<story><title>Chrome extension to play Netflix in 1080p</title><url>https://github.com/truedread/netflix-1080p</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Freak_NL</author><text>The fact that gaining access to the 1080p stream is so trivial makes it hard not to suspect Netflix (or the content studios supplying them with content) from deliberately providing a poorer experience for users of open platforms — Netflix refuses to serve anything over 720p to users of Chrome and Firefox (or derivatives) — in order to goad you into using their proprietary clients. User&amp;#x2F;software freedom apparently is a threat to their business model.&lt;p&gt;It sucks being labelled an untrustworthy customer despite paying for 1080p content.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mdasen</author><text>In Safari in macOS, Netflix uses about 10% CPU showing 1080p.  With Chrome, it uses 40% playing 720p.  With Firefox, it uses about 75% CPU and my fan turns on.  I&amp;#x27;m guessing it&amp;#x27;s higher on 1080p.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t think Netflix has any interest in you using a proprietary client.  They don&amp;#x27;t gain money if you watch one way or another.  They gain money if you keep paying them your monthly fee.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Installing this extension took Chrome CPU usage to 75% for me.&lt;p&gt;Also, I&amp;#x27;m not saying that users shouldn&amp;#x27;t be given the choice to use their CPU resources to run Netflix.  Maybe it would be better if Netflix were just more transparent about it.  &amp;quot;By default, we only display video with 720p in Chrome due to high processor usage.  Click here to change that preference or watch with Safari whose direct rendering means 1080p video using less processor resources.&amp;quot;  That way, users understand the problem and can decide they don&amp;#x27;t mind other programs becoming sluggish or the fan running or whatnot.  Of course, companies generally don&amp;#x27;t like giving users details.</text></comment>
<story><title>Chrome extension to play Netflix in 1080p</title><url>https://github.com/truedread/netflix-1080p</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Freak_NL</author><text>The fact that gaining access to the 1080p stream is so trivial makes it hard not to suspect Netflix (or the content studios supplying them with content) from deliberately providing a poorer experience for users of open platforms — Netflix refuses to serve anything over 720p to users of Chrome and Firefox (or derivatives) — in order to goad you into using their proprietary clients. User&amp;#x2F;software freedom apparently is a threat to their business model.&lt;p&gt;It sucks being labelled an untrustworthy customer despite paying for 1080p content.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Sharlin</author><text>This is the first time I&amp;#x27;ve heard that Netflix has standalone desktop client o_O Apparently only available for Windows 10. Also the first time I&amp;#x27;ve heard that Netflix HD is not 1080p except on some clients&amp;#x2F;browsers. I feel... cheated. Of course the difference between 720p and 1080p is not huge, especially at streaming bitrates, as evidenced by the fact that I haven&amp;#x27;t suspected anything. But still. Will have to remember to use Safari from now on.</text></comment>