Watch Netflix and Amazon Prime in Kodi
This guide is going to assume that you already have Kodi installed with your favorite distro. If your not sure which to use, OSMC is a good choice. You can also install Kodi in your desktop environment as well.
Using your SSH client, or from terminal log into your system. I have written a super simple script that will handle the legwork for us. Simply enter in the following command.
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oss001/KodiStreaming/master/setup.sh | sudo bash
Your system will reboot once complete.
Lets Install our Add-ons
Now that we are all setup, lets configure. First, lets enable our newly downloaded Add-ons.
Amazon Prime Video
Add-ons -> Install from Zip File
Root filesystem -> addons -> repository.sandmann79.plugins…
This will install the repository. Now we install the add-on.
Add-ons -> Install from repository -> Sandmann79s Repository
Video add-ons -> Amazon VOD (Select Amazon if you live in Germany)
Now select install and okay.
Netflix
Add-ons -> Install from Zip File
Root filesystem -> addons -> repository.castagnait.zip
This will install the repository, now lets install the add-on.
Add-ons -> Install from repository -> CastagnaIT Addon Repository
Video add-ons -> Netflix
Select Install, Select newest version, and select okay.
If all goes well, under Video in the Main menu under addons, you will have Netflix and Amazon Prime listed.
Running Netflix or Amazon Video for the first time
On initial start of our addons we will be prompted to log into our accounts. Simply enter in your Email and Passwords for your account and everything should start.
The first time you launch a Netflix and Amazon Video, you will be prompted to install a proprietary decryption module called Widevine. Luckily our add-ons will take care of this for us. Select a Netflix or Amazon show and start an episode. Because it is propriety it will be downloaded from a Chrome OS recovery image. Select yes to continue, and accept the license and root permissions. Once downloaded you will be prompted once more to install. The recovery image is large, so make sure you have lots of space in your SD card.
Once the installation is complete, your show should begin to play.
If you find your video is poor quality, or choppy, you can adjust the video settings. In your addons configure Input Stream Adaptive. Here you should be able to set your default setting to ensure stutter free playback. Typically 720p plays fine on the Raspberry Pi 3.
All finished!
Congratulations, you should now have a working Media Center which you can use for your local content, as well as Netflix, Amazon Prime.
Issues with the Netflix part. Adding zip then repo,, Netflix has errors. Tested since posting script?
Hi Blueclouds, so after the script runs and in Kodi it fails? Zip installation or Repo installation? The script is fairly new, posted on the 27th. I can test again today, but I suspect it should be okay. Can you give a little more detail on the error?
Hulu zip and repo installation works fine, no errors. The Netflix zip installation works without error, but after adding Netflix through repo, it finishes, and immediately says error and to check the log. Netflix will not start, error and to check logs ,, and Hulu hangs until forced to stop.
Here same. i have latest OSMC version but on Raspberry Pi 1. Is that a problem?
Hi Gunserman, yes I think that’s the issue. Couple of reasons, the architecture has changed a lot of the raspberry pi since the model 1 and it may not be supported correctly by the plugin authors now. Secondly, to stream Netflix and Amazon Video, and I suspect Hulu the Raspberry Pi needs to be powerful enough to not only play the content, but they also need to be fast enough to decrypt the data streams as well. These services use encryption to protect the content. That’s a big benefit of the new Kodi version 18, it has native support for the Widevine module which handles this. But this does take some extra power, even with overclocking my 3B+ I was unable to get stutter free 1080p playback. 720p does work flawlessly though. Sorry for the news! For me, I repurposed my Raspberry Pi 1 into a PiHole/Network print server with airprint. It can handle this workload easily and its definitely nice to have the advertisements blocked by default on my network.
I have the same issue. Has this been resolved?
worked perfectly! watching netflix now. just had to follow the directions exactly as stated. (snaps on the setup.sh script, really streamlined setting up the internals).
Thanks GG! I just used it on a Ubuntu setup for myself yesterday! Definitely simplifies things…
Worked great Oct 15, 2019. Thanks for putting this together
Hi Darryl. Installed Amazon last night which seemed to go ok. Searched for Walking Dead and it listed all the seasons but when you click on a season it doesn’t bring anything up. Also clicked on things like Movies, Tv Programs etc but nothing showed. Any ideas ? Thanks
Sorry just one more thing I forgot to mention. It didn’t give me the option to install Windevine after selecting a show.
Hi Rusty, the guys who author the Amazon VOD plugin are actually working on a number of issues right now. Amazon made some changes and now they are working to accommodate. Your exact issue with no shows displaying is top of the issues at the moment. Because the plugins aren’t official they play a cat and mouse game. Amazon changes things, they work to make the plugin compatible again. As for Widevine installation it typically happens when a show is starting up. If that didn’t happen it may also be a result of the plugin status… Hopefully the authors will have it updated soon!
Having issues login on to Amazon, keeps telling me that code is wrong on the captcha thing.
Hi Denzil, I have struggled with it before too. Make sure not to put in spaces, even though it looks like you should…
Would this work for the same way for Disney +?
Hi Jason, as far as I know there isn’t a plugin as of yet for Disney+ but I will keep my eyes open for one!
Everything went quite flawlessly, thank you for the direct path. However… I can view all on the list but when I select anything it won’t play. I have reduced the frame rate to 720 but I select the video, the little wheel spins and then eventually goes back to the list, that is all. This is Netflix that I am trying to get going. I am using a VPN but it seems to be working properly. Any thoughts?
I Kerry, did it by chance prompt you to install Widevine when you attempted to play your first video? This is decryption software made by google and to ensure no copyrights are broken the entire chrome recovery image is downloaded and widevine is extracted and installed. Its possible via the VPN its having trouble getting this and its timing out. I would try launching without using the VPN first to use your full bandwith to get Widevine installed. Once that’s complete you should be able to start it up again and try to launch a show.
The first time I clicked on a video it did take me through the whole process of installing the Widevine component. I have seen other articles about the Widevine file and have tried to view it but I can’t seem to find it. I am not the best by a long shot with Linux. There were no errors when installing it so I think that is fine.
Hey. It works perfect 👍😁. I’ve reduced resolution down to 720p and that works Well.
Thanks for helpful Guide.
Thanks Andy! Yes, 720p works best for the Raspberry Pi 3. At that resolutions it should be flawless. 🙂
Versions of the plugins have changed. I found them at:
https://github.com/castagnait/repository.castagnait/raw/master/repository.castagnait-1.0.1.zip
https://github.com/Sandmann79/xbmc/releases/download/Repository/repository.sandmann79-py3.plugins-1.0.0-matrix.zip
I let your script run, it set up the stuff before this, then I went into the /addons directory, and used wget to fetch both of those files.
The rest of the procedure shouldn’t care, once you have zip files to extract the repos from.
Thanks for puting this together, I hope my update on the names of the upstream files is helpful to others.
Dave Hinz
This is great, thank you Dave! I will update the guide as soon as I can. Appreciate you posting this here.
Hi !
First of all thank you, works perfectly for Netflix. However, I still have some problems with Amazon VOD .. I install the repo, and when I try to install the add-on, it says that there is a problem with dependency for xbmc-python version 3.0.0, I even re-install OSMC on my rasp 3b+ after re-format the SD card thinking it might solve the problem but still the same error. Could you help me ? I’m really new to OSMC !
Ok I found where was the problem sorry for the inconvenience.
For people that might be interested : The repo that Dave Hinz posted above (thank you for your contribution anyway) for Amazon VOD was “Matrix” so for kodi version 19 and above.
With the last version of osmc that I found with the installer the latest kodi version was 18.6 (Leia). I add to remove the repo Matrix and install the other ( https://github.com/Sandmann79/xbmc/releases/download/Repository/repository.sandmann79.plugins-1.0.3-leia.zip ). Afterward I could install it. It is important to uninstall the other repo otherwise the problem with remains even with the two repo installed !
Thanks Geoffrey and David, now updated to the latest repos!
I got things installed, but when I started an episode on Amazon VOD it said “inputstream.adaptive required”. I couldn’t find this in any of the add-on repositories, and when I looked at the kodi.wiki it said that I had to do it from the Add-on Manager. I followed directions, but could never find the file.
Suggestions?
Hey Jon, I just did a fresh install today without issue on a Raspberry Pi 3. I did see under the Kodi Repo, in Program Addons that InputStream Helper was installed. What type of system are you installing on?
Amazing piece of work. I tried others, and this is the first success. HOWEVER… I am trying to stay away from Windows (TM), and Google (Android, Chrome OS). I am just fed up, not with basic usage history, but rabid, relentless, 50 -200 times an hour snooping, and gathering information not needed “just because we can” and we may use it later, and we will be as “discrete” (sneaky) as we can, and the Federal Government won’t stop us because they secretly LOVE what we do. I do not see any Windows, here but Google is all over it. But really, thank you for the excellent instruction. (I block Gravitar too. They follow you around the web snooping).
Hi Donald, glad it worked for you! I know what you mean about the snooping! I do use google analytics here on this site, but its for my curiosity. It lets me know if people actually visit and if I should bother keeping the site going. I don’t advertise or anything other then get the odd donation. I have a piHole ad blocker here at my home and it blocks a ton of traffic going to advertisers. I think right now its around 13% of all my internet traffic, and I am currently working from home. Its pretty crazy how much gets farmed.
I originally saw a guide where you also mention Plex. In this updated version you only mention Netflix and Prime. As Hulu was mentioned in comments, I understand that Plex can also be installed as an add-on with this same (very simple!) guide?
Also, you mention one needs “lots of space” to install widevine. Starting from a clean OSMC install, which SD card would you suggest? An 8GB would be enough?
Hey Igor, yes this still works with Plex. Plex is actually added in the main Kodi Repository so it will always be available without any additional repositories added like needed for Netflix and Amazon Video. And to your second question, yes 8gb should be large enough I think although I haven’t tested that. 16 would be for sure, but you may get away with an 8gig if its a fresh installation.The image needed for widevine gets removed once installed so the space does free back up.
I had my Pi3 all setup and working with your first procedure. Than put away for a long time (wrong move). When I restarted it and it did its updates programs stopped working. I did a clean install of of OSMC ver 18.8-159 and all updates. I now had OSMC 18.8-159 and Kodi 19.0-Alpha1 running. Ran your new script and system rebooted and I got the following message – “The following addons are incompatible with this version of Kodi and have been automatically disabled: Elementtree XML parser, OSMC Common Code, Apps, Logging, Networking, Pi, Remotes, Services, Updates, My OSMC” Not sure what to do next.
Found my problem – changed gmc-18 to gmc-19, rebuilt with gmc-18 setting and have OSMC 187-1-2 and Kodi 187. Everything is working again.
Does this work with Kodi 19.X running on macOS 10.13.X?