Netflix to dump Silverlight.

[monkeybrain2012]

Well I don't watch Netflix myself, but there seems to be considerable interests here I just want to share this with you. Netflix is going to dump Silverlight and move to HTML5.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing...nds-in-the-way

The bad news is that
"Netflix will use HTML5 technologies incorporating some EME (Encrypted Media Extensions) for playback of secure data transmission.
Apparently the technology EME is not currently supported by Linux thus making it impossible to play Netflix content on Ubuntu or other Linux distributions. "

http://www.lffl.org/2013/04/netflix-...ice-addio.html

[CharlesA]

I wonder how this will affect me if I only use my bluray player for watching Netflix.

I only use my PC when someone doesn't want to play on the bluray.

[Rukiri]

I wonder how this will affect me if I only use my bluray player for watching Netflix.

I only use my PC when someone doesn't want to play on the bluray.

Depends on what your bluray player is, if it's a PS3 it'll play html5 just fine as well as flash, HTML5 is used on mobile devices anyway (I watch netflix on my ipad and it does not have flash or sliverlight) So it appears they're just rolling out to one display stack, about time, can't wait for youtube to go full html5 and drop flash (flash is dead...)

[CharlesA]

Depends on what your bluray player is, if it's a PS3 it'll play html5 just fine as well as flash, HTML5 is used on mobile devices anyway (I watch netflix on my ipad and it does not have flash or sliverlight) So it appears they're just rolling out to one display stack, about time, can't wait for youtube to go full html5 and drop flash (flash is dead...)

I'm using an actual bluray player, so I think it uses Java or something as a base. Not really sure as the manual doesn't really go into the specifics.

[evilsoup]

The PS3 is locked-down hardware with a specially-designed application for playing netflix. I don't know if it even uses Silverlight in the first place.

[MadmanRB]

Well dropping silverlight is good and we can still use the current netflix workaround if we update firefox via WINE probably
hopefully whatever it will need we can workaround in WINE until a linux solution can be done about it

Or we may not need a workaround as i know google chrome webm does work in linux and there may be a way around it with that.

[kurt18947]

I don't have a need for streaming video but it seems like if Linux wants to run with the big dogs, it's going to need to accomodate DRM encumbered media. The media companies don't make $billions by giving their crap away, ya gotta pay. Netflix deserves credit for at least moving away from Silverlight to a better documented solution. Maybe other companies will follow suit sooner rather than later.

[MadmanRB]

well yeah sadly there will be a need for a drm workaround but it will come.

[forrestcupp]

...

"We're going to give you a little hope, and then we're going to DASH it! Muhahaha"

I wonder how this will affect me if I only use my bluray player for watching Netflix.

I only use my PC when someone doesn't want to play on the bluray.

Most people watch Netflix from some kind of device. There's no way they are going to do something that would cut off the majority of their customers.

[SeijiSensei]

if Linux wants to run with the big dogs, it's going to need to accomodate DRM encumbered media.

How do you propose this happen? DRM systems largely depend on proprietary algorithms with secret keys. The reason Linux doesn't support DRM is because an open-source operating system has no method for reverse-engineering the encryption schemes. If Netflix thought Linux viewers were a large enough audience for its product, it would have released a proprietary Linux player long ago. Evidently they don't see the value in reaching out to Linux users.