Saturday, November 01, 2008

Netflix Silverlight Opt In - Proceed With Caution


If you've been wanting to get the Netflix Watch Now service on your Mac, there is a way to do it now.  But be warned, this is a all-in no-turning-back thing.  Before I go into how to opt-in, here are some important warnings you should know about:

  • Once you switch to the new, SilverLight version of the Netflix Player, there's no turning back.  You can't access the older, IE version of the Netflix player on that Netflix account once you've opted in.
  • Opting in means your Netflix Watch-Now will use the Silverlight Version on ALL MACHINES.
  • Not all movies are available to watch with the Silverlight version.
  • During the beta, you may notice errors or lesser quality when watching certain titles
  • If you use a plugin for Netflix Watch Now with SageTV, Vista Media Center, XBox360 using VMCNetflix or any of the other HTPC programs, opting in will break that functionality.  The new version will require a re-write of those plugins for them to work with Netflix streaming.
  • The new player does work on PCs and Intel-based Macs (NOT non-Intel-Based Macs)
  • This is a beta - bugs can and probably will surface.

I will not be opting in on my Netflix account until I have to since I use the SageTV Netflix plugin, but I was able to test this out on a friends account (Uses Mac primarily) and can confirm it works.  To me the streaming quality seemed noticibly worse with the Silverlight version although fast forward, rewind and skipping around in the movie worked better in the Silverlight version.  I was able to view Netflix Watch-Now using Firefox 3 as well, but it does not work in Opera.

System Requirements for Netflix Watch Now Silverlight Beta:
          Windows Requirements
  • Windows XP with Service Pack 2, or Vista
    Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher; or Firefox 2 or higher
  • 1.2 GHz processor
  • 512 MB RAM
          Mac Requirements
  • An Intel-based Mac with OS 10.4.8 or later
  • Safari 3 or higher; or Firefox 2 or higher
  • 1 GB RAM
So, if you're a Mac-Only guy who doesn't use any of the user-made plugins for Netflix Watch Now and you're okay with the above warnings...  Opt in to the Silverlight Netflix Version Link.

via The Netflix Blog