Impossible to watch Netflix and Prime Video in Full HD (1080p) or 4K?

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Impossible to watch Netflix and Prime Video in Full HD (1080p) or 4K?

Post by ssspace »

I did some research and looks like it's impossible to watch video streaming services Netflix and Prime Video in Full HD 1080p using Linux, I think that they cap the video quality at 720p(SD), 4K doesn't work either from what I've been reading.

Netflix
https://help.netflix.com/en/node/23742

Prime Video
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer ... =201422810
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer ... =201648150

This means that you either watch on a Smart TV or with some external device that you plug on the monitor/TV or you have to use Windows or Mac, no Full HD 1080p for Linux, and looks like 4K is even harder, lots of restrictions even for Windows users.

So buying a 1080p monitor or 4K monitor to watch videos in theses services using Linux is a waste of money because you are capped at SD 720p... that's just "great" isn't it... that's really bad and doesn't make any sense... :|
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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oldgranola
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Re: Impossible to watch Netflix and Prime Video in Full HD (1080p) or 4K?

Post by oldgranola »

Not true. I was watching Netflix fine in LM17 in full HD using Chrome...not the crap chromium. So its not intrinsic to linux. But now in LM19 I am having difficulty with full screen mode on the same LG72in HDMI monitor. Both Chrome and FF have trouble with sound sync for me when in fully sized window. Didn't happen in LM17. Should note LM17 was with flgrx for my radeon HD857xx APU. Different implementation of HTML5?? surely fixable
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Re: Impossible to watch Netflix and Prime Video in Full HD (1080p) or 4K?

Post by smurphos »

It looks like Prime is OK at 1080p with a supported browser.

Netflix - appear to be firmly in bed with Microsoft if Edge is the only browser that supports 4K....potentially not a surprise - Netflix CEO is a former Microsoft Board member and there are rumours that Microsoft will one-day buy Netflix.
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Re: Impossible to watch Netflix and Prime Video in Full HD (1080p) or 4K?

Post by ssspace »

To test the resolution on Netflix, open any video or series and press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+D , it says x720 here, for Firefox and Chrome, so it's locked at 720p SD quality, I'm using LM 19.
Last edited by ssspace on Mon Jul 09, 2018 9:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Impossible to watch Netflix and Prime Video in Full HD (1080p) or 4K?

Post by ssspace »

This article says you can use a extension https://www.ghacks.net/2018/02/12/watch ... -browsers/ but I don't like this idea, I think extensions have full access to your webpages and some users are saying that it works for a while and then it doesn't work anymore.

Another extension could be used to change the User Agent, so it thinks it's using Windows and another browser, but the extension has access to everything you visit.

Another way is to install Windows in a VM(virtual machine) and use Edge browser there, but that's too much work, takes a while to set up Windows installation and VMs are not that easy to configure.

That's why I'm saying it's impossible... Some users are saying that's impossible too https://askubuntu.com/questions/736330/ ... unavailabl

There is a PPA to Silverlight, Pipelight but it's old and not updated in a while, and who know what's inside PPAs, https://www.howtogeek.com/204319/how-to ... -on-linux/ . So it's not a good option either.

Looks like that if you want to watch 1080p videos your only option is Windows + Edge browser or Netflix app, or Safari(Mac). 4K it's just Windows + Edge browser + Intel CPU 7gen later.
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Re: Impossible to watch Netflix and Prime Video in Full HD (1080p) or 4K?

Post by Hoser Rob »

smurphos wrote: Mon Jul 09, 2018 2:42 am It looks like Prime is OK at 1080p with a supported browser.

Netflix - appear to be firmly in bed with Microsoft if Edge is the only browser that supports 4K....potentially not a surprise - Netflix CEO is a former Microsoft Board member and there are rumours that Microsoft will one-day buy Netflix.
MS in bed with Netflix? Don't be ridiculous. They're major competitors, MS HATES Netflix. The real reason that MS always has the best support is that it's actually written for developers, not users, and has the best and most stable APIs.
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