Netflix HTML5 streaming now available in Safari on OS X Yosemite

Posted:
in macOS edited June 2014
Following its public unveiling at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, Netflix on Tuesday officially invited beta users of OS X Yosemite to try out the streaming service's new plugin-free option for watching television shows and movies in Safari.




Registered Mac developers and those with early access to Yosemite via Apple's new public beta program can try out the HTML5-based feature simply by logging in to their Netflix account. Viewers were previously required to use plugins like Microsoft's Silverlight for a number of reasons, including digital rights management and adaptive streaming.

"Congratulations to the Apple team for advancing premium video on the web with Yosemite! We're looking forward to the Yosemite launch this Fall," Netflix engineering executives Anthony Park and Mark Watson wrote in a blog post announcing the move.

The new streaming options are made possible thanks to the adoption of a number of new web standards in the upcoming Safari release.

Media Source Extensions allow web developers to create playback streams in the browser using JavaScript, which enables the addition of features like adaptive streaming -- adjusting the delivery of a video stream based on the way the recipient's network is functioning -- in the browser without plugins. According to Apple, moving this functionality from a plugin to the operating system could allow a MacBook Air to get an additional two hours of battery life when watching streaming video.

Encrypted Media Extensions and WebCrypto, meanwhile, address concerns about digital rights management. They allow end-to-end encryption of the media stream between the browser and Netflix's servers to prevent users from simply capturing video as it comes in.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 46
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Glad at least Apple (if noone else) is pushing away from plugins and advancing the web.
  • Reply 2 of 46
    moxommoxom Posts: 326member
    Seems cool - shame I don't use Netflix.

    Would be interesting to hear from those who do just how well this works...
  • Reply 3 of 46
    freqsoundfreqsound Posts: 16member
    I was never quite sure why I had to download and install Silverlight on my Mac to make Netflix work, but never did on my iPhone or iPad. Not a big deal, just thought it odd that one required it and the other 2 did not.
  • Reply 4 of 46
    gumbigumbi Posts: 148member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post



    Glad at least Apple (if noone else) is pushing away from plugins and advancing the web.



    The HTML5 player already works in IE11 on Windows...  Just say'n.

  • Reply 5 of 46
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member

    As usual, thank Apple for laying the groundwork for more compatible protocols that benefit everyone and especially for ignoring all the whiny Flash-fanboys (i.e. Phandroids) and their crying of how Apple is ruining the web experience.



    Funny... you don't hear much from that camp about this anymore eh?  Guess they learned to keep their mouths shut for a change.

  • Reply 6 of 46
    gumbigumbi Posts: 148member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sflocal View Post

     

    As usual, thank Apple for laying the groundwork for more compatible protocols that benefit everyone and especially for ignoring all the whiny Flash-fanboys (i.e. Phandroids) and their crying of how Apple is ruining the web experience.



    Funny... you don't hear much from that camp about this anymore eh?  Guess they learned to keep their mouths shut for a change.


     

    Interesting - Apple laying the groundwork?  The HTML5 player already works on Windows in IE11 - you know, an already released product...  I mean Apple is cool and all - but...  wow!

  • Reply 7 of 46
    john.bjohn.b Posts: 2,742member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by gumbi View Post

     
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post



    Glad at least Apple (if noone else) is pushing away from plugins and advancing the web.



    The HTML5 player already works in IE11 on Windows...  Just say'n.


     

    That's great for anyone foolish enough to run an insecure browser like IE.

  • Reply 8 of 46
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by gumbi View Post

     

     

    Interesting - Apple laying the groundwork?  The HTML5 player already works on Windows in IE11 - you know, an already released product...  I mean Apple is cool and all - but...  wow!


    Just say'n, I'm pretty sure both the posts you replied to are referring to Apple's no plugin push in Safari generally - not just about Netflix streaming.  If you don't think Apple is advancing the state of web browsers & web technologies, well, that's cool, but I am reasonably sure that HTML 5 video would be practically non-existent without Apple's incessant push forward (think Google, think Flash.

  • Reply 9 of 46
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Originally Posted by John.B View Post

    That's great for anyone foolish enough to run an insecure browser like IE.


     

    Do they call it IE because that’s what you groan when you inevitably run into one of the many exploits for it?

     

    “AIEEEEE!”

  • Reply 10 of 46
    agramonteagramonte Posts: 345member

    wow, people still using Safari... you have to give credit to the power of preloaded software.

  • Reply 11 of 46
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    freqsound wrote: »
    I was never quite sure why I had to download and install Silverlight on my Mac to make Netflix work, but never did on my iPhone or iPad. Not a big deal, just thought it odd that one required it and the other 2 did not.

    On the Mac you play Netflix in the browser but on iOS device you play Netflix in their dedicated app which you did download. Netflix could have also prevented you from having to install Silverlight by creating a Mac app but already had the browser support before iOS apps were commonplace.
  • Reply 12 of 46
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    agramonte wrote: »
    wow, people still using Safari... you have to give credit to the power of preloaded software.

    Why are you surprised?
  • Reply 13 of 46
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Originally Posted by agramonte View Post

    wow, people still using Safari... you have to give credit to the power of preloaded software.

     

    Take your trolling and shove it so far in your ear that your otolaryngologist can afford a house in the Hamptons.

  • Reply 14 of 46
    shpshftrshpshftr Posts: 5member
    Microsoft is actually the company that largely created the MSE technology. So it isn't a surprise that IE supports it.

    Google Chrome was also an early adopter of MSE.

    Apple would be last with support for MSE if it weren't for Firefox.

    Apple is neither at the forefront nor laying the groundwork.
  • Reply 15 of 46
    constable odoconstable odo Posts: 1,041member

    Google was such a diehard Flashtard.  They just kept pushing Flash for all it was worth because they thought they had some huge advantage over iOS and Steve Jobs insistence that it should be killed off.  Flash ran like crap on mobile devices but Google simply wouldn't relent.  It took all the way to KitKat for Android to absolutely not support Adobe Flash and yet there are still people trying to install it and succeeding by side-loading it.  Some people just never give up.

  • Reply 16 of 46
    patsupatsu Posts: 430member
    gumbi wrote: »

    The HTML5 player already works in IE11 on Windows...  Just say'n.

    How efficient is it ? Silverlight was MS's product and it sucks a lot of juice for doing the same thing.
  • Reply 17 of 46
    gumbigumbi Posts: 148member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by patsu View Post





    How efficient is it ? Silverlight was MS's product and it sucks a lot of juice for doing the same thing.



    From a play back perspective - it definitely feels better than the Silverlight player.  Quicker to load, smother playback, etc.  But, that might just be a perception thing - it's not like I have done any formal benchmarks or anything :)

  • Reply 18 of 46
    patsupatsu Posts: 430member
    shpshftr wrote: »
    Microsoft is actually the company that largely created the MSE technology. So it isn't a surprise that IE supports it.

    Google Chrome was also an early adopter of MSE.

    Apple would be last with support for MSE if it weren't for Firefox.

    Apple is neither at the forefront nor laying the groundwork.

    Apple supports HTTP Live Streaming in HTML5 video tag, which is smarter than MSE, EME and WebCrypto because it runs natively, and are aware of the client's h/w runtime.

    What the MSE stack adds is giving more control to the streaming providers. They will have to recreate the entire HLS adaptive streaming logic using JavaScript.

    The providers can tweak their JS code to address their customers' nuances without Apple's help.
  • Reply 19 of 46
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    Encrypted Media Extensions and WebCrypto, meanwhile, address concerns about digital rights management. They allow end-to-end encryption of the media stream between the browser and Netflix's servers to prevent users from simply capturing video as it comes in.

    Finally, 7 years after the original iPhone. These things should have been implemented years ago so nobody would have any excuses to use Flash or Silverlight for DRM video.
  • Reply 20 of 46
    _rick_v__rick_v_ Posts: 142member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by gumbi View Post

     



    The HTML5 player already works in IE11 on Windows...  Just say'n.


     

    Curious about this, I fired up IE 11 on my Windows 7 VM and was immediately prompted to install Silverlight.  A bit of Googling, and learned that Netflix supports the HTML5 player on IE11 on Windows 8.1 ONLY.

     

    So, sure, it works in the Windows OS that has barely 5% of the Windows market... Just say'n.

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