Netflix is trying to locate the source of a series of glitches experienced by users of the company's streaming service. Many of the users blame Microsoft's Silverlight video player.
"The new player is far better. It's faster, more reliable and provides greater stability. The vast majority of Netflix members have had a great experience." --Steve Swasey, Netflix spokesman
Over the weekend, a steady stream of
angry messages was posted to Netflix's blog from users of the company's streaming movie service. The complaints range from choppy video, to audio that doesn't sync with the picture, to grainy image quality.
A review of Netflix's blog shows hundreds of complaints began accumulating there soon after the Web's largest video-rental service switched over to Microsoft's Silverlight in November. The problems appear to have trickled in until last weekend, when a score of customers began reporting problems.
"The quality of the video looks like bad VHS," wrote someone on the Netflix who identified themselves as Steve-O. "I use an Acer Netbook over my home network and the quality is poor. Also, I cannot even see the button to make the video full screen (using Acer One Netbook with Firefox browser). However, I imagine this will make the quality even worse. What a disaster."
Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey said the company, which now has more than 10 million subscribers, has yet to pinpoint the cause of the malfunctions. He added that only a small percentage of customers have complained. Swasey said managers take the complaints seriously and are working to find the source of the malfunctions.
Swasey defended Silverlight. He said the company has
received mostly kudos from customers after switching to the software last fall. A Microsoft spokeswoman declined to comment.
"The new player is far better," Swasey said. "It's faster, more reliable and provides greater stability. The vast majority of Netflix members have had a great experience."
The other major complaint from the Netflix customers who posted to the company blog this weekend is that it wasn't made clear that once they swapped to the new player that there was no way to opt out.
"I certainly feel that Netflix was not forthright in getting me to 'upgrade' to the new viewer (Silverlight)," said someone who posted under the name Jerry. "I don't have a beef with Microsoft. I'll support most technologies that work appropriately--and that is where we have come to a problem. The new viewer simply does not work well enough."
Silverlight has received
mixed reviews in the past year. NBC
chose Silverlight to stream video of the 2008 Summer Olympics and the company won some favorable reviews. For the games' opening ceremony, Silverlight helped deliver more than 70 million page views in one evening.
But NBC went back to using Flash after the conclusion of the games. Another setback for Microsoft came when Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the group that streams baseball games over the Web,
decided to drop Silverlight.
03-03-2009, 09:11 PM
Netflix stands behind Microsoft Silverlight
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