Netflix Silverlight Streaming Beta Now Available for Mac Users

[phasornc]

Better than the old Windows only system

This is pretty huge. I had Silverlight 2 on my machine already to watch MLBtv, and Netflix just started up instantly. I remember the old system on Windows had several steps to the install, update Media Player, download some codec, down something else and eventually it worked. I think MS actually got their act together for Silverlight 2.
Still can't wait for MovieLink/Blockbuster to follow suit. I hope Silverlight will allow a scheme for rentals and not just streaming, as you I can't really stream good 720p video into my house.
But actually all I really want it Apple to get more content and some better rental terms, sometimes 24hours is just not enough.

 

[Michael CM1]

For those looking at the Roku, I noticed that a couple of Blu-ray Disc players can play Netflix streaming video as well. I think they were both $350, which isn't too attractive since I have found a couple of BD Live-ready players for $200 online. But most "regular" priced players are $300, so it's not that bad of a deal.

As far as this being "the future," it's not bad. This, along with iTunes rentals, will probably revolutionize video rentals. The streaming makes Netflix a MUCH better bargain. For $10, I will get that unlimited on one computer, and I can get most any DVD or Blu-ray out there. Considering the "old" TV out there that I haven't watched yet, I plan on testing the limits of my connection!

This will also keep me from buying bad movies just based on a guess. If I LOVE a movie (hello, Dark Knight), I can pop down the money for it on Blu-ray or DVD.

 

[contractcooker]

Very cool

I'm trying this out on the bus with my EVDO rev.a card. The streaming quality is quite good and the buffering only took a couple of seconds. So far I've heard only negative things about silverlight but it seems ok to me. Anyone who thinks negatively of Silverlight... why? I'm curious to know what the deal is and why netflix went with it.

tb

 

[Michael CM1]

I'm trying this out on the bus with my EVDO rev.a card. The streaming quality is quite good and the buffering only took a couple of seconds. So far I've heard only negative things about silverlight but it seems ok to me. Anyone who thinks negatively of Silverlight... why? I'm curious to know what the deal is and why netflix went with it.

tb

I had issues previous to use it about it being a Microsoft product and a crappily named product. But after using it, it doesn't seem that bad. I had one problem viewing videos last night that I don't think was related to software.

As far as the people complaining about the problems, two words: PUBLIC BETA. It's going to have issues, and Netflix told you so up front. Stop acting like it's supposed to be perfect.

I would also like to know why people are so objected to Web sites using Flash and Silverlight. What else would they use for such a service? No, they don't work on most mobile phones, but mobile browsing obviously has issues with working around this stuff just based on batteries. Face the facts that you can't do EVERYTHING on the iPhone Safari. Sometimes, an itty bitty device can't conquer the world.

 

[sam_dlg]

I switched from Blockbuster to Netflix for this

...and am quite impressed with video quality (you go Microsoft Silverlight!) and experience overall.

My wife and I are sad to leave blockbuster...but this just makes sooo much more sense for us.

 

[/dev/toaster]

I would also like to know why people are so objected to Web sites using Flash and Silverlight. What else would they use for such a service? No, they don't work on most mobile phones, but mobile browsing obviously has issues with working around this stuff just based on batteries. Face the facts that you can't do EVERYTHING on the iPhone Safari. Sometimes, an itty bitty device can't conquer the world.

Pretty simple, both are proprietary systems that only promote vendor lockin. Sure, Microsoft has a Mac and Linux version ... but for how long. Microsoft has 1 interest, eliminating Linux and Mac. I would not be surprised at all if it was discontinued for all but Windows in 3 years. (*IF* it takes off, but chances are it won't since its another failed Microsoft experiment)

Flash is the same crap, you need to bow to Adobe and do things the way they want. That includes purchasing very expensive applications to develop flash. If they remove or modify how flash works, you are screwed and have no options. Flash also performs VERY poorly on Linux and pretty bad on Mac. Firefox 3 has boosted the performance of flash quite a bit, but it still sucks.

 

[Snowy_River]

...Do you understand that it substantially increases development costs - and therefore decreases return-on-investment - for a company to support both PPC and Intel? Exactly how much money do you think they stand to make from devoting significant resources to support a fraction (PPC) of a fraction (Mac) of the total Netflix userbase?

Just to drive this point a little farther home, Netflix isn't responsible for doing this. The responsible party is Microsoft. Silverlight 2 is Intel only. Silverlight 1 was available on PPC, but not v2. Netflix needed the capabilities of v2 to handle the DRM requirements that the movie industry laid on them. So, Netflix had no choice about making this compatible with PPC.

Silverlight ?! WTF are they smoking ? The number of sites requiring flash is bad enough, Silverlight is only going to make things worse.

Sorry, lost all interest in Netflix streaming. (I admit my interest was low since there is very little quality content on Netflix streaming)

And what would you have them use to stream their videos? They really only had two options: Flash with DRM or Silverlight. Frankly, from what I've seen of Silverlight, and from some drawn-out experiences with Flash video, they've made the right choice. Based on my experience so far with Silverlight, it's not much of a resource hog. This is a stark contrast to Flash.

As far as the people complaining about the problems, two words: PUBLIC BETA. It's going to have issues, and Netflix told you so up front. Stop acting like it's supposed to be perfect.

You beat me to the punch. I can't believe the way that people are complaining about the service, when it's stated up front that this is a beta and problems are to be expected. If you want to have the service perfect, then wait a few months for them to release the v1.0 of their service. Sheesh.

 

[Snowy_River]

Pretty simple, both are proprietary systems that only promote vendor lockin. Sure, Microsoft has a Mac and Linux version ... but for how long. Microsoft has 1 interest, eliminating Linux and Mac. I would not be surprised at all if it was discontinued for all but Windows in 3 years. (*IF* it takes off, but chances are it won't since its another failed Microsoft experiment)

Flash is the same crap, you need to bow to Adobe and do things the way they want. That includes purchasing very expensive applications to develop flash. If they remove or modify how flash works, you are screwed and have no options. Flash also performs VERY poorly on Linux and pretty bad on Mac. Firefox 3 has boosted the performance of flash quite a bit, but it still sucks.

And if the other option is that they don't offer streaming at all? A company like Netflix isn't going to have the capital to create their own proprietary streaming system with DRM. So either they choose one of these systems or they don't offer streaming at all. And, as you pointed out, Flash doesn't run very well on Macs, so Silverlight is the natural choice.

 

[chewietobbacca]

I've used Silverlight with MLB.com for a while (they were one of the first big sites to switch to it, iirc) and i've always had a good experience with it. It definitely is not the resource hog that Flash is and it is very smooth from my experience.

 

[cohibadad]

Are you at all familiar with what's going on in TV land, pal?

I give it by the new year, tops.

As a matter of fact, pal, yes I am but I'd love to hear your insights. It could easily appear as a hack if that is what you are suggesting. Lack of H.264 kept regular flash based youtube off iPhone and TV and I'd say the same applies to Silverlight until/if it supports it. And what interest would Apple have in implementing/supporting Netflix on TV? To reap the amazing profit margins they make selling TVs? Cuz Apple is all about supplying low cost appliances for other companies to make a profit off of in direct competition.

 

[alphaod]

I think I'm ready to reinstate my account again.

 

[sleepingworker]

Crashed Safari the first time and then worked great. So happy that this has finally come to the mac. Started finally watching Dexter - finally!

The instant viewing library will just get better and better for any that are worried that there's not enough content (although for me there's plenty).

 

[gtNY]

I am extremely impressed. It took a few seconds to download silverlight, and that was it, I started streaming an episode of "Heroes" and it played perfectly. No problems at all I am so excited, I am going to watch "Born into Brothels" tonight.

 

[Michael CM1]

I think I'm ready to reinstate my account again.

I'm a newbie to it (signed up for a trial last week), and I already think it'll be a good investment. I watched 10 episodes of 30 Rock, and the quality seems to be just about DVD-quality. I'm starting out with the one-disc subscription, but friends are telling me I'll quickly want more than that.

Now I just need a way to stream it to my TV. Too bad those BD players that do it are $350.

 

[DaBrain]

I'm a newbie to it (signed up for a trial last week), and I already think it'll be a good investment. I watched 10 episodes of 30 Rock, and the quality seems to be just about DVD-quality. I'm starting out with the one-disc subscription, but friends are telling me I'll quickly want more than that.

Now I just need a way to stream it to my TV. Too bad those BD players that do it are $350.

Get a Roku box! There just $99! I got one for my mom they day they were released, works great on her flatr screen 35 inch sony widescreen.

 

[tomtaylormsft]

Glad to hear that most of you are having a good experience with the Netflix site. I wanted to respond to a couple of questions / comments in this thread:

Well, M$ strikes again. I can't install Silverlight 2.0 on my C2D SR Macbook Pro . I am running Leopard 10.5.5 and the installer keeps saying I have a powerpc which is NOT true.

I tried it, but when I got to the screen where I had to install Microsoft Silverlight, I installed it. The screen then said to refresh my browser to start playing the movie (after I installed it). I did that and I even exited and went back through to the movie through Netflix.com, but it keeps saying to "install now".

I even went on the Microsoft Silverlight website, and under install, it told me that I have the latest version. So I went back to Netflix.com and tried again. No luck. I even tried with a different movie. Still no luck.

So I restarted my computer and everything, but now I am getting an error 8007 message stating that "I need to enable Silverlight application storage in order to watch this movie." And whenever I right click, it tries to open, but it quits unexpectedly.

Can you both contact me privately (you should be able to send me mail through the forum), and I'll see if I can help you out.

Silverlight, ugh. That's reason enough not to use it.

I'm not so concerned about competition with Apple or Adobe or their technologies - more competition = good, bring it on - rather, it's more to do with Microsoft's semi-developed Mac products, partial commitment to the platform, and limited feature parity.

Firstly, was Silverlight actually done by the MacBU, or is it like WMP for Mac, which was developed by the nongs in the Media Player group? And how long will it actually last, before Microsoft loses interest and dumps the Mac version, to "consolidate their products and focus on their core apps" like they do every now and then? How invested do people want to get when Microsoft don't have a great track record in keeping things going? And how many Netflix features will be missing, types of videos will be unavailable, and options will be "coming soon"?

Color me skeptical, but that's my $0.04.

The Silverlight team started in the Windows Division but now lives in the Developer Division - it's not a Macintosh-specific product but rather it's a platform-agnostic developer technology. We (Silverlight) spend a lot of time investing in the capabilities and performance of our product across *all* supported platforms, and will continue to do so. The Netflix player looks (and works) great on both my MacBook and my Windows desktop, all the way up to the highest resolution / bitrate video that they offer.

I do understand where this sentiment comes from - as a long-time Apple user, I've also been through the Word 6 / IE for Mac / Windows Media Player days. I think that we are in a very different world now, though, where developers and end users expect the same experience and performance across platforms wherever it makes sense. As a software platform for rich, cross-browser, and cross-platform applications, it would do our customers a disservice to offer something less on OS X.

Mine's doing that also, and I remember a few months ago, I had 3 bars, or excellent, or whatever the top speed is.

I think Netflix might be throttling everything down while they're doing all this testing. Hopefully it'll go back soon. It used to look pretty good on my roommate's TV, but the last movie I watched, before the silverlight thing, looked horrible.

Not all videos are available in all bitrates (yet) - it takes a while to encode all of that video. You can tell what's available via the ctrl+shift+option+s menu.

So, what's the sound format for this? Just stereo sound, or is 5.1 available? Does Silverlight even do 5.1?

Silverlight can consume 5.1 audio but will fold it down to stereo.

thanks!

- Tom

Tom Taylor | Microsoft Silverlight

 

[drdunkyn]

Can't wait to try this!

For those of you international users, Netflix isn't officially available to those outside of the USA. You get this message if you try to watch a film with a Netflix account from abroad.

I'm in Norway however and used a (really annoying but free) program called Hotspot Shield, which I think is essentially a proxy, and it managed to shield my IP address so I could watch a movie and it seems to be working (it tricks Netflix into thinking you have an american ISP).

The problem is, HotSpot Shield slows your connection down significantly and I think it also lessens the quality of the movie (because Silverlight seems to auto detect your connection speed and then adjust the quality accordingly). But, I'm watching Spiderman 3 and it looks fine (on a 13" screen it looks like iTunes quality). This is the only way I've figured out so far to get Netflix/Silverlight to work from abroad but I'm thinking there must be a better way, but this way is easy at least. Worth the free trial at least if you watch a lot of flicks on your computer.

Edit: Just noticed a workaround/trick for the slow HotSpot Shield speed... Sign up for Netflix with HotSpot Shield turned on. After you're logged in, click on the movie you want to stream. When it starts loading, disconnect HotSpot Shield and the movie will load at your normal ISP speed. It's not ideal but it definitely works fine and beats the movie rental prices abroad by a whole bunch.

What a great idea!! As an American living in Japan, and being associated with a military base, I have been getting DVD's through Netflix for years (using our FPO/AP address), but was disappointed I could never get the streaming videos since it saw our IP address as Japan. I'll be giving this a try on our new MacBook tonight...hope it works.

 

[Freis968]

Previously I had stated that the video and audio were out of sync.

I was using Safari and I thought perhaps that could have been the issue since some of you mentioned you were using FireFox.

Well, tonight I tried again with Safari and put on Southern Comfort, great old Cajun movie...DID! And I can say it worked perfectly. No out of sync issue and the quality was very good, I was able to jump quickly ahead with lightning fast buffering AND some of you may not have noticed but if you grab the scrubber a bunch of thumbnails of the movie pop up and you can jump ahead...very cool! [see attached]

I guess so many people were trying the beta out last night that it caused some clogging of the network, on my end anyway.

 

[severe]

As a matter of fact, pal, yes I am but I'd love to hear your insights. It could easily appear as a hack if that is what you are suggesting...

All sarcasm aside, it is what I was suggesting and it's already been accomplished.

 

[Royale w/cheese]

Glad to hear that most of you are having a good experience with the Netflix site...

Good to see Developers interacting with us common folk. Thanks for the info, but how can we get this to work on some older powerpc boxes?

 

[Cylonkita]

I was wondering when the streaming Starz channel will work, has anyone heard, I looked around and can not find ?

 

[Mr Kram]

i just download the beat for my macbook and to me, the video is better than on my imac. is it my imagination? also, i just downloaded silverlight for my pc at work and cannot access the netflix server. is the server down or did my install go awry?

 

[bobfitz14]

my dad signed up for Netflix last week, and later that day I got an email from Xbox Newsletter saying how i can watch movies/tv through my 360 when the new update comes (Nov 19th?, can't remember).

i'm puuuuumped!

 

[tonyl]

Hope they provide Closed Caption.

 

[tomtaylormsft]

Good to see Developers interacting with us common folk. Thanks for the info, but how can we get this to work on some older powerpc boxes?

Unfortunately it won't. Silverlight 2 isn't available for PowerPC Macs, and the necessary DRM support for Netflix (as mandated by many of the movie studios) isn't available in Silverlight 1.

- Tom