HOW-TO: add your hulu queue to boxee

[danb]

1) log into your hulu account... go to your queue... get the url to the rss feed...
(note: if you click the link in safari it will make the prefix "feed://" you don't want that.. you want "http://")

2) create an account here http://feedfool.com/ (very quick)

3) in the "new hulu feed" section... add a name, add the url from step 2... click add...

4) get the feed url next to the feed you just created... change "http://" prefix to "rss://"

5) add this to your /Users/frontrow/Library/Application Support/BOXEE/UserData/profiles/[profile name]/sources.xml


<source>
<name>My Hulu Queue</name>
<path>[the feed url from step 5 (must start with rss://)]</path>
<thumbnail>http://feedfool.com/images/feedfool_small.png</thumbnail>
<private>false</private>
</source>


6) restart boxee... now you should see your queue right in your internet sources

that's it... this is very alpha/beta... let me know if you have any problems...

[justinaugust]

Feed number 3!
Awesome dude.

[lbustelo]

Totally worked... that is awesome. Why is it that the boxee.tx My RSS service is not doing that you are?

[lbustelo]

nevermind... read the post about flash://

[danb]

thanks everyone for checking it out, and the feedback so far!

I just updated the directions for clarity and some mistakes.

I've got a bunch more features for this tool on the way.. usability improvements and more rss tools that may be useful to this community.. look for updates tomorrow and over the weekend.

if you're brave you can check out the torrent feed thingy now.. use the bookmarklet on piratebay or mininova to add torrents to a torrent feed... then your client can download the enclosures.

[agentlame]

thanks for the how-to... now i have something concise to point people to.

[danb]

I've updated the site and added the following:

- you can now change your password and email
- you can get a password reminder email (if you already have an account, you'll have to add your email address)
- you can now delete a feed
- you no longer need ?enclosure=1
- there are lots of input validations now, so it's harder to make a dud feed
- the rss feed itsn't cached at all anymore.. which should make for more responsive updates.

let me know if you have any ideas... and I have the following questions if anyone has answers:

why doesn't the video fill the screen?
does hulu ever automatically remove videos from your feed?
why can't these feeds be added through the boxee web interface for rss?

thanks!
dan

[agentlame]

why doesn't the video fill the screen?
does hulu ever automatically remove videos from your feed?
why can't these feeds be added through the boxee web interface for rss?

thanks!
dan

1. because 4:3 content in "embedded" mode--which is what boxee uses--requires you to right-click and select 'view all'.... under normal usage, it's not an issues, because the embedded box just looks square.
2. i don't believe so... the only time it ever has for me, is when the video is no longer on hulu.
3. i think the boxee team is still working on proper parsing of rss... looks like there are some hiccups in the current implementation.

[danb]

1. because 4:3 content in "embedded" mode--which is what boxee uses--requires you to right-click and select 'view all'.... under normal usage, it's not an issues, because the embedded box just looks square.
2. i don't believe so... the only time it ever has for me, is when the video is no longer on hulu.
3. i think the boxee team is still working on proper parsing of rss... looks like there are some hiccups in the current implementation.

1) I'm not sure I follow you.. when I play a show via the built in hulu menus they tend to fill the screen, at least top to bottom... but when I play them through my rss feed integration, they have the black bars on top and bottom as well as left and right... but when I look at the rss feeds on http://dir.boxee.tv/hulu/ they seem to match the settings I am pushing... follow me?

2) cool... thanks.. I have some ideas on how i might address this in my transformed feeds.

3) cool, thanks!

[neilhand]

Either i am missing something or i have messed up somehow. I have added the RSS feed into boxee, however no matter what i add to my queue in hulu, the RSS feed is always empty (both the direct HULU feed as well as the one transformed by feedfool.com.

I assume that the queue RSS that i am supposed to be using is the RSS from the "queue" section of my profile - correct?

When i click on the RSS icon, safari shows me an empty feed even though there are items in the queue.

Any suggestions?

[danb]

Either i am missing something or i have messed up somehow. I have added the RSS feed into boxee, however no matter what i add to my queue in hulu, the RSS feed is always empty (both the direct HULU feed as well as the one transformed by feedfool.com.

I assume that the queue RSS that i am supposed to be using is the RSS from the "queue" section of my profile - correct?

When i click on the RSS icon, safari shows me an empty feed even though there are items in the queue.

Any suggestions?

your feed looks ok to me... did you change http:// to rss:// in sources.xml... email me (on the left side of feedfool.com) and I will try to help you.

[neilhand]

Looks like it took some time for HULU to populate the feed. Now its all working well thanks.

/neil

[neilhand]

Now that the HULU problem is out of the way - i am trying to get the bookmarlet to work.

I am testing it with mininova - and after getting to the torrent page, i select the bookmarklet. This is adding the icon next to the download link without a problem. Clicking on the icon brings up the dialog to add to the feed, and correctly shows the name of the feed.

However, when i select the "add torrent" link, nothing happens and the dialog box remains visible. I can manually close the dialog, but checking the feed confirms that nothing was actually added.

[danb]

Now that the HULU problem is out of the way - i am trying to get the bookmarlet to work.


shoot me an email.. that thing's not really related to boxee... yet...

[riegersn]

1. because 4:3 content in "embedded" mode--which is what boxee uses--requires you to right-click and select 'view all'.... under normal usage, it's not an issues, because the embedded box just looks square.

You say this isn't an issue however I'm not getting anything from my queue in full screen, is there a way to fix this. When I'm playing the video and set it to zoom it just doesn't seem the same as watching from the Hulu plugin itself.

[danb]

You say this isn't an issue however I'm not getting anything from my queue in full screen, is there a way to fix this. When I'm playing the video and set it to zoom it just doesn't seem the same as watching from the Hulu plugin itself.

I would really love to fix this problem... but it looks like I'm doing stuff the way the plugin is and still I get the smaller screen.. I think I need a boxee dev to tell me what I'm doing wrong.

[agentlame]

it's a bug... there is nothing you can do, at the moment.

@riegersn
when i said 'under normal usage' i was referring to using hulu.com in a browser.

[agentlame]

hey guys... i want to let you know i found a workaround.

while playing the 4:3 video:
settings > video > video mode
set it to 'zoom'

mind you this setting only persists until the end of the video. so you have to do it each time you play a 4:3 video.

you could set this as your default setting, but it would jack-up 16:9 content.

[danb]

hey guys... i want to let you know i found a workaround.



nice! thanks.

[mattkapp]

This is exactly what I was looking for to setup hulu profiles. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Also, thanks for the zoom tip. This is one of the best user/developer communities I've found. Keep it up!

[danb]

can someone sticky this thread?

[sftl99]

I am also having the not full screen problem. When I use Hulu from the menu, there are no problems, but when using the feed, it does not fill the screen.

This happens for me regardless of the video ration. Both 4:3 and 16:9 TV shows have black bars on top/bottom & left/right.

I read the other responses to this problem, but I don't seem to understand what is going on that causes this.

[agentlame]

what is your tv's aspect ratio?

[sftl99]

what is your tv's aspect ratio?

16:9 Widescreen.

[johnrb85]

1) log into your hulu account... go to your queue... get the url to the rss feed...
(note: if you click the link in safari it will make the prefix "feed://" you don't want that.. you want "http://")

2) create an account here http://feedfool.com/ (very quick)

3) in the "new hulu feed" section... add a name, add the url from step 2... click add...

4) get the feed url next to the feed you just created... change "http://" prefix to "rss://"

5) add this to your /Users/frontrow/Library/Application Support/BOXEE/UserData/profiles/[profile name]/sources.xml


<source>
<name>My Hulu Queue</name>
<path>[the feed url from step 5 (must start with rss://)]</path>
<thumbnail>http://feedfool.com/images/feedfool_small.png</thumbnail>
<private>false</private>
</source>


6) restart boxee... now you should see your queue right in your internet sources

that's it... this is very alpha/beta... let me know if you have any problems...

I can't find the xml file that you are talking about? I'm on Ubuntu 8.04

also if I try to add the feed from http://feedfool.com/feed/rssFeed/### to the Boxee RSS website it crashes the website, and gives me an "invalid feed (#12)" message.

[agentlame]

I can't find the xml file that you are talking about? I'm on Ubuntu 8.04
see here: http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=730

[sftl99]

Any advice on my previous question about the letter boxes?

To recap, my TV is 16:9, my customized Hulu queue plays 16:9 & 4:3 TV shows with letter boxes. The 16:9 shows have boxes on top, bottom, left, right.

Any way to get this Hulu queue to play full screen?

[agentlame]

Any advice on my previous question about the letter boxes?

To recap, my TV is 16:9, my customized Hulu queue plays 16:9 & 4:3 TV shows with letter boxes. The 16:9 shows have boxes on top, bottom, left, right.

Any way to get this Hulu queue to play full screen?

have you tried adjusting the 'view mode'?
while playing a video: menu > settings > view mode

[jeff1234]

hi guys i live in the philippines and i cant seam to access hulu need help thanks

[mattkapp]

have you tried adjusting the 'view mode'?
while playing a video: menu > settings > view mode

I have tried that trick and it does bring the video to full screen, but the timeline then stays on the bottom of my screen throughout the video. Also, for some reason the quality doesn't look as good.

[sftl99]

have you tried adjusting the 'view mode'?
while playing a video: menu > settings > view mode

Ah, that did help. I must have missed that tip before. I can't tell if the video quality is any different. But it's not like Hulu has two different video feeds for each show, right? So wouldn't it have to be the same? Maybe there is some difference in the way Boxee is handling the video when it's Hulu.com versus coming from a feed?

[agentlame]

But it's not like Hulu has two different video feeds for each show, right?

hulu has precisely that...

all shows default to 320p... some sows offer 480p stream alongside the 320p stream.

boxee defaults to the 480p stream--where available--on every platform but the atv.

the atv can't 480p flash streams.

[mattkapp]

hulu has precisely that...

all shows default to 320p... some sows offer 480p stream alongside the 320p stream.

boxee defaults to the 480p stream--where available--on every platform but the atv.

the atv can't 480p flash streams.

I'm running boxee on a Mac Mini, is there anyway to force the queue videos to go full screen like the regular hulu channel then? It's not a big deal, I was just curious.

[agentlame]

I'm running boxee on a Mac Mini, is there anyway to force the queue videos to go full screen like the regular hulu channel then? It's not a big deal, I was just curious.

you could set 'zoom' as the default in:
boxee > settings > video

but that would break 16:9 content. :(

short: not at the moment, no.

[mattkapp]

Thanks for the quick reply though! :)

[sftl99]

the atv can't 480p flash streams.
So that means the video quality won't be as good on the ATV versus my MacBook where Hulu has 480p available, right?

It seems odd that ATV can't play something that simple...hopefully they'll fix that. Anyone know WHY that issue exists?

[hydrohead]

I do not see my hulu queue.
I am running Mac OS X 10.4.11

[danb]

I do not see my hulu queue.
I am running Mac OS X 10.4.11

email me and I'll try to help you through it... my address is on the left on feedfool.com

[stefestella]

I got this set up with no problem, but when I click on an item in my queue to view, it starts a count on a black screen and nothing actually plays. From the time I launched the alpha on my MacBook Pro (OS X 10.5), I have not seen anywhere that I enter credentials for things like Hulu, YouTube, and Flickr, and the Hulu one may impact what I'm able to view in my queue.

Did I miss a step somewhere or a feature in the interface? I felt I looked everywhere, but maybe I'm missing something.
:confused:

[danb]

stefestella, I noticed problems on my queue today too... I'm not sure what changed... but I haven't done anything to feedfool in a week or so... I'll look into this as soon as I can and update here with what I discover... if anyone else knows if something changed, let me know...

[stefestella]

Thanks, danb... I'll keep my eye on things each day to see if there's a change.

[marcel]

check the blog (http://blog.boxee.tv/2008/12/04/boxee/) regarding HULU you will be happy..:)

[danb]

check the blog (http://blog.boxee.tv/2008/12/04/boxee/) regarding HULU you will be happy..:)

I just saw that and was coming here to comment.... YAY! Nice work guys... I can't wait to get home and try it out... Also, fast forward and rewind are awesome additions!

Feedfool was just a hack so this is sure to be much better... I'll refocus it for other things... If anyone downloads alot of torrents manually, you still might like feedfool for it's ability to add torrents from any site to a single rss feed with a pretty slick bookmarklet. let me know if you're interested and need help getting going with that.

[marcel]

thank you danb:)

[hydrohead]

I am glad that boxee put in native hulu account access (specially since I found out about it the day after I got feedfool to work ), but all it is, is a list of episode numbers. I have to mouse over them to find out what show it is.

I like feedfools display better. You can tell at a glance what shows you have available.

[tcaudill001]

When I
1. Click My RSS
2. Enter the following url:
http://www.hulu.com/feed/subscriptions/tcaudill001

3. Click Add RSS

Boxee hangs with the message "Fetching feed... Just a moment..." and never completes.

4. Attempted to add to sources.xml file, but when I go to Video->Internet->My Feeds nothing appears?
5. Rebooted ATV, same issues.

6. Attempted to load same URL to feedfool.com
7. Tried to load feedfool.com url which is:
http://feedfool.com/feed/rssFeed/633

8. However when entering the feedfool.com url above into web browser, I get a message
"Safari can’t open the page “feed://feedfool.com/feed/rssFeed/633” because it could not load any data from this location."
9. When entering the feedfool URL into the Boxee web portal (Step 1-3 above) same issue described occurs.
10. When entering the feedfool URL into the sources.xml file (Steps 4-5 above) same issue described occurs.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[marcel]

When I
1. Click My RSS
2. Enter the following url:
http://www.hulu.com/feed/subscriptions/tcaudill001


i had no problem it takes about 5-7 seconds....please try again..

[tcaudill001]

i had no problem it takes about 5-7 seconds....please try again..
Worked like magic...no idea what is different...maybe you have to wait a day or two for boxee to publish the feed...

Thanks!!!!

[agentlame]

this method is extremely depreciated... why are you jnot using boxee's native queue support?

[broux2]

Can anyone verify if the feedfool method of getting hulu on appletv is still working? Thanks!

[Frizzled]

It looks like the RSS-add-feed-bug is fixed, you can now directly add your RSS feed to boxee. Whether or not it is blocked is a different story (I would be surprise if this worked), if no one has tried this by the evening I'll give it a shot tonight and post the results.

Update: Nope, doesn't work.

_f

[gena000]

does this still work or is there a new way to add my hulu queue to boxee?

[manofice]

does this still work or is there a new way to add my hulu queue to boxee?

I would also like to know about this