Netflix ditches Silverlight with support for HTML5 video in IE11

I never thought I would say this, but I think I would prefer Adobe Flash and other browser plugins instead of making DRM a built-in feature of the web.

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

#6

Post by Zikes » Thu, Jun 27, 2013, 5:38 PM UTC

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 for Windows 7.

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

#7

Post by mindstab » Thu, Jun 27, 2013, 5:38 PM UTC

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

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

#8

Post by fatjokes » Thu, Jun 27, 2013, 5:40 PM UTC

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 watched a movie on it the other day and the audio/video kept going out of sync due to lag (not a network problem) and I had to reload the page every 5 minutes. Aaargh! Death to Silverlight!

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

#9

Post by arbitrage » Thu, Jun 27, 2013, 5:46 PM UTC

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?…

Don't forget buggy as hell! It's got that going for it, too.

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

#10

Post by isomorphic » Thu, Jun 27, 2013, 5:46 PM UTC

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 here. Yes, Silverlight was a "proprietary plugin", but they've just shifted to using proprietary DRM with proprietary extensions to HTML5. They got rid of the plugin--great! But they've replaced one proprietary experience with another.