Amazon Instant Video: Fedora Support Gone

deanej · #1 5th February 2012, 03:01 AM

For anyone who hasn't heard (as I didn't until today), Amazon's Instant Video service is now DRMed. This is done using flash features that don't work on Linux unless HAL is installed. Because HAL is obsolete, this means that Amazon Instant Video is tricky to run on most Linux distributions, and probably impossible on Fedora 16 (are merely extremely difficult/tedious on Fedora 15).

From what I've read, many of the Amazon tech support people have never even heard of Linux either. They also made this change without telling anyone.

#2 5th February 2012, 03:25 AM

it would also effect other linux distro's that have obseleted HAL also, not just fedora

deanej · #3 5th February 2012, 03:34 AM

True, but there is no Fedora workaround like there is for Ubuntu and others. At least not for Fedora 16. 15 can still get HAL installed.

#4 5th February 2012, 03:39 AM

whats the work-a-round in Ubuntu?

deanej · #5 5th February 2012, 03:43 AM

Here's the thread from Amazon with a ton of info and some Mint/Ubuntu workarounds: http://www.amazon.com/forum/amazon%2...TxFTGOK5LRL3JM

smr54 · #6 8th February 2012, 04:10 PM

I thought this one was worth mentioning.

http://ostatic.com/blog/amazon-com-i...eaming-service

My own feeling is that I'd love to see this suddenly get tons of users, showing the others, <cough>netflix<cough> how supporting Linux might help.

I remember when Louis CK put up his video for a $5.00 download. I think that one reason he quickly grossed over $1,000,000 USD was because people wanted to show big media that if you give us what we want, we will pay for it and that one cause of piracy (obviously not the only, but certainly one large contributing factor) is that one can download a movie and then own it, rather than have to worry about which video player, which country, etc.

AndrewSerk · #7 8th February 2012, 05:14 PM

Thanks for the post smr54,

This is great news, I will give them a try.

Thanks again,

smr54 · #8 8th February 2012, 06:53 PM

Oops, might have spoken too soon. See the thread

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=276038

RupertPupkin · #9 8th February 2012, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deanej

there is no Fedora workaround like there is for Ubuntu and others. At least not for Fedora 16.

People have reportedly got it working in F16 by installing the F15 HAL packages and manually starting the HAL services. Sounds like it's not too difficult to do.

***Dan*** · #10 8th February 2012, 08:37 PM

Threads merged.

kaiserman · #11 11th February 2012, 08:06 PM

Thanks! I tried this and it worked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RupertPupkin

People have reportedly got it working in F16 by installing the F15 HAL packages and manually starting the HAL services. Sounds like it's not too difficult to do.

Here's what I did:

1. Download these rpms (32 bit versions, if you have a 64 bit os you can find a link on the page for it):

http://pkgs.org/fedora-15/fedora-i38....i686.rpm.html
http://pkgs.org/fedora-15/fedora-i38...oarch.rpm.html
http://pkgs.org/fedora-15/fedora-i38....i686.rpm.html
http://pkgs.org/fedora-15/fedora-i38....i686.rpm.html
http://pkgs.org/fedora-15/fedora-i38....i686.rpm.html

2. Close all browsers.

3. Install the packages in this order:

Double click hal-libs-0.5.14-6.fc15.i686.rpm and follow the prompts to install as you would any rpm.

Double click hal-filesystem-0.5.14-6.fc15.i686.rpm and follow the prompts to install as you would any rpm.

Open a terminal and become root by typing the command

Code:

su -

enter your root password.

Install the remaining packages: (Don't forget to change the path to the file.)

Code:

rpm -ivh --nodeps /home/username/Downloads/hal-0.5.14-6.fc15.i686.rpm

Code:

rpm -ivh --nodeps /home/username/Downloads/hal-info-20090716-4.fc15.noarch.rpm

Code:

rpm -ivh --nodeps /home/username/Downloads/hal-storage-addon-0.5.14-6.fc15.i686.rpm

4. Start HAL Daemon:

Code:

/etc/init.d/haldaemon start

If everything worked out, you should now be able to watch Amazon Instant Video.

Steerpike · #12 21st April 2012, 03:38 AM

Didn't work for me on 64-bit system. Bummer.

I like Fedora better, but since the only shows I ever watch are a handful on Amazon I guess it is back to Ubuntu or MInt

On those distros "sudo apt-get install hal" fixed the issues for me. I don't understand linux well enough to know why it has to be more complicated on Fedora, but I'm bummed.

I'll play with it a few more days, if anyone has any ideas to share...

---------- Post added at 07:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:33 PM ----------

I should add - the packages all installed and the hal daemon actually starts. But it still won't play.

StephenH · #13 21st April 2012, 02:23 PM

I'm curious. I have Fedora 16 x86_64 and no hal installed (checked with rpm -qa | grep hal) and yet Amazon Prime videos do work for me. Is this more a flash issue than a hal issue?
Installed:
flash-plugin-11.2.202.233-release.x86_64

I had to do the workaround specified in a separate thread to fix the colors. Other than that, I have no problems with the streaming video. I know because I watched two episodes of Dr. Who, season 2 last night.

Steerpike · #14 21st April 2012, 04:48 PM

That's the version I have as well, Stephen. I tried reinstalling just to be sure. Still no luck. I get the same "Updating Player" info when Amazon tries to play a movie, followed by an error message saying I need to update.

Same thing happens in Ubuntu and Mint (and in Crunchbang for that matter), but in those I could install hal and it worked.

StephenH · #15 21st April 2012, 05:51 PM

Interesting. I guess that the TV episodes may not have the same problem as the movies. I'll have to try one and see.