Holy freak, the Silverlight Beta 2 plug-in install is 17 MB.
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I’m assuming things will get optimized down a bit for the final release, but it sure doesn’t look it will ever be a skinny plug-in. On the plus side, the plug-in for both Safari and Firefox was included rather than having two separate installs which is nice, but I didn’t expect an install anywhere near this size.
The install process went much better than previous Silverlight installs have gone. For once, Safari didn’t trip up the detection script.
I’m a little underwhelmed by the video players that MSNBC has rolled out. The branding is heavy handed. Do I really need to be reminded that I’m using Silverlight after I’ve already installed?
Standard video player on MSNBC:
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Larger video player on MSNBC:
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The Olympics are definitely a cool and unique opportunity to push a technology. Taking advantage of disruptive events is something I expect to see more and more energy spent on in the tech world. Sure not all of us have the deep pockets that Microsoft has, but we can all ride the wave.
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It would be fascinating to see what events actually propelled people to install Silverlight. Was it general interest in staying informed or was it a particularly special moment? For me it was seeing Jason Lezak hunt down Alain Bernard in the 4×100 free relay. What an incredible sporting moment!
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A few things I just don’t get. Why is there no fullscreen? This is supposed to be the opportunity for VC-1 video to shine, but we aren’t able to check out fullscreen, high quality video? Seems a bit bizarre. Also, every time I push the replay button on a clip I’m forced to watch a commercial. That’s just plain annoying and greedy. I’m watching a progressively served video (I believe since its not a live stream), so why do I get punished every time I replay the video (I’m not even leaving the page)?
This was just a quick initial reaction. I’m interested, as a sports junky, how much I actually turn to the MSNBC coverage. I’m getting an HD feed piped into two rather large screens at home, so the web coverage has to be pretty compelling to compete.
*Update*
Apparently I’m a bit late to the game with my criticism of the player. If it helps anyone out, I arrived at my conclusions independently and hadn’t read the previous articles / comments on the subject.
http://newteevee.com/2008/08/10/does-the-olympics-video-suck-for-you-too/
Ryan Stewart also just posted some links to viewing data which is an important consideration if you’re watching the space.
