# Netflix and Silverlight on a Mac



## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

I usually watch Netlix on my Apple TV 2 or on my XBOX 360, but I wanted to watch it on my mac one day and was shown a message to install Microsoft Silverlight.

Is Microsoft Silverlight ok to install on a Mac?


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

It's fine. It got installed on my Mac ages ago for one reason or another and never did any harm.


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## Elric (Jul 30, 2005)

Netflix through a browser is horrible for me, it takes about 6 tries and 6 safari Force Quits to get it running in Full Screen...


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

Ok, thanks for the heads up.


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## Guest (May 4, 2011)

Elric said:


> Netflix through a browser is horrible for me, it takes about 6 tries and 6 safari Force Quits to get it running in Full Screen...


I've never had issues with that here, runs fine with both Safari and Firefox at my place. I'd check your extensions, clear your browser, cache, do some other diagnostics.

The only issue I've ever had with it was after I migrated machines and cloned my data to the new one I had to manually remove a license file (which then was replaced on next run and has been fine ever since). I called their support line and it was done and working within 2 minutes.


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## wonderings (Jun 10, 2003)

mguertin said:


> I've never had issues with that here, runs fine with both Safari and Firefox at my place. I'd check your extensions, clear your browser, cache, do some other diagnostics.
> 
> The only issue I've ever had with it was after I migrated machines and cloned my data to the new one I had to manually remove a license file (which then was replaced on next run and has been fine ever since). I called their support line and it was done and working within 2 minutes.


No issues either, works fine on anything I run it on (Apple Tv2, iPad 2, iPhone 4, iMac, MBP). Silverlight is safe to install.


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

I was trying to keep MS out of my Mac as being a new Mac user. Oh well.

I wonder why Netflix uses Silverlight for Safari and not use Quicktime, because they can't use Silverlight in iOS.


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## Tech Elementz (Mar 15, 2011)

Joker Eh said:


> I was trying to keep MS out of my Mac as being a new Mac user. Oh well.
> 
> I wonder why Netflix uses Silverlight for Safari and not use Quicktime, because they can't use Silverlight in iOS.


I think it is because Netflix uses silverlight for every browser on a Mac and PC. I think it is actually better to use silverlight because it is universal to use and while a Mac can use this type of plugin, they will tend to use silverlight over quicktime.


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## Guest (May 4, 2011)

Silverlight, as much as I hate to admit it, is a superior streaming platform to both quicktime and flash. It does things that quicktime and flash don't do, like evaluating capable speeds, switching streams on the fly (as you buffer more and can handle higher quality, or conversely if your speed drops and you need to lower the bandwidth usage to avoid interruptions, etc). In the backend of it all it's very likely H.264 video codecs being used (it's the most efficient video codec for keeping file sizes and bitrates low but still delivering quality). For the iPad app they are probably just bypassing the silverlight front-end for the streaming and directly serving up the H.264 content. On the iPad you'll see a lot more pauses for buffering than you will with the web browser component because it can't do that switch on the fly (or at least it doesn't seem to be able to, who knows for sure except for the coders of the iPad app).

Also silverlight supports content licensing, etc which quicktime doesn't (QT does support DRM but it's not the same as what silverlight is doing with timed licenses, etc).


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

Elric said:


> Netflix through a browser is horrible for me, it takes about 6 tries and 6 safari Force Quits to get it running in Full Screen...


I just installed it and it is working fine even full screen.


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## Paul82 (Sep 19, 2007)

> Also *silverlight supports content licensing*, etc which quicktime doesn't (QT does support DRM but it's not the same as what silverlight is doing with timed licenses, etc).


This is by far the main reason silverlight is used for browser based access, all the stand alone devices use the same H.264 streams and are for the most part also capable of dynamically adjusting the bit-rate streamed to match the connection quality. I'm fairly sure in the case of ios devices at least it is using the standard HTML5 video playback functionality, albeit from within an app.


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## Darien Red Sox (Oct 24, 2006)

I had nothing but trouble trying to run Silverlight over a ~1.2MBs DSL connection for MLB TV. When I looked up the issue it appeared that others with slow internet connections were having it too. Don't know though if it was a Silverlight or MBL issue.


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

Darien Red Sox said:


> I had nothing but trouble trying to run Silverlight over a ~1.2MBs DSL connection for MLB TV. When I looked up the issue it appeared that others with slow internet connections were having it too. Don't know though if it was a Silverlight or MBL issue.


Hi Darien, you will struggle with that connection to stream many things. Thats what I have here at the office and it struggles for many sites, but for Netflix it worked for the few mins I tried it here at the office with no issue.


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## Guest (May 5, 2011)

1.2MB is about the bare minimum speed for many things streaming these days, if it is even enough. Most of the big providers like MLB probably require at least that much bandwidth but most likely more (maybe sites say you need at least 2.5-3MB/sec to stream). I'd suspect MLB is one of them that needs more bandwidth to stream. Netflix offers lower bitrate stuff which is probably why it worked fine for you Joker .. especially for any of the SD content. HD content may be another story though, 1.2MB is probably not enough, most HD streams are probably 1.5MB and higher.


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

mguertin said:


> 1.2MB is about the bare minimum speed for many things streaming these days, if it is even enough. Most of the big providers like MLB probably require at least that much bandwidth but most likely more (maybe sites say you need at least 2.5-3MB/sec to stream). I'd suspect MLB is one of them that needs more bandwidth to stream. Netflix offers lower bitrate stuff which is probably why it worked fine for you Joker .. especially for any of the SD content. HD content may be another story though, 1.2MB is probably not enough, most HD streams are probably 1.5MB and higher.


Yeah I turned down the quality on my account and ran Heroes season 1 here for a few mins.

As a side note my girlfriend has the 3MB service form Rogers and I can't stream a rental from Apple iTunes on my Apple TV 2 with out it stopping. I have to pause it for like 15 mins and then start watching it, and even that sometimes doesn't work.


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## Guest (May 5, 2011)

Darien Red Sox said:


> I had nothing but trouble trying to run Silverlight over a ~1.2MBs DSL connection for MLB TV. When I looked up the issue it appeared that others with slow internet connections were having it too. Don't know though if it was a Silverlight or MBL issue.


From their FAQ: MLB.com FAQs | MLB.com: Help


> MLB.TV standard content is streamed at a minimum of 400kbps, so your bandwidth must be consistently pulling 400kbps to receive a smooth feed. Higher quality MLB.TV content is streamed within 800kbps to 3Mbps and your bandwidth must be consistently pulling 90% of the streaming rate to receive a high-quality video feed.
> 
> For an accurate reading of your connection speed, use our bandwidth test. Bandwidth fluctuates, so perform multiple tests. Keep in mind the test results reflect your bandwidth at the time of testing. Your bandwidth may be different at another time, e.g. the following day or even a few hours later. Again, the recommended bandwidth for MLB.TV standard content is 400kbps; the recommended bandwidth for higher quality MLB.TV content is 800kbps and above. A user connecting below 400kbps may receive video, but will likely experience choppy feeds. If you are not consistently testing above 400kbps, you may want to contact your Internet Service Provider.


And here's a link to their bandwidth test:
MLB.com : Bandwidth Speed Test

I'd give that a shot and see what happens. The other thing to consider is that you not only need a minimum bandwidth, but the connection has to remain solid, so if there are dropouts and the like you'll run into issues even if you surpass the minimum bandwidth requirements.


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