Updated to Safari 12, 9/17. Now, I am unable to view videos via Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime. Reason? Silverlight is not recognized with the update. Please provide a solution. Thank you.
Thank you. I reinstalled Silverlight and it didn't work. I downloaded Chrome and all is well.
This kind of makes sense. I have a Mid-2010 Mac Pro also. I'm not sure why HTML5 will not work on older Macs (maybe a hardware issue?), but what you say fits the symptoms. Apple either needs to add Silverlining to its list of "approved" plug-ins or figure out a way to allow HTML5 to run on Safari on older Macs (or do nothing, expecting us all to upgrade our computers — which I do plan to do when they release the next iteration of Mac Pro).
r/Jim
Apple doesn’t routinely monitor the discussions. These are mostly user to user discussions.
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.
They knew they didn't handle HTML5; I suspect what they didn't know is people were still using Silverlight for… anything as NPAPI plugins have been disabled in both Chrome and Firefox for many months now and Microsoft announced the end of life for Silverlight in 2012.
I had this "issue" also, and figured out what's going on. Chrome & Firefox use the HTML5 software-decoding API, which is why they're limited to 720p. Safari uses the HTML5 hardware-decoding API, which is why it can display 1080p. h.264 hardware decoding in the CPU was introduced in the Sandy Bridge architecture in early 2011, so mid-2011 computers or later likely have this. 2010/2012 Mac Pro's use Westmere's at best, which don't have h.264 hardware decoding. THAT's why older systems cannot play Netflix using HTML5.
You have a new machine with Radeon Card?
on my iMac 5k I can see without Silverlight Netflix and Amazon without problem, but in my old Powerbook and iMac 24" not, apparently the Video decoding in Safari is delegate to the GPU.
If you use Firefox, work because the decoding is do it by software, but here you can't have HD content.
In another new machine with a eGPU with Nvidia GTX 1070 a have the same problem.
It isn’t that hard to state that “NPAPI plug-ins support streaming services on machines prior to 2011 which may experience difficulties. For a partial list of effected plug-ins please click here.“
They do, typically, list specific release information in a support article (which I DID read, but contained no information about NPAPI plug-ins [listed as security threats]).
Regardless of their verbiage forcing users to move away from Apple software with no easy way of downgrading to correct the mistake is not a direction I would lead a company which normally prides it’s self on backward compatibility (notable exceptions being OS9, PowerPC, and 32bit architecture which were all VERY clearly communicated ahead of time).
Having said that I really should have been making Time Machine back-ups of ALL my machines to avoid this type of problem (day 5 with 10 hours left) and turn off auto-update on my oldest computers.
Apple developers face a lot of challenges, especially where security is concerned, and problems like this may seem mundane to them. They are not mundane to end users who have been told that Apple products “Just work” “automatically” or children expecting to watch a program for school.
Agreed 100% William. It wouldn't have been hard for Apple to make a better statement, considering the large consequences - not just with Netflix & Amazon streaming not working on older machines, but there are threads about medical software not working and other professional services that are greatly affected. Silverlight is not a small plugin (and who knew it was even a plugin vs extension before v12?), so it really should have been mentioned.
Furthermore, an Apple Senior Advisor didn't even know what the problem was, so how is Joe Public supposed to have a clue? That's proof there should have been more communication - even internally.
It is a Safari issue as Chrome does use HTML5 on my Mac Pro. Chrome's resolution using HTML5 isn't as good as Safari's.
Send feedback using the link posted earlier.
To be fair, they did - the Safari 12 release notes explicitly state it no longer supports most NPAPI plugins, and Silverlight is a NPAPI plugin.
That's good to know. Can you be more specific about how you have Safari set up? Both Netflix and Amazon Prime Video demand the plug-in on my Mac Pro running High Sierra. I could not upgrade to Safari 12 because of it.
I had to allow safari 12 to use the adobe flash player again. I opened up safari, clicked safari tab, preferences, websites and allowed access. Worked for me as well as let me use the legacy adblock plus in the extensions tab.
I don’t have Silverlight or Flash installed and Safari 12 plays Netflix content just fine on my iMac. No problem playing Amazon Prime video either. So I don’t know what’s going on with some people’s installations.
@Eric Root. Thanks. I will send in feedback, although I find it hard to believe they did not know that these older machines could not handle hardware HTML5. I am sure they knew. I just wish they would let us know up front.
r/Jim
SAFARI 12 UPDATE
