Linux Friendly Video Streaming Websites

The website lv.tedsblog.org contains links to video streaming websites that meet the criteria listed below.  The site is intended for use with a computer or other device that is connected to a TV and running a web browser.  It uses a large font size and is navigable using the arrow and enter keys in addition to using a mouse, and this makes it suitable for use with a TV remote from approximately 10 feet away from the TV screen.  The site consists of three pages -- an internet only sites page, a broadcast channel sites page, and a cable channel sites page.  Also, the site does not use cookies, and no login is needed.

Website Inclusion Criteria

Please help with additional links to other video streaming sites.  If you know of a website that meets the criteria below and is not included or one that is noncompliant, please let me know in the comments below.  Also, if you notice an error or one of the included websites is not working, please let me know.

• Contains streaming video and works with Ubuntu and other similar Linux distributions
• Works with Chrome, Chromium or Firefox with no significant modification to the browser needed
• Accessible in the United States
• Not a local only website such as a local news website

Noncompliant Websites

There are millions of Ubuntu users worldwide according to ubuntu.com, and that is just one Linux distribution.  Despite the large and growing number of Linux desktop operating system users, the owners of the sites below have made it impossible or difficult to stream video using a browser on Linux.

• Hulu
• Comcast (video on demand)
• Peacock
• Vudu

Using a Browser with Hardware Video Acceleration

As of the writing of this blog post, Chrome and Firefox do not support VA-API hardware acceleration for Linux.  A Chromium beta build that is kept updated, however, is available with VA-API enabled for Ubuntu from launchpad.net/~saiarcot895.  Chromium beta builds are not officially intended for regular use.  To install Chromium beta with VA-API, open a terminal and enter the following:

1. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:saiarcot895/chromium-beta
2. sudo apt-get update
3. sudo apt install chromium-browser