Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player • Hacker News Board

Re: Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player

#21

Post by zain » Mon, Mar 02, 2009, 5:18 AM UTC

elq wrote: post #17

zain wrote: post #16

Does anyone know why they decided to make it so people couldn't switch back to Flash? It seems to me that if they lifted this ridiculous restriction, all these people pissed at Netflix would be happy.

> back to flash? Flash never was an option.

Isn't that how streaming to PCs works if you don't opt in to Silverlight?

If not, substitute "flash" with whatever the current option is.

Re: Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player

#22

Post by codeview » Mon, Mar 02, 2009, 5:19 AM UTC

tarmac wrote: post #4

pg wrote: post #2

Does 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

1. Player frame rate has zero impact on flash video playback

2. Established CDNs for flash delivery has been in existence for years(Akami,Influxis..)

3. Flash's video capabilities include playback of H.264,mp4,mov,3gp...(from HD to mobile!)

4. Red 5 is free as beer.

I dont think its a feature based choice. Looks more like a marketing deal with MS for wider adoption of the format.

Re: Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player

#23

Post by eli » Mon, Mar 02, 2009, 5:55 AM UTC

codeview wrote: post #22

tarmac wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

1. Player frame rate has zero impact on flash video playback 2. Established CDNs for flash delivery has been in existence for years(Akami,Influxis..) 3. Flash's video capabilities include playback of H.264,mp4,mov,3gp...(from HD to mobile!) 4. Red 5 is free as beer. I dont think its a feature based choice. Looks more like a marketing deal with MS for wider adoption of the format.

You're missing the key feature: DRM. The studios won't sign off unless they trust the DRM.

Re: Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player

#24

Post by eli » Mon, Mar 02, 2009, 5:56 AM UTC

elq wrote: post #3

pg wrote: post #2

Does 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.

My understanding is that is was the only viable DRM solution that was cross-platform.

Apple won't license FairPlay and Flash-based DRM ain't quite there yet.

Re: Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player

#25

Post by eli » Mon, Mar 02, 2009, 5:58 AM UTC

mattmcknight wrote: post #12

Has anyone hacked the streaming format? It seems like it should be possible. Netflix on Tivo works well.

The whole point is that its got baked in DRM.

Anyway, what's the point? Everything's already on bittorrent, and everything on streaming is also available on easily rippable DVD.

Re: Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player

#26

Post by eli » Mon, Mar 02, 2009, 5:59 AM UTC

mattmaroon wrote: post #14

The title is misleading because none of those problems cited (except lack of support for the .0001% of the population using a PPC Mac) have anything to do with Silverlight. I've seen perfectly good video in that format. The Olympics for example. If they had the same problems with a Flash player, it wouldn't be news, nor would you have given it that linkbait title. I expect better from you nickb.

It's subjective, I suppose. I haven't done any rigorous testing, but the Silverlight player running through Firefox on my MacBook Pro seems lower quality than Firefox running the old player through a Win XP VMWare instance.

Re: Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player

#27

Post by elq » Mon, Mar 02, 2009, 6:07 AM UTC

eli wrote: post #24

elq wrote: post #3

Earlier 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.

My understanding is that is was the only viable DRM solution that was cross-platform. Apple won't license FairPlay and Flash-based DRM ain't quite there yet.

Widevine (http://www.widevine.com/cypher.html) offers a flash based DRM that many of the studios like, but it's shockingly expensive.

Re: Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player

#28

Post by donniefitz2 » Mon, Mar 02, 2009, 6:10 AM UTC

I've been using the Silverlight version on Boxee for a few months and I have had few issues. I do think an opt-in opt-out program would have been a better move.

Re: Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player

#29

Post by grandalf » Mon, Mar 02, 2009, 7:58 AM UTC

Not sure what everyone is talking about. I use netflix on osx and it's by far the best online streaming experience I've had.... equivalent to iTunes in quality, but with better error handling for flaky connections.

The DRM also works seamlessly.... so the end user wouldn't even know the content was protected.

I just wish it worked on linux... I don't know if moonlight plans to support DRM...

Re: Netflix customers up in arms over the new Netflix Silverlight player

#30

Post by jpcx01 » Mon, Mar 02, 2009, 8:26 AM UTC

This seems a bit crazy. To my surprise, Silverlight has worked awesome on my mac. This link is just a trial for a new beta player. Is the "up in arms" part that they still don't support PowerPC?

PowerPC is sorta on its last legs anyways. Even a profitable startup like Netflix has to invest wisely, and pouring development resources into building an entirely new player on the mac (since Microsoft wont support silverlight on PPC) would be a pretty poor business decision.

Sorry guys, you're going to have to upgrade at some point. You just aren't really an install base that has any weight any longer.