RSSNew Netflix player uses Silverlight to reach Mac, Linux
By Tim Conneally | Published October 27, 2008, 1:20 PM
As perhaps the most abundant example to date of the platform's HD streaming capability, Netflix announced today that its "instant view" streams will be made available to non-Windows users through Microsoft Silverlight.
With Netflix placing increased emphasis on its streaming and instantly viewable library, a large swath of users has still largely been neglected. Though queues could be assembled in any browser and then viewed with one of the connected set-top devices, those without Windows Media Player 11 could not stream Netflix content directly to their computers.
If Mac users attempted to stream a film to their OS X desktop, a message popped up, saying, "We're required to use Digital Rights Management to protect movies watched instantly online, and right now we only have approval for this protection on Windows Operating systems, not the Mac. Apple does not license their DRM solution to third parties, which has made this more difficult, but we are working with the studios and content owners to gain approval for other solutions. As soon as a studio-approved DRM for the Mac is available to us, whether from Apple or another source, we will move quickly to provide a movie viewer that enables you to watch movies from Netflix instantly on your Mac."
Soon, with the aid of Silverlight's integrated PlayReady DRM, Intel-based Mac users will be able to stream their chosen content.
The initial rollout of the second-generation Netflix player will be only to a small segment of new subscribers, but is anticipated to reach all subscribers by the end of 2008.
The regular Netflix instant viewer works fine on a Mac if you run Internet Explorer in a VMWare Fusion virtual machine.
Maybe not a reason to go out and buy Fusion but if you've got it, it works fine. But Fusion is well worth the $60 or so.
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|Who watches movies anymore, period? The quality is just not there. How many times can you watch the same plot (or lack thereof) wrapped in a slightly different package and feel like your using your time well? I feel bad for people who "watch" their precious lives drain away in meaningless distraction. I think they must have little idea of what it's really worth.
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|You can't be serious. It really is a pretty simple concept. In case you've never heard of it, it's called fiction. It's a fairly old concept that does indeed involve a small number of core plots rehashed in new ways to provide entertainment that is relevant within a particular social and technological context.
Of course maybe you are one of those rare individuals who never need to relax with some "meaningless distraction" to recover from the stress endemic to our society.
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|Why in the world would i want to put Microsoft's proprietary Silverturd on my Mac? No thanks.
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|Yeah, by all means don't!
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|why should PC users have to put itunes on their belived PC? bloat/nagware.
you mac users are for the most part, all the same, sad really =]
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|Silverlight is an excellent non-legacy platform.
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|Mac sucks!! Mac users think they are really cool just because of cool looking Macs. But their OS--crap OS X is really a crap. Just a big waste of money on hardware. Apple iTunes is a bloatware. Just another crap from rotten Apple.
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|Hey indi....If it wasn't for those 'dark days' when Microsoft was nice enough to be like the only company to actually write software for macs, Apple would cease to exist right now. Not to mention the 150 million dollar gift Microsoft gave them...But i wouldn't expect an ignorant mac user to know any different anyway.....and I'm sure Netflix (like Microsoft) isn't going to sweat not having your business.
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|best answer ever on the subject and I own a few mac!
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|Thats ok....silverlight is way better than Quicktime or whatever other crap Mac video player anyway.
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|I remember the dark days when one couldn't escape using Microsoft products on the Mac. We needed them for browsing, email, office work... The last few years, thanks largely to the efforts of many fine FOSS developers, I have been able to pare the MS crap on my Mac down to just codecs for wmv and wma files. I will not go back! Netflix will just have to live without my business!
I hope I'm not alone...
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|well you're an idiot, PC users have to install apples itunes in order to enjoy itunes music store.
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|You are not alone. There is one born every minute.
I kid, I kid...
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|Linux? Tim Conneally must be high.
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|Silverlight is called Moonlight on Linux.
http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight
I presume it works with DRM media, but I don't know for sure.
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|i think netflix is doing this to annoy apple users =] i love it.
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|Sadly it had to come in the form of Silver Light but Silverlight supports the DRM of current windows media drm. Which allows them to easily convert them for mac and linux users without having to encode new copies of their movies. Thought they should cause most of them are horrible quality even when set to highest available.
I will enjoy having netflix on my mac as I can watch netflix while in airports and also at school when I am in between classes and want some background noise other then my music.
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