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Come one, come all: Netflix for everyone!

Like to watch movies with “Watch Instantly” on Netflix? Wish you could watch them on a Mac, or with Linux? You’re in for a treat: Netflix has you covered, compliments of Microsoft Silverlight.

Silverlight – Microsoft’s answer to Adobe Flash – supports the publisher-mandated DRM that was previously only the domain of Windows Media Player, meaning that Watch Instantly users had to run Windows in order to watch content. Silverlight’s DRM support, dubbed PlayReady, is planned or already working for all the platforms Silverlight supports.

The decision to switch from Windows Media brings Watch Instantly to a wide variety of platforms, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and – in plans a bit further off – Konqueror and Opera.

Netflix previously said that it wanted to bring further support “as soon as a studio-approved DRM [solution] … is available to us,” noting that the company is “required” to use some form of DRM at the movie industry’s request.

It’s unfortunate that the main sticking point was DRM, but given today’s skyrocketing movie production budgets? Them’s the breaks, as they say. Unlike their music industry counterparts, movie studios have yet to venture far from their cozy little DRM island, sustained in part from a far more receptive stable of hardware manufacturers.

Officially, the word is that Watch Instantly will only add support for Intel-based Macs, but most of the blogosphere speculates it will be available on Linux as soon as PlayReady is working in Silverlight’s Linux counterpart, called Moonlight.

The “second-gen,” Silverlight-powered Netflix player is currently only available to a “small segment of new subscribers,” according to BetaNews, but should hit general availability sometime before the end of 2008. Xbox 360 users will also see Watch Instantly support later this month when Microsoft delivers its “New Xbox Experience” dashboard upgrade, complete with Netflix “Instant Queue” support.

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already works in FF
By KITH on 10/30/2008 7:13:43 PM , Rating: 2
just use IE tab add-on.




RE: already works in FF
By HeelyJoe on 10/30/2008 7:28:54 PM , Rating: 2
That only works in Windows.


RE: already works in FF
By GaryJohnson on 10/30/2008 7:29:55 PM , Rating: 3
Confusion. If you're going to imbed a IE tab in FF, why not just use IE?


RE: already works in FF
By MatthiasF on 10/31/2008 2:39:40 AM , Rating: 3
Some sites don't render well in Firefox (FF), or require a plug-in that only works in Internet Explorer (IE). So, instead of opening a full IE window, we can just throw it to a IE->FF tab and keep things tidy.


RE: already works in FF
By blaster5k on 10/31/2008 9:49:55 AM , Rating: 1
Just because there's a few non-standard sites out there that require IE doesn't mean we should use an inferior browser.


RE: already works in FF
By amanojaku on 10/31/2008 11:30:27 AM , Rating: 2
I'd say it's more than a few. I can't find numbers, but I remember a rough estimate of 50% last year.


RE: already works in FF
By Flunk on 11/1/2008 11:24:30 AM , Rating: 2
Why not just open an IE window then? I don't see the purpose of running IE inside Firefox when you can just open another Window. Using something like the IE tab addon just means that when IE crashes it takes out your Firefox and vice versa.


RE: already works in FF
By Reclaimer77 on 11/3/2008 10:21:39 AM , Rating: 2
If 50% of every website we visited didn't work with Firefox, do you honestly believe we would use it ? Millions of people have made Firefox their #1 browser.. I mean, come on. Are you serious ?


RE: already works in FF
By Spuke on 11/3/2008 6:39:06 PM , Rating: 1
I only use IE at work. And even then, I use the IE Tab add on. Most of our corp websites ONLY work in IE.


RE: already works in FF
By jmurbank on 11/7/2008 8:38:52 PM , Rating: 2
No offense, people in this article are idiots. It is not about what browser are supported. It is about what operating systems are supported. Right now Netflix download feature only works for Windows.


By amanojaku on 10/30/2008 3:01:31 PM , Rating: 2
But this is still dependent on MS technology, which has historically been inconsistent for non-MS products. I just hope MS doesn't decide to stop making Silverlight available to other browser.




By flyingrooster on 10/31/2008 2:41:59 PM , Rating: 2
Microsoft released the Silverlight XAML Vocabulary Specification 2008 under the Microsoft Open Specification Promise, so it's somewhat open, and they are helping Novell write an open source Silverlight called Moonlight.

http://www.microsoft.com/interop/osp/default.mspx#...
http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight


By AlexWade on 11/1/2008 10:42:19 PM , Rating: 2
Or worse. If Silverlight becomes the de facto standard like Flash and Microsoft makes a newer version that will only work on Windows.


By jmurbank on 11/7/2008 8:45:22 PM , Rating: 2
It is not the support for web browsers. It is more support for operating systems. I use Linux, so this a plus for me if I am a subscriber for Netflix. It is also the same for Mac.


ROKU for the win!
By kattanna on 10/30/2008 1:42:34 PM , Rating: 2
honestly, if you are streaming netflix, and unless you plan on using your xbox 360 here shortly, the hands down best way is to use the $99 roku box. it just works.. regardless of what type of computer you have, because the computer isnt part of the equation.

well.. you still need it to work your queue, but thats it.




RE: ROKU for the win!
By flyingrooster on 10/31/2008 2:45:07 PM , Rating: 2
The ROKU/360 approach works great if you want to watch a movie at home, on a TV. But having streaming via PC is nice if you want to watch something not at home, or a place where a TV is unavailable. My job involves lots of downtime and I do watch movies on my laptop.


“And I don't know why [Apple is] acting like it’s superior. I don't even get it. What are they trying to say?” -- Bill Gates on the Mac ads













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