Thursday, May 28, 2015

Waves POM-105785.2 Review

I know this doesn't quite fit here, but I just bought this thing (almost wrote thong, tgf spellcheck), and I felt the need to review it. Unfortunately, the netonnet website wouldn't let me do it without publishing my email adress... So I put it here instead.

I'm on a diet at the moment, so air popped popcorn sounded like just the thing for a snack.

By the way, don't worry, just because I don't eat it, doesn't mean I don't bake it, plenty of recipes for cakes and cookies and more to come. You're free to use butter and eggs and whatnot. I was always of the opinion, better a small slice of something special, than a big slice of something average.

Anyway, I have to say I'm very impressed by this machine. It's MUCH faster than using a pot, without using any fat, and without the trans-fats of microwave popcorn. 

A minute or so, and you have a bowl full of popcorn. 

It's a bit noisy, but not too bad, and you won't need to stand it for very long (this thing is FAST). And there is next to nothing in regards to washing up.

TIP: If you want the salt to stick to the popcorn, just spray some water (mist) on the popcorn before salting it.


Friday, May 1, 2015

Netflix in Kodi on Linux

I have a previous post about this, where an addon called NetfliXBMC is used. That works just fine, and fairly seamlessly. The only thing is, I don't really use it for browsing movies. I do that on my tablet or something, add it to my list and then play it from Kodi.

The thing is that Netflix has a pretty nice web-interface (ok, so there are some things I don't like about it, but nevertheless), and we are already using Chrome to play the movie from NetfliXBMC, so why not just open Chrome to Netflix and play it from there?

There is also an added benefit to to this, which is that it is possible to use a VPN-like extension to Chrome, which would allow you to view the US content from another country. Obviously, I'm neither suggesting or encouraging anybody to do that, I'm simply saying that it is possible.

The only downside is that when you click a TV-series, you won't be able to see and select season and episode, it'll simply start the first, or if you've watched the series before, the next, episode.

Unfortunately, it's not quite as easy as just installing chrome, we also need to be able to navigate and select a movie. If you are using a keyboard and mouse to control your HTPC, then that's fine, but I'm using a remote, so some extra effort is needed. Fortunately, others have had the same issues, and have developed some extensions for Chrome which, at least partly, solves the issue.

Anyway, here's how to do it.

First, follow my guide for setting up NetfliXBMC, except for actually installing the NetfliXBMC addon.

Next, start the Chrome Launcher addon, and add Netflix to the websites list. Start it up, press Ctrl+N to open a new window, which is not in fullscreen mode. Install the addons you want/need. There are several ones that can change the look and feel of the Netflix website if you like.

For browsing the website using a remote, install the "Netflix Navigator" extension. This is made to enable you to control it using an XBOX360 controller, but it seems to work pretty well with the default buttons in Kodi. Except for one thing, which is that when you open any page, there is an overlay telling you to press a button on the controller. So in order to get rid of that, we need to modify the addon slightly.

Now, if you modify an installed extension, chrome tends to think that it has been corrupted and disables it, so we need to make a copy of it, and install that copy.

Go to your Kodi users home folder (probably /var/lib/kodi), then further into .config/google-chrome/Default/Extensions/

Find the folder that contains the Netflix Navigator extension. The folders are named as a hash on this level, so you need to look more carefully. Check the version number of Netflix Navigator from the Chrome extensions settings, and look for the same version number one level down in the folder structure here.

Copy the extension to your Kodi user home directory (or some other good place), you need the whole thing, ie the folder with the hash name.

Edit the file driver.js

Find the bit of code that looks like this:

return function() {
            if (_this.controllers.length === 0) {
              overlay = new OverlayMessage();
              return overlay.show("Please press <img src='" + (chrome.extension.getURL("assets/Xbox360_Button_A.png")) + "' /> to begin"$
            }
          };


Replace it with this (just removing a part of it):

return function() {
            if (_this.controllers.length === 0) {
            }
          };


Now go to the Chrome extensions settings page and uninstall the original extension. Then click the "Developer mode" checkbox and then "Load unpacked extension...". Select the extension that you modified by browsing to that folder, and install it.

You should now be able to browse and start movies from the Netflix webpage.
ENJOY!