Netflix and Silverlight

Good news for Mac users -- the Netflix "watch now" feature is available for beta testing. Using Microsoft Silverlight, you can get instant access to many Netflix films.

I've been playing around with it, and it's pretty cool. I tried it from my rather-less-than-snappy hotel room wifi connection and was really surprised to discover that there was no stuttering at all, and the video was great.

Currently, my media server at home is a PPC Mac Mini. This is yet another reminder that I need to get a new home machine so that I can get the instant access on something other than my laptops!

If you're a Netflix subscriber with an Intel Mac, you can opt in to Netflix's beta program. Looking over my current Netflix queue, it looks like about 30 of the 150 movies in there are available for instant play.