Ubuntu – Cannot Play DRM-protected Flash on Ubuntu 14.10 (Amazon, HBO Go, XFINITY etc), even with Pepper Flash and HAL

flashgoogle-chromestreamingvideo

Currently Using
Google Chrome Version 40.0.2214.10 beta (64-bit)
Ubuntu 14.10

There was a time when I could watch streaming video on my computer, but at some point it seems I've lost that ability. Following earlier advice, I've installed hal from the PPA

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mjblenner/ppa-hal

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install hal

and deleted ~/.adobe and rebooted, but still no luck.

I've also played around with Freshplayer and Pipelight, and I was about to get HBO Go working on Firefox, but not XFINITY, and none of them working with Chrome. In Chrome, Amazon Prime video gives me an endless loading screen, HBO Go is a big black screen and I get an endless "Buffering" screen on XFINITY.

Questions

  1. How can I get these DRM flash videos working on Chrome
  2. How can I get them working on other browsers without resorting to using Wine

Just as a note, in a fresh Chrome installation this is what I see on XFINITY

Best Answer

Amazon, HBO Go, and Xfinity all use silverlight, not flash, for their videos. My solution is to install PlayOnLinux, and run Firefox through wine. Then, install silverlight in the same prefix as Firefox.

You have to use the wine version of firefox for these sites, but it works decently well. The automatic video quality usually sets the quality really low, but everything is watchable.

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