[nooryani84]

I would like to know if there's been any serious discussion regarding a proper solution/workaround for Netflix/Hulu etc besides addons. Maybe it's just me, though I never felt the Netflix addons had any real synergy with XBMC. I would much rather prefer native HTML5 with a useragent switcher for instance built into XBMC - though that's a tall order as someone would have to be interested in coding this.

I haven't ever read anything from the team, although I assume the big roadblock here is DRM and/or proprietary/closed source code would have to be included in XBMC. I know that Silverlight is one example of this, and if I'm not mistaken HTML5 will most likely, or already, have some form of DRM. Which means there probably won't be any kind of official support from content providers anytime soon.

This isn't so important now, but looking 5 years down the line we may very well see physical media dying out. I hope my prediction is far off!

[pumkinut]

I really doubt you'll ever see a fully integrated Netflix plugin. For one, it would only be on OSX and Windows, maybe Android, as there's no official way of viewing Netflix on Linux. There are hacks to allow it to happen, but they're not blessed by Netflix. For full integration, XBMC would need Netflix's cooperation. One way it could happen would be a binary only addon, which Gotham is supposed to be introducing (Extend Addons API to support completley binary / proprietary (closed source) addons and media players), but, again, I doubt Netflix would play ball in that respect.

[Ned Scott]

Netflix, Hulu, and HBO won't work with us. Yes, we have asked.

The only alternative is hacking/backwards engineering, which takes time and requires someone interested in taking that on.

[nooryani84]

Netflix, Hulu, and HBO won't work with us. Yes, we have asked.

The only alternative is hacking/backwards engineering, which takes time and requires someone interested in taking that on.

Thanks.

[pumkinut]

The only alternative is hacking/backwards engineering, which takes time and requires someone interested in taking that on.

And breaking their DRM. If that happened, bad things would result.

[Piers]

It's a shame, similar to my TV provider. They are capable of allowing cabecards for a PC but choose not to. Same applies to Netflix and others mentioned above.

End result? I use free and semi-legal tools to either a) rip the stream and view it later or b) de-DRM media I buy from my USA iTunes account over a VPN.

I would happily pay a triple fee to have everything integrated into XBMC as it's the only media solution I want to use. These companies are encouraging piracy and loss of profit.

[calev]

The only alternative is hacking/backwards engineering, which takes time and requires someone interested in taking that on.

And breaking their DRM. If that happened, bad things would result.

They would just change the drm. Its happened before. There have been times when people figured out how to download netflix movies. It use to be really simple.

[Asphyx]

They all support DIAL devices so perhaps the way to get them working in XBMC is to have XBMC implement itself as a DIAL target that can load and use the Players those companies support (because they control it and it has the DRM) and/or Build an Addon around those DIAL players apps.

Examples:

https://devicecast.hbogo.com/chromecast/player.html
https://secure.hulu.com/dash/chromecast_player

Netflix will be the difficult one since their Player URL is encoded and not generally available to the public.
But if XBMC would identify itself as a DIAL target it might be possible to support Netflix via an HTML wrapper to display navigation as their website supports playing to DIAL targets itself.

[nooryani84]

Anyone have an official statement/mail from one of these providers regarding XBMC?