Netflix broken with latest update

[pieinthesky]

Hi,

Just updated to the latest version of vivaldi. I tried watching Netflix and I now get an error:

It thinks I'm running Chrome and maybe that is the issue, though it worked before. Only thing I can think of is that I did something a few months ago, can't quite remember what, to fool Whatsapp into thinking the browser was Chrome so that it would run.

[AltCode]

@Gwen-Dragon I'm having the same problem as here. I have tried to update the component, but every time I do, I get the messege "Status - Component not updated".

[xyzzy]

@pieinthesky Thanks for the report. Confirmed. Netflix works fine for me with an internal test build but I get the same error as you with Vivaldi 2.8.1664.40 (Stable). I've asked the internal Mac testers to try testing this as well.

FYI, chrome://components also works fine in Vivaldi for downloading the Widevine component.

[xyzzy]

FYI, another Mac user has filed a bug report for this issue (VB-58183) and I've confirmed it.

[xyzzy]

Hi, everybody. I just wanted to pass on a quick update. It looks like this issue was caused by the following change:

[macOS] Enable signing with notarization

This was done to make Vivaldi compatible with the new signing requirements in macOS 10.15. Unfortunately, the stricter signing also introduced a conflict with the Widevine CDM component.

The Vivaldi team hopes to have a fix ready very soon. However, if you need to get Netflix (and other sites requiring Widevine) working immediately and do not require the other fixes in Vivaldi 2.8 Update 2, it should be safe to downgrade from Vivaldi 2.8.1664.40 to the previous release:

https://downloads.vivaldi.com/stable/Vivaldi.2.8.1664.36.dmg

[dacodanelson]

Thanks @xyzzy! Using the previous version in your linked .dmg and both Prime Video and Netflix are working fine.

Also useful side-note for everyone else: unlike some downgrades this appears to still check for updates properly so make sure you don't upgrade to the newest version again when it prompts until the next release.

[pieinthesky]

Thank you everyone for the quick responses and resolution! Love Vivaldi and this community

[xyzzy]

Thanks, everyone, for reporting the problem and for testing the workaround!

It was truly fortunate that this happened with an update release that only contained a few bug fixes. That's why downgrading was an available option this time. Vivaldi 2.8.1664.40 and 2.8.1664.36 were both based on the same version of Chromium, and none of the fixes made any structural changes to the underlying configuration files or any other data in the Vivaldi profile.

[Ruarí]

Please upgrade to 2.8.1664.43 via “Vivaldi → Check for updates”, where the issue should now be resolved.