AfterDawn: News

Netflix Watch Now gets DRM work-around

Have you ever thought that you're just not getting enough from your Netflix account? Have you realized that you've grown tired of waiting for the movies to come in the mail and turned towards their online Watch Now feature; only to be put off by the fact that you cant do anything more with the movie but watch it on your PC? Well, the folks over at FairUse4WM have got a cure to your itch.

We here at Afterdawn do not condone this type of thing, but should you ever want to Rip the Watch Now stream from Netflix, someone has come up with a way to do it. This person has found a workaround that enables you to not only decrypt the DRM encrypted movies, but save them to your hard drive for future viewing. Now, reading over the process, its easy to see that it could either be quite easy or down right frustrating depending on your individual experience, but this is merely the first revision.



Tools you will need are simply, Windows Media Player 11, FairUse4WM, Notepad and a Netflix account. A broadband connection would make things a lot easier as well, as I don't particularly think someone with a dial up connection would fair very well at ripping a data stream such as this. While following the process, you can then strip the DRM and watch the movies at your leisure as well as on any video playing device of your choosing. Of course, there are issues with this procedure's legality, should one be so inclined, one could exploit this.

Source:
Rorta


Written by: Dave Horvath @ 8 Aug 2007 7:46

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• 22 comments

• vtowner

  Quote:We here at Afterdawn do not condone this type of thingLOL, gotta stick that in there, but then it tells you what things you need to do it. Gotta love AD.

  8.8.2007 07:51 #1

• Gottawin

  Gotta does. .. . ;)

  8.8.2007 08:01 #2

• eiffel65

  AD is God! God I love my sister for getting Netflix.

  8.8.2007 09:59 #3

• limelight

  Screw news, this should be stickied in the "guides" tab!!

  8.8.2007 14:28 #4

• faqman98

  isn't just like taping/tivo recording something from pay-per-view

  8.8.2007 14:51 #5

• DjDanio

  THis may sound silly, but how does netflix watch now work? are you given a limited time of online films you can watch?
  
  What i would be very interested to know is if this can bypass any limits, is it timer or size limited?

  8.8.2007 15:45 #6

• vtowner

  I think it's a limit of like 17 hours a month.
  

  
  

  8.8.2007 16:56 #7

• limelight

  Originally posted by DjDanio: THis may sound silly, but how does netflix watch now work? are you given a limited time of online films you can watch?
  
  What i would be very interested to know is if this can bypass any limits, is it timer or size limited?For every dollar that you pay per month, you get an hour of viewing time.
  
  So for example, if your plan was $15 per month, you would have 15 hours of viewing time to watch movies online.

  8.8.2007 18:21 #8

• albino92

  This sucks because i literally canceled Netflix exactly one week ago. This was because the movies are now taking longer to get in the mail. I still love it and will probably go back to it. It doesn't really matter anyways because the watch now had such terrible movies that knowbody has ever heard of. The only thing good they had was the Matrix and most people should have that on dvd or hd dvd

  8.8.2007 18:43 #9

• Footie979

  Most of the Play It Now movies on Netflix are old, cruddy or bad movies no one wants to see. I wonder how long it will take them to fix this.

  9.8.2007 08:38 #10

• WierdName

  Originally posted by Footie979: Most of the Play It Now movies on Netflix are old, cruddy or bad movies no one wants to see. I wonder how long it will take them to fix this.Well now that there is a way to rip the DRM from said movies, I doubt it will be fixed anytime soon.

  9.8.2007 09:01 #11

• albino92

  yah the movies suck and i doubt they'll update them anytime soon

  9.8.2007 10:55 #12

• navi1199

  =/ why bother downloading low quality videos anyways.. i see this as a total waste of time...

  9.8.2007 11:27 #13

• Steve83

  What's the point of this article if it doesn't contain a link to the ACTUAL article/guide describing the exact procedure???

  9.8.2007 21:29 #14

• WierdName

  ! Are you serious Steve83?! You see the link that is under the word "Source:" that is italicized? Heres the secret... THATS THE GUIDE.

  9.8.2007 21:36 #15

• Dudge669

  Originally posted by navi1199: =/ why bother downloading low quality videos anyways.. i see this as a total waste of time...Have you ever tried Netflix's 'Watch it now' feature? They're not low quality and they're not just older movies as someone else suggested. The quality is perfect on my 21" screen. Great sound quality as well. Stop your whining.

  10.8.2007 09:12 #16

• mike7449

  NETFLIX now allows you to watch any movie from your que, or any others they have. So if you have something in your que that you were waiting for anyway, problem solved.
  Yes, the limit per month is 17 hours.
  My problem with Netflix is many of their movies are getting old and scratched. This is understandable, but if it's not watchable they won't give you a replacement over and above your usual rental limit.
  So, it's a whole waste of a week. At least with Blockbuster you can bring it back to a store for an immediate replacement, even if it was mail order. You can also bring all your mail order rentals back to a store and get immediate replacements. When they scan your returns your next que movies begin getting shipped so you can actually double your rental limit.
  Mike

  10.8.2007 11:48 #17

• albino92

  I have to agree with Mike about his problem with Netflix, which was my problem too and which is why i cancelled. And i also have to agree with dudge that the watch now has good quality, but i have to disagree on the other thing he said. Sure, there are a few new movies in the watch now, but most of them SUCK! and most of them are unheard of. Also there are mostly all old movies.

  10.8.2007 12:13 #18

• Unfocused

  Isn't it easier just to get the disc in the mail an copy that rather than copying the stream? At least that way, you get to see the subtitles and special features.

  16.8.2007 14:38 #19

• albino92

  yah thats true but then again you have to wait for the dvd to come into the mail.

  16.8.2007 16:03 #20

• borhan9

  All I have to say is well done :)

  17.8.2007 17:28 #21

• albino92

  yah even if you don't use the watch now i guess it is well done in the fact that somebody hacked it.

  17.8.2007 18:29 #22