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The Quest for Netflix on Asahi Linux

da.vidbuchanan.co.uk

181–190 of 293 posts

Re: The Quest for Netflix on Asahi Linux

#181
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also the opinion that having a Wild West of incompatible proprietary garbage would result in DRM being less popular because it caused too much friction for users. Of course some stuff would still have it, but less would than the current state where it’s easy and invisible to users until you hit an unsupported system.

> …would result in DRM being less popular because it caused too much friction for users. I agree. But that wouldn’t lead to more content freely available. It would lead to more content being locked in apps and unavailable in the browser. Do you think they would’ve made an app for Linux? I don’t. The dream that all content be available DRM free isn’t happening any time soon. Rights holders clearly don’t want it and I…

I don’t think Spotify web would have DRM if it required manually installing crap like silverlight. Music went drm free because it was inconvenient, and then when the drm was refined a bit, it’s all locked up so the web ui doesn’t work on Asahi.

Re: The Quest for Netflix on Asahi Linux

#182
post #146
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know we had that, they called it HDCP. It continues to frustrate users of beamers and what not today, despite the root key being leaked for many years now. Even before the key leak, it never did anything to stop shows appearing as torrents on day one. It will never work, if pirates have to replace the TV panel with an FPGA, they will happily do so.

FYI, the German word "beamer" is a 'false' anglicism. The English translation is (video) projector.

Thanks! I was trying to figure out what the heck a beamer was. Didn’t seem likely to be a BMW which is the only thing I’ve heard folks in the US call a beamer.

Reminds me of when I visited friends in Germany and they kept talking about their handy and I eventually figured out that’s a cell phone.

Re: The Quest for Netflix on Asahi Linux

#183
post #146
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know we had that, they called it HDCP. It continues to frustrate users of beamers and what not today, despite the root key being leaked for many years now. Even before the key leak, it never did anything to stop shows appearing as torrents on day one. It will never work, if pirates have to replace the TV panel with an FPGA, they will happily do so.

FYI, the German word "beamer" is a 'false' anglicism. The English translation is (video) projector.

Learned this via LaTeX :)

Re: The Quest for Netflix on Asahi Linux

#184
post #125
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know we had that, they called it HDCP. It continues to frustrate users of beamers and what not today, despite the root key being leaked for many years now. Even before the key leak, it never did anything to stop shows appearing as torrents on day one. It will never work, if pirates have to replace the TV panel with an FPGA, they will happily do so.

Nit, but I think HDCP 2 is still cryptographically secure? No leakage, no known crypto flaws on HDCP 2.3 if i remember correctly. That being said, It's still utterly broken because you can buy HDCP 2 disabler from Amazon for 20 €

How do the cheap disablers work if the protocol isn't broken? Is someone signing devices that they aren't supposed to?

Re: The Quest for Netflix on Asahi Linux

#185
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? Piracy is so easy. Go to torrent site, download torrent, click on file. It really couldn't be easier. There's no DRM on the torrent. If you have a semi-modern GPU you can play any codec you might download. I'm really not sure what you're talking about, unless you're going to some weird torrent site. Piracy has a great user experience compared to paying for DRM and having to use a particular app instead of your…

I almost wrote "just wait for people to say 'no it's easy'" but I thought surely we are over that now. I want to watch The Climb 2023 S01E01. I Google "The Climb 2023 S01E01 torrent" First result is www.stagatv.com/series/the-climb-s01 (not linking because it is spam) Hmm nothing else useful on the first page except this: In response to a legal request submitted to Google, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page.…

Wants to watch FooBar S01E42.

Opens Netflix, but it’s not there? Huh, this show is licensed by BarBaz company, so goes to their website.

Good, it’s here. Wait… “Watch” button is greyed out? “Content is not available in your region”?

Or simply the company decided that your device is not good enough to play the video at full resolution (e.g. Apple TV does that in LG TV app), and standalone device is like 3x overpriced in local stores?

OK, searches for some random VPN (that’s the part where spammy domains and adware come into play). Finds something that seems to be working.

Or not? Searches for the problem, and oh no, the region lock is actually based on the account, and to change that you need to use a card or ID from that specific region or whatever.

Searches for this stuff (more spammy domains), finds a marketplace, gets scammed but luckily there is a buyer protection so gets refund.

Gives up, opens some popular torrent tracker/forum, downloads 2160p HDR/DolbyVision WebRip/BDRip, can watch with friends offline at a local party.

Re: The Quest for Netflix on Asahi Linux

#186
post #63

The mere existence of Widevine is a mystery for me. How sensible for Netflix is to invest into DRM at all? It's not a gamedev situation, where DRM lasts long enough to make impact on initial sales. Pirated Netflix shows appear on the torrents same day, and unless they have full-stack protection from the decoder to the screen, not much can be done. They seem to make user experience worse for nothing.

It's actually quite simple. DRM exists so regular users can't easily rip the stream and share it with friends. Sure, the video is already available on pirate sites. But theres a big difference between accepting a video file from a friend, and having to navigate the pirate sites (which are also full of viruses).

Re: The Quest for Netflix on Asahi Linux

#187
post #73
post #63

The mere existence of Widevine is a mystery for me. How sensible for Netflix is to invest into DRM at all? It's not a gamedev situation, where DRM lasts long enough to make impact on initial sales. Pirated Netflix shows appear on the torrents same day, and unless they have full-stack protection from the decoder to the screen, not much can be done. They seem to make user experience worse for nothing.

I also wonder that about any audio/video DRM, but like most things it's probably something that is agreed upon in the many licenses that they'll protect the copyrighted material to their best ability. Even though everybody knows it's pointless and even ends up being a nuisance for some legit use cases like this story. Just reminds me of years ago when building websites for clients they always wanted me to block right…

> well, not really

But, it literally is.

Re: The Quest for Netflix on Asahi Linux

#188
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is to make the Netflix experience better for the average person than the experience of using a pirated source. And - IMHO - it works. I used to use Bittorrent quite a lot. There was a bunch of US shows I watched that were unavailable in Australia and so I had a pretty decent setup where things would automatically download when torrents were posted. Life happened, I stopped using it and haven't really tried…

What? Piracy is so easy. Go to torrent site, download torrent, click on file. It really couldn't be easier. There's no DRM on the torrent. If you have a semi-modern GPU you can play any codec you might download. I'm really not sure what you're talking about, unless you're going to some weird torrent site. Piracy has a great user experience compared to paying for DRM and having to use a particular app instead of your…

sigh you can lead a horse to water. Look around you, notice that people are not pirating en masse. People prefer to just pay for Netflix. But piracy is so easy! How could this be? Could it be... you're wrong?

Re: The Quest for Netflix on Asahi Linux

#189
post #82
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know we had that, they called it HDCP. It continues to frustrate users of beamers and what not today, despite the root key being leaked for many years now. Even before the key leak, it never did anything to stop shows appearing as torrents on day one. It will never work, if pirates have to replace the TV panel with an FPGA, they will happily do so.

> It will never work, if pirates have to replace the TV panel with an FPGA, they will happily do so. Evidence does appear to point to you being right, but I really wonder just who is going to these lengths to pirate things for other people? A significant investment of time and money, from highly a highly skilled individual, for... bragging rights? Is there some financial motive I'm unaware of?

> but I really wonder just who is going to these lengths to pirate things for other people?

The people breaking the systems and the people doing most of the pirating are different.

DRM breaking is a fun challange to some people. You can find these kinds of people breaking all sorts of things. Browser sandbox escapes, remote code execution etc. The mindset is well described in the article here as I can only solve a problem if somebody else implies that I can't. It's a fun challenge! Plus if you do it before others, you get to feel really superior.

The actual pirating is however done by different people. Usually initially by close acquaintances of the DRM breaker, but the methods tend to spread/leak.

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