Streaming Netflix on a Pi

I did get netflix working on a Pi using Kodi, at that time it involved a lot of farting about to extract widevine from a chrome installer and get Kodi to see that, from what I've heard widevine on a Pi should be easier now?

Netflix uses Widevine DRM. It can be installed for Chromium on the rPi using:

sudo apt install libwidevinecdm0

On a rPi3 it is unwatchable. I've not tested on a rPi4. On an Orange Pi

The gotcha with Widevine on Netflix/Amazon Prime is that Widevine has various security levels, L1,L2,L3. On Linux/Chromium it is not possible to achieve the highest security level. This has the consequence that services like Netflix and Amazon Prime limit the quality of video streams. In Amazon Prime, streams are limited to 1.2 GB per hour, as opposed to the normal 6 GB per hour. This means video quality is inferior, particularly in terms of contrast.

On the bright side, I do have a docker compose file to enable downloading Torrents over VPN. That provides a much, superior watching experience.

Sounds like it's worth a try. My display is an old 720p Panasonic plasma display, so maybe the image quality won't matter so much.

I'm a bit unclear how that works, could you explain or offer links to more details? I'd be using a Netflix account, not Amazon.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

Yes, give it a go. I normally find 720p good enough definition, my criticism of the Widevine limitation was more to do with colours/contrast.

FWIW I'm thinking of getting a new LCD TV, just to say money on electricity, 20 to 30 pennies a day soon adds up to a new TV.

It means it is easier to set up and better quality to pirate TV, for free, than it is to pay via a streaming platform such as Netflix or Amazon.

Don't VPN services cost cash money? A legit no-ads Netflix account is only $10/mo. That's not much, at least these days....

Thanks for writing,

bob prohaska

I have Amazon Prime, for about $10 a month, which I've had for years. Recently I changed my HTPC for an orange Pi, I put a lot of effort into getting Amazon Prime Video to work at all, now it works, but badly.

For other reasons, I use a VPN service, for privacy, to limit government snooping. It cost buttons, $2-$3 a month. I originally got Amazon Prime because BBC was blocked due to the VPN. So I stopped paying for the BBC.

It just seems strange that companies cripple their streaming platforms to stop piracy, while at the same time piracy is simpler than using their platforms at all. What is the point?

Presumably it has some economic value, it just seems strange.

Which model of Orange Pi, and under what OS? I recently obtained an Orange Pi 5 and put Android on it. Prime Video runs like a champ on it...more responsive than any of the Fire TV sticks I have. So does SiriusXM. I also have BritBox installed, but haven't tried running it. The only thing I've not found is a working Apple TV app, but my girlfriend watched a show on that through the web browser. (I put Edge on there to access my Invidious server...other than lack of a pause button, that works.)

Which version/download of Android? Do you get full quality Prime Video

Whichever version was available for download a couple of weeks ago...think it's based on Android 12, which is newer than what's on my phone. :)

I don't know and I don't know where I'd look. TBH, it's used more for Plex, SiriusXM, and YouTube (via Invidious) than Prime Video. It's plugged into a

While watching a video, mouse over the window, an "Options" menu icon (cog) will appear in the top right corner. That menu will list Video Quality. If "Best" is about 6 GB per hour, you have full DRM security, if "Best" is about 1 GB per hour you don't

TBH, it's used more for Plex,

Is that at 4K?

"bob prohaska" snipped-for-privacy@www.zefox.net> wrote

| Any thoughts on how well it'd work, and how the streaming | catalog compares to the DVD catalog (which has dwindled | hugely since the good old days)? |

I stream Netflix on an RPi4. I don't remember the details exactly. I think it used to require installing Widevine for Chromium but I think now it's pre-installed. There was someone online who provided an esoteric installer for awhile. But I'm pretty sure that now there's no special fiddling needed. Just make sure to update Chromium.

The only issue was that Widevine wasn't provided for ARM CPUs. But I think that now it is. It may even now be in Firefox on ARM, but Chromium is probably a better bet. You can check into that.

I've been running it for years. In one room I have Win7 with FF. In another room I have an RPi4 with Chromium, plus a wireless keyboard/mouse. I pipe both of them to a TV with HDMI. No problems. It's also nice for the relative privacy. I don't connect either TV to the Internet.

We got the discs for years. I loved it. But then they started cutting back on their stock. It got to where everything I wanted to see was unavailable. The streaming has gone downhill the same way. And of course, the streaming selection never was very good. I often just can't find anything that I want to see. I get more DVDs from the local library than movies on Netflix. It's mostly crap, dumb TV series, Korean TV (?)... whatever they can get cheap. Plus their own productions, which are mostly crap.

But it's not entirely Netflix's fault. Several companies are trying to take over streaming and refuse to release their movies. If it's Paramount+ it will show up at the library, but never on Netflix. AppleTV? You'll need to subscribe to that. Disney? You probably need to subscribe to Disney. Amazon has a lot, but much of it is expensive. (I saw Tar at a friend's house on Amazon. $20!) Netflix can't get any of that stuff, because the other companies are competing with them.

Netflix is cheap and sometimes OK. So we keep it. I don't do business with Amazon. I would never buy anything from Apple. And I don't appreciate those other 2-bit companies trying to force me to buy their subscription. It's just not worth it. But I do sacrifice. For example, Jennifer Lawrence's new movie, Causeway. It's on AppleTV. So I'll likely never see it. I'm surprised that good actors like that are willing to go to the trouble to be limited by streaming lock-in.

Anyway, long story short, yes it works. It might be worth it for the cheap price. But don't get your hopes up... Also, there's a very handy extension for FF. Probably for Chrome, too. I can't think of the name of it offhand, but it gives you IMDB and RottenTomatoes ratings on Netflix. Very handy. You can set the minimum rating. So, for example, say you set movies to 6.5. The extension will look up movies, almost instantly, and show ratings only for movies that meet your criteria or above. Each movie listing will show something like, say, a yellow 6.5 (IMDB) and a red 71 (RT). Or there will be no rating if the movie or show doesn't rank high enough. That saves a lot of work because Netflix stuffs their selection with absolute crap they can get for cheap. With the ratings you can visually filter what's worth checking out.

Ok, so the Pi works for streaming netflix, but there's still little to see.....8-(

I too have noticed the shrinking selection in disks and really hoped the trend might be reversed by switching to streaming, not least because the disks are going away. It's become real work to keep a one-at-a-time disk queue from going dry, sounds like it'll be worse with streaming.

I may try streaming, but am much less sure than I was.

Thank you for writing!

bob prohaska

"bob prohaska" snipped-for-privacy@www.zefox.net> wrote

| I may try streaming, but am much less sure than I was. |

It's frustrating. There are so many streaming companies now, and they all want to restrict their stock to their service. On the bright side, one-screen-at-a-time service on Netfix at 720p is only $10/month. Last night I watched the John Mulaney stand up that just came out. You can find lists online to give you an idea of what they have. There are "What's on Netflix" websites. (Our TVs are only 720p anyway, and frankly I don't care about 1080 or 4K. We used to have a CRT and I didn't notice the difference between that and 720. The picture is fine for my aging eyes.) Two streams at 1080 is $15.50.

Another option, if you live someplace with a good library, is two other services: Hoopla and Kanopy. I sometimes watch things on Hoopla. It's not a big selection, but there are some interesting things like Tibetan or Arabic movies. And mamby pamby stuff like Sleepless in Seattle. Kanopy has more, but their website gave me trouble with my password at one point and I haven't had motivation to get it fixed. If your local library has one or both of those you can stream for free. The library pays. And it works through the browser.

I can't see where this is all going. Will people end up paying $80/month for 7 different services? Not me. But I have a good library for DVD selection. Most people don't.

I have a decent library a couple blocks away. Their webside doesn't seem to recognize either Hoopla or Kanopy as streaming services.

The library does appear to have DVDs, maybe that's worth exploring.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska