How to stream Netflix on Raspbmc

Question

There are different blog posts and forum threads discussing this and the challenges encountered (Silverlight, DRM, etc.).

Also read about the XBMC Flicks addon.

But, did anyone succeed to stream Netflix content on the Raspberry Pi?
Even more, through Raspbmc?

I don't have that much experience with the PI, but wouldn't netflix be runnable on a raspbian installation when they move over to html5 videos? The Verge: Netflix plans its move from Microsoft Silverlight to HTML5 video — Gustav, Apr 23 '13 at 10:50
Good point, @Gustav I have heard that it still won't be usable on Linux, but I am not sure. Can anyone shed some light light on this? — SSH This, Jun 28 '13 at 15:51
it says here that google is developing a chrome plugin to make secure HTML5 work. no idea if this is for chromebooks (which are linux) only or for all chrome browsers. — , Jun 14 '13 at 00:01

Kyle · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-12T19:15:08.127

This essentially boils down to getting Netflix on Linux; which (except for Android) is intentionally not supported and difficult. I haven't seen any solution yet (for any Linux, RPi aside) that didn't involve serious and unstable hacks or some type of Windows emulation/re-implementation (which is not going to be a viable option with the ARM/x86 architecture difference).

Your best bet is probably to wait for Android Pi to become stable and hope Netflix runs on it successfully (or hope Netflix finally supports Linux besides Android).

Update Jan 2018:

It's been 5 years and much good news is to be had.

Netflix now supports HTML5-based playback, so Silverlight is no longer a blocker.

The appropriate DRM-decrypting/decoding libraries have been written for Linux and include Raspberry Pi 3 support.

You can probably use Firefox or Chrome at this point just fine, but even better for Kodi users: Kodi 18 (release date to-be-determined) includes a redesign of the video system which has opened up the ability to integrate DRM-ed content into Kodi playback. Presumably Raspbmc will have the changes integrated sometime after Kodi 18 is released.

The end result is that Netflix on RPi should be feasible by the average user of Raspbmc once Kodi 18 is released. One catch however; I think any Linux-based library is still artificially limited to 720p resolution by Netflix, but I'm not sure on that.

See https://github.com/asciidisco/plugin.video.netflix for details and updates.

this may be the answer you are looking for: http://fds-team.de/cms/articles/2013-08/pipelight-using-silverlight-in-linux-browsers.html — matpol, Dec 11 '13 at 10:28
I may have been too quick here - as you need to compile wine for the pi then use qemu to emulate the x386 thing — matpol, Dec 12 '13 at 13:54
Flash forward several hardware iterations and several years and Android on the Pi is still a pipe dream. Android TV is the closest I've heard about getting things going, but last I checked into it, was still problematic. — YetAnotherRandomUser, Nov 02 '17 at 02:32

score 6 · Answer 2 · edited May 15 '15 at 18:25

Please note that Plex no longer supports a Netflix channel (thus the following only has historical interest).

You could also use the Plex Media Server (PMS) - unlike PlayOn, it's free. As far as I know, the server needs to be able to play Netflix though. I use Windows 7 as the Plex Media Server. I don't know if using the Netflix-on-Ubuntu workaround will get this done as well, but I doubt it. There are PMS builds for Linux.

You will need to install the Netflix Addon on the PMS and the Plexbmc Addon on the Raspberry Pi.

In the Plexbmc options, set "always transcode" to true.

This worked on my setup with OpenELEC on a B-model Raspberry Pi - it should work with any XBMC-on-Raspberry-Pi setup though.

Of course, this still means a second server running Windows 7 needs to be on for streaming and currently the Netflix Addon for PMS only works in the USA.

I had a big smile on my face... till I read Of course, this still means a second server running Windows 7 :) — Marius Butuc, Apr 15 '13 at 13:38

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited May 15 '15 at 18:20

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I have been able to run Netflix on the Raspberry Pi using playon.tv. All you need is a PC running.

Have a look at the post Netflix on Raspbmc.

edited May 15 '15 at 18:20

Peter Mortensen

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answered Apr 03 '13 at 03:52

dancarmich

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Thank you for your enthusiasm. But, Stack Exchange has a policy against comment-answers. This is because the links can change at any moment. Please write down the instructions given there, and give credit to the author. – xxmbabanexx Apr 03 '13 at 14:02

score 4 · Answer 4 · edited May 15 '15 at 18:11

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No. Simply put, Moonlight (Silverlight Linux library) does not support DRM. So no Netflix under Linux at all.

edited May 15 '15 at 18:11

Peter Mortensen

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answered Mar 14 '13 at 22:48

James Bennet

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score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 02 '13 at 14:54

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Netflix for Chrome is for Chromebooks and relies on hardware for DRM, therefore we cannot use it on "proper" Linux or ChromeOS running on anything other than a Chromebook...

answered Jul 02 '13 at 14:54

David Artley

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How to stream Netflix on Raspbmc

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