What does this mean for anything not running IE11?
In the near term, nothing.
Netflix ditches Silverlight with support for HTML5 video in IE11
11–20 of 145 posts
Re: Netflix ditches Silverlight with support for HTML5 video in IE11
#12Netflix will be taking advantage of EMEs for HTML5 DRM in IE11. Microsoft has not confirmed IE11 will be supported in any OS other than Windows 8.1. Older versions of IE, including IE10 on Windows 7, will still require Silverlight, meaning it still will not die. If this is to be a nail in Silverlight's coffin, it's a very tiny one. Edit: Per freehunter's comment below, Microsoft has confirmed eventual IE11 support fo…
Many sites are reporting that Microsoft has confirmed IE11 support for Windows 7 [1]. The question is when, not if.
[1] http://www.pcworld.com/article/2043129/internet-explorer-11-...
Re: Netflix ditches Silverlight with support for HTML5 video in IE11
#13Are "Premium Media Extensions" also plugins? Because if so this didn't really get much better. It still means Linux users could be on the backburner until someone decides we can watch too. Until Mozilla and Google are on board this doesn't necessarily seem better from a "universally available" standpoint.
Re: Netflix ditches Silverlight with support for HTML5 video in IE11
#14The ideological debate is potentially interesting: Does DRM belong in HTML5?
(and yes, it's hard not to view the Netflix/MS situation cynically)
That said, ditching that godawful Silverlight plugin, is probably a welcome change from the customer experience perspective.
Re: Netflix ditches Silverlight with support for HTML5 video in IE11
#15Thank god. I hate Silverlight. It's so resource intensive. EDIT: I just felt like ranting against Silverlight some more. The only reason I use Silverlight is because of Netflix. I run it in Chrome on my Mac Air. Besides being buggy and resource hungry, it also doesn't stop my Mac from dimming even when watching a video in fullscreen, unlike YouTube videos, etc. (Could this be because it doesn't use the graphics card?…
Are you implying that Flash is any less resource intensive or buggy?
Re: Netflix ditches Silverlight with support for HTML5 video in IE11
#16Am I the only one who, given the vast proliferation of mobile and TV-connected devices with Netflix clients over the past few years, can't even remember the last time they used the Silverlight app to stream something?
Re: Netflix ditches Silverlight with support for HTML5 video in IE11
#17Quoting Netflix, from the article: We expect premium video on the web to continue to shift away from using proprietary plugin technologies to using these new Premium Video Extensions. Quoting the article: According to Netflix, Microsoft made this possible by implementing three features in its still-unfinished IE11: The Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) using Microsoft PlayReady DRM. Netflix is using some doublespeak h…
In fact, they've replaced one proprietary experience with an even more proprietary one. Silverlight was available on more than one browser and OS; this is Windows-only and IE11-only. I believe Netflix are already using EME on Chromebooks but they have a different, totally incompatible DRM scheme (Google's Widevine).
Re: Netflix ditches Silverlight with support for HTML5 video in IE11
#18Thank god. I hate Silverlight. It's so resource intensive. EDIT: I just felt like ranting against Silverlight some more. The only reason I use Silverlight is because of Netflix. I run it in Chrome on my Mac Air. Besides being buggy and resource hungry, it also doesn't stop my Mac from dimming even when watching a video in fullscreen, unlike YouTube videos, etc. (Could this be because it doesn't use the graphics card?…
I managed to completely resist installing Silverlight for however many years it's been available, and what finally got me was that I needed it to watch the new Arrested Development.
Re: Netflix ditches Silverlight with support for HTML5 video in IE11
#19Quoting Netflix, from the article: We expect premium video on the web to continue to shift away from using proprietary plugin technologies to using these new Premium Video Extensions. Quoting the article: According to Netflix, Microsoft made this possible by implementing three features in its still-unfinished IE11: The Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) using Microsoft PlayReady DRM. Netflix is using some doublespeak h…
They will still be rendering the interface and probably the video with standard HTML5 components, in fact even the DRM - Browser mechanism is standardized. It's just that the DRM code itself may be proprietary. So this is still a step forward.
Re: Netflix ditches Silverlight with support for HTML5 video in IE11
#20Quoting Netflix, from the article: We expect premium video on the web to continue to shift away from using proprietary plugin technologies to using these new Premium Video Extensions. Quoting the article: According to Netflix, Microsoft made this possible by implementing three features in its still-unfinished IE11: The Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) using Microsoft PlayReady DRM. Netflix is using some doublespeak h…
They will still be rendering the interface and probably the video with standard HTML5 components, in fact even the DRM - Browser mechanism is standardized. It's just that the DRM code itself may be proprietary. So this is still a step forward.
In what way is it a step forward? Okay, they can now use default video codecs in their proprietary plugin, instead of the same codec being used in Flash.
So does that make it anymore cross-platform than Flash was? And now instead of having "one" monolithic proprietary plugin, it's now more "decentralized" and you'll have to use "many" such proprietary plugins from Netflix, from Hulu, from Amazon, and many others, that may or may not be cross-platform.
Why is the news only about IE (11 even). Does it work in Chrome and Firefox, too?