How to make Netflix playback on Linux easier with ElectronPlayer

For Linux users, accessing Netflix requires installing Google Chrome. Sadly, Google doesn’t make installing their browser on Linux easy for new users. Additionally, the open source alternative that many Linux operating systems offer doesn’t support proprietary video services such as Netflix. As a result, Netflix playback on Linux can be irritating.

There’s a better way to gain access to Netflix on Linux through an app called ElectronPlayer. It uses the Electron framework to provide the user with an easy to use Netflix player. In this guide, we’ll show you how to get it going on your system.

Note: to stream Netflix on Linux with ElectronPlayer, you must have a paid subscription to the Netflix service. To get set up with an account, go to the homepage in your favorite web browser.

Install ElectronPlayer

ElectronPlayer is installable on Linux through the Arch Linux AUR, a Snap package, and an AppImage. To get the application working on your particular setup, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard and follow the command-line instructions below.

Arch Linux AUR

To get ElectronPlayer working via the AUR, start by installing both the Base-devel and Git packages. These packages are recommended for building things via the Arch Linux AUR.

sudo pacman -S base-devel git

With the Git and Base-devel packages taken care of, it’s time to get the Trizen AUR helper application up and running. The reason we need this app is that it makes building and installing many dependencies a whole lot quicker.

To install Trizen, download via git clone and then use makepkg to compile the source code.

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git
cd trizen
makepkg -sri

With the Trizen AUR helper application set up, use it to install ElectronPlayer on your system.

trizen -S electronplayer

Snap

If you’re not an Arch Linux user, but you have the Snapd runtime working on your Linux PC, you’ll be able to get access to ElectronPlayer via a Snap package.

Installing EletronPlayer from the Snap store is quickly done with the snap install command. Using the command-line operation below, grab the latest release of ElectronPlayer.

Note: don’t know how to set up Snaps on your Linux PC? Follow our guide to learn how to set up Snaps! Alternatively, check out Ubuntu, as it comes with Snap package support out of the box.

sudo snap install electronplayer

AppImage

There’s a downloadable AppImage file available for those that want access to ElectronPlayer but don’t use Snaps. To get it working, you won’t need to install any dependencies or anything like that. Instead, go to your terminal window and use the wget command to download the latest version.

wget https://github.com/oscartbeaumont/ElectronPlayer/releases/download/v2.0.4/electronplayer.2.0.4.AppImage

With the AppImage done downloading, create an “AppImage” folder in your home directory, place the ElectronPlayer AppImage inside, and update the permissions.

mkdir -p ~/AppImages

mv electronplayer.*.AppImage ~/AppImages

chmod +x mv electronplayer.*.AppImage

Once everything is taken care of, open up the AppImage by double-clicking on it in the “AppImage” folder using your Linux file manager, or, with the command below.

./electronplayer.*.AppImage

Watch Netflix with ElectronPlayer

To access Netflix in ElectronPlayer, start by opening up the application. To run the application, check the “Multimedia” section of your app-menu on the desktop. Or, if you can’t find it, press Alt + F2 and type the command in below and press Enter to open.

electronplayer

As soon as the ElectronPlayer application opens up on the Linux desktop, you’ll see a pop-up screen. This screen will instruct you to “choose a streaming service.” Locate the Netflix logo and click on it with the mouse to run the app in Netflix streaming mode.

Once ElectronPlayer is in Netflix streaming mode, it’ll load the Netflix home page and show a login window. Using this window, fill out your Netflix login credentials. Then, click the “sign in” button to load up the service.

Assuming you’re able to gain access to your Netflix account, select your user in the Netflix interface and select something to watch! To exit Netflix, close the window, or, return to the menu with Ctrl + H.

Access other services

ElectronPlayer is mainly used by Linux users to access Netflix with ease. That said, it also supports other streaming services, such as YouTube, Twitch, and Floatplane.

YouTube

To access YouTube in the ElectronPlayer application, press Ctrl + H to show the main menu for the app. After that, select the “YouTube” icon. You’ll then be able to browse and experience YouTube in the app!

Twitch

Want to watch your favorite game streamers on the desktop? Open ElectronPlayer and access the menu with Ctrl + H. From there, click on the Twitch logo and you’ll be watching your favorite Twitch gamers in seconds!

Floatplane

With ElectronPlayer, you can watch your favorite Floatplane creators by pressing Ctrl + H and then clicking on the FP logo in the app.

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