Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player
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Re: Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player
#2Does anyone know why they used Silverlight?
Re: Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player
#3Does anyone know why they used Silverlight?
There are several reasons but one of the biggest is that Microsoft's DRM solution is/was the most acceptable to the studios.
Re: Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player
#4Does anyone know why they used Silverlight?
1. time based animation (vs frame based)
2. content delivery network
3. scalable video formats from HD to mobile
4. media server licensing is cheap
Re: Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player
#5I don't know, but this is the type of shit that really makes me mad. If you decide to do business with a large corporation that has enough internal resources to deploy a half-assed product that is based solely on the decision to add competition to an existing market, then this is what you get.
What kind of crap is netflix(and microsoft) trying pull here? -There is no reverting back to the old-player (a subtle TOS) -No Mac support -Silverlight has to be installed on all PC's that use the netflix service ...this list goes on
Microsoft's primary focus has always been to use tacky business strategies that will increase shareholder profits rather than building great, dependable products....and it really needs to stop.
Re: Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player
#6What's wrong with the Silverlight player?
Runs fine on my Mac, except for a strange interaction between it and the NVidia chipsets that causes it to tear video (apparently it doesn't happen on ATI-based Macs.) There's a workaround you can use with Firefox that fixes that, at any rate.
Certainly seems to suck less CPU than Flash, which can peg both cores of my MacBook Pro just playing a YouTube video full-screen.
Re: Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player
#7Does anyone know why they used Silverlight?
There are several reasons but one of the biggest is that Microsoft's DRM solution is/was the most acceptable to the studios.
Some quotes from disguntled Netflix customers:
"You can bet I won't be renewing if they don't fix this garbage"
"lower connection speed and lower quality than before Silverlight"
"uggh, Individualization failed. Unable to playback protected (DRM) content. Error 8152. Still does not work on the Mac."
"horribly pixelated, sporadic and painful to watch at times"
"Never really had a problem with the WMP player. Now, I was forced to "opt" in to the new player. Video is jerky/choppy on all Starz titles and many others. And by jerky, I mean unwatchable. Thanks Netflix!!!!!!!!!!!!! What worked fine yesterday is now worthless. Amazing that they can actually make Blockbuster an option again."
If the studios want to push people into downloading over BitTorrent, they're going the right way about it.
Having said all that, kudos to Netflix for not pulling all the adverse comments from their website.
Re: Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player
#8I don't know, but this is the type of shit that really makes me mad. If you decide to do business with a large corporation that has enough internal resources to deploy a half-assed product that is based solely on the decision to add competition to an existing market, then this is what you get. What kind of crap is netflix(and microsoft) trying pull here? -There is no reverting back to the old-player (a subtle TOS) -N…
>No Mac support
There is Mac support, but only for Intel based systems. PowerPC systems are out of luck.
Re: Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are several reasons but one of the biggest is that Microsoft's DRM solution is/was the most acceptable to the studios.
Some quotes from disguntled Netflix customers: "You can bet I won't be renewing if they don't fix this garbage" "lower connection speed and lower quality than before Silverlight" "uggh, Individualization failed. Unable to playback protected (DRM) content. Error 8152. Still does not work on the Mac." "horribly pixelated, sporadic and painful to watch at times" "Never really had a problem with the WMP player. Now, I wa…
If the studios want to push people into downloading over BitTorrent, they're going the right way about it.
Yeah, I only use Netflix out of utter desperation. If I really want to watch something, and just can't find it on Usenet or TPB, then I grudgingly accept the fact that I will have to use Netflix. The UI and video quality are both terrible. Why is it that I can stream full-HD video for free, but I am only able to pay for low-quality DRM'd crap?
Re: Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player
#10What's wrong with the Silverlight player? Runs fine on my Mac, except for a strange interaction between it and the NVidia chipsets that causes it to tear video (apparently it doesn't happen on ATI-based Macs.) There's a workaround you can use with Firefox that fixes that, at any rate. Certainly seems to suck less CPU than Flash, which can peg both cores of my MacBook Pro just playing a YouTube video full-screen.
Read some of the comments.
* Silverlight doesn't run on PPC Macs
* lots of video quality issues: poor picture, blockiness
* lots of audio syncing issues: audio is several seconds behind on many videos
* can't revert back to the old player once you "upgrade" and most customers are saying that they were conned into "upgrading" by Netflix.
Finally, this all started in November of 2008 and comments are still pouring in and it's March of 2009.