[mythtv-users] Toggling compositing

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Mon Mar 25 17:00:15 UTC 2013


On 03/25/2013 12:13 PM, Chris wrote:
> Funny, I took a class on misinterpretation of e-mail and how they hurt 
> relationships.  This just might be a classic case .
>
> Pronouncements such as "there is no application that allows the use of 
> Netflix and its DRM'ed video in GNU/Linux" and statements such as "Are 
> you doing something crazy" or "or, well, basically anything that's 
> actually supported by Netflix" all felt a little lecture-y and 
> condescending to me. Clearly that was not your intent.
>
> The fact is I've been experimenting with linux and Mythtv since boxing 
> day  to see if I can get rid of all the peripherals you suggest. I 
> have a satellite receiver/PVR, roku box and BluRay player under my TV 
> and I am dissatisfied with them all.  My satellite provider charges a 
> stupid amount of money and it keeps going up. Roku in Canada is 
> inferior (Netflix is the only worthwhile app in my opinion) and  
> finding a place to rent BluRays is becoming more and more difficult. 
> Thus an HTPC seemed to be the most commonsensical solution I could 
> come up with.
>
> So please bear with me while I experiment with my system.  I don't 
> know if this compositing issue is going to be a deal killer with 
> respect to Netflix, but the application actually works quite well on 
> my other box (i.e. I don't feel like I was jumping through hoops).

Well, the big problem is that the DRM they're using (in both Netflix and 
BluRay--and many other things) cannot be properly supported in F/LOSS, 
so you will always have to jump through hoops.  You're doing that, now, 
by running Windows Firefox with Windows Silverlight and trying to do so 
on top of GNU/Linux using Wine.  Other approaches for jumping through 
said Netflix hoops include running a Virtual Machine that runs MS 
Windows and using its browser to play Netflix videos (and some have even 
used the Android emulator and--against ToS, which is why I called this 
approach crazy--the Netflix App for Android to try to do this).  These 
approaches all have the problem that /because/ they're not meant to be 
used in GNU/Linux, you don't get proper use of the Video hardware 
(meaning you're doing lots of in-CPU stuff that just artificially 
inflates the system requirements) and--as you've seen--may require 
specific video configuration that may be incompatible with the 
configuration that allows you to take advantage of the hardware in 
GNU/Linux.

I'm just of the opinion that when choosing to use a service (especially 
an entertainment service), using a supported approach to access that 
service is the best approach (why use an approach that's 
difficult/unreliable/).  Sure, RMS would scold me on the ethical sins of 
using closed/proprietary software, but *all* of the above workarounds 
are using closed/proprietary software--which is required because of the 
DRM, so the real sin is using the service itself.  That said, if you 
want movies and TV, you're pretty much going to get some kind of 
DRM--with the main exception being broadcast TV***, which MythTV handles 
quite well (because of the lack of DRM).

So, IMHO, MythTV (or, really, GNU/Linux) is not the right tool for the 
job of using DRM'ed content.

Mike

*** Broadcast TV including cable/satellite TV, which mostly just has 
conditional access restrictions.


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