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back to article Microsoft: Stop using Microsoft Silverlight. (Everyone else has)

Microsoft is encouraging companies that use its Silverlight media format on their web pages to dump the tech in favor of newer, HTML5-based media playback systems. "The commercial media industry is undergoing a major transition as content providers move away from proprietary web plug-in based delivery mechanisms (such as Flash …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This helps with the embedding video with HTML5:

    http://camendesign.com/code/video_for_everybody

    ...and this helps to convert to the 3 formats you need to cover all browsers:

    http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

    4 0 Reply
    1. Mike Bell
      Reply Icon

      What would have helped you would have been a proper comment editor that allows you to format and embed links without resorting to HTML. Come on, El Reg, it's not that hard to implement!

      2 8 Reply
      1. VinceH
        Reply Icon

        Handy tip if you are using Firefox - which may work on other browsers as well:

        Triple click on the URL. It recognises it as a URL, so you can then right click -> open link in new tab. Quicker quicker than messing around copying it, then opening a new tab and pasting into the URL field - but, yeah, El Reg automatically recognising links in comments would be handy.

        7 1 Reply
        1. VinceH
          Reply Icon

          However (as I've only now realised) the triple click doesn't just select the URL if it's part of a paragraph - in that case, select it with a click and drag.

          0 0 Reply
          1. Hans 1
            Reply Icon

            Chrome users just right-click the URL and select "Open in new tab" ...

            0 0 Reply
      2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        "Come on, El Reg, it's not that hard to implement!"

        It's an anti-spam measure. For the same reason commentards can't post HTML at all initially, and then only a small subset. The more posts you make the more HTML you get to use. And as an IT/technical website, commentards are expected to be able to cope with a little manual HTML if they think their comments deserve it.

        "You can add hyperlinks in your post - once you have had 100 posts accepted for publication. We have set the bar high to deter spammers and enable us to assess use. We will review this bar from time to time."

        8 0 Reply
        1. Terry 6 Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Absolutely.

          There are all sorts of IT related folk reading and commenting on here.

          We all do different sorts of jobs, and have different ranges of skills.

          But we really shouldn't be too shocked to be asked to stick in a few tags to get special effects. Or to wait until we graduate a bit and establish we are not just spamming/trolling.

          And I notice that plenty of (non tecchie) sites either don't have formatting. Or do have it but for most contributors it isn't actually used.

          3 0 Reply

          1. This post has been deleted by its author

          2. Mike Bell
            Reply Icon

            Yes, yes, yes. Any twat with minimal understanding can write a few HTML tags. But it's freakin tedious, especially if you happen to be using a virtual keyboard at the time. Nothing to stop you adding convenient formatting buttons and blocking – where you deem relevant – the subsequent HTML. It's not exactly rocket science, and is widely used on message boards.

            0 2 Reply
            1. Anonymous Coward
              Reply Icon
              Anonymous Coward

              I didn't link them up mostly because I just couldn't be arsed. Also as this is a tech forum with a higher-than-normal paranoia ratio people can see the text and know that they're not being interfered with, with a dodgy link.

              Also anyone who is contemplating video embedding using HTML5 is probably capable of highlighting the link and hitting CTRL C-T-V (or whatever the equivalent in your browser is).

              To be completely honest, I didn't really consider mobile users because it's not the sort of operation that you would do from a phone if you have any choice in the matter.

              I aim to please, however so:

              Chunk of code that will drop the 3 video formats into the appropriate browser seamlessly and also offers downloads for those with older browsers

              A free conversion thing that works on Win/Mac to generate your 3 video flavours

              0 0 Reply
  2. shifty_powers
    Stop

    NHS

    "Microsoft said it will continue to support Silverlight for out-of-browser applications for the dozen or so of you who are using it for that purpose"

    Try the several thousand mental health professionals in London NHS Trusts whom use RiO, provided by BT and running on Silverlight in IE. It's the unholy trinity I tell you! (And I'm sure there are plenty more as well). The mind boggles, it really does...

    9 0 Reply
    1. Zacherynuk
      Reply Icon
      Pint

      Re: NHS

      "provided by BT and running on Silverlight in IE"

      OMG

      Beer, because you need it.

      30 0 Reply
      1. Captain Queeg
        Reply Icon

        Re: NHS

        So, so, funny - have an upvote Sir!

        1 0 Reply
    2. Antonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Flame

      Re: NHS

      Expect they had the very best (most expensive) "consultants" in to cook up that little nasty.

      Kill it. Kill it with fire --->

      ("It" being "RiO" not the NHS, obvs)

      3 0 Reply
    3. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: NHS

      Sounds like those mental health professionals need their head examining.

      ;)

      9 1 Reply
    4. James Cane
      Reply Icon

      Re: NHS

      I'm just trying to imagine the meeting where they decided that getting BT to write critical NHS software was a smart move. Maybe they'd already started on that beer.

      6 0 Reply
    5. Phil W
      Reply Icon

      Re: NHS

      "Microsoft said it will continue to support Silverlight for out-of-browser applications for the dozen or so of you who are using it for that purpose"

      "Try the several thousand mental health professionals in London NHS Trusts whom use RiO, provided by BT and running on Silverlight in IE."

      Maybe I'm missing something here but surely using Silverlight in IE doesn't qualify as an "out-of-browser application"?

      2 0 Reply
    6. Terry 6 Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Coffee/keyboard

      Re: NHS

      RIO. Ah. Not just mental health then.

      I worked alongside other NHS teams, particularity Speech and Language Therapists.

      I never needed to go near their IT ( nor would any Non-NHS person have been allowed to).

      But I do know that RIO was their lives. Every sodding minute of the day had to accounted for in Rio.

      Everything had to go through this RIO.

      [Keyboard icon for the amount of time they spend banging stuff out on theirs.]

      1 0 Reply
    7. arctic_haze
      Reply Icon
      Holmes

      Re: NHS

      I long suspected that mental health is somehow correlated with using Silverlight.

      0 0 Reply
  3. Hetz Ben Hamo

    Tell that to Amazon

    They still only support Flash or Silverlight!

    4 1 Reply
    1. Gene Cash Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Tell that to Amazon

      And thus there's a reason I buy from Apple instead of Amazon. The good news for this story is that Netflix is actually officially supporting Linux with Chrome now. I might actually buy a subscription now.

      3 4 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Tell that to Amazon

        Tell that to Twitch and the BBC...

        4 0 Reply
      2. Rick Giles
        Reply Icon
        FAIL

        Re: Tell that to Amazon

        Netflix is actually officially supporting Linux with Chrome now

        And they still suck because they don't support MY browser of choice on that magnificent OS, Lynx Firefox...

        0 0 Reply
    2. Duffy Moon
      Reply Icon

      Re: Tell that to Amazon

      I had a trial of Amazon Prime and it wanted me to watch videos on Silverlight (which didn't work) or Flash (which did, but the quality was appalling). Do people actually cough up for that terrible service?!

      I wouldn't subscribe to any video service which didn't let me use my own player (MPC-HC configured exactly how I want) or at least a player as good (with all the settings to tweak).

      5 3 Reply
      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Tell that to Amazon

        >I wouldn't subscribe to any video service which didn't let me use my own player

        And I won't visit any cafe that doesn't let me take a bite out of every piece of cake while only buying one per month.

        3 14 Reply
        1. Pascal Monett Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Terrible analogy which demonstrates that you missed his point entirely.

          A better one would be you don't visit any cafe that won't allow you to eat the cake you buy on your own plate that you bring.

          1 0 Reply
          1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge
            Reply Icon

            You to Netflix: I want to pay $8 a month but I want to be able to keep any movie for as long as I want and share it with all my friends - so no protection please.

            Netflix to studio: We want to pay for the rights to show a certain movie in a certain market for a certain time. But we are going to let all our customers download and keep it and share it with everyone else on the net - that won't cost us any more will it ?

            1 0 Reply
          2. Ken Hagan Gold badge
            Reply Icon

            @Pascal: You forgot to mention that the cafe's own crockery is so filthy that you might catch something off it.

            0 0 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Some Canon cameras utilities rely on Silverlight...

    ... hope this teach their developers to avoid such technologies and use the OS instead... but I'm afraid they'll found some other silliness...

    4 0 Reply
  5. Only me!
    Facepalm

    Eurosport

    Will someone please tell Eurosport "Le Tour" starts soon!!!!!!!!!!!!

    0 1 Reply
    1. Richard 22
      Reply Icon

      Re: Eurosport

      ITV4 FTW (if you're in the UK). Eurosport cycling commentary is crap and their online player is even worse than the ITV one, if they even bother to put all the stages on it (I missed half the Giro due to them not putting all the stages on their eurosport player).

      0 0 Reply
  6. SteveCarr

    Try telling LightBox (Spark NZ) this!

    I use Chrome, Chrome hates Silverlight..... something needs to change!

    2 0 Reply
    1. Rick Giles
      Reply Icon
      Trollface

      Re: Try telling LightBox (Spark NZ) this!

      I use Chrome, Chrome hates Silverlight..... something needs to change!

      Stop giving Google your life and don't use Chrome.

      0 0 Reply
  7. Terry 6 Silver badge

    Thanks

    Newish PC.

    I knew there was more stuff to uninstall.

    Had forgotten that one.

    11 1 Reply
  8. Timbo 1

    Does that include the Service Manager web portal?

    Seem to recall Service Manager uses Silverlight for it, right up to the 2012R2 revision.

    0 0 Reply
  9. petef

    I thought that Silverlight was Microsoft's solution to delivering rich internet applications. So it's just a platform for showing video then. Meh.

    4 0 Reply
  10. AskJarv

    Sky Go

    I think Sky Go is still based on Silverlight to support all their zany DRM - I can't wait to see this get phased out (Chrome went into the unsupported list because they blocked the silverlight plugin).

    5 0 Reply
    1. I Like Heckling Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Sky Go

      Yup... Sky Go does indeed still use silverlight, and still has repeated problems using it... and they wanted to charge me an extra £5 a month to be able to use it on more than 2 devices. I told the customer service rep quite bluntly... why would I pay for something that doesn't work properly... or does paying the money suddenly fix it?

      She couldn't answer that.

      This is one of the reasons I dropped Sky TV just over a year ago... I still have broadband and phone, but the TV service was a joke considering the cost.

      Instead I use the spare device for Sky Go from my folks (I only use it for the F1, as I haven't watched broadcast TV for years and Freeview HD is sufficient).... tempted to add multi room to them and get it all back for a quarter of the cost... after all, I would never plug in a sky box to the phone or broadband.

      0 0 Reply
      1. mrfill
        Reply Icon

        Re: Sky Go

        BT Sport also uses Silvershite. If they have to change it'll be another excuse to bump up the price.

        0 0 Reply
  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's actually ok

    I use it daily because Netflix for Windows Media Center uses it. Considering it supports DRM and unlike that turd Flash, actually has a good hit rate of using hardware acceleration on most graphics cards I'm surprised it's not less unpopular. Yes, I know linux something something, DRM blah blah. Don't care, it works for me.

    6 6 Reply
  12. Terafirma-NZ

    keep going

    This is good! Now provide an update to SharePoint to remove the Silverlight player then ensure that Java/Flash/Silverlight never run on Edge and together with Chrome we can push this evil back to Hell maybe even send some of those Government/Banking consultants who always recommend it with the mess.

    7 0 Reply
  13. Mephistro
    Devil

    At last, Microsoft giving good advice to their customers!

    Please allow me to misquote W. Churchill:

    "You can always count on Microsoft to do the right thing, after they have tried everything else."

    ;-)

    15 0 Reply
    1. Arctic fox
      Reply Icon
      Windows

      Re: "At last, Microsoft giving good advice to their customers!" Indeed, when I..........

      ...........read the following:

      ""The commercial media industry is undergoing a major transition as content providers move away from proprietary web plug-in based delivery mechanisms (such as Flash or Silverlight), and replace them with unified plug-in free video players that are based on HTML5 specifications and commercial media encoding capabilities," the software giant said in a Thursday blog post."

      .........it reminded me of the old quote from Luke

      "There is more joy in heaven at one sinner that repenteth than in nine and nine just men"!

      1 0 Reply
  14. JulieM Silver badge
    Pint

    Bummer

    Just as I was getting Pipelight working, as well .....

    Icon = Best way to make sense of it all.

    0 0 Reply
  15. mr. deadlift

    if you're on netflix, you're ganna have a bad time.

    no 1080 for you!

    0 0 Reply
    1. Greg J Preece
      Reply Icon

      Re: if you're on netflix, you're ganna have a bad time.

      Since when? My TV gets 4K Netflix.

      0 0 Reply
  16. JLV
    Happy

    Good boy, MS, good boy

    Now, if our favorite broadcasters would just dump Flash video as well...

    Looking at you, BBC, CBC. Especially daft when you see 'install Flash' on a mobile that doesn't support Flash %-((

    11 0 Reply
  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Microsoft recommending standards?

    It's not April yet, is it?

    8 0 Reply
  18. T. F. M. Reader

    From the article

    "Microsoft Edge, the new browser that will ship with Windows 10, was designed not to support plugins from the get-go."

    So no AB+, no Ghostery, no BetterPrivacy, etc.? Hmm... I see...

    8 0 Reply
    1. Havin_it
      Reply Icon

      Re: From the article

      Well, did you really think there would be?

      Also, those (in Firefox-land at least, can't speak for the rest) are XUL extensions, not native plugins, meaning they can't cause any nastiness outside the browser itself. (Er, unless they can abuse one of the zillions of features the browser added to replace plugins ...)

      3 0 Reply

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