Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday February 13 2018, @02:24PM   Printer-friendly
from the good-news-for-linux-users dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Netflix 1080p is a new browser extension for Google Chrome and Firefox (a fork). It should work in other browsers that support Chrome's extensions system.

The extension enables support for 1080p on Netflix in the browsers. Netflix customers can use Chrome or Firefox, on any supported operating system, to watch streams in 1080p using those browsers.

This overrides Netflix's -- seemingly artifical -- streaming quality limitation. The extension is especially useful for Linux users as it unlocks 1080p video streams on Netflix on Linux machines since that is not supported officially by Netflix.

Source: https://www.ghacks.net/2018/02/12/watch-netflix-in-1080p-on-linux-and-unsupported-browsers/


Original Submission

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:15PM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:15PM (#637130)

    Seems that no one really seems to think this is worth commenting on.

    • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:36PM (8 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:36PM (#637141)

      This overrides Netflix's -- seemingly artifical -- streaming quality limitation

      I don't watch netflix but the "seemingly artificial" thing is stupid, of course they impose arbitrary limits. Netflix is a stupid company where stupid investors [investopedia.com] expect stupid customers to pay for stupid social justice propaganda. [wikipedia.org]

      There's your comment.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:26PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:26PM (#637187)

        I don't watch netflix but the "semenly artificial" thing is stupid

        FTFY report back if you like it better this way

      • (Score: 2, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:13PM (6 children)

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:13PM (#637211) Journal

        Get over yourself you snowflake, it's a comedy show.

        • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:31PM

          by DeathMonkey (1380) on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:31PM (#637217) Journal

          Who wants to bet that this guy who needs a Safe-Space from "offensive" white-people jokes loves to call others "SJWs."

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:35PM (4 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:35PM (#637219)

          Get over yourself you snowflake, it's a comedy show.

          Ahh Deathmonkey. Marc Randolph [businessinsider.com] is the nephew of Edward Bernays [theconversation.com] who was the nephew of Sigmund Freud. If you still think you're discussing a comedy show, the joke is on you! Do you remember when the left used to care about things like this?

          • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:54PM (3 children)

            by DeathMonkey (1380) on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:54PM (#637225) Journal

            Damn you Poe's law!

            • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @07:31PM (2 children)

              by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @07:31PM (#637235)

              Damn you Poe's law!

              Funny, I wasn't going to mention it but how is the Russian collusion narrative working out for you?

              Poe's law indeed! [wikipedia.org]

  • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:42PM (1 child)

    by Wootery (2341) on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:42PM (#637147)

    This overrides Netflix's -- seemingly artifical -- streaming quality limitation

    I thought that was a limitation of Chome's 'Widevine' EME implementation. Is that not the case? That said Chrome plays Google Play Video content at 1080P, [google.com] and I'm fairly sure that's also EME-protected.

    But yes, Chrome only streams Netflix up to 720P, even on Windows.

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by mmh on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:58PM (10 children)

    by mmh (721) on Tuesday February 13 2018, @03:58PM (#637160)

    Instead of supporting a company that hates you. You could just visit:
    https://thepiratebay.org/ [thepiratebay.org];
    or https://eztv.ag/ [eztv.ag];
    or https://www.skytorrents.in/ [skytorrents.in];
    or https://www.limetorrents.cc/ [limetorrents.cc].

    And, download movies not only in 1080p but in 4k.

    And, you could watch them without being tracked by netflix, having every scene you pause and rewatch or skip logged in some database.

    And, you could watch them in a decent video player like VLC or mplayer which doesn't having screen-tearing problems like most all browsers.

    And, you could continue to watch them even if your ISP has a brainfart.

    It's really sad, streaming companies have had a long time now to "get it right", and yet. Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, et. al still offer a worse product than movie pirates.

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:03PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:03PM (#637168)
    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by ledow on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:08PM (3 children)

      by ledow (5567) on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:08PM (#637171) Homepage

      Or... just stop watching them.

      If you disagree with the way they do business this much, why would you try to watch their content which is similarly full of advertising anyway?

      To be honest, you're an outlier. Most people are quite happy with Netflix, Amazon, even Google Play. Your concerns don't figure on their list ("so the guy I bought a movie from knows I watched that movie? So what?").

      I'm much more annoyed by content that's not on ANY of the mainstream services. I cannot get 3rd Rock From The Sun online in my region (UK), the only solution being importing a Region 1 DVD from Amazon which won't play in a standard player (not an obstacle to me, but it's annoying) and might incur import charges. And there was an old ITV series called The Two of Us, season two has been "coming" to DVD for about 10 years now, and it's not online anywhere (plays occasionally on some channels in the UK, though, but never available in a format I can watch on demand whenever I want).

      But I take the hint: You don't want me to have it? Okay, I won't. Done. I'm not going to go pirate it, I'll just let it fall by the wayside and fall from my memory too.

      Rather than consume their product anyway, just stop it. If a newspaper said you could only read their paper if you signed an NDA, or paid a subscription, or bought it from THEIR exclusive newsstands, or whatever, would you care about reading that newspaper? I wouldn't.

      • (Score: 2, Flamebait) by Arik on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:39PM (1 child)

        by Arik (4543) on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:39PM (#637188) Journal
        It's worse than full of advertising, it's advertising wrapped in advertising. Every show is a propaganda piece, the scripts apparently written by a committee made up of people from the marketing and 'diversity' departments, with no sign that a literate human being was ever involved. The acting is usually just as bad, but even the best actor can't make a script like that work. When I walk into a room where a friend is watching a show I often stop and watch - just until it makes me explode in laughter. Never seems to take more than ~2 minutes, if it's supposed to be a drama. Dramas need suspension of disbelief and absurdly poor scripting just makes that impossible to maintain - triggering an explosion of laughter.

        If it's supposed to be a comedy it'll probably only earn an occasional weak chuckle. That's how absurdly awful Hollywood has become. Their dramas are hilarious but their comedies are just boring.
        --
        If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
        • (Score: 3, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:34PM

          by DeathMonkey (1380) on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:34PM (#637218) Journal

          Hmm...sounds like you're doing it wrong.

          My policy is to only watch comedies that are funny. It works pretty well for me. Maybe you should try it out.

      • (Score: 1) by RedIsNotGreen on Wednesday February 14 2018, @08:19AM

        by RedIsNotGreen (2191) on Wednesday February 14 2018, @08:19AM (#637513) Homepage Journal

        Agree completely. After the hoops required became too much for me to jump through, I first experienced a form of withdrawal, but then stopped craving all that shitty media and never looked back. I still watch a movie occasionally, but I'm very picky about what I give my time and attention to.

    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:48PM (4 children)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:48PM (#637223)

      Netflix doesn't hate you, Netflix loves your monthly subscription fees - as long as you're willing to pay fees that give them a tidy profit margin above their cost of licensing/production. Judging by the amount of content that Netflix is producing these days (putting them in the 0 license fee per view column), they love their customers a lot.

      Now, do they care what their customers think, want, or feel? Why would they? Is there a serious (legal) competitor out there?

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
      • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:56PM (2 children)

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:56PM (#637227) Journal

        And they make more money when people watch the content they produce.

        So yes, they care, because Capitalism.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 13 2018, @07:57PM (1 child)

          by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday February 13 2018, @07:57PM (#637244)

          I'd argue that they only care when you stop subscribing. So, like Comcast, you may hate their guts, but if you don't hate their guts enough to pull the plug on the monthly transfer of funds, then "caring" isn't really important to their bottom line.

          --
          🌻🌻 [google.com]
          • (Score: 3, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday February 13 2018, @11:08PM

            by DeathMonkey (1380) on Tuesday February 13 2018, @11:08PM (#637326) Journal

            I'd argue that they only care when you stop subscribing.

            Maybe I wasn't clear... My point was that their original content is a one-time cost whereas licensing content is a perpetual cost.

            They "care" in that it's cheaper for them if a customer watches original content vs. licensed content.

      • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Wednesday February 14 2018, @11:43AM

        by Wootery (2341) on Wednesday February 14 2018, @11:43AM (#637559)

        Is there a serious (legal) competitor out there?

        Here in the UK, there are two: Amazon Prime Video, and Sky's Now TV. [nowtv.com]

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:01PM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:01PM (#637165)

    I already canceled my Neflix subscription.

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Freeman on Tuesday February 13 2018, @05:14PM (6 children)

    by Freeman (732) on Tuesday February 13 2018, @05:14PM (#637197) Journal

    I really don't get all of the hate that Netflix is getting. Now, I can definitely see why you would be hating on them, if you were in the Video Rental business. Netflix just about single-handedly destroyed all of the video rental shops. Mostly due to the horrendous fees that Video shops would charge.

    I still occasionally add a DVD or Blu-Ray / DVD combo set to my collection, but Netflix has become my go to. I don't usually watch a video over and over again. Swapping DVDs out through the mail with Netflix is really nice. It takes a few days to get a new one in the mail, but it's pretty quick. Also, the streaming is nice. No Commercials / Advertisements and they've added a Skip Intro feature at least for most / all of the series I've been watching. Very few shows have interesting enough intros to watch more than the one time it's shown. Especially, when you're watching a bunch of shows in a row.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by cubancigar11 on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:50PM (2 children)

      by cubancigar11 (330) on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:50PM (#637224) Homepage Journal

      As a user of Netflux, Amazon Prime, Hulu and one more thing I keep forgetting, my opinion is that Netflix doesn't have a lot of good content and they hide it by giving bad rating to shows that compete with their own. That is simply unethical. I don't know why other people hate it, but that's my reason.

      I still pay for it though.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @08:09PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @08:09PM (#637249)

        I agree. The Netflix originals are not interesting to me, and the ones I've tried to watch I haven't liked. The content I used to love Netflix for - for foreign movies, classics, seasons of good tv shows - are either disappearing or already consumed.

      • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday February 14 2018, @04:28PM

        by Freeman (732) on Wednesday February 14 2018, @04:28PM (#637650) Journal

        I'm pretty sure Netflix doesn't rate their own videos. That's the users who are giving those ratings. Posting their own stuff on the front page is entirely reasonable. There are plenty of options to sort through and find what you want to watch. Though admittedly as the Anonymous Coward replied to you, there's only so much that's worth watching. There's a huge catalog of DVD rentals though, much better selection than you could have dreamed for when Blockbuster was around.

        --
        Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by NotSanguine on Tuesday February 13 2018, @11:17PM (2 children)

      by NotSanguine (285) <{NotSanguine} {at} {SoylentNews.Org}> on Tuesday February 13 2018, @11:17PM (#637330) Homepage Journal

      I really don't get all of the hate that Netflix is getting.

      Personally, I don't hate Netflix. Mostly because I don't use their services. Anything they have, that I might be interested in consuming, I can get from other sources without having someone spy on my viewing habits.

      But I can certainly understand why folks might be unhappy with Netflix, given that they publicly mock their users [soylentnews.org]. If that's what they do publicly, one has to wonder what other, even nastier, stuff they do privately.

      --
      No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
      • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday February 14 2018, @04:22PM (1 child)

        by Freeman (732) on Wednesday February 14 2018, @04:22PM (#637643) Journal

        I highly doubt that Netflix's "spying on your viewing habits" is any different than any other streaming platform. The only way to keep others from "spying on your viewing habits" is to take it totally offline. Even then, you have Microsoft with their Telemetry data to contend with as well. Going down the rabbit hole far enough, you should be using cash only when you purchase that DVD. Preferably from a flea market, where they don't have video cameras on every aisle.

        --
        Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
        • (Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday February 14 2018, @05:31PM

          by NotSanguine (285) <{NotSanguine} {at} {SoylentNews.Org}> on Wednesday February 14 2018, @05:31PM (#637694) Homepage Journal

          I highly doubt that Netflix's "spying on your viewing habits" is any different than any other streaming platform.

          Why would *anyone* want to use any of them?

          I'm not being snarky. I actually don't get it. Let's see. You "purchase" some content to consume. Once that content has been consumed, it's not yours to do with as you like (watch once restrictions and other DRM), maybe give it to a friend, make a backup copy, etc., etc., etc.

          It seems like a really crappy deal to me, and certainly not worth wasting my money on it.

          The only way to keep others from "spying on your viewing habits" is to take it totally offline.

          Bingo! You win a prize!

          Even then, you have Microsoft with their Telemetry data to contend with as well.

          That presupposes that you use Microsoft products and/or don't know how to block that network traffic.

          Going down the rabbit hole far enough, you should be using cash only when you purchase that DVD. Preferably from a flea market, where they don't have video cameras on every aisle.

          Who says I *purchase* anything? What's more, whether it's a store, a flea market or other retailer (even an online one), they have no idea whether I watch that content every day, give it to someone as a gag gift or use it for target practice. And even if an online retailer attempts to spam me based on my purchases, I use unique email addresses for everyone. If I don't like what they're sending me, that particular email address suddenly isn't a valid email address any more.

          --
          No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
  • (Score: 2) by stretch611 on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:27PM (7 children)

    by stretch611 (6199) on Tuesday February 13 2018, @06:27PM (#637215)

    How long until the app becomes popular enough to appear on Netflix's radar?

    When that happens, how long until lawyers are involved and the inevitable takedown letter. for either DCMA or copyright violations. (I expect DCMA due to circumvention methods.)

    --
    Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Immerman on Tuesday February 13 2018, @08:21PM (6 children)

      by Immerman (3985) on Tuesday February 13 2018, @08:21PM (#637254)

      Is there any reason to believe they'd care?

      My guess is they artificially limit Linux streams simply because Linux is notorious for having full-screen video performance issues, and they have no interest in offering support for such issues on a few dozen of the most popular distros. Someone makes an unsupported plugin that sidesteps their performance "fix" - that's not their problem: "Sorry, your configuration is not supported. Disable the plugin and if you're still having issues *then* we'll give you the help-desk runaround."

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @10:54PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @10:54PM (#637317)

        simply because Linux is notorious for having full-screen video performance issues,

        What are you talking about? What new FUD is this? The issues my HUGE Flat Screen Display TV, which runs on the linux kernel, is having with full screen display? Is that what you are talking about? How much is Netflix paying you to spread these lies???

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by lentilla on Wednesday February 14 2018, @12:18AM

          by lentilla (1770) on Wednesday February 14 2018, @12:18AM (#637360)

          Linux is notorious for having full-screen video performance issues

          Please see xkcd [xkcd.com].

          True, full screen video generally "just works" today - but it certainly for wasn't easy for the greater part of Linux's history.

        • (Score: 2) by MadTinfoilHatter on Wednesday February 14 2018, @06:46AM (1 child)

          by MadTinfoilHatter (4635) on Wednesday February 14 2018, @06:46AM (#637492)

          What new FUD is this?

          More like a real issue from days of yore that, yes, for the last 15 years or so is really just FUD. I remember having video playback problems on Red Hat 7.1 (videos would freeze and jerk randomly). The years was 2001. The problems persisted on RH 7.3, if I recall correctly, but when I switched to SuSE 9.1 in 2005 I could play videos just fine.

          • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday February 14 2018, @02:48PM

            by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday February 14 2018, @02:48PM (#637599)

            As a long time Linux user I'd have to disagree. Maybe it's just the distros I've used (mostly Ubuntu-based), or some configuration setting it doesn't like, or the fact that my linux devices all use integrated graphics, but I'm constantly running into web streams that simply won't play nice in full screen.

            Obviously it's not a kernel problem since there's so very many embedded Linux devices that do just fine. I can send it to chromecast (if supported) and it streams flawlessly. I can view it at HD resolution in a window flawlessly. But view it full-screen in a desktop distro and I'm inviting stuttering, even at lower resolutions.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 14 2018, @09:22AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 14 2018, @09:22AM (#637533)

        My guess is they artificially limit Linux streams simply because Linux is notorious for having full-screen video performance issues

        They limit Linux streams today because Linux had playback issues many years back?

        That's like saying today, "my web page doesn't support Microsoft browsers because IE6 has terrible standards conformance".

      • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Wednesday February 14 2018, @11:46AM

        by Wootery (2341) on Wednesday February 14 2018, @11:46AM (#637561)

        It's not Linux, it's Chrome. Even on Windows, Chrome only plays Netflix up to 720P. [netflix.com]

(1)