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Sunday, Nov 02, 2008 10:15pm

Netflix streaming player fo...

Netlflix has opened the Mac version of its streaming movie player into the public stage of beta testing, according to Hacking Netflix. Anyone can now opt-in to try out the player, which is based on Microsoft's Silverlight animation plugin. The entire Netflix collection is not yet available for streaming playback, although over 12,000 titles are accessible and the company is regularly adding more content to its "Watch Instantly" section. The service should be available for all customers by the end of the year.

The DRM restrictions limit the number of authorized devices to six, and each device must use Silverlight for the Watch Instantly playback if the user chooses to opt-in. The Netflix blog also noted that the beta program could be buggy, and certain titles might show errors or reduced playback quality.

Netflix has been rapidly expanding its services into the streaming content market. Watch Instantly content is already available on the PC or Roku set-top boxes for television playback. The company is working on bringing an HD version of the service to TiVo, Xbox 360, and Roku devices in the near future.