Netflix Silverlight Opt In (Proceed with Caution)

If you’ve wanted the Netflix Watch Instantly service on your Mac, there’s now a way to opt-in. But, be warned, this is a all-in no-turning-back procedure. Some caveats:

• Once you switch to the new, Silverlight version of the Netflix player, you won’t be able to access the older, IE version.
• You Netflix account will use the Microsoft Silverlight version on all machines.
• Not all movies are currently available to watch using the Silverlight player.
• During the beta, you may notice errors or lesser quality when streaming certain titles.
• If you use a plugin for Netflix Watch Instantly with SageTV, Vista Media Center, Xbox 360 using VMCNetflix or any of the other HTPC programs, opting in will break that functionality. The new version will require a re-write to enable Netflix video playback.
• The new player works on PCs and Intel-based Macs.
• This is a preview release – bugs can and probably will surface.

I’m not opting in through my Netflix account as I use the SageTV Netflix plugin, but I was able to test this out using a friend’s account (primarily a OS X user) and can confirm it works. The streaming quality seemed noticeably worse under the Silverlight version, although fast forward, rewind and skipping around in the movie performed better in the new player. I was able to view Netflix Watch Instaly using Firefox 3 as well, but it doesn’t work in Opera. So, if you’re a Mac-only guy who hasn’t leveraged any of the customer-created plugins for Netflix Watch Instantly, and you’re okay with the above warnings…  opt in to the Silverlight Netflix player.

Check out more of Brent’s reflections on tech, gadgets, software and media at Brent Evans Geek Tonic.