Streaming NetFlix on a Pi

bob prohaska · 2023-08-24T00:33:56+00:00

Since NetFlix is shutting down its DVD service I'mlooking for a cheap streaming method. Is a Pi3 up tothe task? It sounds like all I need is a Pi, RasPiOSand a browser, presumably chromium.The only reference point I have is watching YouTubevideos on a Pi4. When it works at all, it's fine.For the last couple of months it hasn't worked atall, I think because of chromium but can't be sure.In any case, NetFlix isn't YouTube....Thanks for reading, and any tips....bob prohaska

Aug 24, 2023 Last reply: 2 years ago 24 Replies

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Computer Nerd Kev 2 years ago

Odd, it's there in 102.14.0esr on x86_84 (I don't run FF on Pis myself), even without any DRM libs installed. Maybe try entering "DRM" in the search box at the top right? The way the settings page is laid out so sparsely makes it easy to accidentally skip past things.

There's also a current thread named "Background on Firefox setting Digital Rights Management (DRM) Content with Google Widevine" in alt.comp.software.firefox which might mention some information that's of interest to you.

Firefox's ESR releases support what the major releases that they're based on support, so 102 ESR should be fine.

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bob prohaska 2 years ago

I found this page:

formatting link

expects the Settings control panel to contain a DRM entry. The panel on firefox-esr as supplied for RasPiOS does not contain any such entry. Maybe it's a mis-feature associated with aarch64.

Thanks to all who replied, I'll keep looking.

bob prohaska

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The Natural Philosopher 2 years ago

LOL!. See my comments on programmers and documentation in the other thread...

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Pancho 2 years ago

I did go through a lot of this with Chromium under linux/AArch64, even to the point of grepping the source code. And messing about with linking libwidevinecdm.so using LD_PRELOAD of a specific library.

So I might be able to help if you go the Chromium route, but unfortunately I know nothing about the Firefox handling of widevine.

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bob prohaska 2 years ago

It looks as if my problem was enabling hardware acceleration. Turning it off makes both Netflix and YouTube work just fine under chromium-browser.

Kinda odd, I thought the whole point of the RasPiOS version of chromium-browser was that it _used_ hardware acceleration.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

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