Netflix on Linux without Silverlight
Beyond the Silver Screen
The online video store Netflix delivers video on demand to many countries. Although the service offers Linux-friendly HTML5 streams, you have to coax Netflix into actually serving them up.
With more than 50 million paying customers worldwide (July 2014) Netflix has positioned itself as a market leader among video-on-demand (VoD) providers and now has so much market power that it produces its own series and films. In contrast to its competitors, Netflix offers a Linux-friendly HTML5 player for its streams, but the VoD provider has installed many stumbling blocks for users with Linux systems. In this article, I show how to extract HTML5 streams from Netflix.
Online Viewers
Although traditional, linear TV viewing still holds sway in the US, VoD is gaining ground. By 2014Q2, US TV viewing dropped to fewer than five hours per day [1]. Viewership increased with age; viewers aged 65+ years old watched 6.8hr/wk, whereas those aged 12-24 years watched only 2.7hr/wk. Meanwhile, online viewing has increased [2], with 40% of viewers among the Gen-Xers (31-50/54 years), 30% among the Boomers (55+ years) and 12%-18% among the Millennials (18-34 years). Worldwide, the Millennials top VoD and time-shifted TV consumption (75%), followed by the Gen-Xers (54%) and the Boomers (40%) [3].
Netflix
At the time of printing, Netflix was available in 77 countries [4]. Like its competitors, Netflix offers a one-month trial period [5], and during this time, you can put the service through its paces. The offerings cost $7.99 (£5.99/EUR6.99) per month for one standard-definition stream, $8.99 (£6.99/EUR8.99) per month for two high-definition streams, and $11.99 (£8.99/EUR11.99) a month for four devices, so families can use the service without wrangling.
With a modern Smart TV you can run Netflix directly as a TV app. If you have an older TV, you can equip it with a Chromecast dongle [6] or Roku Streaming Stick [7]. A smartphone or tablet equipped with the matching Netflix app [8] also smartens up your TV.
Silverlight
Now that you're equipped, how do you play one of the movies on a Linux PC? At first glance, Netflix disappoints: If you click Play in Firefox, Chromium, or Opera for your choice of Netflix movie, the video service instead serves up a page with the system requirements (Figure 1) – don't bother looking for Linux support!
If you spoof a Firefox browser on Windows with the User Agent Switcher, you have taken one step further toward watching Netflix; however, Netflix now asks you to install the Silverlight plugin (Figure 2), although the HTML5 player is enabled in the Netflix settings out of the box. Under Linux you can meet this request with Firefox and Pipelight [9], but you can also tap into Netflix without Pipelight.
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Linux Servers Targeted by Akira Ransomware
A group of bad actors who have already extorted $42 million have their sights set on the Linux platform.
-
TUXEDO Computers Unveils Linux Laptop Featuring AMD Ryzen CPU
This latest release is the first laptop to include the new CPU from Ryzen and Linux preinstalled.
-
XZ Gets the All-Clear
The back door xz vulnerability has been officially reverted for Fedora 40 and versions 38 and 39 were never affected.
-
Canonical Collaborates with Qualcomm on New Venture
This new joint effort is geared toward bringing Ubuntu and Ubuntu Core to Qualcomm-powered devices.
-
Kodi 21.0 Open-Source Entertainment Hub Released
After a year of development, the award-winning Kodi cross-platform, media center software is now available with many new additions and improvements.
-
Linux Usage Increases in Two Key Areas
If market share is your thing, you'll be happy to know that Linux is on the rise in two areas that, if they keep climbing, could have serious meaning for Linux's future.
-
Vulnerability Discovered in xz Libraries
An urgent alert for Fedora 40 has been posted and users should pay attention.
-
Canonical Bumps LTS Support to 12 years
If you're worried that your Ubuntu LTS release won't be supported long enough to last, Canonical has a surprise for you in the form of 12 years of security coverage.
-
Fedora 40 Beta Released Soon
With the official release of Fedora 40 coming in April, it's almost time to download the beta and see what's new.
-
New Pentesting Distribution to Compete with Kali Linux
SnoopGod is now available for your testing needs