[hirodotp]

Since the recent development of the "pipelight" plugin for firefox, it is now possible to watch Netflix video on Linux. Over this past weekend I started initial development of Netflixbmc, an addon to support watching Netflix on Linux via pipelight.

You can checkout the development code from https://github.com/hirodotp/netflixbmc. Just drop the plugin.video.netflixbmc directory under your ~/.xbmc/addons and it should show up as a video addon.

Once you configure the plugin (don't forget to do that!), you can access your instant queue and a number of different genres. The genre loads take a little bit of time due to them retrieving complete list of recommended movies in those genres.

What follows is the README from the project, let me know if you would like more information, have suggestions or have bug reports:


Overview
Netflixbmc is an addon for XBMC allowing you to watch Netflix under Linux.

How it Works
Through a combination of scraping netflix.com, utilizing pipelight, firefox and the unix command line utility xdotool.

Prerequisites
You need Linux to use this Addon (note it has been developed under Ubuntu).

You need to install firefox, xdotool and pipelight. For a tutorial on installing pipelight on Ubuntu see the website http://www.webupd8.org/2013/08/pipelight...linux.html

Once you have firefox, xdotool and pipelight installed, you need to login to Netflix in firefox and save your credentials so it will auto login on launch.

Gotchyas (really, read this)
Right now the execution of firefox is wonky. If it breaks it breaks, kill firefox if it does decide to act weird. Also make sure you kill pipelight if it hangs, otherwise you'll get complaints about multiple sessions of it running.

You need a window manager running. If you're running xbmc in standalone mode you'll need to have fluxbox or some other manager running.

You need mouse support working. This is what xdotool uses to gain focus to the pipelight plugin to make it full screen.

Thank You
Thank you to my fiancee who has put up with my neglect over the past few days while I worked on this addon.

[Karnagious]

Not Netflux?

[hirodotp]

What, for the name?

[swetoast]

Wonder if pipelight is available under Raspberry if so your idea could be easily ported to rpi

[davilla]

Wonder if pipelight is available under Raspberry if so your idea could be easily ported to rpi

Not a chance, ""Pipelight consists out of two parts: A Linux library which is loaded into the browser and a Windows program started in Wine. The Windows program, called pluginloader.exe, simply simulates a browser and loads the Silverlight DLLs. " You still need Wine.

[Karnagious]

What, for the name?

yup!

[dirtdigger]

I registered just to say thank you and I hope you continue to develop this. Up until now I had to use my Wii to use Netflix, which is OK but it would be nice to be able to access everything right from XBMC. Especially because now I can use my phone to access everything related to my media center, including the TV itself and XBMC.

I'm about read to leave for work, but Ill give this a shot tonight when I get home and let you know if I come across any issues.

[kiler129]

Any progress? Last commit was around 2 months ago...

[StuartQF]

Any progress? Last commit was around 2 months ago...

Not from the same author but the same name

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=178693

[Prometheus418]

Thank you for working to find a solution to this. Now I'm going to slap you, and you deserve it.

Just an FYI, from where I stand, I will not be using it. It is not a performance issue or anything else of the kind- it is the fact that you will be using Wine.

To clarify, it's not Wine that I object to- they're awesome. It's Netflix that can f*** off and die. I really liked Netflix when I was still running Windows, and all but begged them to find a way to let me keep giving them money, but they don't care at all about what works for me or my family.

I will not jump through hoops to use a subscription service, and that's the end of the discussion. I will use Wine and other workarounds for any software that I only pay for once and then own forever, but a subscription means they work for me, and not the other way around. I'd like to have Netflix back, and am ready to pull the trigger on it right now, but they don't want me, and I won't pay them for that.

If you can find a Linux only solution to the question, I'm willing to bend a bit and put in the time to make it work, but as long as it requires Microsoft anything, even something that is not a WINdows Emulator, Netflix is dead to me.

It's not for nothing. I converted all my home PCs to OpenSUSE a couple of years ago, and everyone liked it. This Christmas, I upgraded my oldest daughter's computer and allowed her to keep the Windows 7 that came with it because she thought she wanted that (in the exit interview, she informed me that "all her friends said it was better" {Side note: all her friends are eleven-year old girls.}.) After five days, it was an unusable brick because she wanted to play little flash games and use Facebook. I switched it to OpenSUSE, and she's been using it ever since without any performance degradation (or virus scannner.) That kind of sucks for me, because I have to hear Imagine Dragons on a continuous surround-sound loop, but I also get to be the hero geek-dad, so there's that.

I'm a convert, and won't go back, not even a little. Microsoft continues to make my life hellish every day (30% of my job is IT work) and it has nothing to do with money. They can't even make e-mail or internet browsing work correctly, and I refuse to pay them for that. Every person who has one breaks their Windows computer (Including me, and I sometimes play a server admin on TV,) but when I give them Linux, I rarely hear another complaint... ever- which is worth more than all the $$$ in the world. And I check up on them- the answer I always get to the question "How is it working for you?" is "Fine." With Windows, it is always "Well, it's ok, but...." [Insert your basic functionality that is completely broken here]

So, No Netflix.

You're willing to tackle this, and that's great. Here's the thing, though- when you do that, you're telling Netflix that you are in the wrong, and you're willing to fix it to make it up to them. Maybe that's the right way to go, but I'm going to say it isn't. I'm going to guess that the very fact that you even worked up enough steam to write a post stating that you would try to make this happen means that you are the go-to computer guy (or gal) for your entire social circle. I know that the stereotype is that only geeks do geek things and no one else cares. But there's a new reality that gets stronger every day. No one cares what I think about the latest football game or what the homophobic duck-call maker said at church last week, but about 200 lost souls follow my every word when it comes to their gadgets- and I say LINUX, in the same way and with the same tone that gun nuts use to yell Molon Labe, because it's every bit as important.

You should too. One of us standing alone is a freak- but a hundred thousand of us speaking with the same voice changes everything. I'm not an activist- I'm an engineer. All day, every day, I answer stupid questions posed by stupid people who are afraid to think for themselves. It's exhausting, and I get no credit for it- good support is, by definition, invisible. Why do I pander to them? Well, that's the easiest stupid question I've heard today- it's because you, another smart human being, were too afraid to tell an ex-jock that they're an idiot.

So change it. Push back and don't keep taking no for an answer. Use a little empathy, and the next time someone asks you to help them figure out why the $200 computer a salesman pushed on them with a $1500 price tag won't let them play "Farmville," don't tell them to move, and then fix it- tell them why and set your face until they listen. If you don't, you're not being helpful- you are selling your friends, family and co-workers into slavery for the sake of your own soul, and putting those same chains around your own wrists. You are helping thieves and vipers hurt the people you care about. You are enabling people who are blindly paying people to enslave them by forcing them to pay for the processing power that is used to steal from them. You, not alone, but in relatively exclusive company, are responsible for the theft of Billions from Millions, and are paid only with a short-lived smile from those who know no better.

I know you want to help them. If you didn't, you would have kept your mouth shut tight, like I might have, if I didn't care. But doing what people ask for doesn't really help- at least, not always. If a 700+ lb person waddles into a doctor's office and moans that gravy just doesn't taste as good as it used to, the doctor is wrong if they give them a pill to revive their taste buds rather than reminding them that chocolate-caramel sundaes are not appropriate for breakfast every day.

We have experts for a reason, and I'm going to call you one. Because I can't fix the Netflix debacle, and I'm no slouch. If you can, you're more expert than me at coding- well done, and a tip of my hat to you, sir. But I know from what you said, both expressly and implied, that my expertise in social and psychological programming is somewhat more advanced than yours, and would urge you to take my advice in this small matter.

[transcender]

is xbmcbuntu applicable?

[hirodotp]

Hello All,

Netflixbmc has been updated!

See the README and pull the new code from https://github.com/hirodotp/netflixbmc

I've made some changes to how videos are played. You no longer have to use firefox to play the video and all the command line trickery has gone away. All you need is PyQt4 and it will now play in a standalone window.

If you're in ubuntu you can install the required package by typing "apt-get install python-qt4".

Let me know how this works out for you or any feedback on this methodology to make it better!

Thanks,
hirodotp

[tododo]

OMG this works for me on Ubuntu Server 12.04

Awesome work dude - only thing is that I cant seem to stop a video once it starts - any idea how I can get around that or minimise the screen so I can get back to xbmc?>

I can still here xbmc clicks and what not registering in the background though

---

Update:

Just saw this

You need a window manager running. If you're running xbmc in standalone mode you'll need to have fluxbox or some other manager running. Does anybody have any idea how to set this up

[hirodotp]

Update:

Just saw this

You need a window manager running. If you're running xbmc in standalone mode you'll need to have fluxbox or some other manager running. Does anybody have any idea how to set this up???

Take a peak at http://complete-concrete-concise.com/ubu...tall-a-gui

[hirodotp]

Update:

Added support for both custom sorting and netflix suggestion sorting methods for instant queue. This fixed a bug where custom sorting would not display titles.

If you were getting addon errors or not seeing titles under the Instant Queue update from the git repository and hopefully it should work for you now.