"Widevine Dump":Leaked Code Downloads HD Video from Disney+, Amazon, and Netflix

Surely some people just use screen recording software for the "Download" illegally part?

I don't think that works with HDCP, usually you get a big green box or something

The DRM technologies in place prevent screen recording from working, as far as I know. Or at least prevent it from working at high resolutions.

This usually doesn't work because of HDCP, and you'd have to reencode the video stream, sacrificing quality. Removing DRMs is a lot cleaner.

I found this interesting, so I tried: I recorded a HD movie on Netflix in Firefox, recorded using simplescreenrecorder on KDE5 in Xorg. I remember it was impossible to record shared screen in old (Ebay owned Skype).

Makes sense, and I know a lot of people are like "4K ultra or nada" but I grew up in a world where 480p was watchable and good enough that you would invite friend over and have a freewatch party. So I guess it depends who is watching right?

I tried a couple of screen recording tricks and it appears that Netflix is easily captured on Chrome....

There are also HDMI recorders you can buy online that strip HDCP and encode to a USB stick.

HD != 4K

This is why Netflix only serves Firefox low resolution video.

It's not just Firefox though, if you're running Chrome on Windows or Mac, you get the same 720p as Firefox.

The only way to get Netflix in high def (1080p and 4k) from a web browser is to use a browser that is made by the same company as the OS it's running on.

e.g.:

- Microsoft Edge running on Windows 10 or 11 (if running Edge on some other OS, output will cap at 720p)

- Chrome running on Chrome OS (if running Chrome on some other OS, output will cap at 720p)

- Safari running on MacOS

In any scenario not listed above, Netflix serves a max of 720p.

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/23931

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/55764