV through my aerial, there are a couple of things that are fairly important for it to be able to do.
1. Receive live UK Freeview TV
2. Watch UK TV Channels' "catch-up" or "on demand" archives
3. Watch Netflix (this is the major portion of my viewing)
4. Access my own collection of videos and music
Thanks to PS3, Smart phones, Chromecast and other internet connected devices I can do just about all of this already. But I can't quite do it all on one device - at least, not without occasionally having one of the other devices also switched on. It just makes sense to me that I should do it all on a PC, and I'm afraid with Windows, it's always been very, very easy.
Last night I blew away my Windows 10 installation and installed LL properly. I did this because I'd installed Kodi on my Live session and had a breakthrough. When installing the NetfliXMBC add-on forced me to install the Chrome browser, I revisited all the services I had previously tried with Firefox in Chrome.
I must say, that Kodi + NetfliXMBC is a dreadfully ham-fisted and awkward way of browsing Netflix, but thanks to this revelation that Netflix works in Chrome I can forget about Kodi. I'm happy to use web browsers, file managers and standalone media players (VLC has been all I've needed for years) to launch my entertainment.
I'm a lot happier now, but still frustrated. Despite the fact that all the TV "on demand" services seem to use Flash Player for their streaming content, even in Chrome some work and some don't. I would conclude that this is down to their implementation and there's nothing I can do about it, if it weren't for the fact that they all work fine in Firefox and Chrome on my Windows laptop - so it still must be a Linux "problem".
Interestingly (or maybe not) with the exception of Netflix, which works in Chrome but not in Firefox, all the others show the same behaviour (no errors, just doesn't play).
Work:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer
https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/
https://tvplayer.com/watch/
http://www.tvcatchup.com/
Don't:
http://www.channel4.com/now
http://www.channel5.com/demand5
http://uktvplay.uktv.co.uk/
If anyone knows of anything I could do to get these last few stragglers working I'd be happy to hear it.