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Netflix Comes To Linux Web Browsers Via 'Pipelight'
An anonymous reader writes "With Netflix continuing to rely upon Microsoft Silverlight, the video streaming service hasn't been supported for Linux users as the Mono-based 'Moonlight' implementation goes without Silverlight 5 DRM support. However, there is now Netflix support for Linux-based web-browsers via the open source Pipelight project. Pipelight supports Netflix and other Silverlight-based web applications by having a Netscape plug-in that in turn communicates with a Windows program running under Wine. The Windows program then simulates a browser to load the Silverlight libraries. Netflix then works as the Pipelight developers implemented support for the Netflix DRM scheme within Wine."
The little cage drops over the mouse, and you win!
At some point you just spend $130 and buy an Android tablet at wally world. Or a $50 Roku.
DRM, in the virtual rental situation is acceptable, I'm not doing anything like purchasing the content, so they get to retain control. In exchange it's pretty cheap for what you get (see also: Steam)
Not only that, Netflix is abandoning Silverlight too.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9238421/Netflix_to_dump_Silverlight_Microsoft_s_stalled_technology
So we have....
HTML5 in a container in Silverlight through Flash through Netscape 4.7 running in Wine through Cygwin, through an HP41cx calculator.
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BMO
First of all, claiming to "come to linux" but only working under WINE is not really coming to linux at all. You can run Windows Notepad under WINE as well.
Secondly, WINE (with win32 compatiblity) is not officially supported on native 64 bit Linux systems unless you have 32-bit libraries installed. While this is probably fine if you are only installing binaries, but for distributions which install some applications by compiling them from source, it can cause some consternation when building some applications because the linker might end up trying to use the libraries in the 32 bit library directory instead of the 64-bit one which causes what's supposed to be an automated build process to fail, abruptly and unceremoniously. Although such errors are ultimately the result of faulty assumptions in the actual build script, and not the fault of actually trying to use both 32 and 64-bit libraries simultaneously on one platform, such errors are still frequent enough to be annoying... and I'd rather not deal with them.
Finally... it's Netflix. Their movie selection sucks.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Y'know, I read through the summary twice, and both times concluded that there's about a 1% chance of this whole mess working. Too many things relying on too many other things relying on too many other things.
Although having the word "Netscape" in there.....
Three Squirrels
"Easy solution: cut off your nose to spite your face."
Huh? How so?
Their product is not something that is going to get me ahead in any way, it's not something I have to have to survive, or to thrive. It's a source of entertainment. One among many. If they dont want my business I will spend my money elsewhere, simple as that.
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Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
Wouldn't it be easier to run an android image in a virtual machine and just use the android netflix app?
Easy solution: cut off your nose to spite your face.
Correction: This nose smells funny, so detach it and use any of the other ones that work in browsers in Linux. Hulu, for example.
I was under the impression that Bluray players and smart TVs (especially samsung) run an embedded linux. How are they able to stream netflix?
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
I watch netflix in ubuntu. I accomplished it by adding one rep and installing one package. It manages the wine version, the windows firefox version, the silverlight version, and whatever other unholy nonsense is involved in making it work. The only glitch is that sometimes the audio is on fastforward when I first start watching something and I have to wait for it to go back to normal, then start the show over. This is on a relatively ancient macbook (it has an ethernet port), and it is still fast enough.
refactor the law, its bloated, confusing and unmaintainable.
DRM does affect your usage of a product sometimes (see Steam, you buy a game for a high price but then the system acts as if you only rented it). DRM systems should be upfront and honest that you're merely purchasing limited access to content, which is true for streaming television but not true for purchased song files or games or books.
Note also that in the US we've been able for decades to record television programs with the full support of of the Supreme Court. The new DRM streaming forbids this. You can ONLY see the shows as long as you continue subscribing and as long as the publisher allows it. In this sense, the rights that you are granted for streaming video is more like attending a movie theater than watching television. Ie, there is no equivalent of VHS recording in the secured digital video stream.
Just like Steam, the customers happily accept being branded with a hot iron as long as they're also given a carrot. The problem remains the same; most customers are excited to get the new content quickly but have no interest in access to their previously purchased old content.
These all seem like ways to get around the legal system or legal access to content, and ensuring that they have full control at all times. And this is just with their toe in the door, imagine how much further this will be locked down in ten or twenty years if no one objects today. What if George Lucas could have pushed a button and suddenly every single copy of Star Wars in existence was changed to show that Han did not shoot first, and no evidence remained anywhere that it used to be otherwise?
Makes me wonder... I somehow doubt that the PS3, Tivo or Asus Transformer have Silverlight so the DRM itself likely isn't a Silverlight exclusive. Why aren't there smart people foaming at the mouth to reverse-engineer that stuff? I guess Netflix is mostly a US service and countries where doing such reverse-engineering isn't illegal have no incentive? There are already plenty of people working on Blueray DRM and what not, I can't see this being as complicated.
Mind the frickin' laser...
I prefer to pay for what I use when those who are providing it ask for money.
Principles.. It's good to have them.
"Personally, I consider the $8/mo I pay for Netflix to be well worth it, especially when compared against the cost of a TV subscription."
The $8/month is not the issue. That part of the price I would be perfectly willing to pay, that would be reasonable, if the rest of the conditions were not unreasonable and unacceptable. And the alternative for me isnt a satellite or cable subscription. Seriously, it's not only possible to live without TV, it's actually something that will probably do you good.
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Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
If it's any consolation, "Seamonkey" is actually a compromise with PR:
Seamonkey (with lower-case m) has been the codename for the Mozilla Suite for some time, though it originally was invented by Netscape management as a codename for the release later called Netscape 6 — they simply needed a "politically correct" version of the codename Buttmonkey (symbolised as *~ and making a "rheet" sound) their developers had actually voted for (and apparently Jenga was the run-in in this voting).
(source)
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
I do? That's news to me.
I wish someone had told me that I hate paying taxes. I would have been angry at tax time.
Boycott Netflix. They don't want the business, don't give them money. Send the message DRM is unacceptable.
Is Netflix the right target though? What makes you think they want to have DRM in their product? The answer is, they don't. Netflix was forced by its content providers to use DRM.
Netflix is not the only online delivery service forced to use DRM. Lovefilm, which operates in the UK was also forced to switch from using flash to Silverlight by the studios.
I agree that as customers, we should not have DRM forced on us. And yes, a consumer boycott is a way to show our displeasure. But to be consistent, target the true masterminds behind the DRM scheme, the movie studios by refusing to watch their movies on any medium. Consider this -if you boycott and kill Netflix, the studios will be happier because they earned more from the old system pre-Netflix.
... just to make a point:
1) Emulate a Windows browser in wine or similar (or even a full VM), complete with the DRM stack
2) Load Netflix and stream whatever it is you want to stream, but redirect the output to a framebuffer (netflix has no HDCP when run in a browser, does it?)
3) Recompress the contents of the framebuffer using some fast but inefficient high quality algorithm and save it to disk
4) Allow the Linux user to do whatever the fuck she wants with it, either watch it or reencode it for storage later
The DRM folks can't win. VM tricks aside, the real analog hole is open pretty wide for video. I have a consumer-level DSLR that will shoot 6000x4000 video at 6fps with no frame limit and negligible noise. It demolishes anything a HDTV can display as far as resolution goes. Getting one of those electronic shutter triggers ($25 from Nikon) and syncing it with the frame updates would let you scrape every frame displayed in 4 (24 fps) or 5 (30 fps) passes through the source. From there you've just got to do a curves adjustment to restore the original source pixel values (accommodating for calibration issues on your monitor and such).
Do this with a good monitor and I bet you could get really damn close to the original quality; modern SLR sensors and lenses are good enough for this. If you're too lazy to scrape it in stills mode, you can get a camera for under $1500 that will record near-losslessly-compressed 1080p video, and that you can use with reasonably inexpensive lenses that are essentially transparent.
And it takes *one* person to do this and torrent the result. Netflix can't stop this sort of thing.
Pipelight looks a handy bit of kit and a fine project.
But I've been watching Netflix natively on my Ubuntu desktop just fine since last year. See Compholio.
http://compholio.com/ or search on "netflix linux" or similar to cast a wider net.
There are deb and rpm packages in 32- and 64-bit; you can subscribe to the ppa or compile as you choose. I don't know what distros this will work on as I've only used it on my host OS with Firefox. (I used to watch Netflix from within an XP vm using VirtualBox.)