What’s new in Silverlight 3?
Microsoft has formally launched the third edition of its Silverlight system, a rival to Adobe’s Flash. Highlights include support for high definition footage and a more intelligent streaming system which adapts to individual computer set-ups.
Silverlight 3 is officially launching today, though downloads were available from yesterday. Most of the new features are on the developer side, including better support for getting content covered by the major search engines.
However, there are several changes which users will notice. The main ones will be potentially improved graphics as the system now allows some 3D content and can also take advantage of dedicated graphics cards in computers.
Another new feature, dubbed “Smooth Streaming”, allows the system to do a better job of tweaking content to suit the particular computer and connection for each viewer. If it works as advertised it will mean viewers get the best possible picture quality without experiencing playback glitches.
There’s also now out-of-browser functionality. That means that, for example, you could be using Internet Explorer to surf the web, follow a link to open a Silverlight video in a new window, and then close the browser but still have the video playing.
Although the system is compatible with both Windows and Mac OS, and runs in Internet Explorer and Safari, it’s still not available for the Opera or Chrome browsers. There’s no official Linux version, though there’s an ongoing third-party project to adapt the system for Linux.
Perhaps the most high-profile use of Silverlight is for streaming video. Microsoft scored a publicity win earlier this year when CBS adopted the system for its live coverage of the March Madness basketball tournament. The system was also used for NBC’s coverage of last year’s Olympic Games, though there was some negative reaction to users being forced to install the system. Silverlight is also set to be used for next year’s Winter Olympics coverage with PVR style pause and rewind functions.
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