Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.
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So Netflix now allows you to download movies and TV shows to your desktop PC for "offline" viewing. OK, now I'm interested, Let's look into this.
Downloading and offline viewing requires the Netflix app, which requires Windows 10. Not a fan of "apps" or Windows 10, but, whatever,
Files are downloaded to
C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Packages\4DF9E0F8.Netflix_mcm4njqhnhss8\LocalState\offlineInfo\downloads
The Netflix app has no setting to change the download location. Using a small SSD as your C: drive? Oh well, sucks to be you.
But hey, you're smart. You'll download your favorite TV shows and then just move them somewhere else.
Bonus Fuck You -- the Netflix app will only load videos from the default location.
Drag and drop? Sorry, that's too old fashioned for a modern app.OK. So you'll download your favorite TV shows, move them somewhere else.and then move them back to the default location when you want to watch them.
Then you notice that the videos you download don't have a meaningful name, only a 9 digit number.
Extra Bonus Fuck You #2 -- If you change the name of a file, the Netflix app won't be able to find it.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Netflix can fuck off with their retarded bullshit.
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@El_Heffe
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/I mean, not that you should have to do that to make an application like that work. But it should be a functional workaround, once the original location has been created so you have your wonderful jumble of numbers and letters. At least until they and change it.
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@El_Heffe said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
So Netflix now allows you to download movies and TV shows to your desktop PC for "offline" viewing.
So does The Pirate Bay.
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@izzion said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
@El_Heffe
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/I mean, not that you should have to do that to make an application like that work. But it should be a functional workaround, once the original location has been created so you have your wonderful jumble of numbers and letters. At least until they and change it.
Steam has been known to break in interesting and new ways if you symlink any of its folders.
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@ben_lubar I have still yet to understand what backwards APIs such applications are using that they can't comprehend symlinks. The OS is supposed to lie to the application unless the application specifically asks "is this a symlink?" so unless Steam is specifically checking for symlinks and erroring out intentionally, I'm clueless. At least in my tests, symlinks appear as 'real' to my code.
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@ben_lubar Steam also allows you to specify a different download location. In fact, you can specify more than one and choose when you download a game which it goes to.
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@powerlord said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
@ben_lubar Steam also allows you to specify a different download location. In fact, you can specify more than one and choose when you download a game which it goes to.
Yes, but for the last few months there's been a new Steam patch each week that fixes some bug caused by Steam being in contact with a symlink.
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@ben_lubar link or it did not happen
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@dse said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
@ben_lubar link or it did not happen
Maybe it was just that one change but I saw it 100 times because I'm in the beta.
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I imagine the download location is due to them using the default storage path for the app, or not making the app request filesystem access. Either way, they should know better. I kind of wonder what sort of format they use...
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@Magus said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
due to them using the default storage path for the app, or not making the app request filesystem access
Very likely.
Also, Apparently some apps can be "Moved" (not like in the screenshot below). Maybe "moving" the Netflix app will also move its storage location?
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Note that I've heard some bad stuff about "ordinary" symlinks to directories. "junction" symlinks work more seamlessly, I haven't yet had any problems using those.
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@Medinoc I hadn't right up until I tried to use XSplit.
XSplit's installer will remove your Users directory junction and rebuild part of the Users directory for you.
This, of course, starts breaking Windows almost immediately since it can no longer find your user profile.
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@LB_ said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
@ben_lubar I have still yet to understand what backwards APIs such applications are using that they can't comprehend symlinks. The OS is supposed to lie to the application unless the application specifically asks "is this a symlink?" so unless Steam is specifically checking for symlinks and erroring out intentionally, I'm clueless. At least in my tests, symlinks appear as 'real' to my code.
If your code tries to navigate from a directory upwards (e.g. "foo/../bar" or the equivalent in code, because you expect foo/ and bar/ to be two sub-directories in the same place), you can get weird things depending on how the OS handles "../" through symlinks. It can get even weirder when there happens to be a loop in the symlink (such as "foo -> .", I've done that in a couple of libs to make includes more palatable in the code using them), if your code then tries to crawl through it expecting it to be a tree, not a cyclical graph.
Not that these things are good programming, but they can happen and may break with symlinks.
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@El_Heffe It's DRMed, and they don't want it to look like a MP4 file you could play and move anywhere. It's cryptic by design.
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@ben_lubar said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
@izzion said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
@El_Heffe
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/I mean, not that you should have to do that to make an application like that work. But it should be a functional workaround, once the original location has been created so you have your wonderful jumble of numbers and letters. At least until they and change it.
Steam has been known to break in interesting and new ways if you symlink any of its folders.
they just fixed the latest way to break where symlinks uttterly broke the webview..... somehow.......
no idea how that bug happened
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@accalia said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
@ben_lubar said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
@izzion said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
@El_Heffe
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/I mean, not that you should have to do that to make an application like that work. But it should be a functional workaround, once the original location has been created so you have your wonderful jumble of numbers and letters. At least until they and change it.
Steam has been known to break in interesting and new ways if you symlink any of its folders.
they just fixed the latest way to break where symlinks uttterly broke the webview..... somehow.......
no idea how that bug happened
Hah. I have a deep-inspection IPS/UTM firewall between my PC and the Internet (borrowed from work - where we make the damned things), and when Akamai is in one of its moods, the IPS generates a shower of alarms and the Steam client's Store view shows up blank. The Steam support area is quite clear that you shouldn't subject their traffic to stateful inspection. Fuck. That. Shit. (sideways with a baseball bat, if you please)
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@powerlord said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
XSplit's installer will remove your Users directory junction and rebuild part of the Users directory for you.
Mental note: never do this by hand again
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@El_Heffe said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
But hey, you're smart. You'll download your favorite TV shows and then just move them somewhere else.
Bonus Fuck You -- the Netflix app will only load videos from the default location.If a program only saves to internal storage, why on earth would you expect it to read from other locations?
Then you notice that the videos you download don't have a meaningful name, only a 9 digit number.
It would be silly to give a meaningful name to files you're not supposed to see ever.
Yes, it's silly that Windows doesn't let you change the location for app internal storage (AppData\Local). But that's Windows' responsibility, not something app developers should have to care about.
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@anonymous234 said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
If a program only saves to internal storage, why on earth would you expect it to read from other locations?
This happens when the user hasn't fully succumbed to the "everything is a phone" brainworms yet, because there's more to internal storage than
C:\\
.
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I believe a UWP app cannot access folders outside of it's manifest by default, however there is API to allow a user to use a location picker and the UWP app has permissions to access that folder from then on. So up to Amazon to implement that.
Having said that, I don't know if you change the default app location this will change the offline content storage place:
Settings -> Storage -> Change where new content is saved -> 'New apps will save to'
I guess you have to re-install the app after setting.
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@boomzilla said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
@anonymous234 said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
If a program only saves to internal storage, why on earth would you expect it to read from other locations?
This happens when the user hasn't fully succumbed to the "everything is a phone" brainworms yet, because there's more to internal storage than
C:\\
.Funnily enough, on an actual phone (Android at least) there's a setting to save downloaded videos to the SD card.
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@hungrier On most phones you'd probably have to or no one would ever be able to watch anything.
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@Medinoc don't junctions only work within the same filesystem? So, you can't junction to another drive?
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@LB_ You can junction to another drive if you do it right
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@LB_ said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
So, you can't junction to another drive?
@RaceProUK said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
You can junction to another drive if you do it right
Junctions work fine as long as both drives are local drives. There's no other special criteria.
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@loopback0 Apart from the folder you're junctioning the drive to being empty when you configure the junction (I think)
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@RaceProUK I thought it complained if it even existed, but yes, I'd imagine it having contents might be a problem.
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@hungrier It's great when devs don't bother with obvious features.
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@Helix Why is it Amazon's job to fix Netflix's crap?
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@Greybeard
Sorry - bad case of brain derps todayEdit: bad, bad case; i even replied to the wrong person
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@Helix said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
Sorry - bad case of brain derps today
Unless you think everything's a phone now, we'll forgive that.
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@Greybeard said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
@Helix Why is it Amazon's job to fix Netflix's crap?
Or they can just leave it the hell alone.
I have a fire tablet. I installed netflix on there (from the side loaded play store I guess). I was able to save videos and everything. Then I opened up netflix and I could no longer see my saved videos. Turns out it updated from that Amazon Appstore and their version doesn't have the download capabilities. Probably because amazon auto uploads all the photo/videos from your tablet to your Amazon drive account.
I went back to the play store and updated netflix and got my downloads back. They were even still downloaded and I was able to play them.
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@El_Heffe said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
Bonus Fuck You -- the Netflix app will only load videos from the default location.
Not surprising. Sandboxing.
edit:
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@dcon said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
@El_Heffe said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
Bonus Fuck You -- the Netflix app will only load videos from the default location.
Not surprising. Sandboxing.
edit:
Last time I was in a sandbox no one complained about me digging through it
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@Onyx said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
Last time I was in a sandbox no one complained about me digging through it
Last time I was, I probably had a ! (well, actually I think it was a red British bus. And my matchbox cars are all long gone now...)
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@El_Heffe said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
So Netflix now allows you to download movies and TV shows to your desktop PC for "offline" viewing
Yay! Now I can watch HD without stutter! (yes, my connection sucks)
Oh. Not everything. Just the Netflix series and the crappier parts of their catalog. Harumph.
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@Dreikin said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
@El_Heffe said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
So Netflix now allows you to download movies and TV shows to your desktop PC for "offline" viewing
Yay! Now I can watch HD without stutter! (yes, my connection sucks)
Oh. Not everything. Just the Netflix series and the crappier parts of their catalog. Harumph.
...and when I try one I keep getting this every two-five seconds:
At least it resumes instead of restarting.Wait, no, it still keeps downloading even while that dialog is displayed.
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Or, if you want some decent TV
Works perfectly, with the caveat that I use a smart DNS anyway which might have an effect.
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Has anyone pointed out this option?
Should work fine to change the install location.
YMMV. Do not combine with any other offer.
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@Dreikin said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
Oh. Not everything. Just the Netflix series and the crappier parts of their catalog. Harumph.
Netflix is probably more upset about this than you are. But copyright holders are idiots and their contracts won't allow it.
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@powerlord said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
@Medinoc I hadn't right up until I tried to use XSplit.
XSplit's installer will remove your Users directory junction and rebuild part of the Users directory for you.
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@sloosecannon
Yes, but i don't think @El_Heffe wants to report back
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@sloosecannon Which, if it saves to some deeply nested
%appdata%
folder, helps you not one jot.
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@Magus @thread
Apparently Windows 10 does in fact have a supported, non-junction way to move parts of your AppData folder (Local, LocalLow, Roaming) to other drives.
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@Magus said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
@sloosecannon Which, if it saves to some deeply nested
%appdata%
folder, helps you not one jot.Pretty sure it saves to app local storage, which presumably is in the same location as the app. It happens to be in
%appdata%
by default, but the app isn't saving there intentionally - it's just saving to its data location and letting the OS tell it how to do that.
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@izzion Yep, the Location tab is on the other user folders too, such as Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Videos, etc.
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I always find it funny that netflix hasn't realised that they're not really competing with the pirate bay but with my laziness. It was easier for me for years to torrent a tv show and watch it in my own time until netflix came along and made it easier for me to watch an episode anywhere at anytime if I had an internet connection. Unfortunately after I watched all their stuff their limited selection made pirating shit easier so I'm back to that again. I'll probably resubscribe again for a month when they have a new series of dare devil and house of cards.
Crunchy roll on the other hand I'm having a great time with at the moment but I think they will run into the content problem soon too.
The thing that annoys me about vod services is that they have fractured the market again. You need to subscribe to five or six to get the content that you want. A: I don't have that kind of cash lying around. B: geolocking has split the market further still. It annoys me to think I'm paying the same for less service because I live in a different region. C: Fuck that noise it's easier to pirate. I'm not searching six different services for an episode of the blacklist
I pay for things that make my life easier. In a way the dvd market is better. Everyone can sell everything. They only thing I really have to think about is price and postage. I don't have anything connected that plays dvds connected to a tv though.
I like what spotify, google music and amazon unlimited have done in music. Everyone has everything that I want. All it really came down to was price and UI. Considering I had a prime account already amazon music was the cheaper option. Even if their UI is a pile of cock.
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@DogsB said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
Unfortunately after I watched all their stuff their limited selection made pirating shit easier so I'm back to that again.
E_NOT_LAZY_ENOUGH
I'll just watch whatever is on their catalog, even if it's meh. No time to hunt subtitles and whatnot.
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@DogsB said in Netflix allows downloading of videos. Sort of. Maybe. As long as you don't expect it to actually work in a useful way.:
The thing that annoys me about vod services is that they have fractured the market again
Yeah, the big promise of Netflix et al was that I would be able to sign up to one service and have most stuff I'm interested in watching available but now they're all trying to poach subscribers by having exclusives, original content and otherwise making it like cable/satellite channels where you have to pick and choose between the bundles available to try and get a decent amount without paying too much, and you end up with a load of shit you wouldn't have paid for if you had the option of leaving it out.
I'm moving back to piracy now, because it's easier to download something into my Kodi library and have that available through a raspberry pi than remember if it's on Netflix, Amazon or one of the catchup services I have available, find the right app and search for it