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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

#31

Post by lloeki »

codereflection wrote: post #26

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…

> But it seems that more than half the videos I watch are still using the crappy old Flash player.

That's because of the ads. With things like ClickToFlash or youtube-dl, you notice that most videos are actually available as MPEG4 and/or WebM.

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

#32

Post by makomk »

mtgx wrote: post #20
jiggy2011 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, tha…

Well, the good news is that as an end-user you'll probably only have one monolithic proprietary chunk of code that's even conveniently integrated into your web browser. The bad news is that you'll have to hope that all the DRMed video sites you're using support the proprietary scheme your particular browser and platform use. In this case, it's Microsoft's PlayReady DRM.

Also, the codec used is actually part of the proprietary blob, and there are no requirements as to which codecs or containers a particular DRM scheme supports, so in theory every DRM scheme could require a different, incompatible proprietary codec and they'd still all be 100% standards compliant.

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

#34

Post by jlgreco »

kevincrane wrote: post #13

Are "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.

Yes. There is no reason to think that things which did not work on Linux before will suddenly start working just because this API is being crammed into HTML5.

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

#35

Post by tracker1 »

codereflection wrote: post #26

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…

I'm guessing that older YouTube content may not have the source upload files available... some may be relatively poor quality, or not frequently watched. Re-encoding from the "flash" version of the videos would yield a worse result. Some of this may be from before Google bought YouTube. All speculation of course.

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

#36

Post by tracker1 »

freehunter wrote: post #12
Zikes wrote: post #6

Netflix 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-...

It took an awfully long time to get IE10 for Windows 7. Hopefully this time it will go faster.

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

#37

Post by jlgreco »

makomk wrote: post #32
mtgx wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, tha…

Well, the good news is that as an end-user you'll probably only have one monolithic proprietary chunk of code that's even conveniently integrated into your web browser. The bad news is that you'll have to hope that all the DRMed video sites you're using support the proprietary scheme your particular browser and platform use. In this case, it's Microsoft's PlayReady DRM. Also, the codec used is actually part of the pr…

There is also no reason to think that these binary blobs will be built for platforms that the video providers have not given two shits about in the past. Anyone who is supporting this stuff because they think it will get them Netflix on a GNU/Linux desktop (not ChromeOS or Android) is crazy. That's not what this does, and they don't care about supporting us.

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

#38

Post by jlgreco »

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

These proposed changes to the standard do not add DRM. Rather they add a standardized interface between javascript in a browser and a proprietary binary blob that actually contains the DRM. Why do you think this would improve the situation of Netflix on Linux?

All you are going to have is a fancy API with nothing to plug into it.

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

#39

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

Also, standardizing EME will not bring Netflix to Linux (the most common misunderstanding around EME). Please name one CDM for a Linux distro other than ChromeOS. Widevine is available only in ChromeOS, and Playready is only available in Windows. So looks like you have to buy one of those Operating Systems to have Netflix.

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

#40

Post by mikeryan »

jlgreco wrote: post #34
kevincrane wrote: post #13

Are "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.

Yes. There is no reason to think that things which did not work on Linux before will suddenly start working just because this API is being crammed into HTML5.

I'm not necessarily saying that Linux will ever be a high priority, but having to only provide a PlayReady Media Extension for a few browsers on Linux is a much more reasonable effort then providing the whole Silverlight or Flash runtime.
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