Does anyone have a WORKING Netflix override?

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Moonchild
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Does anyone have a WORKING Netflix override?

Unread post by Moonchild » 2017-01-17, 21:29

OK, so, since I simply am unable to sink more time into this than I already have so far, I'm wondering if anyone has a Netflix UA override that actually works...?

Our current state is:
- Pretend to be Firefox 27: we have a (legacy) web UI for browsing that works, but logging in is (as of today) broken.
- Pretend to be Firefox 38: we have a working login and the web UI allows us to browse, BUT you can't get any details for titles.

Neither provides any useful details or errors in the web console when used to narrow down why the issues exist.

Netflix uses 3 domains for its service controlled by the following overrides:
general.useragent.override.netflix.com
general.useragent.override.netflximg.net
general.useragent.override.nflxext.com

Who will use trial and error to come to something usable?
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

testator777

Re: Does anyone have a WORKING Netflix override?

Unread post by testator777 » 2017-01-25, 05:35

So I got netflix working under silverlight/widevine in linux with no problems using a macosx useragent and javascript oscpu value for macosx. Problem however occurs when using latest git of palemoon with html5. So I went digging through netflix's javascript that executes in browser and found this snippet.

Code: Select all

(),Cl,$f,ef,hh,Yl,um,tm,Vj,Pk,Sb,pi,Fj,Mj,Lj,Bi,Hl,Il,Dj,qi,Ej,yi,zi,Dl,Fl,Ij,Jj,Gl,Gj,El,Sc,zd,bj=/CrOS/.test(Kb),Qk=/OPR/.test(Kb);$f=bj?"C":Qk?"O":"M";ef=/OPR/.test(Kb)?"NFCDOP-01-":/Windows NT/.test(Kb)?"NFCDCH-02-":/Intel Mac OS X/.test(Kb)?"NFCDCH-MC-":/CrOS/.test(Kb)?"NFCDCH-01-":"NFCDCH-LX-";hh=bj?"chromeos-cadmium":Qk?"opera-cadmium":"chrome-cadmium";Pk=/CrOS/.test(Kb);Dj=[oj.oN];qi=[dc.Uv,dc.Vv];bj&&qi.push(dc.FC);Ej=["dfxp-ls-sdh","simplesdh","nflx-cmisc"];yi=[oj.o1];zi=["dfxp-ls-sdh-enc","simplesdh-enc","nflx-cmisc-enc"];Fj=cl.z5;Ij=!!m.MediaSource;Jj=!m.MediaSource;Gj={MONOSPACED_SERIF:"font-family:Courier New,Arial,Helvetica;font-weight:bolder",MONOSPACED_SANS_SERIF:"font-family:Consolas,Lucida Console,Menlo,Monaco,Arial,Helvetica;font-weight:bolder",PROPORTIONAL_SERIF:"font-family:Georgia,Times New Roman,Arial,Helvetica;font-weight:bolder",PROPORTIONAL_SANS_SERIF:"font-family:Arial,Helvetica;font-weight:bolder",CASUAL:"font-family:Gabriola,Segoe Print,Comic Sans MS,Chalkboard,Arial,Helvetica;font-weight:bolder",CURSIVE:"font-family:Lucida Handwriting,Brush Script MT,Segoe Script,Arial,Helvetica;font-weight:bolder",SMALL_CAPITALS:"font-family:Copperplate Gothic,Copperplate Gothic Bold,Copperplate,Arial,Helvetica;font-variant:small-caps;font-weight:bolder"}
;pi={droppedFrameRateFilterEnabled:!0,promiseBasedEme:!0,workaroundValueForSeekIssue:500,captureKeyStatusData:!0,logMediaPipelineStatus:!0,enableCongestionService:!0,prepareCadmium:!0,periodicPrepareLogsIntervalMilliseconds:6E5,enableLdlPrefetch:!0,doNotPerformLdlOnPlaybackStart:!0,captureBatteryStatus:!0,enableGetHeadersAndMediaPrefetch:!0,enableUsingHeaderCount:!0,defaultHeaderCacheSize:15}
;(function(a,b,c){var d=Kb.match(/Chrome\/(\d*)\./);(d&&d[1]|0)>=a&&w(b,c);}
)(50,pi,{useSetServerCertificateApi:!0}
);var Rk=Q(),Ih;if(!(Ih=Rk))a:{try{zb.plugins.refresh();Ih=Q();break a;}
Mind you I only know C not javascript. Even though this javascript is heavily obfuscated from the looks of it I think the useragent, javascript oscpu value, html5 video, AND fonts are tested for being compatible with netflix. I tested the useragent and javascript oscpu values to get silverlight to work. But I don't know what netflix wants for html5 video and fonts or even how to obscure my fonts :<.

nmalinoski

Re: Does anyone have a WORKING Netflix override?

Unread post by nmalinoski » 2017-03-01, 03:08

With the user agents set accordingly, and my compatibility mode set to Gecko compatibility, the site seems slightly less broken than it did in the past:

Code: Select all

general.useragent.override.netflix.com
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:45.9) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/45.9

general.useragent.override.netflximg.net
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:45.9) Gecko/20100101 Goanna/3.0 PaleMoon/27.1.1

general.useragent.override.nflxext.com
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:45.9) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/45.9
  • The Browse page still won't load details for titles
  • The My List page loads after a couple Ctrl+refreshes (I don't know what that's about), and actions like Delete don't seem to always work. (I had to click Delete a second time after an error popped up for the title to finally be removed.)
  • Individual title pages kind of load. At first, I wasn't getting the splash image or title rating/description (These would only load after I clicked the refresh button; I figured it was a busted CSS animation, since there were no JavaScript errors reported), but now they seem to load. Unfortunately, whether the other tabs (Episodes, Trailers, etc.) load seems to be random.
It's odd to me that gets loaded would be so hit-or-miss. For things like My List and the individual title pages, they'll generally fail on first page load, and it may take a few page refreshes for them to show up, but then they might fail to load on successive refreshes.


Edit: Also, when clicking Play on a title, or advancing to the next episode in a series, I seem to be getting 403 errors on some crossdomain.xml file, which throws an N8202 error ("Internet Connection Problem"). The title will play after [usually] one refresh.

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Re: Does anyone have a WORKING Netflix override?

Unread post by Moonchild » 2017-03-01, 10:03

I think the only way forward is to advise people if they insist they want to use Netflix with the "modern" interface, that they use an "officially supported browser" for it as-defined by Netflix. Communication with them has dropped dead again after them (in so many words) suggesting we use "a Firefox UA" as override and no further help or willingness to look at their code or providing a way forward by loosening their strict doorman checks to be able to debug.

I think anything else at this point is just a waste of time.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

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Tomaso
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Re: Does anyone have a WORKING Netflix override?

Unread post by Tomaso » 2017-03-23, 16:09

I just noticed this article @ ghacks.net:
http://www.ghacks.net/2017/03/23/you-ca ... -on-linux/
..regarding this announcement @ netflix.com:
http://techblog.netflix.com/2017/03/upd ... tflix.html

Perhaps this change now makes it easier to come up with a working override for Pale Moon?

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Moonchild
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Re: Does anyone have a WORKING Netflix override?

Unread post by Moonchild » 2017-03-23, 22:38

No, because Firefox requirements on Linux include the installation of EME/DRM content delivery modules. Pale moon doesn't include in-browser DRM like that. And streaming the actual videos isn't a problem with Silverlight; it's Netflix's "web menu" that is giving issues, and that is a javascript mess that Netflix doesn't want to put effort into to make accessible on anything but a few exact versions of Chrome, IE, Safari and Firefox.

As a side note, I cancelled my Netflix subscription because they refuse to cooperate (and their offered entertainment is going downhill in relevancy and quality anyway) so I won't be able to test any overrides from this point forward.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

BENBOBBY

Re: Does anyone have a WORKING Netflix override?

Unread post by BENBOBBY » 2017-03-30, 13:48

Its a shame to hear Netflix isnt working on PaleMoon. Since its one of the most popular websites in the world I think its important to get it working right or it might drive users away . I know you can switch around to another browser or apps but its a bit of a pain :|

Im afraid I cant offer any technical advice, but I have PaleMoon installed on multiple computers and on one machine and Netflix still works fine on v27. On the others I am unable to sign back in. So the actual website works ok, its literally just the signing in aspect thats broken. Probably old news but thought it was worth reporting and hopefully someone can come up with a fix in the next update. Thanks :thumbup:

Richvideo

Re: Does anyone have a WORKING Netflix override?

Unread post by Richvideo » 2017-04-03, 05:20

My understanding is that the guy in charge of the Netflix UI was conversing with Moochild and he asked to arrange for a offiline conversation (phone call) to discuss further and Moonchild never did that so I would not say that Netflix was the one being non cooperative. After refusing the call, communication broke down between the parties.

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Re: Does anyone have a WORKING Netflix override?

Unread post by Moonchild » 2017-04-03, 09:28

Off-topic:
Richvideo wrote:My understanding is that the guy in charge of the Netflix UI was conversing with Moochild and he asked to arrange for a offiline conversation (phone call) to discuss further and Moonchild never did that so I would not say that Netflix was the one being non cooperative. After refusing the call, communication broke down between the parties.
Nonsense. Please don't talk about things you don't know anything about. "the guy" didn't seem to be in charge of anything. I never refused any calls; merely indicated that using a phone call to exchange very technical details (like scripting snippets, etc.) was not going to be very useful, and he only went as far as suggesting what we had already done before (that is, trying to use a plain Firefox override -- something we were already forced to do because of Netflix's "doorman") that made clear he hadn't even read my previous messages with any sort of attention because I had already stated we did that, and he didn't respond otherwise to further communication. Never, in any way, was there a true conversation about the problem or possible solutions.

It was an exchange of messages along the lines of:
MC "We have this problem {details given}, can we work this out, please? Seems like something easy to solve. We've already tried {measures}"
N "Please call us by phone"
MC "I don't see how that's going to be useful, because {reasons given}, can we sort this through a better channel?"
N "Have you tried using a plain Firefox user agent?"
MC "We already did that, as said in my original message, because your website has tight restrictions what UAs you allow"
N [no response for 2 weeks]
MC "Since you never replied to my last communication and there's been on-going discussion on the forum, here are some relevant parts of what has been discussed on our end that would help us move forward here: {quotes}
Please get back to me"
N [no response since early February]

So, Rich, you can be solidly in the "fan of netflix" camp as you are, but they have clearly not been providing any reasonable cooperation here. And I'm done wasting my time on them; they are not interested in having Pale Moon users use (and pay for) their service, not interested in communicating with me, and it's clear this won't change.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

Richvideo

Re: Does anyone have a WORKING Netflix override?

Unread post by Richvideo » 2017-04-03, 11:39

Bottom line you did not follow through with his main request which was to set up a phone call, he first asked me to have you do it and then he asked you directly, I don't think that he was going to take you seriously when you could not even make the effort to make a single call to him.
According to Sam's Linkedin he is the director,user interface engineer https://www.linkedin.com/in/sampan/
Sam was given my contact info from Neil Hunt who is Netflix's chief product officer in order to try to fix the issues.
https://ir.netflix.com/management.cfm

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Re: Does anyone have a WORKING Netflix override?

Unread post by Moonchild » 2017-04-03, 16:51

Rich, bottom line is you're being an ass about this while I did everything I reasonably could be expected to.
If Sam is actually in charge of these things, then he should have been able to provide a much more fruitful outcome than what I relayed happened. At the very least he could have responded normally to my requests to work on a solution.
You want to blame me for their lack of normal business communication skills or unwillingness to reply? I'm treating this as a simple, equal B2B communication - Netflix obviously doesn't, and has no intention of treating me, and by extension Pale Moon, and by extension its users (including you) with the necessary courtesy and respect to solve these interop problems.

If you continue treating this as somehow being personally my fault for not jumping on the first opportunity like a subordinate puppy to get right on the phone and get nowhere, instead of indicating it wasn't going to be a good channel (but otherwise leaving the option open to plan a call if insisted, which was not followed up on from Sam's side) then you know where to find the door. Kindly don't come back in that case.

Locking this thread since netflix and dealing with its fans is clearly a waste of my time.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

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