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Ask Slashdot: Linux Friendly Video Streaming?
earthwormgaz writes "I've set up a Linux XBMC + MythTV with FreeView machine for the lounge at home. It works pretty well for Linux, although things crash here and there. The Mrs wants LoveFilm or Netflix, but it seems they're Silverlight and not Linux friendly. Is there anyone doing streaming film and TV with Flash or something else that works on Linux? Failing that, is there anyway to download a film for £4-6 say, as just an AVI file or something, legally?"
http://how-to.wikia.com/wiki/How_to_watch_Netflix_(Watch_Instantly)_in_Linux
As per finding a legal DRM-free film, your chances are zero for 99% of everything you'd like to watch, and just highly unlikely for the remaining 1%. Any sites that would advertise such are most likely priating the movies and then selling for profit.
Bye!
There is a Netflix App for Linux that runs through Wine. It works perfectly fine.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
The usual answer to questions like this is:
(1) Decide what you want the computer to do
(2) Acquire the right platform.
Syaing "I've already got [whatever platform], how do I make it do what I want?" is often not a helpful approach.
I'm going to spread much Roku love. Amazon instant video, Netflix, Hulu, just about every church sermon in the country, The Blaze, all your premium cable channels, etc. And its a cute little hockey puck.
(1) Decide what you want the computer to do
(2) Acquire the right platform.
I agree that is a usable approach if money is no object.
Syaing "I've already got [whatever platform], how do I make it do what I want?" is often not a helpful approach.
If you have to make do with the hardware that you already own, the "often not a helpful approach" is the only approach apart from doing without.
Failing that, is there anyway to download a film for 4-6 GBP
aitikin wrote:
Hulu Desktop
Since when did Hulu expand to a country that uses pounds as its currency?
a roku hockey puck and plex media server running on my debian server and also my debian desktop. if i can't find what i want on netflix or any of the other channels on the roku i grab a torrent. i was using a soft-modded 1st gen xbox and xbmc but got the roku for Christmas. there are compromises using either set-up.
Serenity now, insanity later.
More Roku love... You can do local media if you have the right model. Roku 3 has a USB port for local media. You can also stream your entire ripped DVD collection direct to your Roku with Plex (which has a Linux server in addition to Windows and Mac), which will give you a much nicer UI than DLNA.
http://www.k5n.us
In theory, your pronouncement would seem correct. However, I've just tried to set up Amazon Instant Video and it does not work in Firefox 20 on Lucid Lynx 10.04. It throws up a progress bar which ends with an error message that my version of Adobe Flash is not up to date (not true!). I'm glad I tried with a "free" video (I was charged $0.00). Try before you buy.
I had unblocked all scripting, btw. When I tried the help button, it referred me to a page that explained why Chrome (-ium?) won't work on Linux and to try Firefox! Head asplodes...
YMMV.
The WD TV Live does DLNA right out of the box. No need to install the Plex Media Server on my Linux box. The simple dlna server I've been using for two years works just fine.
One big reason I bought that WD unit is that the web page said, "plays DLNA". No need to hunt around or interpret ambiguous marketing-speak.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
I just got a Roku 3 and the user interface issues of the previous versions are fixed. Response is snappy and you can stream video from Plex media server (native Linux app) and other streaming servers (Playon, from Windows, for example). The Roku box will handle Netflix for you (and Hulu+) and will be easy enough for your wife to use without any training, and you'll have access to all your HDD based content as well.
Netflix works pretty well on Android, just pick up a nice Tegra tablet with an HDMI output and you're all set.
Or just buy a used Windows laptop to run Netflix on. It's not like that box is ever going to be doing anything else, so it'll free up your nice PCs to run Linux and get actual work done.
Amazon's streaming service is flaky with linux. The issue is DRM which for some reson is not supported in the linux version of the flash player.
Amazon video works fine under Ubuntu. Use Firefox, not Chrome.
From the FAQ
Why can't I watch videos on my Chrome browser in Linux?
The Flash Player Plugin in Chrome removed support for Digital Rights Management (DRM) in Linux as part of the upgrade from 11.3 to 11.4. This upgrade was bundled with the latest Chrome 22 update for Linux. If you applied the Chrome update, you are no longer able to watch DRM-protected content, such as movies and TV episodes. Trailers are unaffected as they do not use DRM. To get around this issue, you can use a different browser, such as Firefox. For information on Chrome and the Flash Player plug-in, see: https://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=108086.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=3757
I'm afraid I can't let you do that Dave.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Delete your ~./adobe folder and try again. I'd link to where I first saw this solution if I could remember it. I have to do this every few months, whenever Amazon "updates" the player.
For quite some time I just resigned myself to the fact that I'd have to boot into windows or use some other poor method to get my netflix on... then Erich Hoover arrived with a heroic flast to his eye, chin thrust forward and proclaimed, "Do not go gentle into that sudo shutdown -r now! Rage, rage against the needlessness of these cursed reboots!
Here is how to install the Netflix Desktop App on Ubuntu. Open a terminal and run these commands:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ehoover/compholio
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install netflix-desktop More info here: http://www.iheartubuntu.com/2012/11/ppa-for-netflix-desktop-app.html
Flash Access requires libhal, hald
This has been known since Feb 2011, which Amazon started encoding new content for TV shows using the newer version of Flash Access.
The Flash Access Component requires that the local machine support Libhal and hald, even though they are deprecated by over 7 years now by the OpenDesktop project.
It uses the information gathered from this interface to create a machine unique identifier, which it then uses as a content crypto key on the stream, and then you can play Amazon, Youtube, and Google Play content just fine.
Otherwise it bitches that your Flash is "out of date", when what it really means is that it can't install the Flash Access component because the libraries and supporting components used in the installation success test aren't there.
Most streaming applications won't support Linux because it doesn't require signed system components, and without that, the can't protect their content from piracy, commercial skipping, and so on when they stream to Linux systems; it's too easy to interpose libraries, system calls, and so on and take unencrypted digital content and rip it to some mp4 or other container file format.
This is also why the components from Provo, Utak for abc.com, nbc.com, and cbs.com have never been ported to Linux, and probably never will be.