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Comment by yumario | Hacker News Reader

AmazonPrime video does not delivers HD content in Linux... I tried everything switching browsers, changing User agent, wine, running virtual box. I seems some type of DRM is not implemented yet in Linux. Netflix is the same I think.

I happily pirate content now.

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You can get 1080p streams from Netflix on Linux (for 99% of their collection) by switching your user agent to ChromeOS. Their check is just:

    a = /CrOS/.test(a.userAgent);
    this.Fma = this.Aw = q.Gu.PV;
    this.Qm = [x.$l.nV];
    this.oo = [x.V.vA, x.V.wA];
    a && this.oo.push(x.V.TH);

It very much is _not_ "DRM not yet implemented".

Both Prime and Netflix are fully capable of streaming their highest quality under Linux - if you have the driver support.

Unfortunately they have a bunch of hacky stuff trying to prevent it, rather than allowing the user's browser is to make the decision.

I can confirm that switching the user agent [used to] work[s]. (Disclaimer: haven't streamed for a while personally.)

Actually, you can’t get higher than SD for Amazon Prime Video since they started enforcing VMP a few months ago, which isn’t supported on Linux.

Yeah this means this was a business decision and not technical. They probably looked at user numbers for the different browsers.

That's one reason I use it. If they switch to nazi DRM I'll drop them. If Disney won't play on Linux meh whatever then on them. I'm sure they won't miss me, and I won't miss them much either.

Publishers often refer to copying they don’t approve of as “piracy.” In this way, they imply that it is ethically equivalent to attacking ships on the high seas, kidnapping and murdering the people on them. Based on such propaganda, they have procured laws in most of the world to forbid copying in most (or sometimes all) circumstances. (They are still pressuring to make these prohibitions more complete.)

If you don’t believe that copying not approved by the publisher is just like kidnapping and murder, you might prefer not to use the word “piracy” to describe it.

On the other hand, sometimes "pirate" seems to have a positive connotation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8ju_10NkGY

And interestingly the 3rd highest comment on that video currently is about Disney+.

Anecdotally, that song is quite popular among software pirates.

FWIW I've had varying luck on Amazon; I think it's based on the publisher of the content. Some of Amazon's own stuff works in 1080 on my machine while other movies are much lower quality

Changing the UA to Firefox windows works too. I always get the "best" stream. Also prime music does not work on Chrome/Firefox on Linux solely because they've blacklisted the UA. I keep yelling at them every 2-3 months

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