Netflix Rolls Out Silverlight Movie Player

Video rental firm Netflix has introduced the second generation of its instant-streaming media player, based in Microsoft’s Silverlight technology. The new player offers both fast-forward and rewind through streaming video offerings, and—for the first time—is available on Macintosh computers…at least, Macs with an Intel processor. Selections are protected from copying and piracy using Silverlight’s PlayReady DRM technology.

“Silverlight with PlayReady 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, in a release.

At first, the new player will be available to only a small portion of Netflix subscribers, but the company plans to roll out the new streaming platform to all subscribers by the end of 2008. Netflix says Intel-based Macs account for about three-quarters of its Macintosh subscriber base. Of course, the Silverlight player also operates under Windows XP and Vista.