Show HN: Smartflix – Watch Netflix content from any country

[romaincointepas]

Hey,

I’ve just released the first beta of Smartflix, a Mac app that lets you easily watch Netflix content from any country.

Here are some of the key features: - The ENTIRE Netflix library (~14,000 movies & TV Shows episodes) - 1080p support (Google Chrome and Firefox only support 720p) - Manual quality selection - Media Keys support - Mini-player (this one is pretty cool)

Screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/Hb94s

Download link: https://dl.devmate.com/com.smartflix.Smartflix/Smartflix.dmg (Security note: the app is signed).

How it works It proxifies some www.netflix.com requests when needed to bypass location restrictions. The stream and most of the heavy other assets comes directly from Netflix. It is WAY better and safer than VPNs and “smart DNS” services (both potentially routing and/or intercepting every requests your computer makes at any time).

There is a live chat inside the app for feedback or support, if you have any questions or suggestions we can talk there.

By the way, all the Back to the Future movies are available right now. That’s what I will be watching tonight!

(PS: Windows version is coming soon) (PS 2: It is completely free for now, until you guys and I are satisfied with the quality of the app)

[benologist]

I think you are missing an opportunity by making this only work on macs, even with a windows release. We use http://www.adfreetime.com which is a dns server that circumvents region restrictions and the value of doing it at that level is you can put it in your router and then all your netflix devices are covered - only covering a computer just isn't representative of how we (prob. most people?) watch netflix.

[romaincointepas]

Yes, that's the trade-off here basically. The experience of browsing/searching/selecting a movie to then switch DNS is quite paintful, but works on TV. Smartflix is one-click-play, but doesn't.

But you are definitely right when saying that most people watch Netflix on TV.

[benologist]

Maybe you could set your software up so people can configure their router to point at the computer with your software so other devices can access it as the dns server?

[romaincointepas]

There are already plenty of services offering smart DNS solutions (Unotelly, unblockus), I think I will stay in my corner with my simple click-and-play desktop app :)

But yeah, your solution would definitely work, but would be impossible to understand/setup for the non-techy users.

[radoslawc]

Hi! Maybe you can provide some technical details? What's "helper application" it tries to install on first run? Any source code available?

[romaincointepas]

The helper app is there to update proxies for www.netflix.com requests while watching a movie. As soon as you stop playing the movie it removes that specific proxy rule. It is better and safer than the common "smart DNS" trick because it does not route nor intercept requests to other domains.

Also, I will remove this helper in the incoming version (found a better way).