[GRLUG] Netflix on Linux?

Bob Kline bob.kline at gmail.com
Sat Oct 22 12:41:47 EDT 2011 

I'm assuming here that this is close
enough to Linux yet to avoid the wrath
of the GRLUG content police,  and will add
that there are plenty of uses for copies
that don't require digital quality.  e.g.,
the tens of thousands of B&W movies
from the 1930s and 1940s.  One can
enjoy them just fine with good analog
quality.  A true NTSC picture is still pretty
good quality. Various rippers provide adequate
sound and video.  As someone mentioned,
the content providers presumably have to
let us see the content at some point, and
that is at least where it goes in to a TV.
I'm saying that there are shades of gray
here.  Content providers will imprison, sue,
hang, etc., anyone who comes up with a
way to copy DVDs', having lost the CD
battle.  But much of the movie material
on DVDs was never very high technical quality
in the first place, but can still be enjoyed for
the quality of the movie material.

And for that matter, a high quality analog
copy of a more current movie, if legal, is
still adequate for many people's TV's.

True digital quality is a goal, but the
content troops are on guard for that. In
many cases, the next best is not so bad really.
In addition to quality, digital movies seem
to have as much to do with protecting
content providers.  A silly or stupid movie
in Blu Ray is still just a silly or stupid movie
in high quality.

Re Netflix,  does all the same apply
to Amazon's movie offering and Linux?
At $75 a year, and also free two day
shipping for a year, it's tempting.  Mind
you between 2009 and 2011, Amazon
has gone from a $25B company to a
projected $50B company.  It will be big
in movie distribution.

An aside, I notice that in the two weeks
or so since the flap about a net neutrality
posting,  and concerns about whether
"NOT LINUX," or "OFF TOPIC" were aired,
there have been all of one or two such
messages that even the most ardent Linux
person would have needed to delete for
being a waste of their time.

All again showing that few things matter
as much as things that really don't matter
at all.  Live and let live?  Nah....

    -- Bob




On Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 12:11 PM, megadave <megadave at gmail.com> wrote:

> Good point, but that's always been t 'copyright h9olders' can accept
> that people can distribute lower quality "analog" copies, but they
> have nightmares thinking of people being able to rip 100% accurate
> digital.
>
>
> On Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 12:08, Mike Williams <knightperson at zuzax.com>
> wrote:
> > Once the content is on a computer screen, there are plenty of ways to
> > capture it regardless of video driver or operating system. If nothing
> else,
> > you can point a video camera at the screen, and no drm shenanigans can
> stop
> > that. I think the increased risk of content theft under Linux is
> perception
> > rather than reality, but that doesn't change the situation much.
> >
> > ----- Reply message -----
> > From: "megadave" <megadave at gmail.com>
> > To: "Mailing List for LUG in greater Grand Rapids, MI area."
> > <grlug at grlug.org>
> > Subject: [GRLUG] Netflix on Linux?
> > Date: Sat, Oct 22, 2011 2:23 am
> >
> >
> > But the kernel is still non-proprietary. The 'closed source' app would
> > still have to use the kernel to display the video, and this would
> > leave a wide open way to hijack the streams and save them in perfect
> > digital form.
> >
> > Now, if we can con them into not realizing that is possible, great.
> > But I suspect they have tech advisors that are all too aware.
> >
> > On Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 02:19, Mike Williams <knightperson at zuzax.com>
> wrote:
> >> It's my understanding that this is exactly the issue. Still, it
> shouldn't
> >> be
> >> insurmountable. The solution would be closed-source, of course, but it
> >> could
> >> be done. Every so often I hear rumors that it's "almost ready", but I'll
> >> believe it when I see it.
> >>
> >> On 10/21/2011 04:11 PM, megadave wrote:
> >>>
> >>> FWIW, I didnt even look at Netflix until I had acquired a Wii for my
> >>> son and noticed there was a Wii Netflix app.
> >>>
> >>> I suspect the various studios and copyright holders will NEVER let go
> >>> of the DRM that keeps Netflix from supporting anything
> >>> non-proprietary.
> >>>
> >>> On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 14:32, David Wise<davidn.wise at gmail.com>
>  wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> I suppose that I could try grabbing more RAM and running a persistent
> >>>> VM,
> >>>> but that really eliminates the use of having a Linux machine in the
> >>>> first
> >>>> place. It is just several more layers of complexity that I need to
> keep
> >>>> running when I could just use a Windows box and save myself some
> hassle.
> >>>>
> >>>> Bummer.
> >>>> --
> >>>> Dave
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 2:17 PM, Topher<topher at codeventure.net>
>  wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On Fri, 21 Oct 2011, Steve Romanow wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> Is netflix worth all this?
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Netflix has worked flawlessly in my XP/Virtualbox and now works
> >>>>> flawlessly
> >>>>> in my Win7/Virtualbox, even full screen seamless mode.  Since I need
> >>>>> those
> >>>>> machines anyway for testing and photoshop, it's a freebie for me,
> with
> >>>>> no
> >>>>> extra effort at all.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> At that point it's certainly worth it.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> topher
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 12:48 PM, David Wise<davidn.wise at gmail.com>
> >>>>>> wrote:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> I am kind of hoping to avoid running a VM to get it though. I'm
> >>>>>>> really
> >>>>>>> wanting to be able to let my wife just fire it up and watch
> something
> >>>>>>> while
> >>>>>>> she knits and chats (like she currently does in Windows). Do any of
> >>>>>>> the
> >>>>>>> media players work at all (Boxee etc.)?
> >>>>>>> --
> >>>>>>> Dave
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 12:46 PM, Rob Steenwyk<rsteenwyk at gmail.com
> >
> >>>>>>> wrote:
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> Good idea, except the Android VM runs terribly slow on x86.
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> On Oct 21, 2011 12:44 PM, "Michael Mol"<mikemol at gmail.com>
>  wrote:
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 12:38 PM, David Wise<
> davidn.wise at gmail.com>
> >>>>>>>>> wrote:
> >>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>> That stinks. I've read something about ChromeOS having a plugin
> >>>>>>>>>> that
> >>>>>>>>>> supports Netflix, I was wondering if it's possible to use that
> >>>>>>>>>> with
> >>>>>>>>>> Chromium
> >>>>>>>>>> or not. Again, I suspect I know the answer, but am hoping
> someone
> >>>>>>>>>> will
> >>>>>>>>>> be
> >>>>>>>>>> able to prove me wrong.
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> Steve's reply just gave me an idea for a really hacky workaround
> >>>>>>>>> that
> >>>>>>>>> might actually work.
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> Grab the Android SDK, run Android in a VM, install and use the
> >>>>>>>>> Netflix
> >>>>>>>>> Android app.
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> When you run Android in a VM in the SDK, you're running bona-fide
> >>>>>>>>> Android. So, yeah, it might work. You might need to do some kind
> of
> >>>>>>>>> workaround for 'device compatibility', especially if you want to
> >>>>>>>>> fill
> >>>>>>>>> a 720p or 1080p display...
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> --
> >>>>>>>>> :wq
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> --
> >>>>>>>>> This message has been scanned for viruses and
> >>>>>>>>> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> >>>>>>>>> believed to be clean.
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>>>>>>> grlug mailing list
> >>>>>>>>> grlug at grlug.org
> >>>>>>>>> http://shinobu.grlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/grlug
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> --
> >>>>>>>> This message has been scanned for viruses and
> >>>>>>>> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> >>>>>>>> believed to be clean.
> >>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>>>>>> grlug mailing list
> >>>>>>>> grlug at grlug.org
> >>>>>>>> http://shinobu.grlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/grlug
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> --
> >>>>>>> This message has been scanned for viruses and
> >>>>>>> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> >>>>>>> believed to be clean.
> >>>>>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>>>>> grlug mailing list
> >>>>>>> grlug at grlug.org
> >>>>>>> http://shinobu.grlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/grlug
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>> --
> >>>>>> This message has been scanned for viruses and
> >>>>>> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> >>>>>> believed to be clean.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>>>> grlug mailing list
> >>>>>> grlug at grlug.org
> >>>>>> http://shinobu.grlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/grlug
> >
> > --
> > This message has been scanned for viruses and
> > dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> > believed to be clean.
> > _______________________________________________
> > grlug mailing list
> > grlug at grlug.org
> > http://shinobu.grlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/grlug
> >
>
> --
> This message has been scanned for viruses and
> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> believed to be clean.
>
> _______________________________________________
> grlug mailing list
> grlug at grlug.org
> http://shinobu.grlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/grlug
>

-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://shinobu.grlug.org/pipermail/grlug/attachments/20111022/fedd9b48/attachment-0001.html>

More information about the grlug mailing list