This is DRM that has to be baked into the hardware. It is amusing buying a brand new smartphone that defaults to 480p because it doesn't implement some DRM scheme.

On desktop you have to use the windows 10 app- again solely because of DRM.

On my Linux desktops, laptops, and HTPC, Netflix refuses to give me anything better than 720p by design (DRM not good enough to be trusted with better quality). Netflix is 'good enough' for some light viewing, but any quality film I'll (hypothetically) download from a source that doesn't bother with DRM. With a fibreglass connection at home this takes a couple of minutes.

Use https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/force-1080p-n... and everything is back to normal :) But still you won't get 4k, for that you need torrents.

Download the app, get a "not available: your device is running a custom ROM".

Open on Linux in Firefox, get 360p max.

Can't deal with bad network conditions such as frackin' Unitymedia where the connection is slow and resets all the time.

In the end, I pay for Netflix and Amazon Prime, but pirate the movies that are on Netflix anyway.

Practically nobody runs a custom ROM or Linux in the desktop, and if you do, that's a self-inflicted wound.

I am not running a custom ROM in my smartphone, it is a fairly popular device (Xiaomi Mi A2) and I still can't get high quality streams on Netflix because my device only has Widevine L3.

Meanwhile I can get high quality streams in an anime streaming service called Crunchyroll in all my devices (including every browser in any OS I want), most because they don't care about DRM.

: It is interesting that for default they still require Flash for viewing video browsers (they have a HTML5 video player in beta, though). To think that HTML5 reduced our freedom compared to Flash is ironic, to say at least.

How dare we run an operating system of our own choosing, or expect control over our own hardware. Why can't we just submit to using a sensible proprietary operating system on our most personal devices?

DRM hurts honest consumers and doesn't prevent piracy — at all. So why are we being pushed to accept this level of outside control over our computing devices?

He can run whatever OS he wants and have whatever kind of control he wants over his own hardware. Just don't expect to watch Netflix in HD.

Gating power users from your content is a good way to get them to find other solutions.

Press play and get “error <random number>”. Google for fix, deduce from talks of drm that headphone amp may be culprit. Plug headphones directly into phone instead. Press play, now it works.