Linux and Netflix limitation to 720p
Hello there. Unfortunately, according to Netflix help pages, Firefox Linux is limited to 720p, unlike Windows or macOS version. Opera is the only linux browser allowed to stream Netflix at 1080p.
This is a Netflix side limitation because using a fake user-agent is a workaround.
I have reported this problem to Netflix, it appears to be a DRM limitation. My report to Netflix have been share with their tech team, but I doubt that leads to anywhere.
Question : why this limitation ? Is the Widewine codec implemented differently in linux version ? Is there a way to make Netflix change their rules from Firefox team ?
All Replies (3)
Hi,
Thank you for reaching out! We have WebCompat for such kind of issues. If you have a GitHub account, could you please file a report there (using the GH account) and post a link to it? If you don't, just let me know, and I'll file a report for you (so that it doesn't have to go through the moderation process).
If UA spoofing resolves the issue, then it may be fixable by a Firefox-side intervention.
Looking forward to your update!
Hi, thanks for that quick answer. Here is the web compat report Note that many UA that I have tried are blocking the video . UA Opera/Linux is working, but UA Firefox/Windows blocks media. This is clearly a Netflix wanted limit. You can see on this page the maximum resolution depending on which browser is used. The issue is not Firefox only, Chromium and Edge seems affected too, but IMO it depends the way DRM/Widevine is implemented (or how Netflix thinks it is).
Thank you for reporting! Let's now see what the team says.
The fun thing about WebCompat is it's about all the browsers, and there are also Google and Microsoft representatives.
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