Netflix finally brings 'Watch Instantly' to Macs via Silverlight
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Oct 26th 2008 9:44PM
posted Oct 26th 2008 9:44PM
MEDIA PLAYER FOR INSTANT STREAMING
ON WINDOWS PCs AND INTEL MACS
Based on Microsoft Silverlight, New Player Features Enhanced Dynamic Streaming, First-Time Use for Macs and
Breakthrough Navigation for Fast-Forward and Rewind
LOS GATOS, Calif., October 27, 2008 – Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), the world's largest online movie rental service, today announced it has begun the deployment of Microsoft Silverlight to enhance the instant watching component of the Netflix service and to allow subscribers for the first time to watch movies and TV episodes instantly on their Intel-based Apple Macintosh computers. The deployment, which will initially touch a small percentage of new Netflix subscribers, is the first step in an anticipated roll-out of the new platform to all Netflix subscribers by the end of the year.
Silverlight is designed for delivery of cross-platform, cross-browser media experiences inside a Web browser. It is expected that Netflix members who watch movies and TV episodes instantly on their computers will enjoy a faster, easier connection and a more robust viewing experience with Silverlight, due to the quality built directly into the player. Among the viewing enhancements with the new player is a breakthrough in timeline navigation that vastly improves the use of fast-forwarding and rewinding. The new Netflix player takes advantage of Play Ready DRM, which is built into Silverlight, for the playback of protected content on both Windows-based PCs and on Macs. That had not been possible with previous generation technologies.
"Silverlight with Play Ready offers a powerful and secure toolkit for delivery of dynamic streaming, which offers faster start-up, and higher quality video, adapted in real time to users' connection speeds," said Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt. "Members who enjoy watching movies and TV episodes from the growing library of choices that can be instantly streamed at Netflix will be thrilled with this next generation improvement of access and quality, on a broader range of platforms, including Intel Macs and Firefox."
Has hell has frozen over??
BTW, I'm still getting the "instant watching is currently not supported for Macintosh" message.
Ditto. I just went over there in excitement, and no indication as to how to do this.
Read the press release: "The deployment, which will initially touch a small percentage of new Netflix subscribers, is the first step in an anticipated roll-out of the new platform to all Netflix subscribers by the end of the year."
On a Mac. Like a normal person... except on a Mac.
Guess that means no Linux support... : (
Oh well I still can use the Media Server to stream Netflix to my PS3 when I'm not using Netflix for blu-ray
Silverlight's on Linux. It's called Moonlight. Miguel de Icaza posted about it a few weeks ago and getting the media codecs running under it (the key part to getting Netflix work): http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2008/Oct-03.html Should be coming together soon.
actually moonlight didnt work for the silverlight implementation of the olympics on nbc.com so it might not work unless they can fix moonlight.
Finally.
I still use my PowerBook G4...
and own an Xbox 360...
no HD DVD though, Mitsubishi from 1996 still going strong :D
LOL..hell yeah, Im stil holding on to mine too..AND a G5 tower..so hopefully they'll MAYBE make some adjustments for us purist? Maybe?
Im geez let me get my moneys worth out of it 1st...Not like theres anything to look forward to, since Apple is skimping on FW ports..chumps
Honestly I'm thinking of buying a used 360 HD-DVD since people are selling them so cheap, along with the discs.
Funny how it took a Microsoft technology to bring a service to Mac.
Also, calling Silverlight an "also ran" isn't exactly portraying it right. It's basically a day old in comparison to Flash and it's already appearing in more and more places.
Why is everyone acting like a bunch of retards? Macs have had this functionality for some time. It's called iTunes. Look it up.
iTunes is $0.99 - $4.99 for rentals... netflix watch instantly is.... free?
I'm only paying $8.99 a month. It's worth it considering I can get a DVD in the mail two days after I return the previous one and I can watch as many movies instantly as I want. The selection has gotten a lot better now that the Starz movies are there.
You're kidding yourself if you think Microsoft didn't pay to have Netflix use Silverlight instead of Flash.
Normally I wouldn't give any credence to the idea that Microsoft is being all shady (at least with this sort of thing), but for Netflix to use Silverlight to bring support for this to Macs, you know that AT MINIMUM Microsoft paid for programmers and equipment and made it AT LEAST cost neutral for Netflix if not profitable.
@John
The only one kidding himself is you. The movie studios required Netflix to use Silverlight because of the DRM. The Flash DRM has not been signed off by the studios. Silverlight DRM has.
Jeremy K: Actually you only get as many hours of Watch Instantly as you pay in $/month. So, you get 9 hours/month of Watch Instantly.
Jeremy, its actually unlimited.
Is there a way that I can get it on my account now? I've been waiting for this for freaking ages.
Friggin FINALLY.
Now I'm just impatiently sitting here for instructions on actually using the damn thing...
Though I really have had no issues running them through VMWare Fusion, it'll be nice to not have to go though the extra step.
Sliverlight? Someone get a tweezers!
Why was I ranked down, I wasn't making fun of the technology, I was pointing out a misspelling in the article....
Bad jokes get modded down too.
Silverlight. Wasn't that the same thing NBC used to stream the Olympics? Didn't really like it, didnt seem as flexible as flash.
And who really wants more MS in their computers?
Anyone who wants to watch Netflix movies online from their mac does.
sweet mother of pancakes that's some greyed out text. wise up buddy or you'll completely disappear!
Didn't really seem as flexible as flash?
So you can that from one app you've used, with no experience programming for it?
So...uhh...when they gonna' get around to supporting Firefox? Forcing users to use IE is sad, really. I have Netflix as IE's homepage because that's all I use it for.
haha me too
Considering IE for Mac is no longer available, and hadn't been since before the Intel mac existed, I'm going to assume you can use Safari for Windows with Netflix online too. I don't know this for sure. Safari for Windows isn't nearly as good as it is on Mac, but if it works in Safari chances are it works on WebKit, which is cross-platform and *very* fast. Keep in mind they put out nightly builds and could be buggy - www.webkit.org. I'd like to stress once again I don't know if this will work, just guessing.
I use the IE button Add-On within Firefox. Works fine for me.
Oh - and the last line of the press release mentioned Firefox as well
Silverlight runs in IE, Firefox, Safari and soon in whatever browser y'all use in Linux. So I'd expect that once Windows users get the new SL platform it'll work fine in Firefox.
Oh the irony...
haha the fanboys won't like this...!
What do you mean? Now I can finally get rid of that nasty Vista partition I was keeping around just to watch Netflix with. Fanboys can rejoice for that!
@Fanboy
And no body cares..
@Fanboy
Yeah. You had a copy of Vista partitioned just for Netflix.
The only thing worse than a troll is a lying troll...
so, of all the versions of windows you'd partition JUST to use netflix, you'd choose "nasty" Vista?
I'll file this with perpetual motion machines, under Bullshit.
someone said phanbouys?
Wait its only being deployed to a few people? I've been waiting forever and I still can't access it! WTF?!
I know right? "Hey sorry ChrisAre, we know you've been a subscriber for over two years, and have resisted the urge to switch to Blockbuster many times, but we're going w/ our new users right now... just hold on a LITTLE big longer!" Assholes.
Woohoo, I've been waiting forever for this!
Haha, just kidding. I own a normal computer and have always been able to watch my Netflix. In fact, I almost never have to worry if my operating system will work with something.
Me neither!
(Using 10.5/Linux)
You're missing out, have fun keeping it bland though.
That took a lot longer to get low ranked than I thought it would. I just felt like trolling for a change. I don't even subscribe to Netflix.
I'm actually pretty indifferent to OS X, I've used it on many occasions in different situations, and it's nice, but it's not for me (a sysadmin-I use a combination of Windows and Linux, and like both equally for different purposes). What I'm not indifferent to is Apple as a company and the 80% of Apple users who are mindless zombies drunk on Steve's Kool-Aid...I don't care for them at all.
More of the usual hate Microsoft crapola from Engadget that has been turning up lately. Why would I get rid of my XBOX HD DVD drive? Did it suddenly stop playing HD DVD disks now that the format has been killed off? I have a PS3, 360 HD DVD drive, and a LG combo HD DVD/Blu-ray player in my Vista (uh-oh, there is that evil, evil, word) Media Center, and in the 2 HD DVD capable players all my HD disks still play perfectly fine. Should I throw all my HD DVD disks away and rebuy the BD version just to keep you happy?
As for "also-ran", freely available tools to create Silverlight apps ($699 to Adobe to create Flash apps), and I don't need to keep Silverlight turned off like I do Flash being that Flash crashes more than a 5 year-old behind the wheel of that Escalade you hate so much.
agreed. from a dev standpoint the tools are much better, its cheaper, and you can use C# instead of UGH...actionscript..
also +1 about flash being buggy/crashing. #1 cause of all browser crashes
Freely available? Really?
Show me a freely available Silverlight creation tool for Mac or Linux. Not saying there is not one, just saying I have not seen anything but second class citizenship when it comes to M$ and their Silverlight crusade.
@Jamus
For Windows, you can download C# Express for free, and then download the Silverlight SDK.
For other platforms, simply visit the Mono web site (http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight) and download their tools.
Since you are so concerned about development on other platforms, can you tell me where I can download tools to develop for the iPhone on Windows?
@JerkfacedFed
In Flash, I name all my Actionscript layers "Actionshit". It helps the pain but a little.
Now, now... Stay on Silverlight and leave the iPhone trolling for another day. One bad intention/lock-in, does not solve another.
Microsoft's idea of giving content creators something to use that runs on anything other than Windows is not very good. The Moonlight page loves to go on about Linux support, but not Macs. And yes, Moonlight is an attempt to get Silverlight available on Linux systems better than anything Adobe ever did for Flash on Linux, but it still does not appear to be directly from Microsoft. If they are so proud of their new "open access" policy, tell them to put their money where their mouth is and cough up some true equal tools (I am looking at you Expression!).
@ Kamokazi - Normal computer at PC? You're probably under a rock or something. You are the one missing out. Just because software or online services aren't offered for Mac, doesn't mean that we don't currently enjoy something similar to it. The fact that Netflix and many other companies see it worth the investment of adding Mac versions should tell you something. Wake up and smell the coffee!
I (noticed/was offended by) that too!
Microsoft yet again bringing everyday funtions to Macs...years later...which should have been there in the first place
yes because silverlight was out years ago right. shove your macbook up your ass you pompous jerk
Silverlight came out for the Mac the same time as the other platforms. The issue was that NetFlix used VC-1 codec with DRM dependency, and used Windows Media Player to present that previously.
This really isn't about Microsoft or Apple. It's about a third party choosing to support one platform and not another.
Uhhh, JerkfaceFed, I'm not entirely sure, but I think you mistook his comment.
What I got from it was that Microsoft was the one to bring something to a Mac that should have been on said Mac in the first place. If anything, being negative against Macs, not Microsoft.
Yes. OSX is a platform unquestionably worthy of same-day support by every service and application.
As for /my/ platform, well, we're getting there. ..and we're getting there fast.
http://www.google.com/trends?q=apple%2C+ubuntu%2C+fedora%2C+suse%2C+debian
@Nuclear Fire:
Actually, it is very much about Apple and lack of support for non-Apple DRM, which has delayed Netflix's ability to support Mac users...
heh heh heh microsoft is now taking over your macbooks.
Can't wait to see what Ocean and iEye have to say. :-)
And so the other frickn shoe finally drops....
How many Macs would install Silverlight without having Netflix make this move? Just another way to get a download tick without actually offering anything worthwhile. I think we all new this was coming, but I do not give a damn for it.
So no netflix love for my G5 *sigh*
Same here :(
I wish they would hurry up with this already... I'll finally be able to remove this Windows Ve bricktop from my desk!!!
excuse my English understanding,
but when they say: "On a Mac, Like a normal person"
do they mean: on a Mac, because normal people use Mac
or: on a Mac, like normal people - using PC, have been able to watch Netflix the whole time?
thanks
It means mac users (like myself) don't need to use Parallels or bootcamp
HOORAYS!!!!! finally!
what about closed captions? If it remains unavailavle then netflix will continue to miss out on millions of deaf and hard of hearing customers.
What?
PLUS ONE FOR YOU
i'm holding on to my g3 for other reasons, namely holding back those damn opfor and spetsnaz.
Bwahaha! I see what you did thar.
lol..+1 man..COD baby..COD..
at two fifty a gallon, i'll take the escalade
i dont care about only getting 11mpg, it's a bitchin ride
..and as gas prices drop again, common sense goes back where it came from to leave the American public alone.
The natural habitat of Escalades are gas stations.
I think people who drive Escalades with less than 15 people in them should be fair game for vandalism and chop-shopping. God knows if they can pay for the Escalade and the gas in it it wont hurt them... much. This doesn't apply for the new Hybrid Escalade.
nope..netflix watch now has a crappy video resulotion....i have just cancelled my subscription
Will this work on linux?
You could probably get it to work using moonlight and changing your useragent, but the simple answer seems to be 'no'.
What a twist!
this should also mean firefox support finally.... also has there been any indication with this new player that we might get higher quality versions? reason i ask is i was listening to the most recent 1up yours podcast.... near the end of the show they talked about the nxe (they have it in house already) and made some interesting comments... a hd logo and streaming at 5.0 mbit (the current max on netflix is 3.5).
its very circumstantial until the public beta goes live but could be interesting.
I just love it when Microsoft does something right..
All I Have to say is IT'S ABOUT FRIGGIN TIME! Well, almost... But what's a few days/weeks/months after more than a year of staunch non-support (other than the "were getting to it, we promise" message 6ish months ago)?
Ummm....Silverlight? Really? So how long until Netflix realizes that was a bad choice and goes with Flash instead?
silverlight is amazing, at least from a dev standpoint. C# versus actionscript? Not having to pay hundreds of dollars for the privilege of using the platform? At the very least, it should motivate Adobe and bring some improvements in the opposing camp as well.
As an end user, I don't really care how great Silverlight is from a developer's standpoint.
Instead, as an end user, I'm skeptical of Microsoft, as they have a penchant for putting 150% of its resources into a new product's launch to hype it up as the next greatest thing, only to mask its flaws, bog down systems with endless security patches, and eventually abandon the product altogether.
I'm glad that Adobe finally has some competition, but Microsoft is an old-school computing company that HATES the open nature of the web. Silverlight's "preference" for IE7 (i.e. it breaks on Firefox whenever there's an update) is pretty indicative of the fact that Microsoft has no intention of treating all end users equally. Troublesome, don't you think?
And......what about the Canadians??
"like a normal person" - is that supposed to mean like a normal windows person, or are they implying this is the first time they've tried catering to "normal people?"
I just replaced my G3 like two weeks ago. It was a good seven years. :'(
Here's what I'm thinking will happen.....
Netflix integration with Front Row and AppleTV, with a similar interface as with the Roku box.
Not while iTunes still sells movies and TV shows. I want it, too but it won't happen.
If it's a Silverlight-based player, does that mean it'll work in Firefox on Windows, too? Seems to me it should be supported on any platform that has a Silverlight plugin, which means no more relying on IE to watch things.
RTFA.
"Members who enjoy watching movies and TV episodes from the growing library of choices that can be instantly streamed at Netflix will be thrilled with this next generation improvement of access and quality, on a broader range of platforms, including Intel Macs and Firefox."
In other news, Microsoft to bring copy/paste to the iPhone.
-1.