HIGH-DEF DISC NEWS TAGGED "SILVERLIGHT"

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Silverlight Partners With SRS for 5.1 Surround Sound

Surround sound on Netflix is looking very promising.

The folks over at Netflix promised us 5.1 channel surround sound this fall, and it's looking like they're going to be right on target thanks to a joint effort by SRS Labs and Microsoft.

"We’re thrilled to expand this collaboration with Microsoft to now bring surround sound capability to Silverlight and its millions of users," says Allen Gharapetian of SRS Labs. "With the availability of SRS 5.1 surround for Silverlight, the collective online multimedia experience will become more vivid and immersive."

Streaming surround sound doesn't take up too much in the way of bandwidth either. Companies can push our multichannel surround sound over bit rates as low as 96kbps. You shouldn't have much trouble with getting surround sound on top of your current HD picture.

There's no word on when surround sound will be added to Netflix, but there are plenty of other applications for Silverlight that should be adding it soon. You can even check out a demo from SRS Labs on their official site.

Source: SRS Labs

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Silverlight is Coming to TVs, Blu-ray Players, and Set-tops

Microsoft is set to debut an end-to-end Silverlight solution next week.

Next week at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show, Microsoft will be debuting new products and initiatives that will make it easier to bring Silverlight to every A/V device in the home.

The plan, of course, it to get Silverlight everywhere it can be. It’s currently one of the best ways to stream video as Netflix users can attest, but you can only get it on certain devices. “Our vision is to bring Silverlight to every screen,” said Microsoft’s Scott Guthrie.

“It’s exciting to see the amazing ways our customers use these technologies to deliver outstanding media experiences for their end users,” added Guthrie. Netflix is a fine example of the current uses of Silverlight, and so was the 2010 Winter Olympic coverage.

“Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium made a significant bet on Silverlight,” said Alan Marcovici, VP of Digital Media for Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium. “We delivered millions of hours of live and on-demand video, with online viewers watching an average of 54 minutes of video daily during the Games,” he added. “We are thrilled with the results.”

Source: Microsoft

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Microsoft Silverlight 3 Promises Simpler, Faster, and Better High Def Streaming

And a boost for online video providers, finally able to offer true 720p

Microsoft unleashed the full version of Silverlight 3, the most recent edition of their Flash like application, on July 9th, and the internet is abuzz with the possibilities. Before we get into the nitty gritty of the exciting niche applications, here’s the big news: full 720p playback. Sure it’s almost certainly at a bit rate far below that of Blu-ray and almost certainly behind most TV channels, but it’s a good start.

Users will have a much more fluid experience with the aptly named “Smooth Streaming”, which will act to ensure an absence of stutters and loading times by making smart use of buffering. Also exciting are the possibilities of using Silverlight outside of the browser. Having a Netflix application for example, rather than logging on to a website, could be a very big deal in the future.

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