Kodi Is Getting A Proper Netflix Plugin

[duby229]

I know that Netflix doesn't care about me or my needs, but I care about me. ;-)

Currently I'm buying many DVDs or BluRays and am ripping them on my HTPC for my personal use. Those DVD/BluRay cases are taking lots of room and are currently stored away in the cellar. A solution where I don't have to buy and rip all those titles that I want is very welcome.

You definitely aren't wrong in your desire, but choosing netflix -is- wrong. They obviously don't want your money and for that they don't deserve it. We -all- need to come up with an alternative that puts linux users as first class citizens.

[GreatEmerald]

That's the thing: there is literally no alternative. Maybe aside from not watching movies to begin with or the cinema itself.

[droidhacker]

You definitely aren't wrong in your desire, but choosing netflix -is- wrong. They obviously don't want your money and for that they don't deserve it. We -all- need to come up with an alternative that puts linux users as first class citizens.

Here's the problem; there is no real way to do that in a manner that would satisfy the freedom zealots AS WELL AS the content owners.

See, the thing is, netflix *already works* under linux WITHOUT ANY HACKS. Just browser to netflix.com in chrome and hit the "play" button.
But what you are asking for is something different; freedom to use their data in a manner consistent with being "free" (do use what you paid for, how you want to use it). In other words, stripping the DRM and providing documentation on how to access and consume the data. But that isn't going to happen, because XYZ content owner isn't going to allow it. Its not NETFLIX that is necessarily in the way there, it is Dingbat Studios Inc.

So now we have someone implementing this as a kodi plugin, trying to work within the DRM nonsense, and you know what is going to happen? Somebody at Dingbat Studios Inc. is going to hear about this, and isn't going to hear a SINGLE WORD besides "open source", and send out a hostile letter to netflix to terminate the access it is using.

Think netflix cares about making life difficult for Linux people? Nope. They'd LOVE to get *everybody's* money and would bend over backwards to do so. But Dingbat Studios thinks that its going to let people pirate their "property" (which is nonsense, since EVERYTHING ends up being uploaded with DRM stripped ANYWAY), and make orders against it.

[milhouse]

Why has this taken so long? The Widevine stuff has been around a good while now and I would have thought that there would be plenty of people interested in making this work. I'd like to use this on plain ARM Linux but I suspect that will be tricky, if not impossible.

The Netflix plugin works fine on Raspberry Pi3 with an early version of LibreELEC 9.0, however for Netflix to work it requires an (as yet) unreleased version of Kodi 18 (or build it yourself, from the "agile" branch).

[milhouse]

Kodi 17 was released not long ago.

This Netflix plugin won't work on Kodi 17.

[cjcox]

I would be very very very very surprised to see this escape Android (talking the DRM piece), but here's hoping...

[Raybuntu]

The Video shows my LibreELEC (Linux) community build with Kodi Agile. One of my users made it.

https://github.com/Raybuntu/LibreELEC.tv/releases/tag/rb-agile10

[pal666]

Instead, we, all of us, need to devise an alternative where linux users are first class from inception..

surely devising linux player for netflix is a whole lot easier than devising whole netflix, isn't it?

[duby229]

surely designing linux player for netflix is a whole lot easier than designing whole netflix, isn't it?

Maybe? I don't know, but netflix doesn't doesn't want your money and I don't think they deserve it because of that.

[andreano]

Widevine (…) I'd like to use this on plain ARM Linux but I suspect that will be tricky, if not impossible.

That's also my assumption. My understanding is that DRM is fundamentally incompatible with free software – there has to be a blob somewhere. Thus, portability is at the mercy of those who make that blob – good luck getting it working on a commercially insignificant platform.