Native Netflix Support Is Coming To Linux 178
sfcrazy writes: Native support for Netflix is coming to Linux, thanks to their move from Silverlight to HTML5, Mozilla and Google Chrome. Paul Adolph from Netflix proposed a solution to Ubuntu developers: "Netflix will play with Chrome stable in 14.02 if NSS version 3.16.2 or greater is installed. If this version is generally installed across 14.02, Netflix would be able to make a change so users would no longer have to hack their User-Agent to play." The newer version of NSS is set to go out with the next security update.
Finally! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Finally! (Score:5, Interesting)
It almost seems like an accident, though. They need to move to HTML5 because Microsoft supports its technologies like high school students support their relationships.
It's just a coincidence that HTML5 also broadens deployment targets a little.
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It still feels weird to call it "HTML5", when the thing it really needs is a proprietary DRM module that isn't part of the HTML5 specs (nope, EME does not specific that part).
This is also why it doesn't actually work in Firefox. Adobe was developing a DRM module for it, but they're not done yet. The actual HTML5 video stuff (MSE) that is required got added a while ago.
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36 is the "earliest version": https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/s... [mozilla.org].
So everything is still broken, and it needs at least till 40 until its reliably usable.
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It almost seems like an accident, though. They need to move to HTML5 because Microsoft supports its technologies like high school students support their relationships.
12 years for Win XP.
What is the difference between mainstream support and extended support?
Mainstream support --- Microsoft will offer mainstream support for a minimum of 5 years from the date of a product's general availability, or for 2 years after the successor product is released, whichever is longer. For example, if you buy a new version of Windows and five years later another version is released, you will still have two years of support left for the previous version.
Extended support --- Microsoft will offer extended support for either a minimum of 5 years from the date of a product's general availability, or for 2 years after the second successor product (two versions later) is released, whichever is longer.
Windows lifecycle fact sheet [microsoft.com]
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It almost seems like an accident, though. They need to move to HTML5 because Microsoft supports its technologies like high school students support their relationships.
12 years for Win XP.
However, Silverlight is already out of support. It didn't even make 3 years of support. I think the big thing that did it in was also the same thing that MS tried to show it off with - the Olympics on-line broadcasting in the US. Too many restrictions and it didn't go anywhere. NBC left it behind shortly after; an there has been zero large deployments of it since (at least any where near that scale).
Re:Finally! (Score:5, Interesting)
Its also a general issue of browser plugins dying out. Silverlight and Flash had a reason when they were created. The web didn't support the things people wanted to use it for. Browsers were immature, and every browser and every version of a browser rendered different results. In the past decade, the browser vendors and w3c have worked hard to create an unified standardized platform to work on. With this platform, plugins are just obsolete. Even today they are a major cause for browser crashes. With IE11, even microsoft has added a serious contribution.
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Silverlight and Flash had a reason when they were created.
Flash had a reason when it was created. Silverlight did not.
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Except that of course. But when you refuse to install the CDM, you will only be stopped from using DRM'ed content. All other stuff nondrm-ed {games, videos, etc} will be accessible without plugins.
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Microsoft video streaming technology over HTTP works just fine and is still fully supported and improved upon, last I checked. It's one of the 4 major implementation of Adaptive Bitrate Streaming [wikipedia.org] (Apple HLS, MPEG DASH, Adobe Zeri and Microsoft Smooth/HDS). The Silverlight requirement was there because the client needs logic to switch up (or down) in bitrate depending on network conditions - instead of buffering, hence the "adaptive" part. The specification is open and anybody can implement it. The DRM part
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Netflix is slowly gaining trust again.
Yes. Unfortunately, as my trust in them goes up, their useful library continues to shrink.
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You get what you pay for. It's eight bucks a month. What did you expect?
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I mean, look at Amazon. To watch the Hunger Games sequel: 14$. For one day.
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You get what you pay for. It's eight bucks a month. What did you expect?
At least one movie...
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One movie, coming up:
"Sling Blade".
You'll thank me later.
(I reckon I'll have me some of the bigguns. Ummmm hmmm.)
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And the guy's name is Adolph - quickly, let Godwin's will be done!
Re: Finally! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Finally! (Score:5, Informative)
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The nun thinks she solved the problem too ... (Score:2, Funny)
Whenever the family wants to watch Netflix, I explain the implications that closed software has on a society and the problem is solved.
Yeah, and when the nun explains to the catholic schoolgirl the personal and societal implications that extramarital sex has she thinks the problem is solved too. Once your kids go to college, prepare yourself for their overcompensation for their restrictive childhood. You can visit them while they camp out in front of an Apple Store waiting for the launch of the next incarnation of an iPhone or iPad.
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I don't understand the fascination with entertainment.
I don't understand people who are dismissive of other people's choices of entertainment. Some people play video games. Some people play sports. Some people like having the ability to watch Doctor Who on demand whenever they want.
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The fun never stops at your house. (Probably because it never starts.)
When will it work in Seamonkey and Firefox (Score:4, Interesting)
When will it work in Seamonkey and Firefox; that is what I care about, Chrome's interface sucks! and I don't want to run two browsers.
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Amusingly, they're relying on NSS, a Mozilla library, to get it working with Chrome. But to answer your question, Firefox support is being actively developed, now that Google have mostly ceased screwing around with the specs for MSE and EME and HTML5 video in general. It's still a few versions away at least, since it's a lot of work, and that's assuming that Netflix supports them. Last I checked the only people willing to write an EME module for Firefox were Adobe, and it's not ready yet either.
Re:When will it work in Seamonkey and Firefox (Score:5, Insightful)
Screw that when will XBMC have support for it.
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It already works with XBMC on Linux with pipelight and full screen browser to show he video.
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Sorry let me rephrase that (while I move the goalposts), when will it work on my Pi with Xbian?
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I don't know of any way to get it to work on a Rpi at the moment.
If you have a x86/x64 server somewhere in the house you could try to stream the output from the browser running on the server - or something like that. But I'm guessing the DRM will get in your way.
http://www.playon.tv/playon [playon.tv] does something like this from a Windows PC to XBMC - but at $70 I would look elsewhere.
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Exactly I don't want to be using some kind of middleman service. I want it native.
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XBMC supports UPnP just fine, and if you can manage to run a headless Windows server and playon.tv, then you're golden. UPnP folks. UPnP.
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Requiring a running server is IMHO against the idea of having a HTPC.
Does playon.tv support HD content from Netflix?
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Why haven't I never thought about emulating the server on the client. Thanks for the idea!
The only downside is that playon.tv doesn't support HD content on XBMC.
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(I'm not even sure why you'd want to use any web browser at all for this kind of thing. They should just make XBMC, MythTV, etc plugins. No, scratch that: they should publish APIs, and then let those teams write the plugins themselves. But anyway...)
If a vendor can't use standards well enough to be compatible with what you use, then just pirate. They'll either supply the files that you can use, or someone else will.
I don't see the problem, unless it's that you feel compelled to fight someone who tells you
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The geek walls himself in. (Score:2)
We can only hope... eventually the walled gardens will be an effective quarantine and we can have our Internet again.
Your Internet was defined by the dial-up modem and a multitude of clients that fromed the basis of an Internet suite and were barely one or two steps up in convenience and functionality from the BBS of 1980 and Telnet, circa 1969.
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Re:When will it work in Seamonkey and Firefox (Score:5, Funny)
Re:When will it work in Seamonkey and Firefox (Score:5, Funny)
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Mozilla hasn't made any notable public comments I can find since acknowledging that they would support EME (Encrypted Media Extensions) back in May. I do not see anything about the feature having made it to even the trunk yet, so it'll probably be a while.
Also curious, what difference do you see between Firefox and Chrome as far as UI? I'm on a Windows machine right now so I can't verify if it's the same on Linux but aside from slightly rounder tabs and more blue Firefox 32 looks pretty much the same as C
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I listed SeaMonkey first for a reason that is the browser I use. First because it comes with a mail client that runs in process, and I need a mail client running most of the time anyway. The IRC client is not great but its useable. Finally the browser UI itself is sane, If you get rid the "home" bar which you can the interface is not cluttered but does put the tools you need for the web at your finger tips; rather than hiding them.
I don't get the minimalist interface crap, no I don't need fifty bars and
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Unsubtle troll is unsubtle.
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https://addons.mozilla.org/en-... [mozilla.org]
That fixes the problem.
And then Firefox is again in every way superior to Chrome.
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I don't see the identicalness you guys keep insisting is there. I really don't. If that's what you consider "identical" to Chrome, then Chrome's UI is identical to Firefox 2's, and Firefox 2's is identical to any other tabbed browser. Seriously. Even on startup it looks obviously different to me, and the moment I start actually using the browser it's as different as these things can be without looking alien... the tabs look different, the menu is different, the address bar dropdown is different, and that's
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Well, a few firefox changes I can name off the top of my head are:
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The new interface is horrible.
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It's less of it being horrible and more of it being "If I wanted a chrome-like browser, I'd just use chrome". I shouldn't have to install a bunch of plugins and mess around with about:config just to keep my browsing experience the same as it was in the 2.0 days.
You pretty much have to install classic theme restorer, something to disable "switch to tab" (or hold a modifier key every time), something to restore the status bar, and various about:config stuff to undo changes to the URL bar.
I'm actually glad D
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It might seem dumb, but if Firefox hung back it'd be a point people would criticize them over. So in the end Mozilla can't win, if they stay behind they get criticized - if they move forward they get criticized.
The advantage is the flexibility is enough that even now my Firefox looks like it did in v3.5, at least on my desktop and laptop. The important thing is that it's a 3rd party browser that is extremely advanced, and can compete with the 800lb gorillas. It's better than using inflexible browsers like C
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Turns out people have these things called "opinions". People who have the opinion that Chrome's UI style is better can use Chrome. People who prefer Firefox's old UI now have nowhere to turn other than Firefox with a bunch of addons and config tweaks to try to get it as close as possible as it used to be.
But really, the only thing we have to look at here is Firefox's plummetting m
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I remember when they first announced
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Besides, you can make the FF UI look like anything you want. Here's what a friend has his looking like, which is nothing like how I'd want to use a browser, but it shows off the extensibility of Firefox: http://i.imgur.com/587msTp.jpg [imgur.com]
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You only need change in a UI if there was something wrong with it to begin with. When people want change for the sake of change, you get abominations like Metro and Gnome 3. Tell me, what's the actual goal of Mozilla's UI changes? Is there some clear UX goal here? Does it take less clicks to do the same task? Is it more intuitive for new users? I do
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1. Firefox puts some buttons on different places on the toolbar
2. Firefox doesn't follow my GTK theme for buttons
And yes, I'd rather Firefox catered to Firefox users. What's so wrong with that? Right now they're trying to cater to Chrome users/potential Chrome users, which is
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As for your screenshots, once you look past the fact that the UI elements are themed differently (ironically, I used to dislike Chrome because it didn't follow the OS's theme closely whereas Firefox did, but now it's the other way around), you see they both have essentially the same layout. Titlebar/pseudo-titlebar on top, tabs next, then th
Single thread (Score:3)
Firefox runs faster than Chrome
Firefox also lags when opening a bunch of tabs on sites like Cracked.com on an Atom CPU because it uses only one thread for JS and CSS across all open tabs.
and it uses less processes
Once the single thread problem gets fixed as part of the Electrolysis project, Firefox will probably use just as many processes.
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Perhaps get a laptop with a real processor. Atoms are way slower than the equivalent AMD offering.
Equivalent means comparable physical size. Which 10" AMD laptop is any good?
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Runs what faster than Chrome? JavaScript? Nope. HTML rendering? Nope. Loading web pages in general? Nope. Starting up from disk? Nope.
Firefox used to be the lean and mean alternative browser. Then Chrome came along and showed everyone just how slow and bloated Firefox has become (which just shows how slow IE is).
The only thing Firefox has left as positive features are extensions and plugins. In every other way, it's been surpassed by Chrome, Safari, and sometimes even IE11+.
Re:When will it work in Seamonkey and Firefox (Score:4, Informative)
I'm waiting on Lynx support using ASCII. Damn!
Well oddly enough if it didn't have DRM then that would work.
You see, lynx can fire off MPlayer and MPlayer has an aalib and libcaca output mode allowing it to play in a terminal in monochrome or in colour.
But the movie selection still sucks (Score:2, Interesting)
Except... I just took a look at instantwatcher.com yesterday to see what was trending, and their movie selection is still shit. There was a time years ago when that list would be full of recognizeable indy and blockbuster movies, at least ones that I recognized and would like to watch. Now I see a few but I have zero desire to reactivate that account. I would have been all over this a couple years ago. I'm writing this while running the latest Linux Mint btw.
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I agree, assuming that selection includes movies I actually want to see. Now it mostly doesn't, so its value to me is approaching $0, sadly.
Re:But the movie selection still sucks (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree I like Netflix a lot. $8 a month is a bargain compared to pretty much every other option.
I am going to go see the major "Block Buster" titles I am actually interested ( maybe three of four a year ) at the cinema with buddies; those are social events and quite honestly, (/me ducks the incomming flames) movies like Avengers while good are only great out with pals. Take the social component away and try watching the film alone in your living room and its far less compelling.
Maybe its because I don't generally watch movies for the sake who can show me the most photo real destruction of NYC and the occasional boom mike or obvious cardboard cutout in the shot does not ruin the suspension of disbelief for me; but I find that many of the Indie stuff Netflix offers me is just as entertaining as the AAA stuff Hollywood churns out. In the end that is what I want out of it to relax and be entertained.
Rating everything definitely helps you get good suggestions and the flat rate all you can eat model makes it safe to take a chance on something. If after 30min you find you are not enjoying a flick switch to something else and you are not out anything more than a little time. Even placing $2 bets on iTunes or something you could easily exceed the cost of Netflix without having had much fun to show for it.
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I guess it would be nice if their selection were better, or if they had an option for $25 for every movie and every TV show in existence, but that option doesn't exist anywhere.
Yes it does. It ain't legal, but it exists all over the place. And if the industry would get it's collective heads out of it's collective asses (Or the ass in front of it) it would wake up and realize that people would pay a LOT of money for a legal Pirate Bay. And in actuality, a lot of them are. Secure VPNs and seedboxes ain't free.
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Re:But the movie selection still sucks (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, Netflix should get their act together and stop showing shit movies like "The Elephant Man" and "There Will Be Blood". Comedies like "Grosse Pointe Blank" and "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure"? Who would ever want to watch those? Netflix is absolutely useless unless they can show truly great movies like "Transformers 4: Age of Extinction".
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Netflix has Sharknado. That's something you can rewatch every weekend, as long as you drink.
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Your logic is all flipped. The question you should be asking is simply, "Am I getting $8 worth of entertainment?" Netflix has never had a great selection of the latest stuff (even back a few years ago it wasn't that great), so if you're analyzing the value proposition through that lens, you're ignoring the actual value that it provides. Rather than asking what they don't have, the type of question that should be asked is if what they do have is worth the paltry asking price.
The more I've used Netflix, the b
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Ya, I'm getting $7 worth of entertainment. A bigger selection than my satellite subscription, except for the current shows. However the number of current shows I was watching had greatly shrunk. Plus I'm getting high def tv, even many of the old shows from the 60s are much clearer and crisper (those that were originally shot on film).
I was going to pay another $8 for Hulu Plus for some of the current shows now that the seasons have started up. Except that they're not showing Doctor Who despite the big p
DRM should not be in HTML5 (Score:2, Interesting)
Accommodating Netflix is often cited as a reason for pushing DRM into HTML5, but this is a fallacy. Leaving aside one's opinion of Netflix, or even the general existence of DRM, it's perfectly possible to have the big DRM companies to solve their problems by using a privately negotiated addition to the HTML5 standard. There's no reason to put it into HTML5.
Many lovers of free software have been pushing for open standards for years, but now we're headed to a situation where someone can request a HTML5-compli
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Well you could stop blindly following such a strict definition of free software.
DRM is hear and it is going to stay.
Why?
Back in the analog days. We had tape for VHS. Sure you can copy it. But after 2 or 3 copies of copies the quality degrades. So to mass share VHS movies ends up being costly with poor quality over generations.
Then we had CD's where at the time they held more data then you could really fit on your drive. So you had non-DRM data however because you couldn't store it on something other the
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HTML doesn't mention DRM. See for yourself: http://www.w3.org/TR/2014/PR-h... [w3.org]
There's Encrypted Media Extensions, which everyone says is "ZOMG DRM", but it's an entirely separate document, and no more insidious than EncryptedXML.
You can't "standardize" DRM, it's literally impossible.
WTF is 14.02??? (Score:3)
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I'm pretty sure he meant 14.04.2..
Re: WTF is 14.02??? (Score:2)
NSS? (Score:3)
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Have you seen their UI?
Easy ripping, if it were needed (Score:2)
Now you could modify a compliant browser to strip out the HTML5 DRM crippleware and very easily rip videos from Netflix. But that's not necessary, I think everything hits TPB and Netflix at around the same time anyway.
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Maybe by Average Joe standards, but it wouldn't be a huge challenge for any coder to do...and then release Ripperfox to the world. It would be child's play compared to ripping a modern game for example.
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*I meant cracking a modern game...ripping the game is super easy!
Pipelight + SUSE (Score:2)
A video streaming provider other than Netflix also relies on Silverlight, and I was able to get it to work using Pipelight (couldn't get Moonlight to work), and only on SUSE (couldn't get CentOS or Ubuntu to work).
XBMC support soon? (Score:5, Interesting)
Hopefully this will allow a good XBMC client. Would love to be able to watch netflix seemlessly within XBMC.
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Don't like Netflix? (Score:2)
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Happy to extract dollars from linux market ... (Score:2, Interesting)
Drat, now I can't complain about how all the big businesses hate linux desktop users.
Big business doesn't hate Linux desktop users. Linux user dollars are just as useful as Microsoft user dollars. Its just that there are so few Linux dollars available that its not worth big businesses time. If Linux offered a viable market they would be happy to extract dollars from it. Don't confuse a rational economic choice with hate just because you are bitter over a perceived slight.
Big business in fact loves Linux. It has relieved them of the need to implement their own Unix incarnations, or licens
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Their HD streams (720p) are DRM only. You cant get them on android or roku.
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Wrong!
Netflix on Roku has been HD [netflix.com] for ages.
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Wrong!
Netflix on Roku has been HD [netflix.com] for ages.
I see Roku actually supports both SmoothStreaming (used by netflix) and PlayReady. Good luck trying to get it to work on a typical linux distro though. HD content is DRMed, Roku just supports the DRM.