3 ms·

Maybe because it was a hush hush compromise intended to make it possible rather than impossible to watch netflix on linux at slightly reduced quality. Windows a

by jart 6y ago

Maybe because it was a hush hush compromise intended to make it possible rather than impossible to watch netflix on linux at slightly reduced quality. Windows and Mac PCs with closed source browser would watch at full quality due to hardware drm. No one was motivated until now it seems to blow the lid off the weaker libre drm since a likely outcome is it just get turned off and services require hardware drm only going forward. We'll be lucky if we can still play videos on Linux or Chromium one year from now.

vladvasiliu 6y ago
I wonder whether the situation will improve now that Firefox has support for hardware decoding on Linux. After all, the DRM could be completely handled by the GPU without any help from the driver. Just feed it some binary stream and tell it where to put it. Although the issue with your compromise theory is that not all browsers are supported for high definition even on MacOS or Windows, at least theoretically (don't have a Netflix account to check). In particular, Chrome isn't supported, although Chrome-based Edge is. From the Netflix help page on watching UHD [0]: Netflix is available in Ultra HD on Windows and Mac computers with: Microsoft Edge for Windows Windows 10 App Safari for MacOS 11.0 or later From the Netflix help page on watching on Windows [1]: Windows computers support streaming in the following browser resolutions: Google Chrome up to 720p Internet Explorer up to 1080p Microsoft Edge up to 4K* Mozilla Firefox up to 720p Opera up to 720p Windows 8 app up to 1080p Windows 10 app up to 4K* The situation is similar on MacOS, where only Safari supports 1080p [2] [0] https://help.netflix.com/en/node/13444 https://help.netflix.com/en/node/13444 [1] https://help.netflix.com/en/node/23931 https://help.netflix.com/en/node/23931 [2] https://help.netflix.com/en/node/55764 https://help.netflix.com/en/node/55764
swiley 6y ago
If I can't watch movies on Linux I'll just skip watching them or torrent them. I already hate dealing with running an OSX vm just to IM my parents, and without hardware acceleration I doubt video decoding would work anyway.

by jart 6y ago

vladvasiliu 6y ago

I wonder whether the situation will improve now that Firefox has support for hardware decoding on Linux. After all, the DRM could be completely handled by the GPU without any help from the driver. Just feed it some binary stream and tell it where to put it. Although the issue with your compromise theory is that not all browsers are supported for high definition even on MacOS or Windows, at least theoretically (don't have a Netflix account to check). In particular, Chrome isn't supported, although Chrome-based Edge is. From the Netflix help page on watching UHD [0]: Netflix is available in Ultra HD on Windows and Mac computers with: Microsoft Edge for Windows Windows 10 App Safari for MacOS 11.0 or later From the Netflix help page on watching on Windows [1]: Windows computers support streaming in the following browser resolutions: Google Chrome up to 720p Internet Explorer up to 1080p Microsoft Edge up to 4K* Mozilla Firefox up to 720p Opera up to 720p Windows 8 app up to 1080p Windows 10 app up to 4K* The situation is similar on MacOS, where only Safari supports 1080p [2] [0] https://help.netflix.com/en/node/13444 https://help.netflix.com/en/node/13444 [1] https://help.netflix.com/en/node/23931 https://help.netflix.com/en/node/23931 [2] https://help.netflix.com/en/node/55764 https://help.netflix.com/en/node/55764

swiley 6y ago

If I can't watch movies on Linux I'll just skip watching them or torrent them. I already hate dealing with running an OSX vm just to IM my parents, and without hardware acceleration I doubt video decoding would work anyway.