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MS Silverlight To Stream Obama Inauguration Events

Posted by kdawson on from the open-to-most dept.

Ilgaz writes in to let us know that we will have to install MS Silverlight 2 to watch the US President's inauguration online. Everyone running Mac PPC, Linux, and FreeBSD has been left out, as there are no working Silverlight 2-capable alternatives on these systems. Here is Microsoft's press release announcing the selection of Silverlight yesterday. Streaming of various events around the inauguration begins today at the Presidential Inaugural Committee site, which touts its "inclusive and accessible" coverage.

11 of 589 comments (clear)

  1. Or alternatively by jonbryce · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can watch it using flash video here

    1. Re:Or alternatively by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      There's another list available here:
      http://newteevee.com/2009/01/14/where-to-watch-obamas-inauguration-online/

    2. Re:Or alternatively by oracleguy01 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Hulu will also be airing the actual inauguration and they use flash: http://www.hulu.com/spotlight/obamapresidency

  2. Huh? What? by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 5, Informative
    Boy, talk about cherry picking a slanted conclusion...

    The actual copy from the references story is...

    Microsoft's Silverlight technology has been chosen to stream U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony live on the Presidential Inaugural Committee's Web site...

    Nowhere does it say that all the networks will be using Silverlight exclusively.

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    1. Re:Huh? What? by sjames · · Score: 4, Informative

      To enlarge upon your point, that would be a committee that Obama is NOT heading up. He probably won't be personally supervising the mowing of the White House lawn either. I suppose people will be blaming Obama if the D.C. dept of Sanitation doesn't provide enough waste baskets as well.

  3. WRONG! by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 4, Informative
    Typical garbage from KDawson.

    The story *DOES NOT* say that Silver light will be used exclusivly accross all channels. It says:

    Microsoft's Silverlight technology has been chosen to stream U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony live on the Presidential Inaugural Committee's Web site

    ...on the Presidential Inaugural Committee's Web site...

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  4. Moonlight ? by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 4, Informative

    Oddly enough Jan 20th is the official release date for Moonlight 1.0 The Linux implementation of silverlight. But only of the silverlight 1.0 spec. I wonder if 2.0 is really required.

    moonlight roadmap

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  5. Re:Stupid submitter by Ilgaz · · Score: 4, Informative

    I did very well. Mac PPC means Macintosh PowerPC. You know, not everyone switched to Intel and MS left out PPC users on release of Silverlight 2.0 without any kind of explanation. Mono Silverlight 2.0 support is in pre-alpha stages and there is no guarantee it will do a trick like that (live streaming).

    There should be another way of doing it and if I was Mr. Obama, I would really check that committee's ties with that convicted monopolist as this is not the first time they do this trick. It doesn't really give a good image. Even MS themselves offer Flash or at least WMedia alternatives on their own site.

  6. Joost is advertising that they will stream it live by Tran · · Score: 4, Informative

    Since I watch Joost shows sometimes on the Mac without having silverlight installed, I assume that it is not a requirement there either.

  7. Re:By that definition by coryking · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sorry to inform you, but your definition of "open" isn't in line with the RMS/FSF party line. Pretty much MPEG* has all kinds of patents that would exclude it from use. Theora and Vorbis are the only video/audio codecs that would most likely pass the RMS/FSF smell test.

    You still need a way to either offer a second stream or embed the Vorbis/Theora stream into a browser. And you would have to require Windows and most likely Mac users to install both codecs.

  8. Re:So much for a tech savvy Whitehouse. by Q-Hack! · · Score: 5, Informative

    I did find this. The senate claims that you only need Flash to view the ceremony.

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