The author did not reverse engineer anything. He simply asked Claude Code to make this without testing or verifying any of the outputs.
The author did not check if the extension actually works. He simply asked Claude Code to make this without testing or verifying any of the outputs.
Other commenters in this thread have noted that this extension cannot do what it claims. [1] The author simply asked Claude Code to make this without testing or verifying any of the outputs.
Thank you for your warning. I checked the code and I don't see how this could possibly work. If not for your warning at the top of the comments, I would have assumed it worked as intended, and congratulated the author on their successful project of deshittification.
The submission title is indeed correct, but the README there is indeed so bogus. What's the point even discussing environments that don't have Widevine L1?
Have you tested it? I have no doubt that it was vibecoded, and there's a lot of bogus stuff in the readme, but there's also a good chance it's at least slightly functional.
I never get why those idiots make it harder for paying customers to watch content, than for those just torrenting it.
It's the same with Amazon Prime Video which will get me a black screen on Linux or force me to SD Quality, while the torrented Movie runs just fine in 4K
For Netflix specifically; it’s because the groups that rip 4K content from Netflix burn a device (i.e. a Widevine L1 key). This is why they typically release 4K Netflix shows in batches.
What I've noticed about Netflix's supposedly 4k content is that it looks like crap compared to the same show downloaded through illicit means (and viewed on Plex or something else).
What's the deal with Netflix's not-very-good 4k streams? Colour quantization or something? It's not just a one-off, why do 4k netflix shows look like rubbish compared to a moderately encoded whatever from bittorrent?
How does Netflix detect "suspicious" activity? Does $NFLX allow 4k streaming over GrapheneOS? If so, could you pin a different certificate and do some HTTP proxy traffic manipulation to obfuscate the device (presumably an Android phone) identity or otherwise work around the DRM?
I want to understand more about this but unfortunately the reddit thread is bits and pieces scattered amongst clueless commentary, making it challenging to wade through.
and its easy enough to figure out who ripped the web-dl, because you can have each frame copied into 2 slightly different but functionally identical versions (or perhaps just a longer GOP, but still the same). Create 32 of these sets of 2 (i.e. bits, or even do it for every 32 sets in the video) and assign every user a unique set of 32 "bits" and you'll have the ability to uniquely identify every web-dl (as by definition they aren't modifying the streams) to the user who downloaded it and just a cost of 1x the storage vs not doing anything.
I've spent a long time wondering the same thing. The standard answer is that it's fallout from the anti-anti-piracy cat and mouse game. The more conspiratorial answer is that bandwidth is expensive and streaming sites will take any excuse to serve you a lower resolution than what you actually paid for, while still being able to say that they technically support 4K.
There are sensible-ish technical reasons why they can't deliver DRM'd 4K on linux, but when browser extensions can upgrade you to 4K there are no excuses on the technical level.
The point is, people usually pay because it is more convenient for them than getting it illegally.
But when I have to fiddle around for 30 Minutes to see a picture (it worked before until it suddenly didn't work anymore), pirating the movie is suddenly the better option. Because I certainly don't see a point in paying and wasting more of my time.
And the piracy cat and mouse game is stupid, as in the End it's always Available illegaly, except for the people developing and selling DRM
It's simple: Lawyers creating market for themselves and other lawyers. A head of legal department at Netflix would have a better job and pay if ge has 50x more employees. Hence, the incentive to find ways to get involved in everything, even if it arguably hurts the company's revenue, let alone the rest of the market.
I may be an idiot, but: What does this actually, y'know, achieve? It seems the answer to me is probably nothing?
It doesn't work on Firefox. It appears not to work on Chrome. The suggestion is to use Edge, which on Windows already gets 4K support in Netflix anyway.
You misread the README. Although it suggests using Edge at the very bottom, the extension doesn't require it and actually spoofs Netflix into thinking it is Edge via changing the user-agent.
I understand it spoofs all of the checks it can, but the only Chromium browser that supports Widevine L1 (a requirement for 4K) is Edge, so even if all of the check spoofing works, it still won't do 4K.
There's even a table in the README that describes this exact scenario.
I can't vouch for this extension in particular (because I haven't tested it), but I've used and written similar extensions myself and can confirm that the concept is legit.
I would pay a non-trivial amount for a service that 1) bought a blu-ray on my behalf, 2) ripped it to a file, 3) gave me that file to download, once, and 4) after confirming I had it, shredded the blu-ray.
I don't want to copy things and distribute them to others. I want to have one copy that keeps working indefinitely and doesn't go away or fail to follow me across systems.
Awesome. As someone who has spent some time researching DRM systems, figuring out these "soft" restrictions before you can achieve playback in the first place is often more challenging than breaking the DRM itself.
Does Edge currently ship Widevine L1? Last time I checked it was Playready SL3000, but that was a while ago now.
Readit News
THIS EXTENSION DOES NOT WORK!
let me put it another way:
THIS EXTENSION DOES NOTHING USEFUL!
The author did not reverse engineer anything. He simply asked Claude Code to make this without testing or verifying any of the outputs.
The author did not check if the extension actually works. He simply asked Claude Code to make this without testing or verifying any of the outputs.
Other commenters in this thread have noted that this extension cannot do what it claims. [1] The author simply asked Claude Code to make this without testing or verifying any of the outputs.
Thanks for listening to my ted talk.
1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46803836
The author said the extension did not work in Chrome.[1] But they did not respect other people to say this where everyone would see it and plainly.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46803459
Many such cases
Here is a good thread on the topic: https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/17ez7mi/how_come_it...
What's the deal with Netflix's not-very-good 4k streams? Colour quantization or something? It's not just a one-off, why do 4k netflix shows look like rubbish compared to a moderately encoded whatever from bittorrent?
How does Netflix detect "suspicious" activity? Does $NFLX allow 4k streaming over GrapheneOS? If so, could you pin a different certificate and do some HTTP proxy traffic manipulation to obfuscate the device (presumably an Android phone) identity or otherwise work around the DRM?
I want to understand more about this but unfortunately the reddit thread is bits and pieces scattered amongst clueless commentary, making it challenging to wade through.
There are sensible-ish technical reasons why they can't deliver DRM'd 4K on linux, but when browser extensions can upgrade you to 4K there are no excuses on the technical level.
But when I have to fiddle around for 30 Minutes to see a picture (it worked before until it suddenly didn't work anymore), pirating the movie is suddenly the better option. Because I certainly don't see a point in paying and wasting more of my time.
And the piracy cat and mouse game is stupid, as in the End it's always Available illegaly, except for the people developing and selling DRM
It doesn't work on Firefox. It appears not to work on Chrome. The suggestion is to use Edge, which on Windows already gets 4K support in Netflix anyway.
Here's a 4K enabler that only enables 4K where it's already enabled.
I understand it spoofs all of the checks it can, but the only Chromium browser that supports Widevine L1 (a requirement for 4K) is Edge, so even if all of the check spoofing works, it still won't do 4K.
There's even a table in the README that describes this exact scenario.
Deleted Comment
Deleted Comment
https://www.rasputinmusic.com
https://www.amoeba.com/
I don't want to copy things and distribute them to others. I want to have one copy that keeps working indefinitely and doesn't go away or fail to follow me across systems.
Does Edge currently ship Widevine L1? Last time I checked it was Playready SL3000, but that was a while ago now.
Dead Comment
It doesn't work in Chrome/Firefox, it works only in Edge.