End of the Road for LoveFilm Streaming on TP

[TouchPadFan]

The biggest boon in having an HP TouchPad in the UK has been the ability to use full flash sites like The UK film streaming site LoveFilm. Not any more...

Just got an email stating that they're going over to MS Silverlight from Flash. Bu**er.

"The software that streams our online films will soon be changing from Flash to a system called Silverlight.

We've been asked to make this change by the studios - it's one of the conditions for supplying their films to us, because they see the Silverlight software as more secure than Flash in preventing copyright infringement.

Unfortunately, Silverlight software is not supported on computers using the Linux/UNIX operating systems or on non-Intel Macs (those with an operating system of 10.5 or lower).

These devices will continue to stream films for a few weeks while Flash and Silverlight are running side-by-side on LOVEFiLM, but after Flash is switched off, they will only be able to play trailers, not full movies. "

Seeing as lovefilm will never give TP owners a dedicated app, this could be the end of the road for the TP for me.

[CGK]

Hum... so how does lovefilm streaming work on the PS3?

[bluenote]

LoveFilm is an Amazon company, very interesting.
And going to Silverlight. I thought Silverlight was going away...

[brshoemak]

Originally Posted by bluenote

LoveFilm is an Amazon company, very interesting.
And going to Silverlight. I thought Silverlight was going away...

ZDNET - Silverlight Ending

Again, this is a rumor (although it sounds plausible) but if enough people believe in rumors they will come true, like WebOS being revived.

If I was developing, well anything, I would not go with Silverlight - of course I wouldn't do Flash either. HTML5 would be my choice as long as the solution didn't rely on using features where HTML5 has shortcomings.

[rmausser]

Dear customer: we are switching our video streaming from one dying framework to another.

[hagster]

Had the same email.

Film companies shooting themselves in the foot. This is why people pirate stuff.

[Unclevanya]

HTML 5 is great - but doesn't offer any Digital Rights Management (DRM) framework that is available across all platforms universally does it?

[Orion Antares]

Originally Posted by brshoemak

ZDNET - Silverlight Ending

Again, this is a rumor (although it sounds plausible) but if enough people believe in rumors they will come true, like WebOS being revived.

If I was developing, well anything, I would not go with Silverlight - of course I wouldn't do Flash either. HTML5 would be my choice as long as the solution didn't rely on using features where HTML5 has shortcomings.

HTML5 doesn't offer DRM management.

Silverlight and Flash do.

[TouchPadFan]

Just seems completely illogical to me for two reasons:

1) Silverlight development will end sooner or later, this is already an outdated method of media delivery.

2) WHY would anyone be worried about people trying to copy the absolutely awful quality streaming video from LoveFilm when, they can just order the DVD / Blu-Ray and copy it in full uncompressed 1080p in 10 minutes with Make MKV for free or any of the other paid for programs?

None of this makes sense, luckily my pre-paid contract expires in January so I will be leaving then.

Edit: Obviously this will also mean all Android Tablets will cease to function too as they don't support Silverlight either and there's no App with streaming, only video library editing. Linux users may be able to use the silverlight plug in 'Moonlight' to continue use?

[dignitary]

Silverlight can and will be used in cases where strong DRM is needed for a while to come.

Just because Microsoft may discontinue further development on Silverlight it doesn't mean at all that it isn't well-suited (in providers and the studios' eyes) for its current purpose until DRM libraries/wrappers are available for HTML5.

[eblade]

It's funny, because there's absolutely nothing stopping anyone in Silverlight or Flash or any other device in the world, from directly screencapping. And even if there were, if I can see it, so can my camcorder.

[tsaunders]

I remember when Netflix wouldn't work in Chrome and now it does. I believe Netflix uses Silverlight.

[CGK]

The company said the technology switcheroo wouldn't affect or apply to PS3, iPad, internet TVs and other streaming devices. But PCs, laptops and Macs will no longer be able to access online versions of movies provided to Lovefilm customers via the Flash plugin.

Lovefilm dumps Flash, BLINDS Linux fans with Silverlight • The Register

So does the touchpad have this out.

[TouchPadFan]

Originally Posted by CGK

Lovefilm dumps Flash, BLINDS Linux fans with Silverlight • The Register

So does the touchpad have this out.

Huh?

No WebOS or Android device will be able to access streaming films. Linux users may have a quick work around with the Moonlight plug in, so I read. But we're royally stuffed.

[Semma2]

Originally Posted by tsaunders

I remember when Netflix wouldn't work in Chrome and now it does. I believe Netflix uses Silverlight.

Correct.

The only way to get Sliverlight-hosted content on tablets is with a custom app.

[polaris_silvertree]

I believe this has more or less to do with Adobe's decision that came out earlier this month to can (stop supporting) mobile Flash (not be confused with their Flex framework). Adobe did indicate that they were going to refocus on html5 (so webOS is good there).

See here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...sh-mobile-dead

As for why LoveFilm and the industry decided to move to Silverlight -- IMHO its the old-mindset and money. To be fair, Silverlight has a workable framework that does do video streaming quite well. I think Adobe Flex is better because you can really branch out to multiple platforms with a single code base, but I know some people were greatly confused by the announcement (happened like Nov 7th or 9th as I recall) by Adobe.

That said, while html5 doesn't really support DRM, DRM can be implemented in other ways -- like codecs for instance. But I think what the real issue here is that the entertainment industry doesn't want to entertain a paradigm shift in their business model if they don't have to -- its not their forte and quite honestly it would probably be more costly than to shift to Silverlight (or Flex). Again, their decision to not go Flex (if the rumors are true) probably was more due to confusion. Going to Silverlight risks losing a significant user base and the dev costs could be significant. We should see how this all unravels.

[CGK]

Originally Posted by TouchPadFan

Huh?

No WebOS or Android device will be able to access streaming films. Linux users may have a quick work around with the Moonlight plug in, so I read. But we're royally stuffed.

Amazon must have some fix in mind for android devices because otherwise when the Kindle Fire is officially released in the UK, it will look mighty odd if their own tablet cannot access a service supplied by them....

[TouchPadFan]

Originally Posted by CGK

Amazon must have some fix in mind for android devices because otherwise when the Kindle Fire is officially released in the UK, it will look mighty odd if their own tablet cannot access a service supplied by them....

Yes, that makes sense. Although they are not letting on about any Android App (or WebOS App!) in the pipeline - strange, you would have thought that they would have at least advised customers what their future strategy would be with mobile platforms, especially Android? I wrote a letter to LF and got the usual guff back:

"Thank you for your email.

I am sorry to hear of the issues that our change in software from Adobe Flash player to Microsoft Silverlight will cause you.

There are 2 main reasons for this switch. The first being that the studios have asked us to ensure that we have the most secure player for their content, and secondly the Silverlight player supports “Smooth streaming”.

Smooth streaming is a facility for the Silverlight player to switch between different rates of quality depending upon the available bandwidth. This should mean a reduction in buffering which has been an issue for some of our streaming service customers.

Sadly the migration to Silverlight technology is at the studio's who license the titles request, and if we were to refuse to change the way we stream their titles, they would revoke the rental agreements altogether.

I would like to apologise once again for any disappointment caused, and would like to confirm that our streaming service will continue unaffected on all of our other devices / platforms."

[hagster]

<Misdirected_Rant>Come on Amazon/Lovefilm. You're a big company now; Grow a pair. These film studio's need you just as much as you need them.</Misdirected_Rant>

[etphoto]

Originally Posted by hagster

Had the same email.

Film companies shooting themselves in the foot. This is why people pirate stuff.

Lol, people don't steal because companies try to make it harder to steal. Jesus

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