Silverlight strongarming?

A couple of weeks ago I last used Instant Watch to watch a movie. Today I tried again and got the following screen:

What's going on? Is Netflix strongarming its users to switch? I already have the old WMPlayer and I've used it in the past without any problems. Is there any way around this, I don't really want to install Silverlight, given the age of the computer I'm using and the horror stories others are reporting.

Tags: silverlight

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Permalink Reply by joeoftexas on June 6, 2009 at 3:23pm: Aces,

I had put my Netflix subscription on hold for about a month
due to work.
When I came back in, I got the Silverlight "install now" pages on all of the Instant Watch titles that I attempted to watch.

The Silverlight player didn't want to pause / stop when I tried to halt the movie (it had just been stalling & stopping anyway, and was not playing properly).

It seemed like my computer *might* have been running slower after I installed the Silverlight IW player.
So as a precaution, I just went ahead and did a "System Restore" to an earlier date, after I had already removed Silverlight from my computer.

I didn't check any of the other sites like PBS, hulu or youtube while I had Silverlight installed.

Permalink Reply by Maubs on June 6, 2009 at 9:00am: Tried today (June 6) and still no upgrade message. Whew!
I'm using Firefox and IETab.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tecmo SB Guy on June 7, 2009 at 12:11pm: Anyone else getting this a lot also?

I still have the old player but today and yesterday about 1/2 the time I play something from Netflix IW, I get the above message.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by mnphysicist on June 17, 2009 at 12:54am: I was able to fix the above... (it got to the point, it occurred everytime...) but its anyones guess how long it will work, or if the same fix will work for you. The fix does blow away your IE settings and data, plus if you have any other DRM content, it will likely blow it away as well.

My system is a 1133Mhz mobile P3 with 512MB of ram running WIN XP SP3, and from prior experience, its way too under powered to run Silverlight (at least not without major skips and dropouts), thus the new player is not an option.

This is what I did... ymmv
from
http://smashedlife.wordpress.com/2007/06/03/netflix-instant-viewing...

1. In Internet Explorer, click Tools – Internet Options – Advanced – Reset.

from
http://smashedlife.wordpress.com/2007/06/03/netflix-instant-viewing...

2. made the DRM file visible: (Start, my computer, tools, folder options, click “show hidden files” and uncheck “hide protected operating system files (recommended)”)

3. found the DRM file under c:, documents and settings, all users.

4. renamed “DRM” to “Backupdrm” by right clicking.

5. After performing the above I went to the link noted in an earlier post:
http://drmlicense.one.microsoft.com/Indivsite/en/indivit.asp?force=1

And it works just as it used to... no problems at all.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tecmo SB Guy on July 22, 2009 at 6:47pm: Thanks for that but I screwed something up on one of my web browsers and I ended up getting the message the original thread poster mentioned. So I had to install Silverlight.

Overall, I would say the old player is better (like most everyone has mentioned already). But Silverlight is tolerable though. Nothing you can do about it anyways. The buffering thing when you rewind is a little annoying. I can live with that though.

What I did notice is that some movies I play seem to have a lip synch problem now that I didn't notice with the old player. The words and lip movements don't seem to matchup. Has anyone else had that problem?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Teresa on June 7, 2009 at 6:39pm: I have two computers in the home, one wired and one wireless and both have silverlight on them..same version. Each time I try to IW on my wireless notebook, I get error 8146 4001 and it says something about playback error and the movie can't be watched instantly at this time. But at the same time, I have the movie playing instantly on my wired desktop computer!
Netflix gave me a few things to try like wiring to my modem, but nothing has worked and they do not have the resolution to this issue. Has anyone else had the same problem and resolved it? I am about ready to give up on Netflix until this is resolved.
Thanks for any help you can suggest.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Pihk on June 17, 2009 at 4:02pm: It's amazing to me that you think this is Netflix's problem...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Buddy on June 22, 2009 at 6:05am: It is ABSOLUTELY Netflix's problem! They are using their customers as unknowing Beta testers - but what's worse is that it is PERMANENT - until they get enough complaints to put out a patch. Who knows when that will be. Yes, it is about Silverlight functionality, but who made the decision to force its customers to use it? NETFLIX!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Pihk on June 22, 2009 at 7:20am: First of all, read the actual post I'm replying to. I was specifically replying to the post above mine (psst...see the little dotted arrow?).

They are using their customers as unknowing Beta testers...who made the decision to force its customers to use it? NETFLIX!

So now that you've established that you have no concept of how businesses work, what's your point?

Remember to continue using emotionally laden hyperbole to enhance the credibility of your position.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Knaldskalle on June 22, 2009 at 1:19pm: It is ABSOLUTELY Netflix's problem!

No, it's my problem if my machine is too old and decrepit to live up to the software requirements. I'll be sad if it turns out to not work on my machine, but I won't claim that it's Netflix' problem, it's mine. Do I wish they'd let us use the old player? Certainly, but I can't blame them for wanting to use only one player. If I want to use Instant Watch, I just have to make sure my machine can run Silverlight, end of story.

They are using their customers as unknowing Beta testers - but what's worse is that it is PERMANENT - until they get enough complaints to put out a patch.

Nonsense. Silverlight is an officially released Microsoft product (version 3 is coming soon) and you are are delusional if you think Netflix is going to release a patch for a Microsoft product.

Besides, you can uninstall Silverlight by going to your Control Panel and clicking "Add/Remove software". What you can't remove is Netflix' requirement to use Silverlight if you want to use Instant Watch. If you don't want to or can't use Silverlight, then you don't get to use Instant Watch, but there's no forcing you to use Silverlight. And you are always free to leave Netflix at any given time or use competing online services such as Hulu.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Knaldskalle on June 22, 2009 at 12:52pm: I installed Silverlight earlier today and then tried running the pilot episode of Nurse Jackie. It went okay, much to my surprise. The picture quality initially seemed better, but every 65 seconds the player would start dropping frames (18-22 frames/second) for 5 seconds and then come back. I meddled with the settings (Ctrl+Alt+Shft+D and Ctrl+Alt+Shft+D) and it got better, I ended with about the same quality as the old player and a few stutters now and then by setting it to 1000 kbps. 500 kbps makes is look like an old youtube video...

Granted, Nurse Jackie isn't the best test, there's little action and few panning scenes that would reveal tearing, but right now I'm just relieved that it isn't worse. It's watchable.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by The Real Uncle Bob on June 22, 2009 at 4:20pm: god forbid anybody should try to make a service better! That might involve scary software updates!

Okay, I'm feeling generous -- here's the fix for those who fear microsoft.; ▶ Reply to This