In this video I'm going to give you 10 tips running Netflix on a Raspberry Pi 3
It's TechWizTime
Hey guys Johnathan here with TechWizTime and in this video I'm going to teach you some tips on how to make Netflix run better
On a Raspberry Pi
But first if you haven't seen my previous video I did actually show you how to get Netflix running on the Raspberry Pi so if you haven't checked it out already then link is up there or down in the description below
But before we get to the tips I just want to address a couple of issues one of them is a lot of people have been asking to get this running in Retropie and Kodi
And at this stage I haven't been able to do that because
Well a lot of Retropie and Kodi installations use a gamepad or a remote
And at this stage it is using the Chromium browser
Which I haven't figured out a way of actually controlling it by those two options yet, so
If you've got an idea on how to do that
Leave a comment down below
Now the second thing that I wanted to comment on was a lot of people were saying that
Rick and Morty wasn't available on Netflix and it is actually available on Netflix just not in the US
So other countries around the world do have Rick and Morty on Netflix so that's how I was able to get that running because I'm in Australia
And lastly for more detailed explanations on any of my tutorials and especially this one here
You can check it out on my website which you can view up here as well or down in the description below
So with that said let's get on with the countdown
Number one
So the first tip is to do with the actual model of Raspberry Pi so a Raspberry Pi 3 is recommended to run Netflix on
However you can get it running on a Raspberry Pi 2
The only way that you can get it running smoothly though is to overclock your build and also add some additional GPU memory
So if you do feel comfortable in tweaking settings and so forth then you can actually get this running on a Raspberry Pi 2
But for everyone else you will probably need to upgrade to a Raspberry Pi 3
Number 2
Okay so this tweak has got to do with GPU memory now I did mention that just in the last one, but
For a Raspberry Pi 3 some people have had it running a little bit choppy and for those people what I do recommend is that you do up the amount of memory allocated to your GPU
So for those that do want to look at increasing their GPU memory, they can do that through the Raspberry Pi configuration
Personally I would recommend that you increase it to 128 or 256 megabytes of memory let me know if this helped with your Raspberry Pi 3
Number 3
Now the other thing that you should also do is make sure that your Raspberry Pi 3 has an adequate power supply
Now it's recommend that you use a 2.5 amp or greater power supply with the Raspberry Pi 3
So if you're getting a little lightning bolt up in the top right hand corner that's the reason why
So if you're looking at a bigger power supply for the Raspberry Pi 3 then I've left a link down in the description below for that one as well
Number 4
Now this one's a little bit straightforward, but use wired internet instead of wireless
There are so many things that can go wrong with a wireless internet connection between your Raspberry Pi and your home router, so
To eliminate those problems I would highly suggest hooking it up through a wired Ethernet connection
This just means that if Wi-Fi is the issue then you've eliminated that completely
Number 5
Okay so you could probably use this tip on a Raspberry Pi 2 as well but one of the things you can do to increase performance is to reduce your screens resolution down to 720p
Now for most people 720p 1080p it doesn't really make too much of a difference, for people that are counting pixels it does
So if you're not too concerned about what version of HD whether it's normal HD or full HD that you're using
Then downgrading to 720p can actually increase the performance of Netflix on your Raspberry Pi
Number 6
Now another tip is if you have been using the Chromium browser within Raspbian and you've installed plugins or extensions
Then this could actually be causing some slowdown within the recompiled version of chromium that we use for Netflix
So to solve these issues what you need to do is you need to go into your old version of chromium and disable or, in the worst case scenario, delete those extensions
In most cases this should improve performance across the board
Number 7
So this is more of a tip than anything else but if you are using Netflix on the Raspberry Pi and you want to make a go full screen
All you need to do is press f11 on the keyboard I'll show you right now
Boom!
So it's just handy little tip for people out there that haven't used chromium or use the full screen feature
Number eight
So if you do have Hulu in your region then you can use it in the new chromium browser as well
So just launch it as normal through the Netflix launcher shortcut and you just go to the Hulu website and you can start browsing from there
I'm in Australia so I don't actually have Hulu here, but that does bring me to my next point
Number nine
One of the other things that you can do inside Raspbian is install OpenVPN
So what OpenVPN does is allows you to connect to a virtual private network in another country so for example because I'm in Australia if I wanted to watch.. say Hulu then I could connect to a VPN in America and pretend to be in there and start watching Hulu
Now a lot of VPNs are shut down by these services so they don't actually work but if you do go through a few of them especially say not the major ones like West Coast or East Coast but like Houston or California
You maybe would actually find a VPN that allows you to connect to those streaming services in the US
Now this is a little bit of a gray area so if you don't feel comfortable doing this sort of things then I completely understand
Number 10
So this is for the security-conscious out there
If you're not a fan of installing ".deb" files then what you can do is you can build this version of Chromium yourself
So to do that you just go to the kusti8 github page which I've got a link for down in the description
And there is a "build-deb.sh" file there
So this compiles everything for you but you can go in and have a look at the source files and the SH and just check and see that yeah it is up and up and then you don't have to worry about any possible security issues
So now all your security conscious people that are out there you can build it with ease
And sleep a little bit better at night
So those were my top ten tips for optimizing and getting the most out of Netflix on a Raspberry Pi
Like I said a Raspberry Pi 3 is recommended so make sure that you've got one of those on hand
I'd really like to hear from anyone out there that has a method of making Chromium run inside Retropie or Kodi and be still controlled by a hand controller or a remote control
So if you've got that sort of knowledge then leave me a comment down below so we can make a video and let others know too
So if you're loving Netflix on the Raspberry Pi make sure you give me a big thumbs up on this video
And if you've got any issues and make sure you leave a comment down below so the community can help out and try and fix your issues
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