You Cannot Stream Star Trek: Picard on Linux Without This Workaround
It’s 2020 and you think it will be easy to stream any content you want to any device you want, especially this new Picard series on CBS All Access. If you’re an uber geek who loves both Star Trek and Linux, you’re out of luck. With the joys of digital rights management or DRM, you can’t use the CBS All Access service to stream Picard on Linux.
In a cruel twist, not only can’t you stream the show, you can stream all the bullshit that goes around it. As Jim Salter of Ars Technica describes :
“Back in one of my PCs, I was quickly able to confirm the problem: the trailers play correctly, and even the ads work, but real content won’t play on a Linux desktop in any browser, including Google Chrome. Looking in the Chrome Web console, we can see the error HTTP 400 (Bad Request) when the browser tries to obtain a license from the server side Widevine the CBS ».
The most tech-savvy of you will probably assume that you can simply change your browser’s user agent to trick CBS All Access into thinking that you are using a supported platform. Not this way. (Salter tried this too.) For some reason, Widevine and CBS All Access do not work well with Linux, although other streaming services using Widevine have no problem.
The only workaround to this annoying issue, other than watching CBS All Access entirely on a different device, is to cancel your regular CBS All Access subscription and subscribe to the service through Amazon Prime Video instead. Yes, you need to be a current Amazon Prime member for this to work (at least in the US), which will already cost you $ 120 a year. After that, adding CBS All Access costs the same as if you signed up separately: $ 6 per month for limited ads or $ 10 per month for ad-free streaming.
This is, however, slightly more than you would pay if you signed up for the annual plan through CBS itself ($ 60 / year for limited ads and $ 100 / year for ad-free). Amazon does not offer these options, so this route is best if you only plan on having a couple of shows and then canceling your service. If you want to stick with CBS All Access for a long time, you can just try not watching it on Linux; a tablet, phone or smart TV app will save you more money.