5 ms·

The fact that gaining access to the 1080p stream is so trivial makes it hard not to suspect Netflix (or the content studios supplying them with content) from de

The fact that gaining access to the 1080p stream is so trivial makes it hard not to suspect Netflix (or the content studios supplying them with content) from deliberately providing a poorer experience for users of open platforms — Netflix refuses to serve anything over 720p to users of Chrome and Firefox (or derivatives) — in order to goad you into using their proprietary clients. User/software freedom apparently is a threat to their business model. It sucks being labelled an untrustworthy customer despite paying for 1080p content.

danmaz74 9y ago
It sucks even more when, as in my case, their app stopped working on my Sony Android TV a year ago and just won't start again (even after resetting everything). My only option now is to use the browser version in a small Linux PC I have attached to my TV, but the resolution was noticeably worse - will try this extension though.
floo 9y ago
I am very surprised this actually works. I would guess that somebody would have figured this out earlier if it's always been this easy. Maybe it's a new development in widevine/netflix and they were getting it ready for release?
- tbranyen 9y ago
  Just look at the code, it's determining that h/w accel exists in Chrome OS. If it's not in this path it gets 720p as the highest resolution. This isn't some widevine/netflix joint effort that recently got leaked or something.
  - floo 9y ago
    Yes fair point, that's the only thing happening client side. But somebody else mentioned that widevine on chrome os and chrome are different. So I wouldn't have expected their servers to accept those 1080p requests for chrome's version. Edit: says so on Github: ChromeOS apparently has a different DRM implementation than chrome, even though both use Widevine.
    - tbranyen 9y ago
      There are two different things going on here. One is detecting Chrome OS and the other is determining the set of stream profiles. If you were to change your useragent to get Chrome OS, like the GitHub says, this would alter code paths in other areas related to DRM. However the fix that was found was simply pushing the stream profile into the array. This doesn't affect DRM at all. The fix from the Netflix side would be to find a suitable alternative to user agent sniffing for h/w accel and swap that in to this code path.
      - floo 9y ago
        I did read it :) What I am saying is: If they are blocking everything but chrome os intentionally, it would have been easier. According to widevine docs [1] chrome on desktops does not support security level 1. They could have and probably did block access to 1080p content on level 3. Which leads me to believe that netflix relaxed security to allow 1080p on level 3. As you said the next step would be to replace the user agent detection client side. [1] https://storage.googleapis.com/wvdocs/Widevine_DRM_Architecture_Overview.pdf
- utopcell 9y ago
  You are discounting the effort required to find the position of these few lines of code among what I assume are many thousands.
mdasen 9y ago
In Safari in macOS, Netflix uses about 10% CPU showing 1080p. With Chrome, it uses 40% playing 720p. With Firefox, it uses about 75% CPU and my fan turns on. I'm guessing it's higher on 1080p. I don't think Netflix has any interest in you using a proprietary client. They don't gain money if you watch one way or another. They gain money if you keep paying them your monthly fee. EDIT: Installing this extension took Chrome CPU usage to 75% for me. Also, I'm not saying that users shouldn't be given the choice to use their CPU resources to run Netflix. Maybe it would be better if Netflix were just more transparent about it. "By default, we only display video with 720p in Chrome due to high processor usage. Click here to change that preference or watch with Safari whose direct rendering means 1080p video using less processor resources." That way, users understand the problem and can decide they don't mind other programs becoming sluggish or the fan running or whatnot. Of course, companies generally don't like giving users details.
- Gys 9y ago
  > They don't gain money if you watch one way or another. 720p will take less bandwidth, meaning less bandwidth costs ?
- vladikoff 9y ago
  Firefox version of the same add-on if you want to run more tests: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/force-1080p-netflix/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/force-1080p-n...
  - gbil 9y ago
    Indeed it works just fine thx
- clouddrover 9y ago
  > Of course, companies generally don't like giving users details. The information is there but Netflix certainly doesn't make it obvious how to get to it. If you press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+D while playing a video you'll get a debug display which includes details on the video and audio codec bit rates and resolution.
- 9y ago
andrewksl 9y ago
I always assumed the requirement was forced by MPAA or its equivalent bodies. I don't see what benefit Netflix could gain by forcing one browser or another, but this sort of nonsense is pretty consistent with what the DRM-happy, piracy-paranoid content owners have done in the past to "prevent piracy."
- solarkraft 9y ago
  Maybe they follow some agenda.
  - FrozenTuna 9y ago
    Its not very hidden. July 2016, Microsoft and Netflix make a deal to only stream 1080p to edge users. November 2016, Intel and Netflix made a deal to only stream 4k on Kaby Lake processors. So if you want to watch netflix on desktop, Microsoft brags about 1080p exclusivity and Intel brags about 4k exclusivity. Netflix makes bank in these deals as well as saving on bandwidth costs. I can provide sources if anyone needs them, but you could just google.
troupe 9y ago
> in order to goad you into using their proprietary clients. Does Netflix make a proprietary client for Windows and OS X?
- Rebelgecko 9y ago
  Only for Windows. I tried it because I couldn't get good quality using Chrome, but it had enough annoyances that I gave up on it
  - filmgirlcw 9y ago
    The one big plus about the Windows app is that is that it supports downloads, so if you’re going on a plane or train and not taking an iPad or something, you can download stuff for offline viewing, which is super nice.
    - foepys 9y ago
      It's a shame that Netflix is not allowing to download everything in their catalogue like Amazon Video does. A lot of movies and shows are not downloadable in my region.
      - filmgirlcw 9y ago
        I agree. When the feature launched last year, I asked Netflix about this specifically and was told it was about whatever studio agreements they could get. And even then, some Netflix Original content (Marvel), isn’t always available to download. From what I was told, the goal was certainly to get all future content as downloadable, but the politics behind that aren’t going to work with every studio. Amazon has a more-limited library, but it was able to get download support (at least on mobile), early on as part of its contracts. The problem with regions is an even bigger can of worms. Although Netflix is doing a better job trying to solidify its library across regions, it has to make separate licensing deals in every single markets in which it operartes. The licensing side of entertainment, especially internationally, hasn’t modernized the way you would think it has, and the companies or groups who own a license in one place often don’t own it in another. So sales teams have to negotiate every single title, often separately, in every single region. One of the reasons Netflix has prioritized its own original content is that it can guarantee it is licensed in all of its markets. But even then, in the early Netflix international days, there were a few instances where flagship Netflix original content wasn’t available in some markets because that content was actually co-financed by studios that sold the streaming/VOD/rental rights to other traditional networks or local streaming services. That was quickly resolved, but it just showcases how hard international licensing can be for content playback, let alone licensing for download. This is also one of the main reasons Netflix had to aggressively target VPN users who would access the larger content catalogs in other markets. In order to get more robust licensing (as well as to actually enter certain international markets), Netflix had to prove it was actively enforcing geo limits. It sucks and I’m not defending it, just providing some of the business context. Amazon is so limited in its international expansion with Prime Video that it hasn’t had to address most of these issues. As Prime inevitably expands, it will also face these same challenges. (Hulu, too. Though Hulu has made some international attempts, largely through partnerships with existing local services. Hulu’s dilemma is exacerbated by the fact that it is almost wholly owned by the major American broadcast networks, who already have their own robust international licensing and sales divisions that aren’t keen on being disrupted.)
Sharlin 9y ago
This is the first time I've heard that Netflix has standalone desktop client o_O Apparently only available for Windows 10. Also the first time I've heard that Netflix HD is not 1080p except on some clients/browsers. I feel... cheated. Of course the difference between 720p and 1080p is not huge, especially at streaming bitrates, as evidenced by the fact that I haven't suspected anything. But still. Will have to remember to use Safari from now on.
tbranyen 9y ago
Looking over the code it doesn't appear to be malicious. It's related to detecting if hardware acceleration is present. I'm not up-to-date on feature detection, so I'n not sure if there's a better way to know if it's available.
Feniks 9y ago
I don't think Netflix really cares about browsers. Most of their customers will use apps.

danmaz74 9y ago

It sucks even more when, as in my case, their app stopped working on my Sony Android TV a year ago and just won't start again (even after resetting everything). My only option now is to use the browser version in a small Linux PC I have attached to my TV, but the resolution was noticeably worse - will try this extension though.

floo 9y ago

I am very surprised this actually works. I would guess that somebody would have figured this out earlier if it's always been this easy. Maybe it's a new development in widevine/netflix and they were getting it ready for release?

tbranyen 9y ago
Just look at the code, it's determining that h/w accel exists in Chrome OS. If it's not in this path it gets 720p as the highest resolution. This isn't some widevine/netflix joint effort that recently got leaked or something.
- floo 9y ago
  Yes fair point, that's the only thing happening client side. But somebody else mentioned that widevine on chrome os and chrome are different. So I wouldn't have expected their servers to accept those 1080p requests for chrome's version. Edit: says so on Github: ChromeOS apparently has a different DRM implementation than chrome, even though both use Widevine.
  - tbranyen 9y ago
    There are two different things going on here. One is detecting Chrome OS and the other is determining the set of stream profiles. If you were to change your useragent to get Chrome OS, like the GitHub says, this would alter code paths in other areas related to DRM. However the fix that was found was simply pushing the stream profile into the array. This doesn't affect DRM at all. The fix from the Netflix side would be to find a suitable alternative to user agent sniffing for h/w accel and swap that in to this code path.
    - floo 9y ago
      I did read it :) What I am saying is: If they are blocking everything but chrome os intentionally, it would have been easier. According to widevine docs [1] chrome on desktops does not support security level 1. They could have and probably did block access to 1080p content on level 3. Which leads me to believe that netflix relaxed security to allow 1080p on level 3. As you said the next step would be to replace the user agent detection client side. [1] https://storage.googleapis.com/wvdocs/Widevine_DRM_Architecture_Overview.pdf
utopcell 9y ago
You are discounting the effort required to find the position of these few lines of code among what I assume are many thousands.

mdasen 9y ago

In Safari in macOS, Netflix uses about 10% CPU showing 1080p. With Chrome, it uses 40% playing 720p. With Firefox, it uses about 75% CPU and my fan turns on. I'm guessing it's higher on 1080p. I don't think Netflix has any interest in you using a proprietary client. They don't gain money if you watch one way or another. They gain money if you keep paying them your monthly fee. EDIT: Installing this extension took Chrome CPU usage to 75% for me. Also, I'm not saying that users shouldn't be given the choice to use their CPU resources to run Netflix. Maybe it would be better if Netflix were just more transparent about it. "By default, we only display video with 720p in Chrome due to high processor usage. Click here to change that preference or watch with Safari whose direct rendering means 1080p video using less processor resources." That way, users understand the problem and can decide they don't mind other programs becoming sluggish or the fan running or whatnot. Of course, companies generally don't like giving users details.

Gys 9y ago
> They don't gain money if you watch one way or another. 720p will take less bandwidth, meaning less bandwidth costs ?
vladikoff 9y ago
Firefox version of the same add-on if you want to run more tests: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/force-1080p-netflix/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/force-1080p-n...
- gbil 9y ago
  Indeed it works just fine thx
clouddrover 9y ago
> Of course, companies generally don't like giving users details. The information is there but Netflix certainly doesn't make it obvious how to get to it. If you press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+D while playing a video you'll get a debug display which includes details on the video and audio codec bit rates and resolution.
9y ago

andrewksl 9y ago

I always assumed the requirement was forced by MPAA or its equivalent bodies. I don't see what benefit Netflix could gain by forcing one browser or another, but this sort of nonsense is pretty consistent with what the DRM-happy, piracy-paranoid content owners have done in the past to "prevent piracy."

solarkraft 9y ago
Maybe they follow some agenda.
- FrozenTuna 9y ago
  Its not very hidden. July 2016, Microsoft and Netflix make a deal to only stream 1080p to edge users. November 2016, Intel and Netflix made a deal to only stream 4k on Kaby Lake processors. So if you want to watch netflix on desktop, Microsoft brags about 1080p exclusivity and Intel brags about 4k exclusivity. Netflix makes bank in these deals as well as saving on bandwidth costs. I can provide sources if anyone needs them, but you could just google.

troupe 9y ago

> in order to goad you into using their proprietary clients. Does Netflix make a proprietary client for Windows and OS X?

Rebelgecko 9y ago
Only for Windows. I tried it because I couldn't get good quality using Chrome, but it had enough annoyances that I gave up on it
- filmgirlcw 9y ago
  The one big plus about the Windows app is that is that it supports downloads, so if you’re going on a plane or train and not taking an iPad or something, you can download stuff for offline viewing, which is super nice.
  - foepys 9y ago
    It's a shame that Netflix is not allowing to download everything in their catalogue like Amazon Video does. A lot of movies and shows are not downloadable in my region.
    - filmgirlcw 9y ago
      I agree. When the feature launched last year, I asked Netflix about this specifically and was told it was about whatever studio agreements they could get. And even then, some Netflix Original content (Marvel), isn’t always available to download. From what I was told, the goal was certainly to get all future content as downloadable, but the politics behind that aren’t going to work with every studio. Amazon has a more-limited library, but it was able to get download support (at least on mobile), early on as part of its contracts. The problem with regions is an even bigger can of worms. Although Netflix is doing a better job trying to solidify its library across regions, it has to make separate licensing deals in every single markets in which it operartes. The licensing side of entertainment, especially internationally, hasn’t modernized the way you would think it has, and the companies or groups who own a license in one place often don’t own it in another. So sales teams have to negotiate every single title, often separately, in every single region. One of the reasons Netflix has prioritized its own original content is that it can guarantee it is licensed in all of its markets. But even then, in the early Netflix international days, there were a few instances where flagship Netflix original content wasn’t available in some markets because that content was actually co-financed by studios that sold the streaming/VOD/rental rights to other traditional networks or local streaming services. That was quickly resolved, but it just showcases how hard international licensing can be for content playback, let alone licensing for download. This is also one of the main reasons Netflix had to aggressively target VPN users who would access the larger content catalogs in other markets. In order to get more robust licensing (as well as to actually enter certain international markets), Netflix had to prove it was actively enforcing geo limits. It sucks and I’m not defending it, just providing some of the business context. Amazon is so limited in its international expansion with Prime Video that it hasn’t had to address most of these issues. As Prime inevitably expands, it will also face these same challenges. (Hulu, too. Though Hulu has made some international attempts, largely through partnerships with existing local services. Hulu’s dilemma is exacerbated by the fact that it is almost wholly owned by the major American broadcast networks, who already have their own robust international licensing and sales divisions that aren’t keen on being disrupted.)

Sharlin 9y ago

This is the first time I've heard that Netflix has standalone desktop client o_O Apparently only available for Windows 10. Also the first time I've heard that Netflix HD is not 1080p except on some clients/browsers. I feel... cheated. Of course the difference between 720p and 1080p is not huge, especially at streaming bitrates, as evidenced by the fact that I haven't suspected anything. But still. Will have to remember to use Safari from now on.

tbranyen 9y ago

Looking over the code it doesn't appear to be malicious. It's related to detecting if hardware acceleration is present. I'm not up-to-date on feature detection, so I'n not sure if there's a better way to know if it's available.

Feniks 9y ago

I don't think Netflix really cares about browsers. Most of their customers will use apps.