If you’re a Mac user, Netflix Streaming works flawlessly in Safari as long as you have Microsoft’s Silverlight plug-in installed. Sadly, Netflix will redirect you to an error page if you try to stream content in Safari under Windows. Why? I’m not really sure. There really is no technical reason at all for Silverlight content not to work in Safari under Windows. Maybe the support team is lazy? That’s what I’m going to go with for now.
Lucky for you Windows users, there is a work around. First, launch Safari Preferences, and then go to the Advanced pane. Now make sure “Show Develop menu in menu bar” is checked. Next, click the Develop drop-down in the application menu, and go to User Agent. Select “Safari 5.0.2 – Mac” from the list, and then stream any Netflix content you want without any hassle from the man. Bizarre, right?
If you have any good theories as to why Netflix is sticking it to us Safari users, please drop me a message in the comment section of this post. I will be contacting Netflix support in search of an answer, but I won’t hold my breath.
This website is best viewed using Internet Explorer 4.0 ;-)
