• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Verge: Netflix plans its move from Microsoft Silverlight to HTML5 video

Status
Not open for further replies.

Vic

Please help me with my bad english
Finally:

"Last month Google announced that Netflix was now available on ARM-based Samsung Chromebooks thanks to the use of HTML5 video — and now the streaming service has outlined its larger plans to eventually move to the format for all computers. Currently, Netflix primarily uses the Microsoft Silverlight plug-in when streaming video to web browsers, but Netflix's Anthony Park and Mark Watson point out in a blog post that the current solution really can't stand. Plug-ins don't play well with with most mobile browsers, they can be cumbersome for users, and perhaps most importantly, Microsoft itself may not develop a new version of Silverlight beyond the current release.

The solution is HTML5 video, but that relatively young technology requires further development to meet the needs — and DRM requirements — of a service like Netflix. According to the blog post, Netflix has been collaborating on three W3C initiatives that together will provide the required functionality for streaming video services. Dubbed the "HTML5 Premium Video Extensions," they include an extension that will allow the company to handle its delivery streams via JavaScript, another that will allow DRM encryption (perhaps the biggest obstacle for HTML5 video's broad adoption), and a cryptography extension that will allow Netflix to make sure any communication between its JavaScript code and servers remains secure.

According to Netflix, the Chrome OS version of Netflix uses the first two extensions in the suite already, but the third hasn't been built into Chrome at the moment so Netflix is using its own plug-in instead. Once Google builds that third extension into the browser, however, the door will be open for Netflix to start testing HTML5 video on a wide array of computers."

http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/15/4...ove-from-microsoft-silverlight-to-html5-video
 
Brilliant. Silverlight is crashing so much on my PC at the moment.

I can't pause Netflix for more than a few minutes (seconds?) on my PC without it crashing.
 
Hopefully this means a decent plugin for Plex.

How do people manage to watch Netflix on an HTPC (with remote)?
 
Good. Silverlight was always an obvious dead end. Put it in a bag with Adobe Air and throw them in the river.
 
Hopefully this means a decent plugin for Plex.

How do people manage to watch Netflix on an HTPC (with remote)?

It's terrible. Over two years ago when I would marathon The Office and Arrested Development through Netflix with my laptop, I'd never get those crashes. Now I get them all the time (flash and silverlight), so I just use my 360/PS3 for the service.
 
Silverlight is such a horrible mess. You know you're shit when Flash is a better product. I'm happy to see it disappear.
 
Hopefully this means a decent plugin for Plex.

How do people manage to watch Netflix on an HTPC (with remote)?

Windows Media Center which works really really well. I even have it directly linked in XBMC so that you launch from XBMC fairly seamlessly right into Netflix and it exits right back out to XBMC without ever seeing WMC.
 
?
Using windows media center.
On Mac, can't use it.

It's terrible. Over two years ago when I would marathon The Office and Arrested Development through Netflix with my laptop, I'd never get those crashes. Now I get them all the time (flash and silverlight), so I just use my 360/PS3 for the service.
Yup, I did the same on my setup. Too bad for the extra controller to have Netflix from PS3, but such is life.

Windows Media Center which works really really well. I even have it directly linked in XBMC so that you launch from XBMC fairly seamlessly right into Netflix and it exits right back out to XBMC without ever seeing WMC.
Since I never delved too much into XBMC I was hoping it had a dedicated plugin for Netflix. Shame. As I said, I can't use WMC, but I can only hope this move makes the whole thing better. Weird that Netflix didn't just put out some desktop apps.
 
Since I never delved too much into XBMC I was hoping it had a dedicated plugin for Netflix. Shame. As I said, I can't use WMC, but I can only hope this move makes the whole thing better. Weird that Netflix didn't just put out some desktop apps.

There is a plugin. I just like the interface and GUI with the WMC app better. Another way to get it into XBMC is to use PlayOn.
 
There is a plugin. I just like the interface and GUI with the WMC app better. Another way to get it into XBMC is to use PlayOn.
Thanks. I will definitely take a look into those when I get a little bit of patience to pull some strings on my setup.
 
Call me stupid, but what the hell is HTML5 video? HTML is a language, and "HTML5 video" should be referring to the new tags in place in HTML5 for handling video files without the need of an external plug-in or player.

The way this is written, they're making it sound like HTML5 video is some sort of new codec.
 
Good move, now Linux users can enjoy with out some hodge-podge workaround

Not necessarily. The Encrypted Media Extensions are an API to pass through to a third party DRM bundle, so it will depend if one is available. The only one likely without hardware level support is Widevine, which the Chromebook uses, and that required firmware level support.
 
I've never had a problem with silverlight, although it may be because I use windows. It runs a lot better than flash for me :x
 
Call me stupid, but what the hell is HTML5 video? HTML is a language, and "HTML5 video" should be referring to the new tags in place in HTML5 for handling video files without the need of an external plug-in or player.

The way this is written, they're making it sound like HTML5 video is some sort of new codec.

HTML5 is the whole spec that has been split up into different "modules". It still includes the new tags, but there's also a bunch of new apis which includes video.

Having less plugins is great, so this is an awesome move.
 
HTML5 is the whole spec that has been split up into different "modules". It still includes the new tags, but there's also a bunch of new apis which includes video.

Having less plugins is great, so this is an awesome move.

Sure, I do understand that, but that still doesn't answer the question: what codec is this? That's what I'm wondering.
 
fc3dae3c813df05c0feda1031430337f60a0ba61_m.gif
 
I've only ever seen Silverlight used for Netflix, but the quality and ability to seamlessly switch quality levels was great. It sipped resources too.

Makes sense though. Silverlight is being abandoned by MS so..
 
SAP is moving from Silverlight to HTML5 too, the writing is on the wall for Silverlight, then shortly after Flash.

Silverlight is the perfect example of Late to the Party. Which has basically been MS for the last decade.
 
Even though I've never had an issue with Silverlight, I think this is a very good thing. The less plug-ins sites use, the better.
 
I never had problems with Silverlight on Netflix

HTML5 on youtube was awful last time I activated it and it doesn't play well with full screen on my macbook. I'm hoping it'll be better with Netflix
 
Netflix.com streaming has always been rock-solid for me :\

Meanwhile I had to opt out of the HTML5 youtube beta due to pervasive issues with skipping around.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom