Silverlight 3 out of beta, joins forces with your GPU for HD streaming

A day earlier than expected, Microsoft has launched its third edition of Silverlight and its SDK. As Ars Technica notes, some of the bigger improvements on the user side are GPU hardware acceleration and new codec support including H.264, AAC, and MPEG-4. If you're looking to give it a spin, there's a Smooth Streaming demo available that, as the name suggests, does a pretty good job of streaming HD video with little stutter, even when skipping around. If you've got Firefox 2, Internet Explorer 6, Safari 3 or anything fresher, hit up the read link to get the update.

[Via Ars Technica]

Read - Download Page
Read - Smooth Streaming demo

[Level 5 @ Jul 9th 2009 9:47PM]

Is this cross platform? Flash these days is so dogged out, it shouldn't take 25% of my quad-core to play 480p HD youtube, christ.

[gerrrg @ Jul 9th 2009 10:20PM]

LOL. I know the feeling. I get smoother playback with Netflix running Silverlight, compared to Hulu running Flash. So sad.

[ALBGunner04 @ Jul 9th 2009 10:23PM]

Even though that may be true (although I play HD YouTube videos really well on my dual-core), I doubt Silverlight will overtake Flash in the present future. I hardly see it implemented compared to Flash, and this won't change overnight. So far, Flash is here to stay, and it isn't a bad thing, because new versions of Flash are always released to better optimize the platform. The more options though, the better.

[Templarian @ Jul 9th 2009 10:28PM]

http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight For linux support, they are doing a good job of keeping up.

[Andir3.0 @ Jul 9th 2009 11:04PM]

If by keeping up you mean staying a version behind... then sure.

[Boostjunkie @ Jul 10th 2009 12:35AM]

It's cross platform. This smooth streaming is amazing, Hulu please switch to this! I have a Core 2 running at 3 ghz and full screen on a second monitor I looked at it was using 50% of my CPU resources playing Hulu and noticeably slowing my computer.

[Smart People Play Tuba @ Jul 10th 2009 11:13AM]

That Silverlight logo reminds me of a jock strap. Or an adult diaper.

[GBeatzRecrds @ Jul 9th 2009 9:48PM]

I like how it installs a Trojan with it.

[Gad Get @ Jul 9th 2009 9:53PM]

I like how you make harsh accusations without backing them up. I mean, hating on Microsoft is the hip thing to do, right?

[ALBGunner04 @ Jul 9th 2009 10:24PM]

If that was true, my AVG would've gone crazy right now.

[andres @ Jul 9th 2009 10:37PM]

[citation needed]

[Adam @ Jul 9th 2009 11:40PM]

It's called a false negative, settle down.

[Ellianth @ Jul 10th 2009 1:29AM]

False negative, eh?

Everyone throw your poo at GBeatzRecrds!!

[Ducman69 @ Jul 9th 2009 9:48PM]

Hellz, yeah! And Adobe, my ballz, your mouth, sah ahhh...

[skyblaze @ Jul 9th 2009 9:49PM]

WTF it wont work for chrome!!

skrew this :\

[Chris @ Jul 9th 2009 10:08PM]

yea they should expand silverlight to chrome

[Osman @ Jul 9th 2009 10:12PM]

worked for me

[Templarian @ Jul 9th 2009 10:20PM]

Yea, it works in most browsers even if they don't list them. All the ones I tried out worked (Chrome being one).

[AnnoyingPoster @ Jul 9th 2009 10:36PM]

works with chrome

[skyblaze @ Jul 9th 2009 11:22PM]

o shit. misread the message. all i saw was "This Web browser or operating system may not be compatible with Silverlight. " and got pissed off. my bad... too much henny for skyblaze tonight

[Daemonios @ Jul 10th 2009 5:40AM]

It does work for Chrome. Using version 3.0.190.4 and although the Silverlight website warned me that it didn't recognize the browser, it installed painlessly and worked 100%

Performance is also great - the smooth streaming demo is amazing

- daemonios -

[chuuchdizzle @ Jul 9th 2009 9:50PM]

no Opera support yet?

[kai @ Jul 9th 2009 10:03PM]

It works in Opera, just not officially supported.

[Pretol @ Jul 9th 2009 9:52PM]

I care just enough to tell you how little I care about this news...

[Gad Get @ Jul 9th 2009 9:54PM]

Great, just what we need: another Paul Chapel. This time with a "b."

[bhsx @ Jul 9th 2009 9:55PM]

i gotta say i just installed this and played the video demo. It skipped all over the place. I have a p4 3.4GHz, 2GB ram and nv9500 card with 512MB.
Skipped... All... Over....
Color me unimpressed.

[jon @ Jul 9th 2009 10:01PM]

Dude; either stop lying, get faster internet or run a virus scan.

2.0Ghz C2D, 3GB ram, and GMA3100. Video runs @ Max bitrate, 24-25 FPS, even jumping around the video. Plus no buffering.

Color me honest.

[jon @ Jul 9th 2009 10:04PM]

Edit: running on chrome 3.0.192.1, which isn't even officially supported.

[ALBGunner04 @ Jul 9th 2009 10:26PM]

I'm running an AMD Athlon 3.0GHz Dual-Core 64 X2 with 3GB RAM and an ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro and I was running the video at around 22-24FPS. It was alright, although I would've liked a faster/more constant frame-rate.

[DeoWulf @ Jul 9th 2009 10:59PM]

I'm rockin' a Dell 2002 Optiplex desktop (Win7) with a 3GHz processor, 1 gig RAM and built-in Intel graphics and I saw very little noticeable skipping in the movie. Quality wasn't always high, but heck, this thing is 7 friggin' years old.

[Robert @ Jul 10th 2009 12:04AM]

!.6ghz duo core mobile, 2gig RAM, Geforce Go 7600 on Firefox 3.5 ran smooth

[tangalicious @ Jul 10th 2009 2:59AM]

roflwut, I have a worse computer than bhsx which is a p4 2.66ghz, 1.5gb ram, and an ati x1600 pro agp and still get constant 22-25 fps. Something must be wrong with you.

[Mirra520 @ Jul 9th 2009 9:56PM]

and how would you compare OS X and Silverlight? Is there somthing im missing? or is Silverlight an OS now?

[Templarian @ Jul 9th 2009 9:56PM]

This kills flash in video support. Can't wait for HTML5 to be adopted by all so we can just have inline video support without plugins.

[Andir3.0 @ Jul 9th 2009 11:06PM]

Wanna take bets on how long it will take for IE to support it?

[Polar @ Jul 19th 2009 10:41AM]

Before Andir3.0 posts 10 worthy comments, put me down for $50.

[CraigJ @ Jul 10th 2009 1:32AM]

If you mean support it just like they support CSS, then IE 8 supports HTML 5. If you mean support it according to the spec (like WebKit and Opera do) then I'll take that bet, and I'll put my money on the first of never. It is not in Micrrosoft's interest to have a completely standards compliant browser - if it were I'd think they could pull it off using some of that $7B+ R&D budget.

[Ordeith @ Jul 10th 2009 2:02AM]

I am still waiting on firefox to be HTML4 compliant. I won't hold my breath for 5.

How hard is it to support the WC3 HTML4 standard COL tag anyway, mozilla? it has been a bugzilla issue for YEARS!

[Jason Dash @ Jul 10th 2009 5:43AM]

@Developer : Are you stupid or something? Silverlight is written in C#... a "programming" language. Of courseyou can write full programs in it ¬_¬ In fact, take this for example, a quick "Operating System" written in Silverlight

http://www.yazilimevi.biz/

Use that, then tell me it's only good for video streaming. Such nonsense.

[Patrick #2 @ Jul 10th 2009 7:05AM]

This is exactly what I was thinking. Anyone who knows about HTML 5 knows that it is the future, and everyone is jumping on board. Silverlight doesn't stand a change, and flash, unless Adobe does something drastic soon, is on its way down. Before digging me down read about what HTML 5 can do. I can't wait to have versatile, highly efficient video in any browser that doesn't require a proprietary plugin. I only wish they agreed on a specific standard of video, rather than supporting many (this includes Ogg and H.264). Who would install Silverlight, when in Opera, Safari, or Firefox you won't need it to watch video?

[Patrick #2 @ Jul 10th 2009 7:16AM]

I should also have included IE 8, which supposedly supports it, and all new Webkit based browsers including Chrome. Silverlight is superior to Flash, presently. However, it isn't widely adopted, and now there is something much better than it that is out.

[M Pintar @ Jul 10th 2009 10:13AM]

IE8 supports all current standards. Just remember HTML5 and CSS3 aren't officially standards yet. They are still being worked on. So when people say IE8 is non standard compliant, they are thinking about how it doesn't support future standards

[Ordeith @ Jul 10th 2009 1:35PM]

Pat#2:

Silverlight is a subset of WPF and as such is a very effective bridge between the web world and the desktop world.

You can write a program for Windows using WPF and turn it into a web app with silverlight VERY easily, and vice versa.

This will keep it relevant in an html5 pipe dream of a world.

[Gad Get @ Jul 9th 2009 9:56PM]

The only place I've seen Silverlight utilized is on Microsoft's own site. Why has it not gained wider adoption? It's clearly far superior to Flash.

[Evan @ Jul 9th 2009 10:10PM]

Silverlight is what Netflix uses to stream their videos over the internet. For anyone here who subscribes to Netflix and hasn't used their "Watch Instantly" video service, you should give it a try. It's the reason I reactivated my Netflix account, actually.

[Ducman69 @ Jul 9th 2009 10:12PM]

There are many others, a mainstream one that some of you may have heard of is called Netflix and small upstart news organizations like NBC. The problem is the same thing that any browser faces going up against Internet Explorer, inline skates going up against Rollerblade, MP3 players going up against the iPod, and so forth... even if you have a superior product, it is hard to make a dent in a market that is completely dominated by a long-standing powerful monopoly.

Flash sucks, and we know flash sucks, but everyone HAS flash. If I make a website, I want it to just work for my average consumer, and the average consumer has flash installed, not Silverlight.

The saving grace is that people are finally recognizing that IE and Flash suck ass, and are slowly but surely moving to better competition like Firefox and Silverlight. :)

[austin @ Jul 9th 2009 10:13PM]

you obviously didnt watch the NCAA basketball tournament from your computer.
or the masters...

[waterwagen @ Jul 9th 2009 10:20PM]

Austin: Great point, both of which worked great, with incredible video quality on my mid-range PCs.

[str1f3 @ Jul 9th 2009 10:20PM]

Because people don't want to propragate another shitty proprietary plugin and keep the web open. Silverlight is just next attempt, in a number of failed attempts, to control the web. Bring on HTML5 and lick balls Silverlight.

[KillaChaos @ Jul 9th 2009 10:31PM]

IE and Flash ...
Firefox and Silverlight

I lol'd