Ask Slashdot: Linux Friendly Video Streaming?

earthwormgaz writes "I've set up a Linux XBMC + MythTV with FreeView machine for the lounge at home. It works pretty well for Linux, although things crash here and there. The Mrs wants LoveFilm or Netflix, but it seems they're Silverlight and not Linux friendly. Is there anyone doing streaming film and TV with Flash or something else that works on Linux? Failing that, is there anyway to download a film for £4-6 say, as just an AVI file or something, legally?"

netflix is fine on linux

[O('_')O_Bush]

There is a Netflix App for Linux that runs through Wine. It works perfectly fine.

Re:Google Much?

[spanky_poppagasket]

Wine or a virtual machine? Both options listed on the linked page are lame- I know I've tried them. Buggy or laggy, take your pick, and they generally don't take full advantage of hardware.

To the OP, there's youtube, hulu plus, or each network's website might have full shows as well. Netflix works on an Xbox quite well so buy one of those- there's also other streaming video apps available on Xbox live, but some are subscription based last time I checked.

Backwards

[Tim Ward]

The usual answer to questions like this is:

(1) Decide what you want the computer to do

(2) Acquire the right platform.

Syaing "I've already got [whatever platform], how do I make it do what I want?" is often not a helpful approach.

Re:There are plenty of embedded media players

[fat_mike]

I'm going to spread much Roku love. Amazon instant video, Netflix, Hulu, just about every church sermon in the country, The Blaze, all your premium cable channels, etc. And its a cute little hockey puck.

Re:netflix is fine on linux

[Anonymous Coward]

There is a Netflix App for Linux that runs through Wine. It works perfectly fine.

It's really simple to get netflix on ubuntu, here's a howto:
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/opensource/how-to-get-netflix-streaming-on-ubuntu-1210/4019

Use the right tool; don't be the tool

[Anonymous Coward]

For every job there are several tools that might work. For most, there are some tools that aren't the best choice. For example, while some screwdrivers could be used to hammer nails - they aren't the best for it and certainly will be frustrating to use. Linux has several places where it shines. It also has some where it is too frustrating to futz with. Video, due to the current copyright / drm mess, is one of the later. Don't cut off your choices just to be a zealot. Get an appropriate tool. That might be a Roku box or something similar. If you want to have just one unit, it could be a TiVo premier XL 4 or something like that which will be a DVR and also give you streaming through NetFlix and Hulu Plus. Or, it might even be a Windows or Mac box. My money is probably on something like a Roku and keeping what you have for the DVR. But don't tie yourself to a tool that doesn't fit the job. Use one that is actually designed to deal with the real world - that nasty place full of drm and copyright.

Re:There are plenty of embedded media players

[cknudsen]

More Roku love... You can do local media if you have the right model. Roku 3 has a USB port for local media. You can also stream your entire ripped DVD collection direct to your Roku with Plex (which has a Linux server in addition to Windows and Mac), which will give you a much nicer UI than DLNA.

Re:Great Britain

[grumbel]

Since when did Hulu expand to a country that uses pounds as its currency?

MediaHint [mediahint.com] is a Firefox plugin that makes Hulu work in countries where it otherwise would not.

Roku?

[mark_reh]

I just got a Roku 3 and the user interface issues of the previous versions are fixed. Response is snappy and you can stream video from Plex media server (native Linux app) and other streaming servers (Playon, from Windows, for example). The Roku box will handle Netflix for you (and Hulu+) and will be easy enough for your wife to use without any training, and you'll have access to all your HDD based content as well.

Re:amazon

[duphenix]

Delete your ~./adobe folder and try again. I'd link to where I first saw this solution if I could remember it. I have to do this every few months, whenever Amazon "updates" the player.

There is a PPA for that

[moj0joj0]

For quite some time I just resigned myself to the fact that I'd have to boot into windows or use some other poor method to get my netflix on... then Erich Hoover arrived with a heroic flast to his eye, chin thrust forward and proclaimed, "Do not go gentle into that sudo shutdown -r now! Rage, rage against the needlessness of these cursed reboots!

Here is how to install the Netflix Desktop App on Ubuntu. Open a terminal and run these commands:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ehoover/compholio
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install netflix-desktop More info here: http://www.iheartubuntu.com/2012/11/ppa-for-netflix-desktop-app.html [iheartubuntu.com]

Flash Access requires libhal, hald

[tlambert]

Flash Access requires libhal, hald

This has been known since Feb 2011, which Amazon started encoding new content for TV shows using the newer version of Flash Access.

The Flash Access Component requires that the local machine support Libhal and hald, even though they are deprecated by over 7 years now by the OpenDesktop project.

It uses the information gathered from this interface to create a machine unique identifier, which it then uses as a content crypto key on the stream, and then you can play Amazon, Youtube, and Google Play content just fine.

Otherwise it bitches that your Flash is "out of date", when what it really means is that it can't install the Flash Access component because the libraries and supporting components used in the installation success test aren't there.

Most streaming applications won't support Linux because it doesn't require signed system components, and without that, the can't protect their content from piracy, commercial skipping, and so on when they stream to Linux systems; it's too easy to interpose libraries, system calls, and so on and take unencrypted digital content and rip it to some mp4 or other container file format.

This is also why the components from Provo, Utak for abc.com, nbc.com, and cbs.com have never been ported to Linux, and probably never will be.