Netflix Rolling Out New Media Player with Mac & Firefox Support Monday

Netflix just announced that they will start rolling out the promised 2nd generation media player with Intel Macintosh and Firefox support to a small percentage of customers on Monday, (all customers should have it by the end of the year). As anticipated since May 2007, the new Netflix streaming player will use Microsoft's Silverlight technology and Play Ready DRM.

Among the viewing enhancements with the new player is a breakthrough in timeline navigation that vastly improves the use of fast-forwarding and rewinding. The new Netflix player takes advantage of Play Ready DRM, which is built into Silverlight, for the playback of protected content on both Windows-based PCs and on Macs. That had not been possible with previous generation technologies.

"Silverlight with Play Ready offers a powerful and secure toolkit for delivery of dynamic streaming, which offers faster start-up, and higher quality video, adapted in real time to users' connection speeds," said Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt. "Members who enjoy watching movies and TV episodes from the growing library of choices that can be instantly streamed at Netflix will be thrilled with this next generation improvement of access and quality, on a broader range of platforms, including Intel Macs and Firefox."

The full text of the press release after the jump.

Thanks to Michael for sending this in.

NETFLIX BEGINS ROLL-OUT OF 2ND GENERATION MEDIA PLAYER FOR INSTANT STREAMING ON WINDOWS PCs AND INTEL MACS

Based on Microsoft Silverlight, New Player Features Enhanced Dynamic Streaming, First-Time Use for Macs and Breakthrough Navigation for Fast-Forward and Rewind

LOS GATOS, Calif., October 27, 2008 – Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), the world's largest online movie rental service, today announced it has begun the deployment of Microsoft Silverlight to enhance the instant watching component of the Netflix service and to allow subscribers for the first time to watch movies and TV episodes instantly on their Intel-based Apple Macintosh computers. The deployment, which will initially touch a small percentage of new Netflix subscribers, is the first step in an anticipated roll-out of the new platform to all Netflix subscribers by the end of the year.

Silverlight is designed for delivery of cross-platform, cross-browser media experiences inside a Web browser. It is expected that Netflix members who watch movies and TV episodes instantly on their computers will enjoy a faster, easier connection and a more robust viewing experience with Silverlight, due to the quality built directly into the player. Among the viewing enhancements with the new player is a breakthrough in timeline navigation that vastly improves the use of fast-forwarding and rewinding. The new Netflix player takes advantage of Play Ready DRM, which is built into Silverlight, for the playback of protected content on both Windows-based PCs and on Macs. That had not been possible with previous generation technologies.

“Silverlight with Play Ready offers a powerful and secure toolkit for delivery of dynamic streaming, which offers faster start-up, and higher quality video, adapted in real time to users’ connection speeds,” said Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt. “Members who enjoy watching movies and TV episodes from the growing library of choices that can be instantly streamed at Netflix will be thrilled with this next generation improvement of access and quality, on a broader range of platforms, including Intel Macs and Firefox.”

“Instantly streaming from Netflix directly addresses the needs and wants of today’s Web users by providing on-demand, high-quality online video,” said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft Corp. “By using Silverlight, Netflix can deliver to its subscribers a higher quality video experience on the Web, on more platforms.”

Silverlight was tried and proven this summer as NBCOlympics.com streamed thousands of hours of live and on-demand online video for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

For Macintosh users, the Silverlight player will work only on Intel-based Macs, which currently account for roughly three-fourths of Mac units operated by Netflix subscribers.

The Netflix instant watching catalog of more than 12,000 choices continues to grow with significant new titles from CBS, the Disney Channel and Starz Play, which the company announced recently. In addition to watching instantly on the PC and Mac via Silverlight, Netflix members can enjoy the same movies and TV episodes on their television with a Netflix ready device such as the Netflix Player by Roku, which was introduced in May, the LG Electronics BD300 Blu-ray disc player and the Samsung BD-P2550 and BD-P2500 Blu-ray disc players, which are on sale now at retailers nationwide, and, soon, the Microsoft Xbox 360.

About Netflix, Inc.
Netflix, Inc. is the world's largest online movie rental service, with more than eight million subscribers. For one low monthly price, Netflix members can get DVDs delivered to their homes and can instantly watch movies and TV episodes streamed to their TVs and PCs, all in unlimited amounts. Members can choose from over 100,000 DVD titles and a growing library of more than 12,000 choices that can be watched instantly. There are never any due dates or late fees. DVDs are delivered free to members by first class mail, with a postage-paid return envelope, from 55 distribution centers nationwide. More than 95 percent of Netflix members live in areas that generally receive shipments in one business day. Netflix is also partnering with leading consumer electronics companies to offer a range of devices that can instantly stream movies and TV episodes to members' TVs from Netflix. For more information, visit http://www.netflix.com/.

Comments

[Jeff]

Who's account is enabled for Mac streaming? Mine isn't.
I called Netflix Instant Watch support, the rep said they don't have much info on it, just what little has 'trickled-down'.

[Satorical]

If I don't get it 'til year-end, that means I have two months left to breathe fresh air...

[Gir]

I wonder if they'll also migrate Roku to the new system. FF/RW on Roku is in desperate need of improvement.

Roku could use chapter points too, but with no dedicated skip buttons on the remote I'm not holding my breath.

[steve.]

Will we use Safari or Firefox (or both I hope)on our Macs?

[Taylor]

I wonder if the "all customers" includes us Linux folk.

[RP]

Gir-

Roku's it's own company, I doubt they'll be doing any updates just because netflix is, they don't interact at all. the Watch Instant software on the Roku isn't whats being used on the PC/Mac side.

Steve-

Silverlight's a plug-in, like Flash. So it's Browser Independant, so Yes. Firefox, Chrome, or IE, whatever.

Everyone else, cuz i know the posts are coming.

Linux is working with MS (Novell) toward a Linux version of silverlight called Moon light) that currently is in beta, it supports Silverlight 1.0 and hopefully in the coming months it will fully support silverlight 2.0 and thenyou can be rocking out your MythBuntu with some Netflix Features.
MoonLight -
www.mono-project.com/Moonlight

[hebby]

Now what will the MAC users complain about? Linux users your queue!

[Mike]

Any Mac users have it yet? (not here).

[RP]

Mac user's aren't in beta tests yet. Only PC is because they are checking for possible issues. and it's only new customers not current customers being placed into the test, and no, you cannot call and be placed into the beta (Already Tried... =( )

Tech is stating the within a week or so Mac users should be drifted all over to "silverlight playable"

[nipsey russell]

PS3????
PS3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

please?

[CopaceticOpus]

A PS3 version of Silverlight seems highly unlikely. However, IF Moonlight catches up to Silverlight 2.0, and IF Netflix enables Moonlight support, and IF the PS3 has enough power under its limited Linux mode to run videos, then maybe there will be a kind of PS3 support.

[nipsey russell]

CopaceticOpus must be latin for bearer of bad news. Nipsey not like CopaceticOpus's post, it make him very very sad.
very sad

[josh]

I highly doubt that Sony will enable Netflix to send content to PS3s. Same reason apple didn't license their DRM. Sony has been talking about doing their own streaming thing.

[RP]

Reed Hastings (CEO of Netflix) stated he wanted it on All Next gen consoles by 2009's end. Xbox360 was is just the first because he is on the board of Microsoft. Personally I think it will go to the Wii next, "Netflix Channel" I'm sure it won't be difficult.

And getting it working on a PS3 doesn't sound to difficult people already using a CD you can burn to try and get it working, but that causes ALOT of issues. But it's a step.

[SVN]

So does this mean I can watch streaming video on my XP Media Center 2004 again? Netflix unceremoniously yanked my ability to do this when it started requiring WMP 11, which Microsoft has decided cannot be installed on Media Center PCs earlier than 2005. I'm assuming that Silverlight plays with pretty much any (Intel) hardware, so I'm hopeful. Does anyone have a hard answer on this?

[josh]

Have you tried looking at the system requirements for silverlight?

[MikeHunt]

Silverlight? Ugh...

Pass.

Netflix needs to use good technology. No proprietary MS crap that'll be unsupported for the Mac in a few years.

[hueristix]

Don't blame Netflix, blame the industry and all of the high powered lawyers. The studios force the use of DRM and you have iTunes and you have Microsoft content protection schemes, otherwise the studios will not provide the content.

I am just glad a multi-OS solution is (almost) out finally.

[Gir]

"No proprietary MS crap that'll be unsupported for the Mac in a few years."

NetFlix will be using this for temporary rentals, not permanent licenses. It doesn't matter if it remains supported. It only matters that it work today.

[lifterus]

It annoys me to no end when people ignorantly complain about "proprietary DRM" for RENTAL and STREAMING services. Yes, we get it. Nobody wants to PURCHASE a song or movie that has DRM on it. But Netflix doesn't sell digital copies of movies for purchase. This is strictly an on-demand service, similar to Pay Per View from your cable company. Of course it's going to have copy protection on it.

[Chronic Complainer]

I think Netflix should just provide all of it's services free of charge on all platforms with no DRM.

Till then, I'm not getting enough value for my money.

[satyakishore3]

hehe.. This page about latest movies online is good too.