AfterDawn: News

Netflix to use Microsoft DRM for upcoming streaming devices

Microsoft and Netflix have announced today that the video rental service has chosen PlayReady as its DRM of choice for upcoming Netflix-ready streaming devices and apps.

The decision, says Netflix, will allow for subscribers to watch the over 12,000 movies and TV episodes available via "Watch Instantly," the company's popular streaming catalog, on Blu-ray players, Internet-enabled TVs and other devices.



PlayReady is already used for instant streaming on the PC and Macs, and the companies say the first PlayReady devices should hit shelves "as early as this summer."

Says Bill Holmes, vice president of business development at Netflix: "Netflix ready devices are a popular way for our members to instantly watch the huge library of TV episodes and movies available from Netflix that can be watched instantly on their TVs. Netflix is expanding our investment in PlayReady and making PlayReady our primary DRM technology because it best meets the requirements of our content suppliers and device partners while allowing us to benefit from efficiencies in our content delivery infrastructure."

Adds Andreas Mueller-Schubert, general manager of the Media Platforms Business at Microsoft: "Microsoft and Netflix have worked closely on the technologies enabling Netflix members to instantly watch movies — including PlayReady and Silverlight — since the initial planning of instant streaming from Netflix. By working with Netflix on this broader support for Microsoft PlayReady and PIFF, more people — using more devices — will enjoy the immediacy and choice that the pioneering service of Netflix delivers."

PlayReady supports a plethora of formats, adds Microsoft, including AAC, AAC+, Enhanced AAC+, H.264, Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV).

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 25 May 2010 13:59

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• 10 comments

• blueboy09

  DRM of any kind is bad, very bad. I give no support to the "dumbing down" of technology whatsoever. Technology should be free off all contamination of so-called piracy hunters (RIAA, etc.), and that's when tech will grow the fastest. If they think they can take down piracy, think again! Piracy will be around even more thanks to these people.
  

  Life is about walking on thin ice, if you make too much drama, youll crack under pressure. - BLUEBOY

  25.5.2010 20:11 #1

• pcrazy99

  I try to stay away from anything DRM. I almost always have some kind of problem with it.
  

  25.5.2010 20:25 #2

• KillerBug

  Normally I am very anti-DRM, but this is a rental, not a purchase. If someone is running a subscription service, say $10 a month for unlimited streaming movies, or unlimited streaming music, or whatever, then DRM is acceptable; as you have not actually purchased the movie, and thus have no right to make a backup. I can't say I like them working with microsoft, but netflix would not be able to offer their streaming service without DRM...so they certainly need it from somewhere.

  25.5.2010 23:39 #3

• Deadrum33

  I wonder if Microsoft will "help" Netflix by disabling the ability to stream to my PS3?
  

  
  
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  25.5.2010 23:50 #4

• KillerBug

  Originally posted by Deadrum33: I wonder if Microsoft will "help" Netflix by disabling the ability to stream to my PS3? I don't know if you remember...but Microsoft already did that once, when netflix switched to silverlight. Before that, we had netflix on the PS3.
  
  I know netflix tends to act kinda dumb, but they know that their console streaming services sell a lot of subscriptions, and I don't think they would be dumb enough to repeat the mistake of getting locked into Microsoft.
  
  This may sound a bit silly, but I wish they would go to open source DRM...it would be completely free for them, and it would be a lot better for the consumers.

  26.5.2010 04:32 #5

• KillerBug

  Thank you for copying that off of wikipedia for anyone who is too stupid to figure it out for themselves...then again, anyone that dumb can't read anyway.

  26.5.2010 05:49 #6

• DXR88

  im not a fan of streaming Large Amounts of data across the internet. just imagine the hit your network is going to take with a 1080P movie. give me the chills just thinking about it.
  

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  26.5.2010 22:15 #7

• KillerBug

  We need much more robust hardware in many areas, but I believe cloud is the future...there will come a time when our desktop hard drives become obsolete; replaced by a little extra ram to replace the swap files, and a flash chip containing the basic files needed to startup & get online. It is simply a cheaper, safer way of storing data...all you need is the networks to support it.

  26.5.2010 23:59 #8

• s_c47

  Sooo.....this affects me how? I already have Netflix on my PS3. No problems. And it better stay that way.

  1.6.2010 02:11 #9

• IguanaC64

  God I hope not, KillerBug...I like having my files locally because I have control of my own content. The cloud model is really easy to exploit by nickel and diming you for every bit of your data.
  
  I also live in an area who's fastest Internet service for the last 7 years is 512k DSL with no update in sight (I'm only 30mi from the middle of a very major metropolitan area)...until we get high speed across the nation (which folks make more excuses for the current infrastructure than against it...for legitimate financial reasons) I don't see cloud computing being a replacement for local storage.

  1.6.2010 11:34 #10