Posts by Smojo

Quote from chewitt

your too-long and incorrect thread title

Sorry for that - not a pro in these topics. Just wanted to learn something and connect some dots.
My actual intention was, not to become an Hardware/OS expert.
There was more like a little fear, that my Pi4 might become useless for streaming apps soon, because of some 32Bit-Widewine dependency (and so I already looked for some alternatives for a little Kodi Box).

So thanks for explanation -> I learned that this is actually not the case (anymore - since LE2)

My takeaway / in my words:

• LE12 uses the aarch64 Widewine lib
  (which is shipped with Google's ChromeOS, since 2 years or so, and will be shipped -> "future proof" situation)
• there is no dependency (anymore) to the "arm" (32Bit) userspace
• LE now uses aarch64 (ISA - Instruction Set Architecture - a CPU can support several) -> this enables it to use the 64Bit Widewine Lib
  (no 32 Bit needed or any compatibility layers or whatever - idk if this was the case in LE10 [btw. updated from LE10 to LE12 yesterday -> all went smooth] or if it was 64Bit there already and just the linked Inputstream Helper Bug .. anyway)

So I guess this thread can be closed now. All questions answered and no fears / uncertainties about the future of my Pi4 hardware anymore (at least from the Widewine pov ) Thx again!

----------------
Read some more stuff and learned that the Pi4 (wikipedia-link) SoC has a ARM Cortex A72 (wikipedia link) CPU which has the ISA ARMv8-A (wikipedia link). This ISA supports aarch32 (probably used until LE11) and aarch64 (used in LE12) "execution mode".

Quote from Da Flex

RPi4 and RPi5 are using 64 bit LibreELEC with 64 bit Widevine now (LE12+). That's a future-proved setup.

Hm ok, thats good news and a relief!

Out of interest:
Is there any link, where I can read, how this is implemented? How does LibreELEC solve, that there is actually no 64-Bit Widewine for arm chips, what is the magic behind, that the 64-Bit lib is accepted/can be used?

Hi,

recently I troubleshoot an issue with InputStream Helper (downloaded a wrong widewine lib, which brook nearly all the streaming services apps I use - Disney+, Netflix, RTL+ to name some -> read here about details: Widevine plugin does not works since last update).

I was wondering, if this means, on the long run, when Google will not release a 64Bit arm widewine (which seems they will not), LibreELEC on Raspberry Pi-s will always have to stick to the current way of using 32Bit widewine, even LibreELEC is 64Bit already. Also in the LibreELEC 12 release post, it does not sound like an issue:
LibreELEC (Omega) 12.0.2 - LibreELEC

Quote

If using Widevine to access DRM protected streaming services like Prime Video, Netflix, etc. the Widevine CDN folder in /storage/.kodi/cdm on switched devices must be deleted before first use as the existing arm libraries do not work on aarch64 systems. On first use after deletion aarch64 Widevine libraries will be downloaded and installed.

I'm still worried if Google stops releasing 32Bit widewine for arm (does the linked issue from the other thread maybe mean they already stopped?) and the last library gets too old/unsupported by the streaming services, there might be the day where the Pi-s Streaming time is over.

That said, I don't want to put too much topics into one thread, but maybe an x86-64 hardware would be more future proof. Any suggestion?
I don't want to put additional services on this systems, it should really only be a little streaming box connected to my (offline) Smart-TV.

Right now I run LibreELEC 10 (have to ugrade ) on a Pi4.

fixed on my own and described what I did in the already linked github issue:

I guess the thread can be closed again (don't have the permissions as a new user I guess)

Sorry for posting below this already resolved thread, but I actually face the very same issue.
The Problem is:
During troubleshooting this, I cleaned up nearly all directories related to widevine (downloads, backups, linked libs etc. ...).
So I cannot go back to a backup version.

Reinstall via InputStreamHelper Program-AddOn will just lead to the version, which is currently not working.

Is there a way to get the/a former working version manually?
InputStreamHelper Program-AddOn you can also provide a path to a zip of chromeos which you downloaded manually, and install that one.

Thx for any help.

Is there an issue I can add myself as a watcher to understand when I can go on and you the widevine update functionality again?

System Details (will provide version details later, when I have access to the system again) :
- Pi4
- LibreELEC
- Kodi
- depending Video-AddOns in use: Disney+, Netflix, RTL+, Amazon VOD