How to watch Netflix/Amazon Prime Video movies in 1080p in Manjaro

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1

This is not a question, I just wanted to share my solution with the forum.

Unfortunately, streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video do not support 1080p in Linux browsers (I’ve even tested in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge for Linux): this is particularly a problem for Prime Video, which streams at Standard Definition (480p). They also implement strict checks: in fact, it is not sufficient to change the user agent to fool them.

To circumvent this restriction, I’ve found this solution involving wine and Edge browser on the Arch forums: however, this no longer works, as the installation of Edge fails on Wine. So I tried this instead:

  1. Install wine-staging with the command sudo pacman -S wine-staging.
  2. [Optional] Remove MIME types following this thread
  3. Run winecfg command and select Windows 7 version.
  4. Download the Google Chrome installer .exe for Windows.
  5. Install it with wine <path_to_installer.exe>, this will create a launcher in ~/.local/share/applications/wine/Programs/Google Chrome.desktop.
  6. [Fix] Apart from the Chrome instance, Wine will run in the background also the ChromeUpdate.exe, so to disable this simply rename ~/.wine/dosdevices/c:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Update/GoogleUpdate.exe in ~/.wine/dosdevices/c:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Update/GoogleUpdateBAK.exe and restart.
  7. Launch the Wine version of Google Chrome and search for Netflix/Amazon Prime Video.
  8. Create a shortcut for Netflix/Amazon Prime Video from Chrome Menu → Other tools → Create shortcut, this will create a launcher for such sites in ~/.local/share/applications/wine/Programs/Chrome Applications/<shortcut_launcher>.desktop.
  9. [Fix] The audio will be crackling, to fix this open the desktop file and add PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=60 at the start of the Exec= section.
  10. Simply execute the desktop files!
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2

thanks for this! it helps a lot

3

You’re welcome!

4

A significantly easier way is to just use the add on. I’ve been watching Netflix at 1080p for the past couple years. I’ve tested it and it’s definitely 1080p.

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5

You’re right, that extension can definitely be used to fix Netflix. Unfortunately, there’s no equivalent for Amazon Prime Video as far as I know.

6

Thanks. But i think prime video plays at HD which is 720p

7

Thanks for the solutions.

8

@Void97 Thanks for your solution! It inspired me to try out the same procedure with Brave running with WINE. Except installing it no extra steps were required. Just tested it with Amazon Prime and it’s working! Finally streaming in 1080p!

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