I get a black screen when playing Netflix in Safari

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Level 1

18 points

I get a black screen when playing Netflix in Safari

I can stream Netflix just fine when I play it using my Chrome browser. But, when I try to play Netflix using Safari (version 10.0), I get one or two frames of video, and then a black screen. I still have all of the controls and slider and I still get sound, but the video is just a black screen.

I have a mid-2014 MacBook Pro with the 2.5 GHz Intel Core i7 and 16GB 1600 MHz DDR3 memory. I am running macOS Sierra v. 10.12.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014), macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Oct 6, 2016 11:05 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

steviep200

Level 1

13 points

Nov 4, 2017 5:20 AM in response to Bucky0486

Simple solution (os High Sierra) but Netflix have so far ignored my message! Forget all their solutions particularly concerning Silver Light, as that is no longer needed. This only began for me with Safari 11.0.1. I was able to connect using FireFox without issue so it had to be Safari settings.

1. Open a tab in Safari and go to the Netflix site.

2. Go to the Safari menu and select Settings for this Website.

3. In the pop up window select Auto-Play and Allow All Auto Play.

Netflix now works.

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Answer 2

2paws4

Level 1

4 points

Nov 26, 2017 6:21 AM in response to Bucky0486

I have found the fix for Safari not working Netflix Black screen, no soundUsing High Sierra - 10.13.1Safari - 11.0.1 Go to Netflix.comIn the Safari drop down choose setting for this web site.Under auto play—choose allow all to auto play. Adobe flash - on Silverlight -on This worked for me.

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Answer 3

Bucky0486 Author

Level 1

18 points

Oct 17, 2016 10:40 AM in response to BlowYourMind

I just now sort-of solved the issue. Until now, I just kept using Chrome for Netflix, and now I use Chrome for all of my web browsing.

I just now tried it again using Safari, and got code S7363-1260-48444350 when trying to play a video. The code referred to an incompatible monitor. I tried again, and got the same issue as before, where I get a few frames of the video, and then the video goes black, but I can hear the audio and I still have control of the playback (e.g., play/pause, volume, etc.).

When I unplugged my external monitors and used only the laptop screen, the video played. So, I now know that the problem has something to do with my external monitors being connected to my laptop, even if I'm trying to play the video on my laptop screen.

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Answer 4

Oct 17, 2016 9:54 AM in response to Eric Root

First link: not working.

Second link:

- I've got a newer mac; already have all the newest software installed.
- Cleared cookies: did not help (via netflix site as well as in safari itself).

- Installed silverlight (did not have it before), restarted safari, restarted mac. Did not help. Silverlight is allowed in the safari settings. No older versions installed.

- I do get the display error thing (thunderbolt > VGA displays attached). Checked with develop tab if netflix works in safari 10 (don't see another version of safari in the list). However, if I select 'firefox: mac' and allow the silverlight plugin (that I just installed) then it works.

Following that:

Safari 9 doesn't work: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_11_0) AppleWebKit/601.1.56 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/9.0 Safari/601.1.56

Safari 8 doesn't work either:

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_10_4) AppleWebKit/600.7.12 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/8.0.7 Safari/600.7.12

Safari 7 does work, however it seems like it's using the silverlight plugin for this.

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_9) AppleWebKit/537.71 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0 Safari/537.71

- Unplugged the external displays. When unplugged, Netflix video works, no black screen. But since I always watch a series while working on something else, this isn't exactly a solution.

If the issue is the HTML5 player (since in older safari versions with silverlight, it does work), how do I force Netflix to use silverlight? It seems it always reverts back to HTML5, even if silverlight's installed.

I don't know if and how the OP fixed the issue, but I'm still curious haha.

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Answer 5

Eric Root

Level 10

685,227 points

Oct 18, 2016 7:46 AM in response to Bucky0486

Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem or a suggestion for change. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem/suggested change solved sooner.

Feedback

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Answer 6

Bucky0486 Author

Level 1

18 points

Oct 6, 2016 11:50 AM in response to Eric Root

Thanks, but I've already done an Internet search to find a solution to my problem. I've re-installed the latest version of Silverlight, and that hasn't helped. Also, Chrome works just fine with Netflix, which I think also uses Silverlight. I've also tried restarting the computer and the other typical non-specific solutions.

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