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Netflix ditches Silverlight with support for HTML5 video in IE11

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Re: Netflix ditches Silverlight with support for HTML5 video in IE11

#21

Post by counterpointer »

isomorphic wrote: post #10

Quoting 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…

I think Google has been first in implementing the proposed EME standard in HTML5 video. The ARM Chromebooks have been already using it to see Netflix video since a few months. Netflix can use Silverlight in IE11, but ARM Chromebooks don't have an alternative way of support and don't forget that Youtube doesn't like people easily downloading their videos like they do now.

http://hothardware.com/News/Netflix-Backing-HTML5-But-Not-Wi...

And I think Chrome nightlies had the web DRM in place but were not enabled by default? Don't quote me on that.

Anyway, I think Firefox will be forced follow Chrome and IE now to implement DRM in HTML5 video. Firefox does not have the market power it once had thanks to Chrome.

Remember how the whole H.264 in HTML5 support thing played out for Firefox? They were on the side of not supporting it, and Google said it would remove it from Chrome, but that never happened, and Mozilla finally got tired of the effects of "Firefox doesn't support this site's video, let me use a browser that does" and added support.

The same thing is pretty much guaranteed to happen with EME as sites start using EME to stream video and IE, Chrome and Safari add support.

Re: Netflix ditches Silverlight with support for HTML5 video in IE11

#22

Post by ndesaulniers »

mindstab wrote: post #7

And so in a small part the MSIE team is back to "creating" new "standards" for the web because they were the first on board so the get more input to the final product. I hate to say it (in part because I'm not 100% sold on web DRM, tho netflix on Linux will be nice...) but by being sticks in the mud over the issue Google and Mozilla are now going to be following IE's lead for probably the first time in a while

Over my dead body.

Re: Netflix ditches Silverlight with support for HTML5 video in IE11

#23

Post by mtgx »

The "good news" is that they are using web crypto, and knowing how many will try to crack Netflix's streaming now, this means the developers behind web crypto will be getting a lot of feedback and "bugs" to fix, and eventually make web crypto stronger, and maybe some day we can finally use it for e-mail and storage services.

Re: Netflix ditches Silverlight with support for HTML5 video in IE11

#24

Post by ripter »

hamburglar wrote: post #18
fatjokes wrote: post #8

Thank 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.

I just watched it on my T.V., the ipad also works without forcing you to install Silverlight.

Re: Netflix ditches Silverlight with support for HTML5 video in IE11

#26

Post by codereflection »

This is interesting. Google still hasn't completely converted over to HTML5 video for YouTube. You've been able to opt in to the trial for years now (http://www.youtube.com/html5). But it seems that more than half the videos I watch are still using the crappy old Flash player.

Content wise, YouTube has way more content to convert to be able to take advantage of HTML5. I wonder if Netflix is having to convert video on the backend for this as well. Or if they're just using a base format that allows for delivery over Silverlight and HTML5 without having to re-encode and store. But they wouldn't really be re-encoding on the fly though, would they? That would seem to be hugely resource intensive. Does anyone know more about how they're doing this on the backend?

Re: Netflix ditches Silverlight with support for HTML5 video in IE11

#28

Post by wmf »

mindstab wrote: post #7

And so in a small part the MSIE team is back to "creating" new "standards" for the web because they were the first on board so the get more input to the final product. I hate to say it (in part because I'm not 100% sold on web DRM, tho netflix on Linux will be nice...) but by being sticks in the mud over the issue Google and Mozilla are now going to be following IE's lead for probably the first time in a while

Google implemented DRM in Chrome before IE did.

Re: Netflix ditches Silverlight with support for HTML5 video in IE11

#30

Post by thezilch »

isomorphic wrote: post #10

Quoting 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…

"Continue to shift away" doesn't mean proprietary steps can't or shouldn't be taken nor does it mean there will never be proprietary parts behind the scenes. The API to these Extensions are trying to become stable and not proprietary [0]; do you have suggestions or time to contribute? If Netflix is made to simply talk to a ratified API, it is a big step forward from a non-standard API exposed by the likes of Silverlight.

[0] https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/html-media/raw-file/tip/encrypted-med...

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