Matt Shields wrote:
>
>>
>> Apparently the problem with the Mac is the DRM again. The studios are
>> apparently all worried that people will keep copies of the old TV shows and
>> movies downloaded.
>>
>> I have an old Mac Mini that I would like to use to watch some Netflix shows
>> on (better than sitting in front of a computer, or watching it on a small
>> laptop), but until it is supported I can't. The Mini is hooked up to my TV
>> directly.
>>
>
> Quicktime absolutely supports DRM, so what's the problem? It's a
> cheap company that's looking to get the most bang for the littlest
> buck.
They claim to be working on mac/xbox/ps3 support but I don't think they
have a target date.
> And for those that say it's more complicated than I state, I have
> built a site from ground up(programming and video encoding) which
> hosted independent films in WMV and QT formats. For me the most
> complicated part was converting films that were not on optical media
> (like DVD), because if they were sent on tape format (DVCPRO, DV,
> BetaCam, etc) you were limited to the speed of playback, whereas
> digital you can rip faster.
It's probably more complicated to get the OK from the studios when
streaming commercial content and everyone may be waiting on silverlight.
The current netflix system not only has drm that is only playable with
the windows program, but they can tell if the speed of your download is
faster than a real-time playback and will cancel your account if they
think you are saving downloaded copies instead.
Meanwhile, XP under vmware or parallels will work on a mac if you happen
to have a copy - not sure about linux. But the selection they make
available for streaming probably isn't worth setting up a system that
way. It is a small fraction of what they offer as dvds through the
normal service.
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell at gmail.com