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When I heard the news, I cheered! I love me my netflix, especially now that my wife is pregnant and goes to bed at 9:00pm every night and I can’t even begin to think about sleeping till 11:00pm.  So I fireup netflix and start hammering my way through the Heroes series.  So when the news hit two weeks ago that you can now watch instantly on a mac thinks to Microsoft’s Silverlight software, I was ready to go.  Now two week in to the experience I thought perhaps it is time to review what I’ve found.

The official Netflix blog stated on October 31st that this project is still in beta, with the following warnings

• There may be bugs. We are logging all errors, but if you run into problems you can help out by posting details here in the blog comments.
• Not all movies are available to watch with Silverlight. You may notice errors or lower than normal quality when watching certain titles.
• Our new player works on PCs and Intel-based Macs.
• Windows users should be aware that if you opt in, you will need to use Silverlight on all the machines you use to watch instantly.

So I want to keep that in mind, but at the same time a review is a review, and after all they want to know how it’s working out.

I should start off by stating that the performance of netflix watch now on my Windows machine has been amazing! Flawless in terms of streaming video. So I naturally expected to see the same level of craftsman ship in the new Mac version.  However, there is a new cog in the wheel of my late night video endeavors. Silverlight. Sure you remember silverlight that tool that Microsoft keeps trying to shove down our CAT5 throats.  So to be fair I really need to completely re-examine my experience on both the PC and the MAC using Silverlight and netflix.

The new Beta version on the PC is good! It’s not as good, but it works pretty well. I can tell at times the quality is somewhere between pretty good and “Is this youtube?” I notice a few small glitches from time to time, but overall the experience doesn’t distract from the movie or episode.  So I can muttle through.

However the MAC version is dismal! The quality honestly seems to be a tad better the PC version.  However, the glitching looks more like Dustin Hoffman in Rainman. And more often then not it’s not long till whatever I’m watching starts to look like a bad kung fu movie with porrly done voice overs.  Seeing the effects of a gunshot off screen and not hearing it for another 3 seconds really can effect the plot, or at least make you feel like maybe your the one with superpowers! Yea the cheerleader can heal at super speed, the polititian can fly, but I’m a precog when it comes to TV! It’s unwatchable.  I can’t take more then about 5 min. of it till I’m forced to pull out my PC and continue watching whatever I was watching on it.

All that being said, Netflix, it’s a good start.  And I know it’s still in beta, so I’m not trying to beat up on anyone.  But it’s still got a long way to go to become the player that I know they want, and had prior to silverlight.

This brings up another interesting thought though.  there has been a breakdown of the concept of what a Beta is. No not by Netflix, but by Google.   Beta’s break, Netflix silverlight project is truely a beta! Google mail, this isn’t a Beta, you guys are in feature release stages… So perhaps my own perception of what is acceptable as a beta needs to be refreshed.